Designing with Design Thinking
We have all been overly excited about a new project, awesome ideas pop into your head, you franticly jot them down on post-its, and jump right into your project. The odds of success are significantly higher if you know who you are building the project for and the target problem you are addressing. Obviously, you know which client the project is for, but how well do you know your client, their wants, their needs, their problems, their customers? Utilizing a design thinking mindset ensures you’re consistently building solutions with a targeted end-user and problem to solve in mind.
So, What is Design Thinking All About?
Design thinking started out as a process for creating new technology and products. However, it has been adapted to be widely applied in business and personal projects, throughout the world. Design thinking is a process for solving problems by prioritizing the consumer’s needs above all else. Rooted in employing empathy, Design thinking is “human-centered” focused on a continuously improving the consumer’s experience. Design thinking differs from traditional problem-solving; which is more of a linear process of identifying a problem and then brainstorming solutions, by being less of a means to get to a single solution, and more of a way to continuously evolve your thinking and respond to consumer needs.
Design Thinking’s Five-Stage Framework.
1. Empathize- In this stage the designer observes consumers to gain a deeper understanding of how they interact with or are affected by a product or issue. These observations must happen with empathy, which means withholding judgment and letting go of preconceived beliefs of what the consumer needs. The key to this stage is understanding the human need for which you are designing.
2. Define- During the second stage, you synthesize your observations to define the problem you’re trying to solve. What difficulties are your consumers facing, what are they struggling with, and how are they being impacted by the issue?
3. Ideate- Here you brainstorm ideas about how to solve the problem you’ve identified. It is important to generate a slew of different ideas. At the end of this process, come up with a few ideas to pursue and move forward with.
4. Prototype- In this stage your ideas turn into an actual solution. Keep in mind, prototypes are not meant to be perfect. The point of a prototype is to come out quickly with a concrete version of the idea to see how it is accepted by consumers.
5. Test- Once you give a prototyped solution to consumers, you must observe how they interact with it. This testing stage is the one in which you collect feedback on your work. It helps to view feedback as information to improve your project and not to personalize.
As previously stated, the design-thinking process is iterative not linear. Which means you will most likely have to revisit the stages to perfect your project; and that is ok, it is how the process works!
For design thinkers, securing empathy for customers/clients and identifying a problem to solve may seem like obvious first steps. However, all too often we focus on the deadline and knocking something off our to-do list, and we end up skimping on strategy and process, and jump right in without truly knowing what we are jumping into. Skipping the Empathy & Define stages of design thinking results in ideas without a clear focus. This approach lends to providing your customer or client with a product that misses their expectations.
When you lack empathy for your design target or problem to solve, it becomes difficult to evaluate ideas, concepts, and prototypes. There is no set evaluation criteria and feedback tends to be based on individual preferences. This approach is painful for all involved. Misdirection and uncertainty tend to increase with the lack of an up-front strategy. So, how do you prevent yourself from heading down this rabbit hole?
Continuously and honestly assess where you are in the design thinking process! Before ideating & prototyping, make sure you can answer these basic questions:
• Do you know who you are designing for? Can you describe who they are and what they think, feel and need?
• Is my idea addressing a need or problem for my design target?
If you can’t answer these questions, you’re flying blind with a strategy built on hope and luck. This is the time to intervene, take a step back and seek out the answers to these questions; it will save you lots of time and avoid potential failure!
Don’t be afraid to take one step back, to avoid taking 10 steps sideways
Do not shortcut on the front-end of the design thinking process. Resist the powerful urge to jump straight to ideation and prototyping. The future of your business may depend on it! Take the time to invest in the relationship building process.
If you’ve never considered injecting design thinking into your work, now may be the perfect opportunity to give it a try. All it takes is a few tweaks in how you approach problems, structure the creative process and visualize outcomes. Design Thinking can make a significant difference in how problems are approached. Especially if you have found yourself or team to be creatively stagnant or just missing the mark with customers, design thinking can keep your business competitive in today’s ever evolving climate.
