Objectives of Design Thinking

➢ Develop innovative solutions: By focusing on user needs and creative ideation, Design
Thinking aims to generate novel and effective solutions to complex problems.
➢ Create user-centered products and services: By emphasizing empathy and
understanding user perspectives, Design Thinking ensures that solutions are relevant,
usable, and desirable for the target audience.
➢ Improve decision-making: The iterative process of Design Thinking helps teams make
informed decisions by testing and refining ideas based on user feedback and data.
➢ Foster collaboration and creativity: By encouraging diverse perspectives and
collaborative brainstorming, Design Thinking promotes a culture of innovation and
creativity within teams.
➢ Drive business value: By creating user-centric solutions that address real needs, Design
Thinking can lead to increased customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and business growth.
Stanford’s Definition for Design
Thinking
• Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to
problem-solving that emphasizes empathy, creativity,
and iteration. It's a non-linear process, often moving
back and forth between stages as new insights
emerge
Empathize: Understand Your Users
►Focus: Gaining a deep understanding of the people you're
designing for.
►Activities:
▪ User interviews: Conducting one-on-one conversations to understand their
needs, pain points, and motivations.
▪ Observation: Watching users in their natural environment to understand their
behaviors and challenges.
▪ Empathy mapping: Creating a visual representation of users' thoughts,
feelings, and actions.
►Example: A team designing a new food delivery app would conduct
interviews with potential customers to understand their ordering
habits, dietary preferences, and frustrations with existing services.
Define: State Your Users' Needs and
Problems
►Focus: Defining the core problem you're trying to solve based on
the insights gathered during the empathize stage.
►Activities:
▪ User personas: Creating fictional representations of your target users.
▪ Customer journey mapping: Visualizing the steps users take to achieve a
goal.
▪ Problem statement: Crafting a clear and concise statement that defines the
challenge.
►Example: Based on the interviews, the food delivery team might
define the problem as "helping busy professionals save time and
enjoy healthy meals without compromising on quality."
Ideate: Challenge Assumptions and
Create Ideas
►Focus: Generating a wide range of creative solutions to the defined
problem.
►Activities:
▪ Brainstorming: Encouraging free-flowing idea generation, often in a group
setting.
▪ Mind mapping: Visually organizing ideas and connections.
▪ SCAMPER: A technique for modifying existing ideas by substituting,
combining, adapting, modifying, putting to other uses, eliminating, and
reversing.
►Example: The team might brainstorm ideas such as meal
subscription boxes, on-demand cooking services, or a mobile app
with personalized recipe recommendations.
Prototype: Transform Your Idea into a
Tangible Solution
►Focus: Creating a rough version of the solution to test and
refine.
►Activities:
▪ Sketching: Creating quick and simple drawings of the solution.
▪ Storyboarding: Visualizing the user experience.
▪ Rapid prototyping: Building simple, functional models of the solution.
►Example: The team might create a low-fidelity prototype of
their mobile app using a tool like Figma, or build a physical
prototype of a meal subscription box packaging.
Test: Try Your Solutions Out
►Focus: Getting feedback on your prototypes and iterating on the
solution.
►Activities:
▪ User testing: Observing users interacting with the prototype and gathering
feedback.
▪ A/B testing: Comparing different versions of the solution to see which
performs better.
▪ Pilot testing: Testing the solution on a small scale before full-scale
implementation.
►Example: The team might conduct user testing sessions with
potential customers to see how they interact with the app prototype
and gather feedback on its usability and features.
Popularized by Jeanne Liedtka
What Is?

►Focus: Understanding the current situation, identifying the problem,

and gathering information.
►Activities:
▪ Observation: Observing people, processes, and environments to gain
insights.
▪ Research: Conducting user interviews, surveys, and market research to
gather data.
▪ Analysis: Analyzing data to identify patterns, trends, and pain points.
►Example: A team designing a new public transportation system
would observe passenger behavior at bus stops, interview
commuters about their daily routines, and analyze traffic patterns to
understand the current transportation challenges.
What If?

►Focus: Generating creative ideas and exploring possibilities.

►Activities:
▪ Brainstorming: Generating a wide range of ideas, both radical and
incremental.
▪ Challenge assumptions: Questioning existing beliefs and constraints.
▪ Ideation techniques: Using tools like mind mapping, sketching, and
role-playing to explore different solutions.
►Example: Based on the insights gathered in the "What Is?"
stage, the transportation team might brainstorm ideas like on-
demand bus services, autonomous vehicles, or hyperloop
technology.
What Wows?

►Focus: Selecting the most promising ideas and refining them.

►Activities:
▪ Prototyping: Creating quick and inexpensive prototypes to test ideas.
▪ Storyboarding: Visualizing user experiences to communicate ideas
effectively.
▪ Feedback: Gathering feedback from potential users and stakeholders.
►Example: The team might create a scale model of a proposed
bus stop design, develop a storyboard of the user experience
on an autonomous vehicle, or conduct user testing of a new
mobile ticketing app.
What Works?

►Focus: Implementing the chosen solution and evaluating its

effectiveness.
►Activities:
▪ Pilot testing: Testing the solution on a small scale to gather data and make
adjustments.
▪ Monitoring and evaluation: Tracking key performance indicators to assess
the impact of the solution.
▪ Iteration: Making improvements based on feedback and data analysis.
►Example: The transportation team might implement a pilot program
for an on-demand bus service in a specific neighborhood, monitor
ridership and customer satisfaction, and make adjustments based
on the results.
Design Thinking Process : Key Takeaways

➢ Iteration: The design thinking process is iterative, meaning

that teams may revisit earlier stages as new insights emerge or
challenges arise.
➢ Collaboration: Effective design thinking requires collaboration
among diverse team members, including designers, engineers,
marketers, and users.
➢ User-centricity: The focus should always be on understanding
and meeting the needs of the end user.
Brainstorming
• A creative group approach to developing ideas and originating solutions during the ideate stage.
• Seeks to generate many different ideas that are subsequently pared back to a few possibilities for
potential development
• process starts by defining the problem to be addressed, selecting group participants that will
address it, and forming questions with which to stimulate the creative process.
During the brainstorming session
• Participants have free rein to make suggestions in a non-critical environment.
• This encourages the presentation of unusual and potentially useful ideas.
• Resources such as flip charts or a whiteboard may be used to facilitate the process and to record
the ideas that are generated.
• Following the session, ideas are grouped by type and their suitability assessed in order for a
shortlist of the best ideas to be formed.
Brainstorming rules
• Do not criticize:
• This is the most important rule.
• Criticism prevents people from making suggestions and voicing
options.
• Any idea is valid in brainstorming.
• Keep the process manager-free:
• The presence of line managers may inhibit the flow of ideas.
• Avoid resolve:
• Do not start working up or resolving an idea that looks like a possible
leader during the session.
• Instead, carry on generating ideas during the allotted time.
• Ideas can be resolved following the evaluation stage.
 Brainstorming rules
• Work to a target:
• A numerical target helps idea generation as participants move away from
standard thinking on the subject in order to achieve it.
• Focus on quantity not quality.
• Clock watch:
• Set a time by which the session should end.
• This helps to keep the pressure on, forcing more ideas to be generated.
• Let go:
• Participants must not be afraid of offering odd, wacky or wild ideas,
although this does not mean participants should not take the session
seriously.
• Be inclusive:
• The session chairperson should prevent any group members from
dominating the session and should encourage all members to contribute.
Additional brainstorming methods
• Visualisation
• Groups and voting
• Scribble, say, slap
• Assessment criteria
The design is based around the
Christmas carol The Twelve Days
of Christmas and features a
continuous image with each
handset paired with a relevant day
from the carol and illustrated
accordingly.
Features a hand painted exterior and bespoke
furniture
Concept Development
• Unlike brainstorming, concept development is an
individual or core team project.
• While brainstorming, you and a larger team worked with
blue sky thinking, listening to every idea and roughly
evaluating how it could work within your project’s
parameters, concept development is a solo endeavor.
• Developing concepts with a larger teams lacks the
relevant context required to see the micro details which
are required to fully build out a concept.
Concept Development
• The ideas generated during the sessions are raw and
incomplete – they’re the skeleton upon which the
concept will be built upon.
• You’re now taking the most impressive ideas and
combining them with the real world factors that your
brand and company face based on the business criteria
you have been tasked with solving.
Concept Development
• Ideal time to start developing the concepts is once the
brainstorming sessions are complete.
• During the concept development phase, you and your
stakeholders will be evaluating the ideas against the
brief or business criteria that started the project as a
whole.
• This helps reduce the risk of your project
Nintendo Wii
Story
Indian Government Support for Design
thinking
• India Becomes First Country To Launch Design Thinking &
Innovation Course For School Students
https://thelogicalindian.com/education/design-thinking-and-
innovation-course-for-school-students-in-india-38156
• The Indian government has also shifted its focus on
resurgence of design, innovation and creativity-led
entrepreneurship (D.I.C.E), resulting in an increased
emphasis on integrating design in tackling complex
challenges.
https://thecsrjournal.in/design-thinking-social-innovation/