Design Thinking: A Quick Course in Creative Problem Solving

Editor's Notes

• #2: Good morning and thank you! My name is Mary. I’m a UX designer at Spring Studio in San Francisco. Design thinking is the foundation of our process at Spring and informs nearly everything we do. How many designers in the house today? How many use design thinking in your work? Today, I’m going to talk about what design thinking is, what makes it powerful, and then dive into the design thinking process and toolkit.
• #3: When we hear the term design thinking, many of us imagine fonts, graphics and making things look pretty. But design thinking is not that… its actually about problem solving. The types of problem spaces you can apply it to include physical products, digital interfaces, services and even the socio-economic problems. Its not about the problem itself, its about the process of understanding, rapidly innovating, evaluating and iterating.
• #4: I want to tell you a story that illustrates the difference design thinking can make. I work with a group called Field Innovation Team or FIT. Last week FIT hosted a design thinking workshop for hurricane responders. A business-as-usual response would be reactive, impersonal and could even re-traumatize those involved. But by applying design thinking, we established understanding and empathy, gaining new insight into the plight of victims. This positioned us to shift our thinking to become more proactive, more personal and empower survivors in their own recovery and rebuilding. One team’s idea involved using debris from the tragedy to create artwork, so individuals could redefine their association with the event as well as rebuild community and create economic empowerment at the same time.
• #5: There are a number of characteristics that make design thinking so powerful… The first is that design thinking is Human Centered — We create designs for real people through understanding and empathy. We keep taking people into account at all stages of our process: discovery, design and implementation.
• #6: Design thinking is also Research Driven — Its built around understanding and that means research. The focus of research depends on the project. It will generally involve: People - Who am are we designing for? Environment - What’s the larger context? What’s working and what isn’t? Find out what people are naturally doing and support those paths (pave over the cow paths). Inspiration - How are others are dealing with similar problems?
• #7: Design thinking is also Practical and Strategic…
• #8: …It sits at the nexus between people, technology and business. Always consider the feasibility and constraints of technology and business when weighing potential solutions.
• #9: Design thinking is Collaborative — Complex problems require multidisciplinary teams. Collaboration is literally built into design thinking with tools for teams to work together toward common solutions. We’ll talk more about those tools later.
• #10: Design thinking is Visual and Hands-On — Visual tools (like diagrams, sketches and models) communicate complex ideas to team members and stakeholders. These graphic representations can model multiple layers of information and enable at-a-glance pattern and trend recognition.
• #11: Finally, design thinking is Validated & Iterated — Designs are tested on real people and measured with analytics. The goal is to start fast and simple then test and improve over time.
• #12: Now lets take a look at the design thinking process. Its not new. Design thinking is based on processes we are all familiar with: the scientific method and clinical process, and the very familiar trial and error approach most of us mastered at around age 3. Step 1 of the process is to Understand — Who is your audience, what are their goals, needs, mindsets? What makes them tick?
• #13: Step 2 is to create a solution to meet those needs.
• #14: Step 3 is to evaluate and improve your solution. Then, rinse and repeat.
• #15: So lets deep dive into Step 1: Understand.
• #16: You must UNDERSTAND a problem before you can solve it.
• #17: There are so many questions… Who are we designing for? What do they love? Hate? Who are they with? What’s the scenario? How can we help?
• #18: How do we know the answers to these questions?
• #19: Research.
• #20: Research can be as simple as…. people watching, listening or having a meaningful conversation.
• #21: Research happens twice in our 3-step process: at the beginning when we seek to understand and at the end when we need to evaluate.
• #22: Lets focus on understanding. This phase of research is called “generative” research — we want to generate empathy, insights, ideas and opportunities.
• #23: A few rules of thumb for generative research: Be open and put others at ease Observe Actively listen Ask questions and invite stories Request others think out loud Create hands-on activities like sketching or games Invite ideas, collaboration and co-design
• #24: But now what? You’ve done a bunch of research. How do we synthesize, analyze and share all this information?
• #25: We use a set of design tools to help us with this. Two of my favorites are personas and journey maps. Who’s used personas or journey maps in the past?
• #26: So first of all, lets talk about Personas — Personas are archetypes used to summarize the characteristics, mindsets and activities of real people. Personas come in all shapes and sizes depending on the project. At their core, they show needs, obstacles and opportunities. The goal of personas is to develop a quick understanding and empathy with the user. The collaborative act of creating personas builds common understanding and team focus.
• #27: Let’s meet Joe Smith. Joe is not a real person. Joe is an archetype of all the people like him. Joe is looking for a job but he’s frustrated. He’s not sure how to go about finding the right job for him.
• #28: Let’s add some background info about Joe and his technology preferences.
• #29: Now we can start layering in Needs, Obstacles and Opportunities. Joe needs a killer resume fast but he finds it difficult to create one. Maybe we could provide an automated resume builder to help Joe out.
• #30: He also needs to get noticed but isn't sure how to go about that. Maybe we could provide more insights into what companies want.
• #31: Finally, Joe wants to land the right job but can’t tell from the outside if it will be a good fit. Maybe we could provide more insight into company culture.
• #32: Now lets take Journey Maps — Journey Maps are a visual representation of a scenario over time. They are companion documents to personas. They enable understanding of the entire end-2-end experience. Most journey maps incorporate a “Doing, Thinking, Feeling” lens — adding depth to our understanding of the experience. Just like with personas, journey maps highlight design opportunities.
• #33: So lets look at Joe again. His journey begins with Applying for a Job. He’s at home searching simplyhired.com and sending out resumes. He’s frustrated and wants a better way.
• #34: Next, Joe lands an interview. He’s in the prospective employer’s office trying to gauge if he’s a good fit. He could sure use some tips for interviewing and presenting.
• #35: Finally, Joe gets an offer. He’s home with friends and is wondering if the job is right for him. It would be great if Joe had more insight into the company’s culture.
• #36: By now we have a pretty good idea about who Joe is and what challenges he’s facing. We also know about all the other Joe’s out there. Now we are designing for a whole category of similar people.
• #37: So let’s move on to Step 2: Create. Now, we get to make things.
• #38: But first we need to decide which problem to solve. We need to formulate a problem statement based on our research. This will focus our effort and bring clarity to the team. Research showed that there are several problems we could be solving for. Its up to us to decide which makes the most sense in terms of people, technology and business.
• #39: Remember that venn diagram from a few minutes ago? Our solution has to balance need, feasibility and constraints.
• #40: Once we have a problem, our next step is to brainstorm as many potential solutions as we can. At this point, nothing is too crazy to consider. Just put it on the table and go on to the next idea. Once you've considered as many solutions as possible, choose an idea to prototype first. I say first because your first prototype is never your last.
• #41: There are many ways to prototype at all different levels of fidelity. I’m going to talk about three very low fidelity methods today. The first is Sketch. Storyboarding allows us to quickly capture a complete end-to-end solution. Don’t worry about making great artwork — boxes, arrows and stick figures are fine.
• #42: The next method is acting also known as bodystorming. Bodystorming enables the entire team to see how a solution plays out across multiple touchpoints. It allows for very quick design pivots and iteration. And keeps the team together and engaged.
• #43: Lastly, build a low fidelity model. The more opportunity for interaction your model provides, the better. Use any materials at hand to make the model as illustrative to your end-users as possible.
• #44: Use all three methods to prototype your solution if you like.
• #45: Okay, now on to Step 3, where we evaluate our work and make a plan to improve it.
• #46: Here comes our second round of research, called Evaluative research. Here we determine if our solution is useful, effective, and useable — and what improvements can we make?
• #47: A few rules of thumb for evaluative research: Demonstrate your solution as early as possible Enable as much interaction as possible Capture what users are thinking, feeling and doing Be open to feedback Observe and actively listen Invite new ideas, collaboration and co-design
• #48: The last step in our process (and the first step in the next round) is to make it better. Based on your evaluative research, iterate your design to improve it. Here, you will want to revisit your personas, journey maps and early brainstorming.
• #49: And it so comes full circle and the process repeats, and repeats.
• #50: Moving forward, remember: Design thinking is a method to solve problems (not make things pretty) Keep the user at the center of your thinking Build something as quickly as possible Use your artifacts to keep yourself and team on track Keep evaluating and iterating
• #51: I’ve put together a few quick-start templates to get you going….
• #52: Persona
• #53: Journey Map
• #54: Problem Statement
• #55: What If… Ideation
• #56: Evaluation and Iteration Worksheet
• #57: That concludes this morning’s quick course in design thinking. Thank you very much! I think we have time for a few questions….