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Design Thinking is a flexible method of solving problems by maintaining a consistent focus on human centered solutions. Developed by Stanford University’s d.school (formally known as the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design), its non-linear, iterative nature makes Design Thinking useful in a huge variety of contexts, from teaching to architecture, infrastructure to app development.
In its standard form, Design Thinking follows five stages:
- EMPATHY
- DEFINITION
- IDEATION
- PROTOTYPING
- TESTING
Each of these stages produces outcomes that can inform the others. To get a better feel for how Design Thinking is implemented, let’s consider each stage in turn.
Design thinking is a non linear process of stages
Empathy
To truly solve a problem, you must first understand it as completely as possible. Design Thinking is a bit more earnest in this respect than some other problem-solving methods, judging its success not on internal measures or on incremental improvement against standard KPIs but on the extent to which its results improve the experience of end users.
To that end, the first stage involves a great deal of research, both with experts and with current and prospective consumers of the product or service in question. This deep dive may also include attempts to replicate first-hand the situation confronting end users, the better to develop solutions to the widest possible range of issues.
Definition
The empathy stage can produce a huge amount of information. The definition stage analyzes that information in an effort to identify the core problems faced by users.
The definition stage is a cousin to the empathy stage in that it keeps a strict focus on customers or end users. Remember the old admonition to sales personnel: you’re not selling a quarter inch drill bit, you’re selling a quarter inch hole. Your audience isn’t suffering because they don’t have access to the app you’re developing or fail to use the commercial space you’ve designed the way they should. They’re facing their own problems on their own terms. Your job in the definition stage is to identify those problems and to characterize them as accurately as possible from the perspective of the people you presume to serve.
The best design teams tend to be the ones that ask the best questions, not the ones that produce the shiniest results early in the process.
Ideation
This is what we tend to think of as the fun part. With a little practice, you’ll come to find a lot of fun in the empathy and definition stages, but the ideation stage is where problem-solvers finally get a chance to think in positive terms about how they’ll address the problems they’ve identified and serve the people they’ve gotten to know so well.
To get the most out of Design Thinking, challenge your team to produce as many ideas as possible early in the ideation stage. They needn’t all be winners: the ideation stage is all about brainstorming, and the research you’ve done in the previous two stages should help you think outside the box. Beyond that, follow your nose. Each of us has our own preferred ways of getting the creative juices flowing, and Design Thinking does not proscribe the ways we come up with ideas.
At the end of the ideation stage, choose the solutions that seem most complete and compelling. It’s time for the rubber to meet the road.
Prototyping
For each proposed solution that makes it out of the ideation stage, the design team can now build a prototype. Each prototype should reflect the work that preceded it: a strong sense of the problem to be solved, the people who will benefit, and the vision behind the solution.
Here, too, Design Thinking values experimentation over polish, at least early on. After all, prototypes are just another kind of problem-solving, albeit in heavily practical terms. If even the most ambitious prototypes fail to completely address the problems your team seeks to solve, you may be up against an unresolvable constraint or two—and that information is terrifically valuable in and of itself.
As prototypes are finished, they are tested and either accepted as possible bases for further testing, sent back for improvements or refinements, or rejected outright.
Testing
When a viable prototype makes it through the penultimate stage, it’s time to test it. As with the previous two stages, this is more a process of discovery than an attempt to confirm that all’s well. And as with the ideation stage, Design Thinking leaves teams free to test their prototypes in any way they see fit.
To get the most out of the process, though, testing should be rigorous. Most engineers and designers know what it’s like to try to break a prototype, and you’ll get the most out of Design Thinking if you take that approach here. After all, the final stage isn’t necessarily the final stage. Here’s why.
Putting it All Together
Remember that Design Thinking is an iterative method: each stage can produce insights that send you back to a previous one. The best design teams tend to be the ones that ask the best questions, not the ones that produce the shiniest results early in the process.
For example, if testing reveals that a prototype fails to meet an important need common to its users, your team has an opportunity to head back to the drawing board. Does the unmet need reflect the research you conducted during the empathy stage? If not, add it to the mix and draw a more complete picture of your user base. If so, ask whether you defined your users’ needs too narrowly, or came up with an incomplete idea for a solution, or whether the prototype can be tweaked. Then head back to the appropriate stage and resume the process.
Design Thinking requires a good deal of internal self-discipline and a fair amount of patience. Equipped with those intangibles, though, design teams can use the method to deliver products that meet users’ needs even before consumers themselves begin to clamor for them. And that can be the key to leading your market niche.