Quote
“Nothing in life is simple. You have to keep yourself simple.” Vineet Raj Kapoor
💯 Framework | Mental model | Concept
TLDR;
- The path from an idea to a product (0 to 1)
- Easy path for your side projects to get from an idea to a product
Design thinking
Design thinking is a mindset rooted in human empathy. The human-centered design puts people and their experiences at the center of the product and service design. The human-centered design blends well with the interactive empathic mindset of design thinking. Lets dive in a see how can we go from an idea to product using the 5 simple steps in design thinking.
Fun fact: Design- Driven companies outperform S&P 500 by 219%
Design thinking is an approach – a mindset toward problem-solving. here are the different phases of the process.
- Empathize
- Define
- Ideation
- Prototyping
- Test
Empathize: Understanding user problems
This is the discovery phase, a time for you to walk in the shoes of a customer. In this phase you engage, observe and learn from the customer and take note of their pain points and problems.
This can be done through various methods like user interviews, Surveys, Focus groups field study or customer journey maps etc.
Gather the user needs make observations and look for patterns and themes. Once you group problems into themes drive insights from the themes identified. Dig deep into the insights to prioritize the ones that matter based on the intensity of the pain caused by the problem and the frequency the problem occurs.
Example
Let’s take an example of a food delivery service and try to improve it through design thinking. for this exercise, let’s concentrate on the delivery partner experience. Here are some pain points that the delivery drivers might have.
Needs/Painpoints
- Finding parking
- Paying for parking
- locating the entrance to restaurants
- Deliver on time
- Keep food cold or hot etc….
Tools – Discovery Article
- User interviews
- Observe
- Focus groups
Define
The Define mode of the design process is all about bringing clarity and focus to the design space. The goal of the Define mode is to craft a meaningful and actionable problem statement – this is what we call a point-of-view. This should be a guiding statement that focuses on insights and needs of a particular user, or composite character. The Define mode is also an endeavor to synthesize your scattered findings into powerful insights.
Consider what stood out to you when talking to and observing people. What patterns emerge when you look at the set? If you noticed something interesting ask yourself (and your team) why that might be.
Example
Let’s take the top user needs we unpacked from the Empathize and create a problem statement
Delivery partners find it hard to navigate the process of delivery due to uncertainties in location and parking
Tools
- Empathy mapping
- Customer journey
- Jobs to be done
Ideation
In the ideation phase, you generate different solutions to solve the problem you identified and defined in the previous stage. Create multiple solutions to the problem as the first solution may not be the best solution for your problem. you could also split the team into groups of two to come up with a solution and give them a chance to do a quick demo. Once you have multiple solutions pick the best or the top to remix and improve the solution.
Example
Now you try to come up with multiple solutions for the problem statement as you know the first solution may not always be the best 🙂..!
- Driver app with step-by-step directions from restaurants to delivery location and parking info to facilitate smoother pickups – Selected solution
- Voice alerts on parking info and entrance info to drivers when they approach restaurants or delivery locations
- Text alerts on parking info and entrance info to drivers when they approach restaurants or delivery locations
Tools
- Story board
- Sketch form
- Mind mapping
Prototype
The Prototype mode is the iterative generation of artifacts intended to answer questions that get you closer to your final solution. In the early stages of a project that question may be broad – such as “do drivers enjoy delivering food to customers ?” In this stage, you start developing low-fidelity or high-fidelity prototypes for your product. This can be as simple as a sketch on a table or something using PowerPoint. If you are doing this in a tam setting everyone in the room gets to create and sketch and prototype separately this eliminates any biases and helps get better ideas. Once all the prototypes are ready you review them as a group critique and move on to the next prototype. remix and improve to create one single prototype.
Credits: https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/5-prototyping-approaches-84682d8ff09d
Example
Prototype a Drive app with step-by-step directions from restaurants and parking info to facilitate smoother pickups. The screen shows drivers the image of the restaurant with its entrance making it easy for the drivers to identify the entrance. The next screen gives the driver with directions to the delivery location and as the driver approaches the delivery location a small bubble pops up with parking info making it easy for drivers to find parking.
Tools
Test
The Test mode is when you solicit feedback, about the prototypes you have created, from your users and have another opportunity to gain empathy for the people you are designing for. Testing is another opportunity to understand your user, but unlike your initial empathy mode, you have now likely done more framing of the problem and created prototypes to test.
Now is the time when you go back to the real customer’s feedback and iterate on the design till you get to a widely accepted design.
Example
Now you show your delivery partners the prototype and gather feedback, this helps you to reiterate and refine your designs.
Tools
- User interviews
- Shadowing
Sources:
📚 Book
In this book, Jake Knapp—the inventor of Sprint—explains how you can compress your design thinking to significantly reduce the risk of launching a new innovation or product Specifically, this step-by-step guide will show you how to define your target, find a solution, create and test a prototype within 5 days
🎧 Podcast:
Design Mind frogcast: Behind the Design: frog + Made of Air Brand Strategy on Apple Podcasts
😎 Meme
Credits: https://cwodtke.medium.com/five-habits-of-design-thinking-45bb61b30393
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