Design thinking is both a method and an attitude. Method, because design thinking gives you a process to solve problems with a focus on the customer. However, the design thinking process also requires a certain attitude to tackle problems.
Design Thinking is a customer-centric and iterative method for solving complex problems and developing new ideas. With the Design Thinking method, you will be able to develop a solution that is superior from the customer’s point of view, taking into account cost-effectiveness, feasibility and desirability. In this post the basics of design thinking are being outlined and you will be guided through the six phases of the design thinking method.
Where does design thinking come from?
Design Thinking owes its name to the way designers work. In their work, they follow an intuitive process that is essentially based on observation and a high level of user focus.
Design Thinking was founded as a method by Stanford Professor Larry Leifer, computer scientist Terry Winograd (Larry Page’s trainer) and David Kelley (founder of the innovation agency IDEO). An official conference was held for the first time in 1991 under the name “Design Thinking Research Symposia”. Since 2007, the Hasso Plattner Institute has been funding the research and implementation of design thinking at the School of Design Thinking.
Areas of application Design Thinking
Design thinking is used in many areas. With its open, creative but at the same time systematic approach, Design Thinking offers a structured process model for different questions and problem areas. These range from the question of why patients do not take their medication consistently, to the development of new services or even organizational restructuring. In the course of digitization, design thinking offers a suitable method for developing digital products, services and business models.
The design thinking process
The design thinking process is the core of the design thinking method. The start and, above all, the end of the design thinking process are characteristic.
You start with a „Beginners Mind“ and the attitude that you know nothing. You are only finished when an idea has materialized and been implemented in concrete terms.
The course in between is an iterative process that focuses on the user and his needs.
The Phases
1. Understand & Define the problem
In the first step, you define your initial situation and ensure that everyone involved in the process has a common understanding.
Your initial situation is characterized by two essential elements:
- There is a problem to be solved from the perspective of the customer respectively your company.
- The framework conditions specified by your client or your organization are transparent.
The aim of the first phase is to define the problem but also to define the solution space. In this first phase, you make sure not to confuse the interests of your organization and your client with the interests of the customers and users. You close this phase with a list of hypotheses about how the problem presents itself from the point of view of your customers. A common understanding of the problem is the foundation on which the design thinking process thrives in the next stages.
2. Observing – understanding customer needs
In the next phase of the design thinking process, you engage directly with the customer. Your goal is to analyze and understand the needs and priorities of your customers.
In personal conversations with the customer, you can above all demonstrate how the customer solves the problem for himself today. You pay particular attention to improvised solutions that customers use to solve their problem. These „crutches“ are a very strong indicator that the problem is really urgent.
watching and listening
In this phase you are primarily an observer and a listener. That means you try to understand which of your assumptions and thoughts from the first phase are confirmed, but above all which hypotheses cannot be maintained. Since we humans tend to only perceive things that support our point of view, it helps to usher in this second phase with the task of identifying exactly the assumptions that you can eliminate. These insights help you to define your point of view in the next phase of the design thinking process.
3. Define your point of view – What have we learned?
In the third phase of the design thinking method, the first two steps are synthesized. Your goal is to develop a conceptual framework based on the collected assumptions and observations, which defines the solution space and your ideal customer.
While you worked with a very analytical point of view in the first two steps, made many assumptions and gained impressions, in this third phase of the design thinking process it is important to condense the impressions gained. At this point, you can think of design thinking as a puzzle. From the impressions and parts of the first and second step you now formulate a coherent overall picture.
Who is the ideal first customer?
It is particularly important that you develop an idea of the first ideal customer. In other words, the circle of users who are particularly affected by the problem and are therefore as open as possible to your still-to-be-developed solution. We call the idealized representation of this group of people Persona, which you describe in as much detail as possible at the end of the third phase. In the following steps, the persona serves as a pole star for the development of your solution.
4. Develop ideas – outline and prioritize solutions
In the fourth step of the design thinking process, you and your team develop ideas on how you want to solve the problem for the defined target groups and personas. You do this in three steps:
- Collection: First you collect as many ideas as possible. There are no limits to the imagination, every idea, no matter how crazy, has its place. Very important: ideas are not evaluated in this first step.
- Evaluation: When you have collected a sufficient number of ideas, you organize, discuss and prioritize your ideas. The compatibility of profitability, feasibility and desirability has top priority.
- Prioritization: Finally, commit to your idea. Please be critical. Instead of simply „merging“ all ideas into one big idea, your most important task is to focus on a few aspects of your solution. It is easier to prototype and test a solution with few aspects than a solution that is too complex.
Copying and remixing expressly desired
In this phase of the design thinking process, stealing is allowed and explicitly desired. That means don’t be afraid to build on the ideas of other team members and develop their ideas further. Above all, look at other industries and problem domains. Thinking outside the box is worthwhile in several respects. On the one hand, you free yourself from existing patterns and so-called “best practices” in your industry, which usually do not lead to a superior, but only to a “slightly improved” solution. On the other hand, by looking outside the box, you can find out what experiences other companies from related industries have with their solutions. With the joint presentation of the first idea to be realized, you now dive into the next phase of design thinking.
5. Prototyping – modeling of the best ideas
In the fifth step of the Design Thinking method, creativity and manual skills are required above all. Your task is to translate your preferred ideas into a prototype. Up to this point, you already have an ideal first customer in mind, have convinced yourself of their problem in direct discussion with the customer and prioritized ideas on how to meet their needs. Now it is a matter of modeling such a solution.
Prototyping mindset and materials
These framework conditions will help you with prototyping:
- Concentrate on prototypes that you can develop in your team
- Prototypes are disposable products, don’t invest too much time and energy
- A prototype is functional and never finished
There are no limits to the imagination when it comes to the choice of material. From pen and paper to handicraft materials, sales flyers, press releases, role-playing games or Lego. Or even the use of completely foreign solutions. The only important thing is that you develop a prototype that gives the customer the chance to put themselves in your solution and give you feedback. Only real feedback will take you one step further in your search for the best solution.
6. Testing – What does the customer say?
In the final phase of the design thinking process, things get serious. While you have previously dealt with your customer in an observing, verbal or intellectual way, you now present your prototype to him.
The most important goal in this phase is to get feedback. Not to convince the customer of the brilliance of an idea. Prototypes have the simple task of making abstract concepts tangible. And it’s just a prototype, so you can also say: „That wasn’t a good idea, get rid of it“.
In this phase you observe up close how the customer interacts with your solution. Questions from the customer are a good indicator that the customer is already “thinking” about your solution and is actively dealing with it. Always try to understand the background of his questions. This gives you valuable insights into points that may have been hidden from you before. However, before you present your prototype, you should formulate assumptions and expectations under which conditions the prototype can be considered a success. By the time you’ve spoken to five customers, you’ll have already received most of the suggestions for improvement and feedback.
Back to Go or Implement
Testing closes the circle of the design thinking method. From here you can go in any direction. Maybe you have to go back to “GO” because you only gained important insights in this last phase. Or maybe you’re only allowed to vary your prototype to get new feedback. Only when you are confident that your prototype will resonate with a sufficiently large number of users do you start implementing your solution.
The solution is then implemented using methods such as „Scrum“ or „Lean Startup“. Both methods support you in developing a product from your prototype in iterative steps. But the basic attitude of design thinking will always remain a valuable companion during implementation. Especially if you throw yourself into the implementation of new features before you even understand the problem.
Working with design thinking
You can apply the Design Thinking method in different contexts. On the one hand, you can get to know design thinking in workshops and/or work on specific issues as part of hackathons. A further format is for example a design sprint. In a design sprint, all phases of design thinking are run through over the course of a week and the result is tested directly with customers.
You can have your workshops or direct practical application accompanied by a Design Thinking Coach. Your coach will help you to practice the design thinking processes, help the teams to keep the customer in the foreground and to differentiate between problem and solution very precisely. The last point in particular requires a lot of reflection, customer focus and discipline. After all, we are used to “presenting solutions instead of mulling over problems”.
Conclusion – Design Thinking method and attitude
Design thinking is both a method and an attitude. Method, because design thinking gives you a process to solve problems with a focus on the customer. However, the design thinking process also requires a certain attitude, which is essentially characterized by the following features:
- You start with a “Beginner Mind”.
- First understand the problem, then develop solutions.
- The customer is the focus.
- You are willing to discard ideas that are not viable You are only finished when your promising idea has materialized and been implemented.
In order to produce connectable results with Design Thinking, the method must find its way into your everyday work. For this you need a clean methodical foundation, but above all a lot of practice and practical application. To get started and to get to know the method, you can, for example, organize an in-house hackathon or you can apply the design thinking process directly in projects.
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