Design thinking is about rethinking problems from a human-centred perspective. Instead of being centred around the product itself, design thinking presupposes that the problem or issue being addressed is put at the centre of the creative process. Encompassing a combination of empathy, idea generation and experimentation, design thinking allows for solution or human centred products.
Design thinking is a product design process that allows for innovation and risk reduction when bringing new products to market. For small businesses, it’s a powerful way of thinking about your market and asking the right questions in order to come up with the right solutions.
In this guide for Business West, Chris Flynn of Flynn Product Design, talks us through what design thinking is and what it means for small growing businesses.
The History of Design Thinking
Design thinking was first coined by mathematical engineer John E. Arnold but developed into its modern iteration by David Kelley and Tim Brown of IDEO in relation to solution-focused, human-centred thinking.
In his 2008 paper published in The Harvard Business Review, Brown said, “[Design thinking] is a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.”
What is Design Thinking?
Its application requires you to put yourself in the shoes of your users to be able to come up with a product that they will engage with and end up purchasing. To do this, an analysis of users’ pain points is needed, and then listing out all possible solutions to improve the product.
Through a user & problem focus, elements which influence commercial market traction can be predicted, solved and tested. As a result product design specification is said to be evolved.
To do this, design thinking requires you to have the following traits:
- Empathy – the ability to connect with your user by thinking like them and asking what, how, and why.
- Integrative thinking – seeing the bigger picture by considering all the salient and contradictory aspects of an otherwise complex problem, and then creating solutions.
- Optimism – believing that no matter the issue at hand, there will always be a solution.
- Experimentalism – thinking out of the box by coming up with questions that would allow you to proceed in various directions.
- Collaboration – being a team player and having experience in various fields, as products today demand increasing complexity.
The Value of Design Thinking In Product Development
Design thinking covers product development from end-to-end, not just during the design phase. It reframes the problem into a more human-centric perspective, so you can understand where your users are coming from.
When done right, this can lead your business to:
- Generate a clear picture of your target market’s needs and wants
- Discover opportunities based on their needs
- Reduce the risks that come with launching new products, since you’ll be operating with a deep understanding of your audience from the get-go
- Come up with innovative solutions to keep up with today’s market demands
- Have a strong foundation for your product design and offers
Phases of Design Thinking
Design thinking involves looking at the known aspects of a problem and then discovering the more peripheral factors that contribute to it. This is opposed to scientific thinking, wherein you test the known aspects of a problem so you can come up with a solution.
It follows these five iterative and non-linear steps:
1. Empathise
This phase requires you to have a deep understanding of who your product is for. What are their physical and emotional needs? How do they think? What do they value in the world?
To do this, you can conduct site visits and interview your actual users. In your questionnaire, make sure that you get to elicit their stories and answers to “why”. For example, you can ask them which packaging feature will encourage them to reach a product that’s placed too high on a shelf or what feature would they most like to see on a given type of product.
Observe usage patterns and how they interact with their environments. This will give you great insight as to how they see and interact with the world.
2. Define
In the Define phase, you need to create a perspective based on user needs and insights. What patterns stood out when you interviewed and observed your users? Then, select a set of needs that you need to fulfil when improving or developing your product.
Combine needs and insight, which will then serve as your problem statement that will lead your product innovation.
3. Ideate
The brainstorming phase will allow you and your team to come up with a range of creative solutions. To make sure you generate as many possible ideas as you can, do the following:
- Give your team complete freedom. Let them build on each other’s’ ideas.
- Come up with ways to stimulate free thinking. You can even use plenty of online tools that will help with collaboration.
- Accept the fact that misunderstandings may occur, as long as you stay on track.
- Surround yourself with inspiring materials to kindle everyone’s imagination.
4. Prototype
Building a prototype or a series of prototypes will help you test your ideas. This way, you’ll know if you’re on the right track or if you need to change more elements. You’ll also be able to immediately see if there are any issues that you need to rectify.
Again, this should be focused on the user. What would you like to test with this prototype? What kind of behaviour do you expect to see?
5. Test
The final stage requires returning the prototype to your users to gain more feedback. During this phase, feel free to modify the product as you see fit.
Remember that the goal is to see how your users are interacting with your ideas this time and how you can refine your product based on their new experiences. Did the user experience improve? Can they do what the product wants them to do?
Google’s Design Sprint Process
It was in 2010 that Jake Knapp from Google Ventures took the concept of design thinking and developed it into an alternative solution called the Design Sprint. Since then, this process has become hugely popular amongst product and app developers over the last two years and now dominates the field of design thinking. As Ahsan Khan, from Climate Labs explains:
“The problem with design thinking is that it’s always been seen as more of a philosophy rather than a practical toolkit. Many organisations that implemented design thinking were quick to realise how difficult it was to keep using because it relied on creating bespoke toolkits for the required problems and that takes a lot of time and effort. The Design Sprint has become more popular because unlike DT it has off the shelf exercises that get you results with little preparation.”
The Design Sprint is an open resource that aims to build and test prototypes within five days by using a step-by-step checklist. The Sprint Book website describes how each day in the Design Sprint week is broken down:
“On Monday, you make a map of the problem. On Tuesday, each individual sketches solutions. On Wednesday, you decide which sketches are strongest. On Thursday, you build a realistic prototype. And on Friday, you test that prototype with five target customers.“
Unlike Design Thinking, Design Sprint has off the shelf exercises that get you results with little preparation. Designers and business strategist have therefore been able to use exercises from the book to quickly align stakeholders on sticky issues or even frame problems and prioritise much quicker.
About the Author:
Chris Flynn is the director and founder of Bristol based consultancy Flynn Product Design.
- Log in to post comments