Answer:

Design Thinking is a methodology to create human-centric innovation, which focuses on putting the “users” at the centre of the design throughout the innovation process. According to the Double Diamond Model by British Design Council, Design Thinking can be divided into 4 stages, namely Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver. At each of the stages, the innovation team has to remain human-centric:

1. Discover: Understand users’ pain points with empathy
2. Define: Find out the problem(s) that concern(s) the users most
3. Develop: Step into the users’ shoes to select the best solution
4. Deliver: Collect user feedback and improve the solution

Answer:

Other than applying Design Thinking tools, the innovation team may enhance the innovation process with various activities. Below are some examples:

1. At the stage of Discover, the team may roleplay different stakeholders to discover different perspectives. For example, each team member could think of a phrase that a certain stakeholder would typically say. This helps the team to build empathy towards different stakeholders.
2. At the stage of Develop, the team may invite potential users to join the brainstorming process and co-create solutions with them.
3. Encourage the team to express their thoughts through different means. Other than drawing, the team may also utilize external tools such as Lego, coffee filters to express ideas creatively.
4. Collect interesting case studies from different websites and social media. Share with the team regularly to inspire one another.

Answer:

1. Avoid creating solutions based on your assumptions and imagination. Always try to ideate from the clues you collected.
2. Validate your insights to avoid assumptions and stereotypes.
3. Raise your concerns to your team when you spot a problem during the discussion. In the long run, build a team culture that favours critical thinking.
4. Test your solutions before you launch them and improve your ideas based on real feedback.

Answer:

1. Form a cross-background team to encourage thinking from various perspectives.
2. Conduct a pre-research about the topic and the issue.
3. Align the tools that the team will use and the flow of usage.

Answer:

There are many benefits of Design Thinking tools. First of all, they provide a framework for the team to ideate and discuss innovative solutions. Across the different stages of Design Thinking, there are various tools that are arranged logically, allowing the team to ideate the new idea step by step. For example, we will first apply User Segment to define our target users, then apply Persona to humanize our users and apply Journey Map to discover the pain points and needs throughout the user journey.

Meanwhile, Design Thinking tools allow the team to share a common language and ensure every member innovates under the same systematic framework. Since there is an order for the tools, the team will be clear about which stage they are at and the corresponding goals at the time. By recording the outcomes and results of applying the tools, the team will be able to review the innovation process and insights from different stages

There are various Design Thinking tools. According to LUMA, one of the world’s leading Design Thinking Consulting Companies, there are 36 tools in Design Thinking. Instead of mastering all the tools, we recommend that the team should focus on a few tools that your members are familiar with, and eventually build a regular set of Design Thinking tools and flow for your team.

Design Thinking Tools in the Double Diamond Model

Discover: User Segment, Persona, User Journey Map, User Interview

Define: Pain Map, How Might We Questions

Develop: Silent Brainstorming, Choice Matrix

Deliver: Prototype, Idea Canvas, Minimal Viable Product (MVP)

Answer:

Different Design Thinking models have different emphases and goals. For example, the Sprint model from Google focuses more on Product Prototyping, encouraging the team to develop ideas and collect feedback to improve within a short period of time; meanwhile, Design For Change Framework from India is designed for students and focuses on the model’s simplicity, enabling students to learn and apply Design Thinking.

Regardless of the model, the principles of Design Thinking are the same: stay human-centric and create “something people want”.

Answer:

Of course you can! According to the Tim Brown, the previous chair of IDEO (one of the world’s leading Design Thinking Consulting Companies), Design Thinking is “a human-centred approach to innovation” that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.

Answer:

“The important and difficult job is never to find the right answers. It is to find the right question.” Peter Drucker

As a way of problem solving, Design Thinking focuses on “finding the right question”, and then finding the right answers to the question. The team should spend much time on User Understanding instead of only focusing on the solution. By understanding users’ real difficulties and needs with empathy, the team should be able to gain an in-depth understanding of users, which allows us to create well-defined “How Might We Questions” and directions to ideate solutions. As long as the final solution is developed according to the well-defined “How Might We Questions”, it should be able to match users’ needs.