Design thinking consists of five stages that can be applied to any social work project or program. These stages are flexible and iterative, depending on the needs and goals of the project. To begin, the empathize stage involves researching and observing users, as well as interviewing and engaging with them to understand their needs, emotions, motivations, and contexts. This helps develop a user persona and a problem statement that define who you are designing for and what problem you are trying to solve. Next is the ideate stage which involves brainstorming and generating ideas to solve the problem. Techniques such as mind mapping, sketching, or voting can be used to explore different possibilities and select the most promising ones. The prototype stage follows, where low-fidelity prototypes of the selected ideas are made such as mock-ups, storyboards, or role plays. This makes the ideas tangible and testable, as well as communicates them to users and other stakeholders. Then comes the test stage which involves testing the prototypes with real users to get feedback on their usability, desirability, and feasibility. This helps learn from the feedback and data, and identify what works and what doesn't work. Finally, the implement stage involves implementing the final solution and measuring its social impact. Tools such as logic models, theory of change, or indicators can be used to define expected outcomes and impacts; data can also be collected and analyzed to evaluate results and effectiveness of the solution.