What are some examples of empathy-driven design thinking processes?

Don't forget stage 1 of design thinking: Empathize. This doesn't just mean feel for your consumers. Put yourself in your consumer's shoes. What makes them do the task? What makes the task easier? What makes it more difficult? How do they feel about it? What would make them feel better? Once you have an understanding of your consumers, once you grok the situation, then define the needs. As you define the needs, go back to stage 1 empathize if you run into any problems.

I love what Gwen Nicodemus wrote. So often we get stuck - including me in the "how to" of something like the 5 stages. We focus on the analytical portion of it that we forget we are dealing with people. When going through steps it is important to remember that each concerns people. When defining - it is important to understand what people mean by the words they use for example I was at a meeting on platform generation and I needed to ask the speaker what he meant by platform in order for me to continue. Empathize is about what are they feeling - not taking the feelings on but understanding the impact on the results. Even possible solutions will be dependent on context - where are the potential users in their lives? How does that impact?

Empathy-driven design thinking prioritizes understanding user needs and experiences. Key processes include: 1. Visually representing users' thoughts, feelings, actions, and pain points to gain deeper insights into their perspectives. 2. Conducting open-ended conversations with users to uncover their motivations, challenges, and desires. 3. Observing users in their natural environments to identify unmet needs and opportunities for improvement.

The Five Stages of Design Thinking: This is widely known for its emphasis on empathy. It’s a great way to understand users' insights, emotions, and perspectives. By engaging with users' experiences, designers gain an understanding of their culture, preferences, and non-verbal cues. Then, clearly define the problem and come up with creative, SMART solutions. Prototypes are tested, iterating based on feedback. Empathy guides the process for impactful solutions.

Empathy-driven design thinking processes start by deeply understanding user needs and challenges. One example is user journey mapping, where designers step into users' shoes to visualize their experiences and pain points. Another example is conducting ethnographic research or in-depth interviews to gather real-world insights. Prototypes and usability testing with direct user feedback allows for refining solutions to meet emotional and functional needs. Co-creating workshops engage users in the design process, fostering a deeper connection between product development and user expectations. These processes ensure that solutions are human-centered, practical, and emotionally resonant.

One could create an interactive empathy map by engaging with real users through storytelling, using scenarios or personas to represent each insight. For instance, a user persona like "Sarah," a busy marketing manager seeking to upskill while managing work and family, can be used. Her story can be brought to life by incorporating her words, actions, thoughts, and feelings into the empathy map. This approach humanizes the process, allowing teams to develop more intuitive and practical solutions tailored to users like Sarah.

Empathy Mapping: I really like this tool because it covers all aspects of human experience—thinking, feeling, saying, and doing. It helps us deeply understand users and their challenges, presenting new opportunities from every angle. Empathy mapping allows us to share experiences and come up with better interventions by truly understanding the user's situation.

At one point I was a project manager for new products - a team to come up with all aspects to get a new drug from inception to marketing. As a result I had members from all disciplines involved - from preclinical to marketing. It was a challenge. What I have learned since then is at the start to come up with rules that will create a non-judgmental creative space. It is only then that we can have a fruitful discussion to discover as many options as possible. My favorite rule is: Aretha Franklin rule: have respect! Humor goes a long way especially when dealing with high functioning left brain individuals! Using How might we questions - there is no judgment and people can just share. Of course, the room must be a 'safe' environment.

How Might We Questions: These questions are key to improving the design process. They help explore empathy-based challenges without bias or judgment. Formulating open-ended, empathetic questions encourages insights and solutions from others' perspectives.

Divergent thinking serves as a catalyst for creativity by fostering the generation of multiple ideas, exploring unconventional paths, expanding perspectives, embracing ambiguity, encouraging risk-taking, and supporting the creative process by expanding away from the norm and convergent thinking. Together, divergent thinking and creativity enable individuals to unlock their creative potential and generate innovative ideas and solutions Divergent thinking may be a figurative 'switch'. you need to turn on for yourself and everyone can when they train themselves to it is a mindset and a process and generally works better in groups as people spar of each other.

Brainstorming and divergent thinking are great, but be careful of trying to get a bunch of neurodivergents to brainstorm. Some neurodivergents don't function well when put under pressure, and thinking in front of other people is pressure. For those people, state some goals, send them away for a half hour, and then bring them back and ask for what they came up with. As for facilitating divergent thinking, get creative. Let people stand on the table or lie on the floor. Put pebbles in your shoes. Put glasses on or take glasses off. Anything that might change perceptions a bit is likely to help people create more creative ideas.

If one uses principles of Master Mind groups, then brainstorming can become organized and great idea generation - without hindering creativity. On a team - one person can be designated as the problem/issue describer - using a specific format. All others are "the board of directors" providing ideas for solutions/directions. Some of the 'rules' before this starts has to include: sticking to I statements, feeling free to offer any possibilities etc. At the end - all solutions could be posted to delineate the best answers. And it should have some fun aspects as well! A facilitator can keep the group going.

Brainstorming and Divergent Thinking: Divergent thinking opens up multiple possibilities. Brainstorming allows for creative collaboration, where multiple minds contribute to the process. Leadership is not always about having the right answer, but facilitating diverse ideas. This helps create structural empowerment by considering different perspectives and evidence.

Prototyping and Feedback: Invention and success stem from creating prototypes and gathering feedback. It’s okay to fail—it’s part of the process. Social change happens when we experiment, learn from mistakes, and refine our solutions.

Ah, good, constructive feedback is difficult to get. Think about how to get your potential users/consumers interested in the product. Then take it a step further. How can you get them more than interested? How do you get them involved? The answers to those questions will differ for every product and audience. But that's an important step. If people feel like "they are a part of it," they'll spend more time on that feedback.