The 5 Stages of a Design Thinking Process

Non-linear thinking

Whilst we may love to solve problems with simple linear equations, where one thing follows another leading to a conclusion, the reality is that most problems are complex and confusing. They don’t fit neatly into a mathematical formula and they often have circulating feedback loops creating a lot of confusion.

Design thinking is a structured process for creatively approaching complex problem solving and product development by understanding, deconstructing, reasoning and reconstructing the problem. There are 5 basic stages: Analysis, problem framing and defining, ideation and creative thinking, modelling and prototyping, and testing and evaluating.  

Herbert A. Simon’s 1969 book, The Sciences of the Artificial was the first to use the term “Design Thinking”. In it, he addressed the problem of contemporary human needs in a more complex world. The process was quickly adopted by architects, engineers, product designers and developers who saw the advantage of having a structure with which to tackle difficult ill-defined problems (known as wicked problems) that didn’t have simple or singular solutions. Design thinking reframes problems and challenges in human-centric ways by prioritising what actually matters and is important to the end-users.

In 1977, Edward de Bono published his treatise on creativity and productivity, Lateral Thinking which quickly became the benchmark for a creative approach to problem-solving, thinking and life. The straight-line answer is not always the best answer or the most productive.

In more recent times IDEO, the design giant, have adopted design thinking and human-centric design as more than a structural approach to research, design and development, but as a way of approaching the world with a creative attitude.

Design thinking is now a standard subject for Universities and a driving force for business. Its language has permeated every corner of any progressive company. The process allows users to understand the problem and its users, to apply creative ideas to it and to develop and test those ideas giving feedback to be able to constantly re-steer the ideas to better solve the problem.

The Five Stages of the Design Thinking process.

1.    Empathy – Understanding the users’ needs.

To understand the end-user, we must first define who they are and what their needs may be. This is the essence of human-centred design. We need to walk in the shoes of our user. This may take the form of clearly defining who they are and what they want to achieve and what their needs are.

Empathy is a fundamental human quality. Our brains are equipped with mirror neurons which are activated when we imagine or observe an action. For instance, when we see a child catching their finger in a door, we wince too. Whilst we may not “feel” their pain, the same areas of our brains light up as if we had caught our finger in the door.

Setting aside our own assumptions of how we think people should behave, we need to understand how they might behave or what their intentions and desires are. What is the reason they seek a solution to the problem, rather than assuming that solving the problem will produce the answer? This may challenge some of our own long-standing assumptions. Designers, particularly commercial designers, often face challenging their own assumptions to understand the users’ assumptions.

Gather information ad understand and empathise with your end-user.

2.    Define the problem – deconstruct the challenge.

Often problems or challenges seem to have a quick, obvious solution, however, the first initial presentation of the problem may not be superficial and may need the design team t drill down into the motivations and desires based on the information and understanding in the previous stage. Defining what the problem actually is or might be may be subject to your own attitude to the problem.

One handy trick to use is to ask why five times about the same problem and the progressive answers to that problem. For instance, people don’t buy a drill because they want a drill, they buy it because they want a hole. They want a hole so that they can hang a picture they love, they love the picture because it gives them status, they want status because they want to be admired by their community. So, they bought a drill because they want to elevate their status and be admired in their community. This is a technique used by advertisers to understand what hidden motivations drive behaviour.

Designers and marketers will often create personas to focus their attentions on specific people.

A further technique used here is to reframe the problem. To restate it in other terms by asking the reverse or putting the problem into another context. Imagining the problem viewed by someone else. This can often yield unexpected result.

 3.    Ideate – Idea generation and creation.

Once you have deconstructed and defined the problem you can begin to generate ideas. It’s not always the first ideas that come up that are the most useful. Quantity is paramount. It’s much easier to reject ideas than to create them. It has been shown in numerous studies that quantity produces quality. Ideas need also to push out boundaries, even negative ideas or “failure” will shed light on what may not work.

It’s important to explore many different ways to generate ideas about the problem solution. Some advocate being playful and creating “games” around the ideas. Others will suggest being oblique in your approach.

Brainstorming has many different guises and is very useful for generating ideas, so long as it is used correctly. Often some power dynamics can interfere with this process. Personally, I think it is best to generate ideas individually or anonymously first and then to come together in small groups first and then convene a larger team.

No ideas should be rejected at this stage, the more outlandish the better.

This stage involves divergent and abductive thinking. That is, inferring possible solutions from the available problem information, their experience, and the use of non-deductive modes of thinking such as the use of analogies.

4.    Modelling and Prototyping – making solutions come to life.

Once you have generated ideas you will need to start experimenting and selecting the best possible solutions. This will typically involve creating short-lists of possible contenders to go forward to be modelled. In architecture this may mean making quick rough card models, more typically nowadays this will be a 3D digital model, created to explore various views and different aspects of the design. We often use sketching for both ideation and modelling. Normally these will be quick, inexpensive models, often made from paper. The purpose is to investigate further the ideas that have been generated.

This stage straddles the bridge between ideation and analysis and progresses the problem solution. Here we begin to see convergent thinking, the gradual refinement as ideas begin to take shape.

5.    Testing and evaluating.

Prototypes are tested and fed back into the process so that incremental improvements can be made. This allows redefining the problem in the context of results. Design thinking is an iterative recursive process. Previous stages are revisited to refine the solutions.

Typically, most of the stages oscillate between understanding the problem, ideas for a solution and modelling.  The process should be thought of as evolutionary rather than goal-oriented of problem and solution Solution ideas lead to a deeper or alternative understanding of the problem, which in turn should trigger more solution ideas.

Also about Design Thinking:

Empathy Mapping

Divergent, Emergent and Convergent thinking

Creative Perspective

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