BETWEEN HUMAN NEEDS, DESIGN THINKING, And THE ENTRERENEURIAL ENGINEER (Part 1)

THE MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS 

What Is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

In order to better understand what motivates human beings, Maslow proposed that human needs can be organized into hierarchies. This hierarchy ranges from more concrete needs (such as food and water) to more abstract concepts such as self-fulfillment. 

Taking a look into one of the works of Abraham Harold Maslow in his 1943 paper titled "A Theory of Human Motivation" it was postulated that whenever a lower need is met in the hierarchy of human needs, the next need on the hierarchy becomes the focus of attention or priority. In essence, the theory postulated that even when someone has gone up the hierarchy, and have fulfilled some higher needs, once any of the lower need is threatened, such individual will become agitated and restless as to descend down into the lower level to ensure fulfillment of the needs before going back up the level.

As an entrepreneurial engineer and/or engineering organization, taking time to assess the hierarchy of peoples' needs and wants through the lens of the Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs will be a great sneak peek into the landscape of the future expectations of the customer. It will help predict the next direction for an enterprise drive for innovation and change.  

Knowing what to expect next from a set or a class of people, and what influences their investment decisions and buying patterns is a great tool for an innovative and entrepreneurial mind. Producing the next game changing product or service might be a great challenge, but having a clue that can help predict the real and articulated needs/pains of the customer is a constant variable in the equation. 

It therefore implies that, armed with the theory of human motivation, an entrepreneurial mind can easily go to work in crafting the best solution to all articulated and non-articulated pains begging for urgent attention and solution in the marketplace.

For an entrepreneurial engineer and a technical specialist, the theory of human needs presents itself as a veritable tool for invention, creativity and innovation; and when combined with the "Design Thinking" Methodology, it generates unprecedented eureka moments of solutions, satisfactions, and experiences that add superior value, and which the customers can appreciate and buy. 

USING DESIGN THINKING TO CRAFT SOLUTIONS TO HUMAN NEEDS

The Maslow's theory of human needs is a great pointer for any entrepreneurial engineer or technical specialists who really desire to get connected with what the customers' really need at any point in time, or cares about at a particular point in the sales process. 

With the help of demographics, the theory of human motivation and design thinking approach has become a very powerful and useful combination for researching, exploring and exploiting the landscape of human needs. 

Since creating a successful small business is rarely the result of a great product or service insight, but the result of a great customer insight, therefore getting a bunch of handy insights into customers' expectations and requirements are prerequisites for developing or creating commensurate solutions that can help meet the pains of the customers.

DESIGN THINKING

Design thinking has origins in psychology, industrial design, and product development. In reality, EMPATHY is said to be a key driver of the design thinking process.

In engineering design and products/process development, Design Thinking approach is a solution-based methodology used to explore human-centered values throughout the engineering design process. Design Thinking is a method for generating innovative, user-centered products and services that meet both the known and the non-articulated needs of the customers.

Design thinking approaches are useful for staying ahead of the competitors, and is often used by entrepreneurial-minded engineers and technical specialists in obtaining insights into the anticipated needs of people, places, products, projects, processes, and procedures. It helps in capturing and addressing the evolving features of systems and organizations that wants to keep offering unique value experiences, while remain highly competitive.

Contemporary applications of the term "design thinking" generally refer to the study of cognitive processes and strategies employed by human designers working on design problems. Design Thinking methodologies can be described as non-linear, iterative processes that are supported by empathy and experimentation at their core. This is the essence of design thinking.

When you focus on human needs, wants, and desires, (as predicted by Maslow’s theory), then quickly go to work to come up with novel ways to address those needs/wants/desires, and test those ideas using simple prototypes in order to make them better (or learn something new), one will always see interesting results.

Design thinkers are therefore a set of creative, flexible, curious, and emotionally intelligent people with ability to combine their technical and cognitive knowledge with the non-technical, empathetic, and social skills in solving human problems. For an engineer, this is a very rare attribute often referred to as cognitive ambidexterity.

(To be continued in Part 2). Watch out!

Ayodeji Onabanjo