Design Thinking: A (probable) good way to get into the PM mindset

Hi, I'm Zahin. I'm a Zero-to-One product manager working with a startup for over 3 years.

Here's one thing about me: I can tell you 8 ways to fail at what you do. And as a result of that, I can teach you 2 ways to not fail at what you do. And that's what these article will (mostly) be about.

If you are someone who -

• Has no clue what a product management role is
• A developer who hates to code but loves to manage people
• Wants to be a product manager but has no clue how to get started

Then you've come to the right place. I am almost as clueless as you are, but we're gonna learn together.

I thought of starting this series off with the very concept that got me into product management - Design Thinking.

In very simple words, design thinking is a process where you take the needs and wants of your users and use them to build products that solve their problems.

This term dates back to the 1950s and 60s, referred to as "designerly ways of knowing, thinking and acting" and "designerly thinking." But its principles can be applied to other different disciplines as well.

It's a concept that introduces you to many core principles that help you kickstart your PM career as well, such as -

1. Understanding people: As a PM, you have make a lot of people making feel understood and heard through your solutions - starting from business people to developers, end users and more. Design thinking helps you get into that habit.
2. Innovation: Design thinking is a process that naturally identifies the users core needs and help come up with innovative and practical solutions for them.
3. Collaboration and communication: You will not find a PM who does not have these two skills. The design thinking approach help you master and sharpen both of these.

Now that you understand the WHAT and WHY, let's "delve" into the WHY. (if you know, you know)

STEP 1: EMPATHIZE

This is part where you do nothing other than understanding the user's wants, needs and pains. There are many ways to do that.

Contextual Inquiry:

This literally means asking questions based on a specific topic.

You can send out forms or conduct interviews asking specific questions in different formats like multiple choice, long paragraphs and so on.

Observation:

This is the method where you have no direct contact with the user, but you just see how they act in their natural habitat.

For example, if you want to understand how to elevate the coffee shop experience, you'd go and sit in a coffee shop (FOR HOURS) and look at what people do, how they interact with others etc.

STEP 2: DEFINE

This is the part where you look at all of the information you have gathered so far, and group them based on patterns and pain points. There are a few different ways you can approach this step -

Persona:

Let's say, 20 out of every 100 people you spoke to are university students, 15 of them go to a coffee shop every day, 35 of them want their coffee within 15 mins of ordering and so on.

Based on this, you can create different fictional characters that represent every single group I mentioned above. Every character here is a persona.

Empathy Map:

Instead of clustering the info based on the user's type, you can also cluster based on the user's actions - what they see, think, say and do. Based on this you can come up solutions in the later stage.

STEP 3: IDEATE

Now that you have the information organized, it's time to prioritize them. Look at all the problems the users, and sort them out based on the ones that came up the most.

Now, from the prioritized pain points, you need to start generating a wide range of ideas which will be developed into solutions.

Now, keep in mind that coming up with solutions can sometimes be tedious and time-consuming, and you might not even have good ideas in the beginning. But don't give up, keep brainstorming!

STEP 4: PROTOTYPING

This is the step where your drawn up solutions start taking life. You will now design a full-fledged product based on the solution you have come up.

Don't be intimidated, now. A full product doesn't mean that you need to come up with sophisticated Figma designs or 3D model or anything like that.

Start as simple as a paper sketch, maybe. Draw up the product using a pencil, that's it! It's called a low-fidelity prototype, while the detailed ones are called high fidelity prototypes.

STEP 5: TESTING

This is kind of the part where you restart the cycle. Now, you take your prototype to the user, and ask them how this refined product feels like. Does this solve their problem? Did any new problem arise? Does it feel user-friendly? Be sure to prepare similar questions.

Based on their answers, and observing their responses, you restart the cycle by coming up with more pain points, opportunity areas, solutions and prototypes.

There you go! Now, you know the basics of a process used by seasoned companies like IBM, Google and Apple. All that's left to do is practice, practice and practice. Start observing situations around you, and build solutions for the problems you see within your network.

YOU GOT THIS!

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking
2. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process
3. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-design-thinking
4. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/empathy-mapping/
5. https://makeiterate.com/how-to-use-personas-in-design-thinking/

Images used:

1. IxDF - Interaction Design Foundation
2. Make:Iterate
3. Nielsen Norman Group