Don't Skip The Hard Work Of Research

Research is the second phase of the design thinking process. Often, research is skipped because of perceived challenges, costs, tedious nature, and time constraints. However, research and design thinking is about asking good questions. It does not always need to involve expensive operations. As innovators and design thinkers, researching the problem is critical to bringing ideas to realization. Research provides healthy practices to create new knowledge and creative problem-solving.? Research is a continuous discipline that, if done well, empowers design thinkers to arrive at actionable answers.??

I summarize, compare, and contrast two case studies on the research theme in this article. My first case study is an interview with former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. She stepped down from her CEO position in 2018, and had served in PepsiCo for 24 years. The second case study comes from Makassar, Indonesia.? This city uses design thinking and research to solve the growing traffic congestion problem.?

Situation Summary

When CEO Indra Nooyi brought in Pepsi’s first chief designer position in 2012, she had questions that needed to be answered. She recognized that a shift needed to happen and that the giant brand needed to include design thinking as a prominent voice in everything Pepsi did. In an interview with the Harvard Business Review, Nooyi said, “As CEO, I visit a market every week to see what we look like on the shelves. I always ask myself—not as a CEO but as a mom—“What products really speak to me?” (Ignatius, 2016). Nooyi saw that the shelves and presentation of products were all the same amongst a lot of clutter.? So, she started the research process with simple and free activities like asking her direct reports to fill up a photo album with pictures they took of anything they thought represented good design.? The task failed, and most participants did not turn anything in. She realized we don’t know what design means. Many people thought it meant a unique packaging color or some other cover-up idea.? Pepsi needed to adapt to a new way of business.? A more user-centric design focus that included design and prototyping from the start.? Pespi’s board of directors agreed to Nooyi’s long-term vision and supported her, knowing that the immediate cycles of profit and loss may experience a rocky road until the company culture shifts.? Nooyi exhorts that her most significant accomplishment was setting up Pepsi’s success for the long term.??

In Makassar, Indonesia, nearly 250 new motorbikes and cars appear in the city every day.? Public transportation options are broken, private options are more accessible, and traffic congestion is worsening.? The mayor of Makassar joined arms with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to initiate design thinking strategies to combat the growing problem of traffic congestion and accidents.? The first innovation strategy was a research workshop with 33 people representing the critical public transport sectors.? In Makassar, the “Pete-Pete” is the 10-passenger van that is the staple of public transportation. Over three days, the representatives engaged in research activities to learn about the problem and discover solutions.? On day one, the researchers began with a classic brainstorming session and amassed a slew of solution possibilities.? On day two, the stakeholders met with citizens on the streets, conducting interviews around the solutions they had brainstormed the previous day. On day three, they returned the data to the drawing room to refine their ideas and build prototypes.? The mayor said, “Most groups ended up with final prototypes which were completely different from their initial ideas. These prototypes will be incubated over the next two months with funding and support from the UNDP” (Basu, 2015).?

Reflections

PepsiCo and the city of Makassar both integrated design thinking as the way forward to solve significant problems. Research was critical to their discoveries, prototyping, and creative problem-solving process. PepsiCo and Makassar also emphasized the user-centric data points. Although both groups used research as a foundation for their problem-solving exercises, their research techniques differed vastly. PepsiCo tended to make their research efforts inside their users' environments and with their customers.? Pepsi had a guiding question from their leader that informed most of their efforts. Everything was about falling in love with the experience of PepsiCo.

On the other hand, Makassar used more traditional research methods. Classic whiteboard brainstorming, testing that brainstorming with user feedback, and then prototyping based on the data collected. Whereas the user experience from the start empowered PepsiCo’s research, Makassar’s research was driven by the “professionals” who then went out to verify their ideas by the user.??

These case studies illustrated how design thinking and research can help solve complex problems.? PepsiCo and Makassar experienced fresh and innovative ideas because they took the time to go through the hard work of research.?

References

Basu, M. (2015, December 5). How Makassar will use design thinking to improve transport. GovInsider. https://govinsider.asia/intl-en/article/how-makassar-plans-to-use-design-thinking-to-improve-transport?

Ignatius, A. (2016, November 3). How Indra Nooyi turned design thinking into strategy: An interview with PepsiCo’s CEO. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2015/09/how-indra-nooyi-turned-design-thinking-into-strategy