How design thinking is used to solve problems

What is design thinking, and why should you use it?

In an increasingly complex world, where problems often transcend conventional boundaries, design thinking offers a structured framework for understanding and addressing challenges. Design thinking is not just for designers; it’s a methodology that can be employed by anyone seeking innovative solutions to complex problems. This approach is rooted in understanding the user's needs, challenging assumptions, and redefining problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions.

The Design Thinking Process

What are the five stages of the design thinking process?

Design thinking typically involves five phases – Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. However, it’s important to note that this process is not always linear. It often involves jumping back and forth between stages as new insights are gained and ideas are refined.

1. Empathize: This initial phase is all about understanding the audience for whom you're designing. It involves engaging with and observing users to understand their motivations, needs, and challenges. Empathy is key in design thinking, as it allows designers to set aside their own assumptions about the world in order to gain insight into users and their needs.
2. Define: The insights gathered during the empathy phase feed into the definition phase. Here, the problem is stated in a user-centered way. By defining the problem based on user needs and insights, you can ensure that the solution will be tailored to address the real issues faced by users.
3. Ideate: With a clear problem definition in hand, the ideation phase involves generating a wide range of possible solutions. This phase calls for creativity and open-mindedness, where quantity is valued over quality, and judgment is suspended to allow for the most innovative ideas to surface.
4. Prototype: Prototyping involves turning ideas into tangible products. This can be anything from a paper model to a digital prototype. The goal here is to understand how the solution will work in the real world and to identify any potential flaws or improvements.
5. Test: Finally, the prototype is tested with real users. This phase is crucial for gathering feedback and insights, which can then be used to refine the prototype or even redefine the problem if necessary.

1. Empathize through observation

The first phase in design thinking is to observe with empathy. Every problem has a unique context, one that’s defined by people. In design thinking, empathizing involves understanding the beliefs, values, and needs that make your audience tick. It involves observation—watching, listening to, and understanding your audience—and engagement—interacting with your audience, users, or customers.

To be effective in your design thinking, don’t just focus on your core audience. Conduct user research, interview new customer segments, and discover edge cases that you can observe and learn from.

Embed yourself in the lives of those you seek to help. A combination of observation and interviews is very important in this phase. If you can’t meet in person, request photos and videos of what is happening in their life to give you more context before the interview.

Then you can go into a conversation with a better understanding and more empathy. As a result, not only will you connect with human beings, but you will also ask the right questions at the right time.

2. Define the challenge

In phase two, process what you’ve learned from your audience; compile it into insights, connections, and patterns; define the challenge you’re facing; and move toward potential solutions. What does all the information you’ve collected have in common, and what does it say about your audience and what they need?

In design thinking, this process is described as establishing a point of view (POV): a problem statement that sums up the insights you’ve learned about your audience and clarifies their human needs. The solution(s) you eventually come up with will be informed by this POV.

One effective way to define your challenge is to ask a question based on your observations. Frame the question clearly without putting any solution within your question. Think about who you are trying to help, what their need is, and what impact the answer to that question will have.

Going back to our treadle pump example, the question you might pose is: “How can we design a pump that does not require women to sway their hips?” or “What needs to change about this product to be within the cultural norms of this region?”

3. Ideate as many ideas as possible

The Ideate phase is a brain dump of ideas, and nothing is off limits. Come up with as many possibilities as you can. Like any other brainstorming session, aim for quantity over quality. After getting your ideas out, you’ll separate the good ideas from the bad until you find the “perfect” solution.

One of the main qualities of the Ideate phase is that it’s collaborative and participatory. The underlying point here is that everyone is creative in their own way—the brainstorming process can only benefit from having as many minds and perspectives as possible united in tackling the same problem.

4. Prototype a solution

Depending on your project, the Prototype phase could consist of a wall of Post-it Notes, a storyboard, a physical/digital item, or an interactive activity. By building a prototype, you make your idea tangible so that when you share it with your audience or users, you’ll get quality feedback.

For example, if you’re designing a new app, you can use the smart mock-up tool in Canva to test out how your design looks on a phone, tablet, or monitor.

5. Test your work and iterate

Testing helps you learn more about your possible solutions and more about your audience. Depending on how the testing pans out, it may lead back to any of the four previous phases; you may discover that you didn’t define the problem correctly, failed to ask the right question, or need to spend more time observing your audience. Or you might just need to refine the prototype a little. Most likely, testing will help you develop improved and/or advanced prototypes.

As with the Empathize phase, observing and/or listening to your audience is key here. Instead of explaining the prototype up front, let users experience it on their own. Observing this interaction will help reveal important insights about what works and what doesn’t. Then, encourage them to ask questions and give their feedback about the experience. Offering multiple prototypes for users to compare is another useful technique.

Benefits of Design Thinking

• User-Centered: By focusing on the users' needs, design thinking ensures that the solutions developed are tailored to the people who will use them.
• Promotes Creativity and Innovation: The methodology encourages thinking outside the box and exploring a wide array of ideas.
• Iterative Process: It allows for continual refinement of the solution based on user feedback, leading to more effective and user-friendly solutions.

Challenges in Design Thinking

Implementing design thinking is not without its challenges. It requires a cultural shift towards acceptance of uncertainty and failure, as well as an openness to iterative learning. Moreover, it demands a collaborative approach that can sometimes be difficult in traditional, hierarchical organizations.

How to apply design thinking at work

There are four steps you can take to apply design thinking at your company or with your team.

1. Put on your journalist hats. A good journalist knows how to effectively listen, ask the right questions, and stay unbiased. With this mindset, have conversations with everyone, not just those on your team or direct reports. In this way, you can discover the true problem or question that needs to be solved.
2. Encourage education and practice. Implement small tasks throughout the day that incorporate design thinking skills. Sign your team members up for design thinking courses. Regularly ask your team if they notice a project or process where they want to try out design thinking.
3. Set expectations for feedback loops. Your team should know that you will be testing and iterating as much as possible. Feedback is an important part of this process that should be expected and embraced.
4. Be honest and open about mistakes. During your many feedback sessions, you’ll inevitably need to be honest about what went wrong. Encourage and celebrate failures. Emphasize that failure leads to learning which leads to better solutions.

Design thinking is responsible for improving or developing new businesses, products, and services. Great design thinkers have a bias toward action. When you apply these four actionable steps to your team, design thinking works to change people’s lives for the better.

Conclusion

Design thinking is a powerful tool for solving problems in a human-centric and innovative way. By employing empathy, creativity, and iterative testing, it’s possible to find solutions that are not only effective but also deeply resonant with users. As more organizations adopt this approach, we can expect to see a continued evolution in how problems are solved, leading to more innovative and impactful solutions.