Joy ride to Design Thinking – Part 1

Once upon a time, on an island far far away, lived a young woman named Joy.

Joy lived in the most amazing city in the whole wide world. In this city there were endless opportunities, people were friendly and amazing coffee shops could be found at every corner.

Joy worked as a business analyst for a large corporate. She enjoyed learning new things and to challenge herself. She kept hearing people at work talking about “Design Thinking” and “Human Centred Design”. It sounded like a very interesting topic, so she started to explore. The more she read about it, the more she got curious and wanted to try it out. But Joy wasn’t sure how to go about it and where to start.

After thinking about it for a while, Joy knew what she had to do. She packed few things in her backpack and started on a journey to seek answers. 

Joy was wandering through the city and got to a narrow lane. The colourful walls were telling her a story. A story about a little seed that was placed in the soil. This seed was nurtured and loved and grew to be a big beautiful tree with many branches, leaves and colourful flowers.

At the end of the lane sat an old man. He smiled at Joy and handed her a green flower and asked: “What does your heart desire?”.

Joy smiled back and said “I want to practice Design Thinking, but I am not a designer and I don’t know where to start…”

The old man looked at Joy with a sparkle in his eyes and said “The heart of Design Thinking is already within you. All you need to do is nurture it and let it grow.”

The old man saw the puzzled look on Joy’s face and continued “Be curious Joy, curiosity will lead you to deeper understanding and creativity. Don’t be attached to your ideas and assumptions. Be the 5-year-old, asking Why? as many times as required to really understand.”

The old man could see that Joy is looking to hear more, so he continued “Share your ideas with others and listen to their feedback. Put your ego aside and allow yourself to really hear what you are being told. Be willing to grow from new knowledge, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you feel. Don’t be afraid to fail Joy, see it as an opportunity to learn. You will be training yourself to break years of childhood conditioning.” The old man was silent for a minute and then continued-

“And one last thing Joy. Empathy naturally resides within us. Embrace it when you are talking with people. Listen to people’s stories and observe their behaviour.”

And with that, the old man stood up and walked away.

Joy stayed there for a while, thinking about everything she just heard. She felt encouraged by the old man words and knew she can do it. It might not be easy, but with practice and awareness, she can grow.

Joy continued walking and felt it is time to sit down, have coffee and contemplate a bit more.

She entered a little coffee shop.

Stay tuned to read how Joy’s journey continues.