Unlocking the Power of Design Thinking (Part 1): A Non-Designer's Guide to Revolutionise Problem-Solving

I'm NOT a designer, per se

Before we get into it, let me put my hands up and say that I am NOT a designer in the traditional sense of the word. I am a #technology lawyer - so at face value, would probably be placed on the opposite end of the spectrum as a designer. However, I (like you, probably) am always looking for new ways to improve the way I do life and on that quest, I came across #DesignThinking. I've found that design thinking gives me the tools to hack my brain - get around the perfectionist, risk-alert, legal thinking that got drummed into my mind from Contract Law 101 right at the start of 1st-year law.?

I, particularly, have always been fascinated with design. From teaching myself graphic design (see article thumbnail) to being a pseudo interior designer and designing live experiences, design always seems to draw me in and here we are. In this piece, I will explain my key learnings about design thinking basics so far, and in the future instalments of this article, we will delve into examples of how design thinking is used in various industries and aspects of life, as well as the gems and pitfalls and gems shared with me by my brilliant interviewees who use design thinking every day. I hope this series will give you the tools you need to design the life or the business or the product you want.? Now, let’s get into it!

Design Thinking - A little history

Design thinking is fundamentally a problem-solving approach. It has roots in the field of industrial design but started being applied in the 1950s as a way to solve general business problems. With time, and with the work of several Stanford University professors and the IDEO brothers, it came to be a part of mainstream education and consciousness. It has particularly gained popularity and adoption as a product design method. Part of its quick fame is because this technique significantly de-risks ‘go-to market’ plans and strategies. By applying Design Thinking methods, companies were more likely to spend time developing products their customers actually needed (and therefore, would more likely pay for) than whatever the in-house designers thought would be "a cool new thing to try".?

So what exactly is design thinking?

Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that is especially great for knotty problems with unclear paths to a solution. It is a dynamic approach which is centered on empathy, creativity, and iteration i.e. understanding a user's need and creating value on that basis. ?

To make it easier to teach or explain, Design Thinking is often communicated as a set of steps to be followed in order to get to the ultimate design. You may see something similar to this described as the stages of design thinking:?

Empathise -> Define -> Ideate -> Implement -> Prototype -> Test.

The truth is that design thinking is 'malleable' (Randall Elliot) and these steps/phases can be used in any order - combined, skipped over or skipped to. That's the part people like me who favour a structured approach can find tricky. However, actually using the principles and seeing the results (including quick failures you learn from) will likely convince you to stick with it. To get the best out of design thinking, simply be open-minded and adapt it to your situation.

Core Design Thinking Principles

There is no definitive list of design thinking principles, but let’s discuss three core principles:

1. Human/user-centred: Design thinking puts people at the centre of the problem-solving process. It requires you to actively seek to understand the needs, behaviours, challenges and motivations of the users or stakeholders that you are designing a solution from.??
2. Iteration: The iterative approach encourages the designer to continuously refine and improve. Designers create prototypes, gather feedback, and iterate on their solutions based on user insights and observations. This leads to quick successes (and failures),? rapid learning and adaptation.
3. Creative problem-solving: Innovative, creative problem-solving involves collaboratively challenging assumptions, thinking outside the box, and exploring alternative solutions. Designers should embrace ambiguity, take risks and leverage different perspectives, insights, and skills in order to discover holistic and sustainable innovative solutions.

Design Thinking Phases

Let's shallow-dive into each of the key design thinking phases, shall we?:?

1. Empathy: Empathy is interlinked with research and frankly every other phase in design thinking. When used in this context, empathy is not passive at all but requires proactivity. This phase may include interviews, observations, surveys, and data analysis. Going into the spaces where your products are used and seeing how users engage with them is advisable. Design thinkers should put themselves in the shoes of the users to deeply understand the problem and their users’ behaviours, and desires. This way, we can uncover opportunities, unmet needs and develop solutions that truly address their desires and challenges. We must ask ourselves: “Who are my customers, and what do they really want today (not what do I wish they wanted)?”. Less “These are my great ideas”, and more “This is what my user needs”.
2. Defining: When defining the problem, you should take all the insights gathered from your customers and analyse them in a way that brings out their real needs.? A good way to start is by using 'How Might We' (HMW) statements to structure the insights you got while conducting research. HMW statements follow the order: How Might We (ACTION) the (SUBJECT) to (OUTCOME).?For example: How might we ___encourage(action)___ new users of our app(subject)___ to subscribe after the free trial month(outcome)___.When you have 3-5 HMW statements, you can move on to start validating them.??
3. Ideation: The ideation phase is all about generating a wide range of ideas and potential solutions. Design thinkers use collaborative, brainstorming techniques and other creative methods to encourage a free flow of ideas without judgement. Some good advice I've gotten about this phase is to turn off your critical brain and let all the ideas flow (more about this in future articles). There are no bad ideas, for now. The emphasis is on quantity and diversity, allowing for wild and unconventional ideas to surface. This phase promotes an open-minded environment to foster innovation and explore different possibilities.
4. Implementation: The implementation phase focuses on turning ideas into tangible solutions. Design thinkers select the most promising ideas from the ideation phase and develop them further. This involves refining the concepts, redefining the problem, considering technical feasibility, and mapping out the necessary steps for implementation. In this phase, we want to collaborate with experts in the relevant field (and maybe touch base again with a few users) to ensure that the proposed solutions are viable and realistic.
5. Prototyping: Prototyping is the minimum viable product (MVP) stage. Here, we create physical or digital representations of the proposed solutions. A prototype can take any form. It could be a low-fidelity sketch, a mock-up, interactive models or digital simulations. The prototype quickly and iteratively brings ideas to life, allowing designers to gather feedback, test concepts, and uncover potential flaws or areas for improvement. Prototyping encourages a bias-to-action, "learn by doing" approach, enabling stakeholders to quickly experience and provide feedback on the design.?
6. Testing: This involves gathering feedback and insights from users by exposing the prototypes to real-world scenarios. Design thinkers conduct usability tests, user trials, or pilot studies to evaluate how well the solutions meet the needs of the users and address the identified problem. This helps to validate assumptions and make informed decisions. The feedback obtained during testing informs further iterations and refinements of the design. Testing is an iterative process that allows designers to learn from failures, make adjustments, and enhance the design based on real user experiences.?

All Together Now

The most important thing to note is that design thinking is a flexible and iterative process, and the phases can overlap or be revisited as needed. The goal is to foster creativity, collaboration, and a user-centred approach throughout the design process. So, empathy is always relevant and you can begin prototyping at any point. Many failed tests will also take you back into ideation.??

Your best bet is to apply these not as rigid rules but rather as guiding principles that can be adapted and applied in different ways depending on the specific context (structured people like me gather here, I'm talking to you). Ask yourself often, who your users are and whether this design will solve their problems and meet their needs. And remember, "Life is too short to build something nobody wants" - Ash Maurya.

Thanks for reading and see you in Part 2.