The best part about my full-time, paid-with-benefits job is design thinking with my team. I describe design thinking as a method, a skill, and a mindset used in creative problem-solving. Design thinking is a human-centric approach. It requires letting go of assumptions about your customers or users and connecting with them in a way that allows you to hear about, observe, and learn from their perspectives and their experiences. Empathy is the key that can ultimately lead to innovative, and more importantly, valuable products and services that delight people.
It sounds simple enough, right? Give the people what they want. It is a relatively simple concept but not always easy to do, at least until you get some practice at it. The hardest part is letting go of the notion that you already know what people want and need. You don't know enough until you've gathered the perspective of the people you're trying to serve.
Background
The concept of design thinking has been around for decades but IDEO, a design and innovation consulting company, is credited with bringing into the mainstream. David Kelley is one of the IDEO's founders who also established Stanford's d.school (The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design). David Kelley and his brother Tom Kelley wrote the book Creative Confidence (paid link). It's one that I read or listen to about once a year. It was my introduction to design thinking and my motivation for wanting to help people grow creative curiosity and courage. Both IDEO and the d.school offer courses, programs, and tools to learn about, teach, and apply design thinking and I soak up everything I can from both entities.
An Example
The best way to really understand the power of design thinking is through story. Here's one told on a TEDx stage in 2012. On the surface it's about a healthcare innovation. The story underneath is much richer. If you've ever had, or known someone who's had, an uncomfortable healthcare experience or a scared kid to comfort, you'll appreciate this.
Transforming healthcare for children and their families (19:47)
The Process
You can find a few variations on the design thinking method and model. I like to go with the original from the d.school and these simple descriptions.
Here's a little more detail about the key components.
Empathize: Like I already mentioned (and as you saw in the video above), empathy is key to getting to creative solutions that users will actually like and value. It's an opportunity to find out what really bugs them and what makes them happy or eases their burdens. Find out about the environments where they live, work, and play. Ask what would make their situation better. Get to know what matters to them by asking questions or watching how they interact with people and the environment around them (in a non-creepy way). In the end, you want a good understanding about what your target audience thinks, feels, says, and does relative to the challenge you're working on.
Define: Synthesize what you've learned from empathizing with your audience into a clear problem statement. Design thinkers typically use "How Might We" (HMW) statements to frame the design challenge into an actionable opportunity for innovation. Describing the problem in the form of a HMW shifts the focus from the problem to solution finding (How), it suggests there are many potential solutions to explore (might), and it promotes collaboration (we). HMW statements are the set-up to the next phase of ideation.
Ideate: Ideate is a fancy word for brainstorming. Tackle ideation in two parts. First is the divergent stage where you come up with as many ideas as possible in answer to the HMW problem statement. Quantity matters most. Wild and crazy ideas are encouraged. There are no bad ideas. Avoid any judgment whatsoever. If you're working with a team, try to build on each other's ideas using the well-known comedy improv bit of always saying, "Yes, and..." to what was just suggested. Then in the next convergent stage, consider all the ideas (often they're captured on post-it notes) and narrow them down to a couple that seems desirable (Will they like it?), feasible (Can we actually do this?), and viable (Will the idea work?). You may end up combining bits and pieces of different ideas to land on one or two that you want to move forward with.
Prototype: A prototype is a quick and cheap representation of your idea. Really cheap. It could be as simple as a rough sketch on paper or a cardboard mockup or a model made from clay or Legos. It should be something that, when you throw it away, you won't feel like you've lost something important. The goal is to be able to give a simple presentation of your idea to someone who can interact with it and give you feedback.
Test: Let people use your prototype and react to it. Ask "what if" questions to see if they would use the product in the way you envisioned. Pay attention to where they struggle and what delights them. Continue to refine the prototype and test it until you and your customers are happy with the product, service, or experience you're designing. That's when you are ready to start making the real thing.
Design thinking is becoming a critical skill in the business world. At work, my team and I use it to help solve problems where people need to learn or perform better (Hint: the solution is not always a class or a course.) Software and app developers use it to create engaging human-computer interactions. Product designers use it to come up with tools that make your life easier. Organizations working on social causes use it to develop programs to improve the lives of underserved populations. The applications are endless.
I'm guessing that if you're still reading, you find the topic of design thinking interesting but are wondering what it has to do with you as a person who just wants to be more creative and make good art. I'll ask you once again to stick with me. Over the next month or so, I'll explore how we can all use design thinking to build our creative chops, to build a creative life, and to make art people love. (Hint: Sometimes you are your own customer.)
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