The Design Thinking Process and its Use Cases

              Even though different consulting practices, organizations, and institutions use different nomenclature to describe the process, the design thinking process generally follows a 5 step process which has been immortalized by Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design:

• Empathize: The first step is to try and understand the individuals who the problem solvers are trying to design a product, service, or solution for. This step places a heavy focus in trying to gather information on users by doing interviews, creating user stories, and generally trying to understand who the consumer of the product/ service is and what their problems are.
• Define: Upon gathering information on the previous step, problem solvers are then prompted to set the parameters of their users by defining who their users are, what their needs are, and the challenges they face. This is often accomplished by identifying common themes in the user sample data that provide an answer to the identified questions.
• Ideate: Once the previous two steps are complete, solutions and ideas are brainstormed in a way that the problems and challenges identified in step number 2 are fulfilled. It is important to note that it is not enough to give a solution to the problem, the user must be at the center of the solution. With users’ stories and cases in mind, one must ask: is this solution appropriate for the types of users we target? Sometimes the entire solution might not be appropriate, however, elements of the solution can be salvaged and built into other solutions.
• Prototype: After ideas are brainstormed, common and interesting traits and functionalities are identified to try and shape the best possible solutions to each problem found in step 2. A minimum viable product (MVP) is created and it can be done in a very simplistic way: service process flow or product paper prototyping.
• Test: the MVP solutions identified in the previous step are tested with several different individuals and modifications to the problem are noted, implemented, and tested again. It is important to note that new user problems may arise during this process and that it is ok because design thinking is an iterative process that allows for problem and product refinement.

              Despite design thinking having a step-by-step process, it is important to note that at any point problem-solvers may go back to a previous step that has already been “cleared” to further refine their findings. Remember that design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving whereas user desirability, useability, feasibility, and operational efficiency are at the centre of the solution.