1.

Introduction
“Design thinking is a human-centred approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s
toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements
for business success.”
— Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO

Design thinking is a part of what goes through a designer’s mind in every single design
project. It is a very amazing thinking instrument that can drive a brand, business or a person
forward emphatically and experimentation to arrive at innovative solutions. Design thinking
is a way for people to define a problem find solution and face prototype their ideas.

Example: As a simple example when you think about the process of inventing the cell phone.
We discover the need and problem. How can I contact people anywhere anytime? The
idea, I think its maybe something works like a telephone but mobile. The solution, why can
we make things like this a mobile phone?

Process of design thinking is the process from ideas of solution the part to learning work.

Why is it important?

Design thinking requires empathy. The world can do with more than empathy and this
reaching out of trying to understand another person’s perspective engenders the sense of
compassion. It is applied to learn thus, It’s not just dry learning out of context. Design
thinking can certainly help with learning design problems are interesting unique as well. And
also, Design thinking is a help to avoiding the pitfalls of imposing the wrong solution on a
community.

The design thinking process is contextual. It's mean that the context matters when you
create things that consider how user uses it and how the users relate to it. And also, Design
thinking is empowering everybody to be part of the solution and make the solution better
more informed.
 2. Principles of Design Thinking

Principles of Design Thinking

When carrying out the Design Thinking process described below, the following principles
must be

Observed, quasi the "Ten Commandments of Design Thinking”:

Leave titles at the door!

There is no hierarchy during a Design Thinking workshop.Chef and other rolls are hung on
the coat hook.

Encourage wild ideas!

Let your imagination run wild. Any (supposedly) crazy idea and every idea should be treated
equally.

Go for quantity!

Quantity before quality. Selected, analyzed and evaluated later.

Build on Ideas of others!

There is no copyright. Ideas from others should be taken up, supplemented or changed.

Think human centered!

Design Thinking is first and foremost thinking about people and not about technology or
business goals.

Be visual and make it tangible!

Use drawings, illustrations, photos, videos, prototypes, etc.

Avoid criticism!

Idea generation and evaluation must be strictly separated.

Fail early and often!

Failure means learning. Often failure means that you have learned a lot.

Stay focused!

Set yourself limits, stick to the concrete tasks in the Design Thinking process.
Let`s have fun!

Developing new ideas in a team should be fun. Creativity needs this fun.

Five of design thinking’s most important principles

• 1. User-centricity and empathy

• 2. Collaboration
• 3. Ideation
• 4. Experimentation and iteration
• 5. A bias towards action

1) User-centricity and empathy

Design thinking is all about finding solutions that respond to human needs and user
feedback. People, not technology, are the drivers of innovation, so an essential part of the
process involves stepping into the user’s shoes and building genuine empathy for your
target audience.

Examples of Empathy Statements

What is empathy?

Simply put, having or showing empathy means that you’re sensitive to other people’s thoughts and
feelings. This includes being able to put yourself in another person's shoes and both feel and
understand what they're thinking and feeling.

Empathy is different than sympathy, although they’re often confused. Think of it this way: You feel
sympathy from the “outside,” and you feel empathy from the “inside.”

 When you feel sympathy, you stand outside a situation and have feelings about someone
else’s plight. You feel sorry that they have to go through a struggle or compassion for their
pain. For example, if your child loses their favourite stuffed animal, you might feel sorry that
they’re sad, but you don’t feel that sadness yourself. In fact, you might be more preoccupied
with your own frustration that your child is screaming or that you’re late because you’re
looking for the toy.

 When you feel empathy, you step inside another person’s experience, trying to look at the
situation from their perspective to imagine how they’re feeling. In the lost stuffed animal
example, you might remember a treasure you lost and think about how it made you feel.
Then, you apply your own experience to get inside your child’s perspective. Maybe your
child considered the stuffed animal a friend who kept them from feeling alone – or maybe
the toy was a gift that made them feel connected to Grandma. Empathy allows you to
 understand how your child feels and why they feel that way – and then use that
understanding to create a connection.

2) Collaboration
The aim of design thinking is to pool a diverse variety of perspectives and ideas; this is
what leads to innovation! Design thinking encourages collaboration between
heterogeneous, multidisciplinary teams which may not typically work together.

EXAMPLES OF TEAMWORK & COLLABORATION IN THE WORKPLACE

With more and more ideas about how best to join forces and use each other’s strengths
positively, business collaboration has become an essential part of workplace collaboration
all over the world.

But what are some of the best examples of collaboration and teamwork in the office? This
workplace collaboration skills checklist includes:

 Interactive displays

 Video conferencing & Social media

 Hot Desking

 Huddle rooms

 Google

 Team building days

We’re going to look at this teamwork in the workplace examples in business to see what
role they play when building teams and collaborating in the modern workplace, and also
examine the benefits of collaboration in the workplace.

1. Interactive displays

Interactive displays are one of the best ways that workplaces can collaborate to share ideas
and concepts. Using the displays, it is easy to map out spider diagrams, have different ideas
in different colours, and invite other people to share their thoughts – even if they aren’t in
the room.

A device like an interactive display is essential for many offices. Groups can go into huddle
rooms and, using the interactive displays, immediately showcase their ideas on boards. They
are also able to include screenshots, search results and web content, which sets them apart
from non-digital displays.

But the best way is how interactive displays make use of teamwork collaboration by
connecting to other devices. PCs, tablets and phones can connect to interactive displays so
people can collaborate remotely. This makes it the hands down best hardware to use for
collaboration in the office.

2. Video conferencing

Video conferencing is one of the most vital teamwork in workplace examples in business.
With the rise of remote work, it makes it much easier to connect with workers who are not
in the office – with new technologies like group chats on Google hangouts, it feels like the
employee is right in the room!

But it’s not just hangouts that are great for teamwork collaboration – features
like Zoom, Slack and Skype can also be used. Even Facetime and WhatsApp have their place
in the office. Video conferencing works well with the bring your own device (BYOD) model –
which is when employees bring and use their own laptop, tablet or phone at work – as it is
diverse and can be used on a variety of devices.

Other benefits of video conferencing mean that it gets rid of the need to ‘just pop across the
office’ to chat to someone, as knowing that there is a phone call scheduled for the same day
means that any issues are often brought up during that time. Don’t forget to have a meeting
agenda to keep everyone on the team engaged and accountable.
3. Hot Desking

Hot desking is a concept where employees no longer have assigned seating within an office,
instead taking a desk somewhere different every day. Workers in these environments get to
rotate through different spaces and as a rule the businesses have less rigid rules about
exactly where each employee needs to be.

This impacts collaboration at work as it means that different people can work together on
different days, depending on what projects are going on. It makes it more acceptable to
bounce ideas off different people and collaborate in new ways.

When deciding if hot desking is right for your company, certain things should be considered.
This includes assessing whether the employees work in-office and what hours, thinking
about business practices that may need to be confidential and working out whether the
office works well with hot desking. It also should be something that all employees are
comfortable with.

4. Huddle Rooms

A huddle room is a small meeting place where people meet to brief, debrief or have short
meetings. They aren’t for big occasions; the rooms typically can hold up to five people. They
might contain equipment like:
  Video conferencing appliances
 TV
 Small table
 Interactive display
 Chairs
Huddle rooms have some great benefits, including being private and productive spaces,
being available without disrupting the main office, video conferencing support and being
unobtrusive and cost-effective to administrate.
5. Google

As mentioned before, Google Hangouts is a great video chatting tool, but there are lots of
ways to use Google for effective collaboration in the workplace. It’s free to use and easy to
understand, making it ideal for all sorts of teams.

Think of Google’s office software as Microsoft, but online. You can not only write
documents using Google Docs, make spreadsheets with Google Sheets and Slideshows with
Google Slide – but you can invite people to collaborate on them as well.

Google Docs is possibly the most used, and is a great way to collaborate with remote
workers. It is possible to work together in real time, wherever the employee is in the world
– which makes the possibilities endless. It keeps things organized efficiently and also helps
engage with different teams and departments.

6. Team building Days

While team building days won’t immediately help you resolve which advertising campaign
to go for or assess what design software is working best, indirectly they help a great deal
when it comes to office collaboration.

It’s no surprise that employees with a good rapport tend to collaborate better, and team
building days are social opportunities to showcase team collaboration skills and help build
positive relationships. But that doesn’t mean team building days should be held in the local
pub; it’s important that they contain activities that show people’s different skillsets and
provide them with opportunities to how they can function together.

The ideal team building activity will show the boss where people’s strengths and
weaknesses lie, and who works best in a team. They’re a crucial research opportunity that
will really help a business in the long run.

And you don’t have to stay in the office or even in your city – there are designated team
building locations all over the country. Teambuilding.co.uk is great resource to plan your
team building day.

Conclusion

There are lots of ways to collaborate, build teams throughout the office, and bolster
collaborative teamwork – even if half your team is remote. Using tools like interactive
displays and Google docs, it is easy to connect with those working in other places.
Furthermore, team building days and huddle rooms bring groups together. There are lots of
great ways to collaborate in the workplace as evidenced by above examples of good
teamwork, and 2018 is just the beginning.

3) Ideation
Design thinking is a solution-based framework, so the focus is on coming up with as many
ideas and potential solutions as possible. Ideation is both a core design thinking principle
and a step in the design thinking process. The ideation step is a designated judgment-free
zone where participants are encouraged to focus on the quantity of ideas, rather than the
quality.
 Five ideation techniques that will boost your team’s creative-idea generation

Five ideation techniques

 Try multiple ideation techniques with your team and see which work best

 Be aware of the less confident people in the team

 Ideas come easier when people don’t fear criticism

 Ideation sessions should be short, energetic and fun

 If ideas start to dry up, take a break and try something else

Five Ideation Techniques

Ideation is the important middle phase of the five-step design-thinking process. It

bridges the gap between understanding, defining the problem and building
prototypes for testing to gather deeper insight.

Ideation is the period when team collaboration is at its highest, and criticism is
eliminated so free-flowing conversation can ensure the generation of ideas and
solutions for a defined problem. In this article, we will introduce five ideation
techniques that will boost your team’s creative ideas and solutions.

 How to reduce your manufacturing costs

1. Brainstorming

Brainstorming is all too often the first technique we think of when we need to
generate ideas. But it doesn’t work the way we expect. Typical brainstorming
sessions are an hour-long opportunity for a team’s extroverts to dominate discussion
and generate ideas while the introverts struggle to contribute. The result is usually
some fairly run-of-the-mill ideas. But brainstorming sessions can be extremely
potent if you approach them differently. Next time try these methods:

Worst ideas

Ask participants to focus on generating bad ideas only. They should consider
everything that couldn’t work before you ask them “What can we do to make these
ideas work better?”

This method reduces or removes the fear of criticism and frees the flow of discussion
because bad ideas are easier to find – which makes idea generation easier and more
fun.

Eliminate constraints

Constrains block our thinking and idea generation. Naturally, we consider constraints
as soon as an idea germinates, so eliminating even some of these constraints can
encourage creative idea generation; for example, ask participants “What if there is
no gravity, how can we improve the flying experience?”

You’ll find creative ideas abound, and, sometimes, those apparently infeasible ideas
can be adjusted to deliver some deeply creative solutions.

Use analogies

Using analogies can take your idea-generation sessions to a whole new level of
creativity. By comparing your idea to a commonly understood situation helps you
explore the idea from a different angle.

Let’s use the analogy of ‘fishing’ to explore the idea of converting users to buyers, for
example. Encourage participants to think of ideas and solutions to the problem using
this analogy: in fishing, we need the correct bait to catch the bigger fish – this is also
true for users we want to convert – we need to bait our users with the right content
if we want to catch them

2. Crazy Eights
 This is a sketching technique that aims for quantity rather than quality; it’s about
generating a vast number of ideas and is great for both designers and non-designers.

 Give each participant a sheet of A4 paper ruled off into eight sections.

 Set a timer for five minutes and ask each participant to fill six to eight of the sections
with rough sketches.

 Put all the sheets on the wall then give each participant two stickers to put on his or
her two favourite ideas.

This process can continue until you find an idea everyone believes in. Flesh out the
winning sketches with details before moving to prototype creation and user testing.

3. Brain writing

This technique can get up to 108 ideas from six participants in just 30 minutes, and
it’s great if you want to encourage every participant to generate ideas – especially if
your team is predominantly introverts.

 Give each participant a sheet of paper and ask them to generate three ideas in five
minutes.

 Pass all papers to the right.

 Ask each participant to build on his colleague’s ideas, improving them or using them
as inspiration to generate another three ideas.

 Continue passing papers to the right until they reach their original participant.

With all the ideas gathered, discuss each one, improving and building on those that
the group feels has promise.

4. Mind Mapping
 Mind maps are visual diagrams used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items
linked to and arranged around a central keyword or idea. Often, colours and
drawings add to the visualization.

 In the middle of a board, write a word that summarises the problem you need to
solve or the idea you’re building on.

 From the central word, draw lines out to new elements that relate to the core
problem or idea.

 Use lines to show connections between further ideas and solutions.

 Create sub branches for ideas related to the main branches’ ideas.

Mind maps work well with ideation of features, cases or complex problems that
benefit from being illustrated.

5. Storyboarding

Storyboarding is about arranging and categorizing ideas and solutions in a linear

format and order. It’s best done after brainstorming to generate ideas.

 Gather previously brainstormed ideas and solutions on post-it notes on the wall or
coloured cards on the floor or large table.

 Identify the user’s goal: say, to reserve a seat on the bus.

 Identify the high-level steps for achieving that goal, i.e. open the app, search for the
appropriate bus and reserve a seat.

 Categorize and order the generated ideas to fit in the steps you have created.

This technique puts ideas into action and context and opens the room for more
ideas.
 Conclusion

Using the right ideation techniques in your ideation phase will help you generate
more creative innovative ideas. Choose the correct technique by considering your
goals, objectives and the type of ideas you are hoping to generate.

4) Experimentation and iteration

It’s not just about coming up with ideas; it’s about turning them into prototypes, testing
them, and making changes based on user feedback. Design thinking is an iterative
approach, so be prepared to repeat certain steps in the process as you uncover flaws and
shortcomings in the early versions of your proposed solution

Iteration Examples

Iteration is defined as the act or process of repeating. For example, iteration can include
repetition of a sequence of operations in order to get ever closer to a desired result.
Iteration can also refer to a process wherein a computer program is instructed to perform a
process over and over again repeatedly for a specific number of times or until a specific
condition has been met.

Understanding Iteration

There are lots of different ways that iteration is used in the corporate world. Here are some
iteration examples:

 Apple has released multiple different versions of each model of its iPod products.
The Nano, for example, has evolved from an original slim mP3 player with a very
small screen to a tiny square touch-screen version to a longer, thinner touch screen
version. It evolved from a device that could only play mp3 music files to a work-out
device that has a special Nike Ap to track workouts and to a device that plays music.
Each of these different versions is a different iteration of the same product. The goal
is to find the perfect combination of features that will please customers and provide
the desired services in the right package.

 Coke has experimented with different formulations of its popular Coca Cola product,
including the failed New Coke iteration. The aim is to achieve the best tasting
product that customers like.

 A company that is operating a factory or assembly line may experiment with

different methods of arranging the assembly line or with different production
methods. Each time the production process is changed, this is a different iteration.
Each time the order of operations and procedures are changed, this is a different
iteration. The goal is to achieve the fastest, best and most optimal method of
creating a product.
  A musician may start with one version of a song and refine it, making changes to a
note here and there or changing the tempo and speed. Many different iterations of a
song may be created this way until the optimal finished product has been created
that sounds and works the best.

 A cook may experiment with a recipe, tweaking the ingredients or changing different
steps of the process slightly until the food tastes as good as it possibly can.

 Microsoft has released multiple versions of the Windows operating system to add
functionality for users and to correct bugs. Each different version is a different
iteration of its operating system and the goal is for the next iteration to be better
than the last.

Iteration in Computer Programming

Iteration is also a technical term that relates to repeating a sequence or series of

instructions over-and-over. When the computer receives these repeated instructions, it
continues to complete the process until a designated event occurs or until the desired
number of repetitions is over.

For example:

 A website could have HTML code that tells it to repeatedly refresh the page until the
user presses a button.

 An algorithm can be used in a computer program that tells the program to rearrange
a series of letters until all of the different combinations have been formed.

 A javascript instruction can tell the computer to draw a series of asterisks creating a
"start tree." The number of asterisks the computer draws can be determined by the
number that a user inputs.

There will be different iterations used depending upon what process you want the
computer to continue to perform.

5) A bias towards action

Design thinking is an extremely hands-on approach to problem-solving favouring action

over discussion. Instead of hypothesizing about what your users want, design thinking
encourages you to get out there and engage with them face-to-face. Rather than talking
about potential solutions, you’ll turn them into tangible prototypes and test them in real-
world contexts.

A bias for action is this: when you have a choice, you choose action over inaction.
It means that you don’t spend much time debating whether your approach is the 100%
optimal one. You don’t wait until you “finally has enough free time” (we both know that will
never actually happen). You act.

As importantly, a bias for action means that taking action is your default state. When most
people do things, they have to decide to do them. When you have a bias for action,
you automatically do things; not doing things is what takes a decision.

Why is a “Bias for Action” Different from “Just Do It?”

“Just Do It” ignores and discounts your problems. A bias for action accounts for them.

One of my readers explained the problems with “Just Do It” better than I could ever hope
to:

“’Just do it’ rubs me up the wrong way because it inherently implies that I’m lazy. Every time
I hear someone tell me to “Just Do It” this is what goes through my head:

I work full time, study part time, play 2 D&D games a week and manage to fit in time for my
family and my partner’s family as well as at least 1 gym session a week and meal prep for 2
people. Some weeks I even have some time for myself to read for fun!

But some days I am exhausted from my life and go get something quick and easy to eat
rather than cook. Or I can’t get to the gym for more than one workout a week. “Fitspo” then
tells me I’m lazy or not dedicated enough. Like if I don’t go to the gym 2 hours a day every
day I’m somehow not even trying.

A bias for action is different. Instead of saying that you need to be constantly doing
everything you could possibly do, a bias for action is the idea that you just need to
do something.

How Can You Develop a Bias for Action?

Developing a bias for action actually does take a little bit of planning. But it’s key that it
takes only a little bit.

This what Amazon means when they say that business moves quickly. Too many businesses
spend hours in meetings and boardrooms, debating layouts and formats and messaging and
color schemes before anything has been created.

Amazon is saying “Stop. Let’s start by making something, and work from there.”

There’s still planning that goes into the process, but that planning is much simpler. The plan
doesn’t need to be perfect up front.

I used to be a little intense about chess, and there’s a lesson from former World Champion
Gary Kasparov that applies here: “It is better to have a bad plan than no plan.”
With a bad plan, you can start doing stuff. You’ll learn to make better plans over time.

Design Thinking Rules

1) The Human Rule: All Design Activity Is Ultimately Socialin Nature

There are studies that substantiate the assertion that successful innovation through design
thinking activities will always bring us back to the “human-centric point of view.” This is the
imperative to solve technical problems in ways that satisfy human needs and acknowledge
the human element in all technologists and managers.

2) The Ambiguity Rule: Design Thinkers Must Preserve Ambiguity

There is no chance for “chance discovery” if the box is closed tightly, the constraints
enumerated excessively, and the fear of failure is always at hand. Innovation demands
experimentation at the limits of our knowledge, at the limits of our ability to control events,
and with freedom to see things differently.

3) The Re-design Rule: All Design Is Re-design

The human needs that we seek to satisfy have been with us for millennia. Through time and
evolution there have been many successful solutions to these problems. Because
technology and social circumstances change constantly, it is imperative to understand how
these needs have been addressed in the past. Then we can apply “foresight tools and
methods” to better estimate social and technical conditions we will encounter 5, 10, or even
20 years in the future.

4) The Tangibility Rule: Making Ideas Tangible Always Facilitates Communication

Curiously, this is one of our most recent findings. While conceptual prototyping has been a
central activity in design thinking during the entire period of our research, it is only in the
past few years that we have come to realize that “prototypes are communication media.”

Seen as media, we now have insights regarding their bandwidth, granularity, time constants,
and context dependencies. The “make it tangible” rule is one of the first major findings of
the design thinking

3. Design Thinking Process

Phase 1 “Understand” (Understanding the Problem):

In the first phase it is first about developing an understanding for the challenge/the
problem/the need or the requirement (problem understanding). It must be clarified who
has to be integrated into the process and, in particular, which technical perspective (process
organisation) is necessary finally, it must be clarified how the question can best be
formulated so that the customer need/problem is defined in concrete terms.
Phase 2 “Observe“:

In this phase, detailed research and on-site observations are carried out on the customer's
need/problem. Numerous methods can be used for this, such as interviews, written surveys
and observations with recordings through photos or even videos. The results are the
clarification of the general conditions, the exact definition of the target group and a
comprehensive understanding of the customer and his needs and behaviour.

Phase 3 “Point-of-View“ (Define the problem):

After the observations, the findings should next be condensed to a single prototypical user
whose problem/need is to be summarized in a clearly defined question.

Phase 4 “Ideate“ (Finding and selecting ideas):

It is only in this phase that the actual brainstorming process takes place. Here the creativity
techniques mentioned in chapter 5.3 can be used. Strictly separated from this, the ideas can
then be analysed in a customer-oriented manner in order to identify weak points, and a
selection decision can be made on the basis of an idea evaluation.

Phase 5 “Prototype”(Develop the prototype):

In this very important phase, ideas should be visualized as quickly as possible, made
tangible, sketched, designed, modelled/simulated, etc. Following the technical field one can
speak here of "Rapid Prototyping", whereby the prototype development applies decidedly
not only to products, but also to services. A variety of methods for prototype development
are available for this purpose.

Phase 6 “Test”:

In this final phase, the ideas are to be further developed and tested through further
experiments and customer feedback. In addition, important development, production and
market issues have to be clarified.
Process of Design Thinking supplemented with the Double-Diamond model
There have 5 stages in the design thinking process to follow. The five stages of Design
Thinking, according to Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. Let’s take a closer
look at the five different stages of Design Thinking.

Process of design thinking

1. Empathize

The first stage is that Empathize the user. This is where you’ll sit with real consumers and
end-users to understand their point of view. Empathy requires understanding the pain
points and the day by day truth of your target audience. It additionally requires some
information about learner’s motivations and needs, which probably won’t be self-evident.

Empathy, by definition, is the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the

feelings, thoughts or attitudes of another.

Designing with empathy incorporates doing the majority of that and going an additional
step. It requires really envisioning the experience of work, learning, and critical thinking
from the audient’s point of view. Empathy gaining is often described as ‘need-finding’ in
that you are discovering people’s explicit and implicit needs so that you can meet those
needs through design. A need is a physical, psychological or cultural requirement of an
individual or group that is missing or not met through existing solutions.

Empathize method

 Assume a beginner’s mindset

 Ask What-How-Why

 Ask the 5 whys

 Conduct interviews with empathy

 Build empathy with analogies

  Use photo and video user-based studies

 Use personal photo and video journals

 Engage with extreme users

 Story share-and-capture

 Body storm

Google Glass

When you design without Empathy what happens?

Do you know about google wearable product of google glass?)This is the first wearable glass
launched in 2013. The glass allows users to take photos, send messages and view other
information such as weather and transport directions, in any case, it does really satisfy the
actual needs of users. The user needs to perform socially ungainly or inadmissible acts to
have the option to utilize your product; you can make sure that few people would utilize
your product. Finally, the Glass included an unremarkable camera which brought about
security worries for those people around the Glass user, since there was no chance to get of
knowing whether they were being recorded.

2. Define

The second stage is Defined as a problem. Empathize help to define the problem.
?Therefore, This stage-based on What you have learned about your customers and the
context. Therefore, This is the place you will examine your perceptions and integrate them
so as to characterize the centre issues that you and your team have distinguished as yet.
Designers in your team assemble incredible plans to set up highlights, functions, and
whatever other components that will enable them to take care of the issues or, at any rate,
enable users to determine issues themselves with the base of trouble.

During this phase, you’ll want to organize your research using a different lens, maps or
frameworks.

Empathy Map — organize by consumer thinking/feeling, what they’re experiencing and

pains.
Customer Journey — organize along with how the consumer shops or interacts with the
product.

Experience Map — organize around consumer doing, thinking and feeling along the
timeline.

Affinity Map — organized by a common theme or pattern.

Point Of View — focusses on your insights about your users and their needs.

The phrase “How might we….” is often used to define a perception, which is a statement of
the:

user + need + insight

A good problem statement should thus have the following traits. It should be:

 Human-centred. This requires you to frame your problem statement according to

specific users, their needs and the insights that your team has gained in the
Empathise phase.

 Broad enough for creative freedom. This means that the problem statement should
not focus too narrowly on a specific method regarding the implementation of the
solution. The problem statement should also not list technical requirements, as this
would unnecessarily restrict the team and prevent them from exploring areas that
might bring unexpected value and insight to the project.

 Narrow enough to make it manageable. On the other hand, a problem statement

such as, “Improve the human condition,” is too broad and will likely cause team
members to easily feel daunted.

3. Ideate

“Ideation is the mode of the design process in which you concentrate on idea generation.
Mentally it represents a process of ‘going wide’ in terms of concepts and outcomes. Ideation
provides both the fuel and also the source material for building prototypes and getting
innovative solutions into the hands of your users.”
– d.school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE

In this third stage Ideate. It is Brainstorm and comes up with the new creative solution. In
this stage, the team should be starting to “think outside the box” to identify the new
creative solution. Ideating is about inventiveness and fun. In the ideation stage, the amount
is supported. Consequently, No thought is too fantastical and nobody’s thoughts are
rejected. Brainstorm and Worst Possible Idea sessions are commonly used to invigorate free
speculation and to grow the issue space.
Brainstorm rule is that: one conversation at a time go for a quantity encourages wild ideas
to defer judgement. No blocking build on each other’s ideas be visual.

brainstorm the idea

Why We Need Ideation in design thinking?

“One of my concerns has been designed education, where the focus has been centred too
much upon craft skills and too little on gaining a deeper understanding of design principles,
of human psychology, technology and society. As a result, designers often attempt to solve
problems about which they know nothing. I have also come to believe that in such
ignorance lies great power: The ability to ask stupid questions. What is a stupid question? It
is one which questions the obvious. ‘Duh,’ thinks the audience, ‘this person is clueless.’
Well, guess what, the obvious is often not so obvious. Usually, it refers to some common
belief or practises that have been around for so long that it has not been questioned. Once
questioned, people stammer to explain: sometimes they fail. It is by questioning the obvious
that we make great progress. This is where breakthroughs come from. We need to question
the obvious, to reformulate our beliefs, and to redefine existing solutions, approaches, and
beliefs. That is design thinking. Ask the stupid question. People who know a lot about a field
seldom think to question the fundamentals of their knowledge. People from outside the
discipline do question it. Many times their questions simply reveal a lack of knowledge, but
that is OK, that is how to acquire the knowledge. And every so often, the question sparks a
basic and important reconsideration. Hurrah for Design Thinking.
Ideation requires purposefully adopting certain characteristics, whether they are natural or
whether they need to be encouraged and learnt. Adapting, Connecting, Disrupting,
Flipping, Dreaming and Imagining, Experimental, Recognise Patterns, Curiosity.

4. Prototype

After the ideation, then move on to the Prototype Stage. Design thinking is that you won’t
have any answers about the feasibility of your idea until you test it with real users. This is
the purpose of prototyping. A prototype can be a sketch, model, or a cardboard box. But
depending on your resources, there are many ways for you to get creative in this step, using
found materials or setting creative limitations on budget. The prototype is built
to think and answer questions that get you closer to your final solution.

Two common categories of prototypes used by designers include the Concept

Prototype and the Working Prototype. Prototypes can include any of the following

• Models of your idea made of cardboard and scrap material

• Paper mockups of apps and digital products

• Storyboards of an experience

• Digital mockups

• Skits and simulations

• Craigslist posts, Facebook, Google ads, and other public forums to solicit feedback.

5. Test

The final stage of the Design Thinking process is Test. The purpose of testing is to learn what
works and what doesn’t and then iterate. Start building, Don’t spend too long on one
prototype, Build with the user in mind. For example, prototyping can be attempted at an
opportune time in the task — in front of ideation — so as to find increasingly about the
user. Basic models can be created, test thoughts, yet to see increasingly about how users
work once a day.

From here, specific teams or directors may further refine thoughts or even make the last
move to choosing a real idea with which to push ahead. Regardless, it’s basic to team
up transparently with customers and end-users. Be that as it may, in an iterative procedure,
the outcomes produced during the testing stage are regularly used to reclassify at least one
issues and advise the comprehension regarding the users, the states of utilization, how
individuals think, act, and believe, and to sympathize.

How to plan a Test?

Create multiple prototypes, each with a change in a variable, so that your users can think
about prototypes and reveal to you which they like. At the point, Avoid over-clarifying how
your prototype works, or how it is supposed to solve your user’s problems. After that, When
users are exploring and using the prototype, request that they disclose to you what they’re
supposing. Observe how your users use — either “correctly” or “incorrectly” — your
prototype. Finally, ask to catch up inquiries, regardless of whether you think you recognize
what the user implies.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/417638565421293040

In this action, you will design, build, and test a prototype of your idea. It’s time to get your
hands messy! By the end of this activity, you should have a designed, built, and tested the
second revision of your prototype.

— Keep in your mind, You test only your prototypes not that user
 Conclusion

When you’re testing your solution, it may be useful to have empathy with your customer or
the situation, and sometimes, you need to re-define your problem in the light of the latest
developments. Then, empathy ensures you to address the real problem and give meaning to
your solution. the amazing thing about the five-stage Design Thinking model is that it
systematises and distinguishes the 5 stages/modes you would hope to complete in a design
venture and in any inventive critical thinking venture.

4. Benefits of Design Thinking?

With that in mind, let’s consider some of the main benefits of using Design Thinking at work:
 1 Significantly reduces time-to-market: With its emphasis on problem-solving and finding
viable solutions, Design Thinking can significantly reduce the amount of time spent on
design and development—especially in combination with lean ...
 2 Cost savings and a great ROI: Getting successful products to market faster ultimately saves
the business money ...
 3 Improves customer retention and loyalty: Design Thinking ensures a user-centric
approach, which ultimately boosts user engagement and customer retention in the long
term.
5. Innovation with Design Thinking Demands Critical Thinking
Innovation with design thinking demands critical thinking because we must understand our
assumptions that frame our ideas and shape our design.

As our world becomes more and more digital, it’s not the first click that counts – it’s what
happens after that first click. We design five steps ahead in the user experience, not one.
And to deliver integrated solutions with a holistic view, we analyze five dimensions and drop
none.

By blending design thinking with critical thinking, we foster innovation that delivers
customer-centric solutions. This mindset is crucial to the success of design thinking because
its universal applications are a key driver for creating opportunities for both new and old
solutions, no matter if they are internal- or customer-facing.
Here are three reasons why innovation with design thinking demands critical thinking.

Critical thinking does not hinder–but rather augments–innovative thinking

Some people believe that critical thinking hampers innovative thinking and, therefore,
consider it as incompatible with design thinking. This notion is misleading and relies on the
misinterpreted assumption of what critical thinking means and how it applies to design.

There is nothing in the design-thinking process that prohibits the ability to challenge
consensus or pursue alternative views. Instead, it encourages us to observe a complete view
of the user experience and paint an accurate picture of reality.

Critical thinking is a key ingredient in evaluating and improving our ideas, regardless of how
we label them. It should not be confused with being argumentative. If used effectively,
critical thinking can help us acquire vital insight about the user experience and strengthen
our design assumptions.

Innovation with design thinking demands critical thinking because we must understand our
assumptions that frame our ideas and shape our design.

Let’s take this a step further. When we seek to design and deliver innovative solutions, it’s
not enough to just have new or creative ideas. To drive growth and profitability, the new or
creative ideas have to be useful and relevant. Critical thinking provides a vigorous and
crucial perspective when evaluating these ideas and transforming them when necessary.

Design thinking is the art of mindful restraint

Exhibiting mindful restraint is at the heart of design thinking because it eliminates conscious
and unconscious bias. This is especially important when it comes to empathy. The more
knowledge we enjoy and the more credentials someone has, the more assumptions we may
make. If these assumptions are left untested or remain unfiltered, the solutions built on
them risk failure when presented or consumed by actual users.

Critical thinking gives us the tools to remove perceived success. This capability is especially
important as we become more critical, not less, when examining our own assumptions.
When we design, our human instincts crave validation based on our prior knowledge,
justification of our prior decisions, and support of earlier conclusions or beliefs. In the
process, we may deny ourselves the opportunity to design inside-out—rather than outside-
in.

Find invaluable insights hidden in plain sight

Invaluable insight is best discovered in areas hidden from plain sight. When critical thinking
blends with design thinking, we not only design human-centered models for understanding
the problem, but also present alternative ways of looking at a problem.

Similarly, to identify and understand the logical connection between each idea, we should
become active design thinkers, not passive recipients of information. Through critical
thinking, we are encouraged to rigorously question ideas and assumptions, rather than
accepting them without deeper reflection. In turn, design thinkers apply critical thinking to
determine whether their ideas and findings represent a realistic picture of the user
experience.

From my experience, “asynchronous design,” as I call it, is restrictive because it is typically

formed through separate steps in a “design and think” or “think and design” approach.
Instead, design must be viewed as a “synchronous” process, where we observe the situation
and identify needs and opportunities while applying thinking that thoroughly represents the
reality of our intended target users. With synchronous design, we no longer separate design
from thinking; we become a critical thinker in the design.

Bottom line

Critical thinking helps us break down assumed models taken for granted by the status quo.
By eliminating artificial structures that are inherent in traditional approaches, we foster
design thinkers who are encouraged to identify new opportunities for innovation in all roles
and at all levels of the enterprise.

By systematically cultivating our talent, we promote, what I call, a growth philosophy in

design that says: “Don’t just teach me design thinking–show me how to think in the
design.” And that’s how we compete on design thinking to drive growth and profitability.
Example / Case Study

Design thinking for HR: a 5-step guide to achieving employee centricity

There are two key reasons companies can’t be successful without employee centricity:

1. Customers don’t like it: Today, it’s impossible for organisations to maintain a shiny
veneer when there’s poor office culture. Transparency is at an all-time high and it’s
easier than ever for employees to lift the lid (on social media or elsewhere) on what
it’s really like to work for their company. Customers react to negative press by
spending their money elsewhere.

2. Workers are unmotivated: Employees want to be able to use their brains, solve real
problems and be involved in decision-making. Old-school companies with traditional,
just-do-as-you’re-told cultures suffer from entropy or leakage of energy.
Unmotivated workers are less productive and are more likely to leave, creating a
retention problem.

The ideal situation, therefore, is to have an ethical business that cares about its employees,
delivers great service to its customers and balances that with healthy profits.

“That’s the secret recipe for highly competitive organisations,” says Kristyn. “HR plays a
critical role in creating that balance, but they’ll need to be more human-centred than
they’ve been in the past.”

Making talented people more productive

Kristyn warns that if HR professionals continue to use 20th-century models that were
suitable for a bygone era, they’ll soon find themselves becoming increasingly irrelevant.
“Traditional HR leaders have processes for managing employees – performance appraisals,
remuneration, performance management, discipline and so on. These clunky old processes
were often designed many years previous in a distant head office and actually make it
harder for leaders to lead.

“That’s where design thinking for HR comes in. This is a new way of thinking. Traditional HR
was about control, but in the current era, HR’s focus needs to be on harvesting talent. We
can do this by putting the employee at the centre and asking them ‘How can I help you?’”

Today, HR leaders are being encouraged to be creative by designing employee experiences

that build engagement, reduce turnover, attract talent and improve productivity. Kristyn has
noticed that her Design Thinking for HR programs tend to attract disrupters in the
profession. “It attracts people who aren’t just looking for a process for designing HR
programs. They’re looking for a mindset shift.”

What exactly is design thinking in HR?

The design thinking in HR framework has five parts:

 Building empathy

 Defining the problem

 Ideating

 Prototyping

 Testing

There’s no limit to the applications for this process – design thinking may be used to create
new induction programs for different groups, design a performance management system, or
to simply identify and address an employee pain-point.

Kristyn stresses that HR managers should avoid rolling out a one-size-fits-all solution. “It’s a
useful exercise to break your workforce up into groups – such as blue-collar workers,
customer service, and management – then come up with a persona for each group. Every
persona will have a different set of needs and perspectives.”

Here’s how she recommends HR puts the five-pronged design thinking framework into
practice.

 Empathise: This can be done by interviewing workers (without your HR hat on),
sending out questionnaires, immersing yourself in the employee’s world (by
physically doing their jobs), or observing. It’s useful to then record your observations
in an empathy map, with a different map for each persona.
  Define: Use your empathy map to define a problem statement, or the problem you
want to solve. Kristyn gives the example of an HR manager from Metro Trains who
attended one of her programs. “After spending time with station staff, the HR
Manager recognised they needed a way to receive regular feedback on their
performance without feeling like they’re getting in trouble. She then worked with
the station managers to design a way to make feedback a more pleasant
experience,” says Kristyn, warning that the problem statement has to be right, as
that will be what you focus and measure around.

 Ideation: Generate ideas that will solve the problem identified in the previous phase.
Organising a workshop for brainstorming with your colleagues could be a great way
for coming up with various ideas for the solution. According to Kristyn, “HR
managers who are looking for a solution traditionally only think of two or three
options and stop there, but I encourage people to keep ideating until they come up
with something really creative.”

 Prototyping: “Typically, HR don’t prototype,” Kristyn says. “Usually they design a

process without the employee at the centre, then roll it out to 10,000 or 20,000
people and don’t seek feedback – because they don’t want it.” Prototyping is
therefore ground-breaking in HR. It’s about getting something that isn’t complete,
such as a wall of post-it notes, a storyboard, or a basic app, then asking a client
group for feedback.

 Test: “Prototype as if you’re right, but test as if you’re wrong”, Kristyn advises. All
feedback, even if it’s awful, is golden, and should be incorporated into your process.
Pilot with a small group, then measure whether or not your solution solves the
problem that you identified in the define mode.”

Kristyn says the popularity of design thinking in HR is part of a wider trend. “HR is taking a
good, long look at itself. The old focus was just on process and leadership competence,
which simply doesn’t work. We now know that motivation is the most important resource in
an organisation. It’s HR’s job to extract that energy.”