Design thinking: an idea worth investing in
When you are ready to start designing solutions based on all the pre-work you've done: understanding your stakeholders/customers/users, the technology available, the long-term return on investment and of course the human aspect, that is, will people like and use what you give them, you will then want to begin working on a solution with a team. Henry Ford and Steve Jobs did not work alone and neither should you. One way to do this is using a technique called Design Thinking.
Design thinking originated at The School of Engineering at California's Stanford University with a course designed to prepare a generation of innovators to tackle complex challenges. Design thinking challenges participants to solve problems by first defining them and then iterating as a collaborative team focused on developing an unexpected range of possible solutions…to take back out into the field and test with real people.—http://dschool.stanford.edu/our-point-of-view/.
Designing thinking follows a very simple approach to problem solving that introduces the UX mindset to those who may not have experienced it before. Here are the steps:
Source: springhillschool.org
We can break this down even further, taking into consideration three of the most important areas of focus: technology, business, and human values, as shown here:
- Technology (feasibility): This is the "how "of product design. It refers to how we make it happen with what we have at our disposal, such as, technology, budgetary constraints, stakeholder goals, user/customer problems, and so on.
- Business (viability): This refers to long-term return on investment (ROI) and how long it will take to reach those goals.
- Human values (usability, desirability): This refers to the reactions from customers/users. Will people like our solution and use it? Will they be excited about it? Is it unique and easy to use? Does it solve an identifiable problem that we have observed through research and observation?
"You realize that you aren't going to solve the problem sitting in an office, you need to get out and talk to the people who are actually dealing with it, whether that's your customers or your front-line employees." | ||
| --Design Thinking graduate. | ||
In 2006, the design thinking program at Standford, also known as d.School, launched a week-long education program for managers and executives called Customer-Focused Innovation (CFI), where participants from across industries approached problems in a collaborative setting and from the customers' point of view. As of this writing, admission to CFI is approx $15,000 for one week of training, teamwork, creativity, and innovation. That's quite an investment and a positive development in dispelling the "faster horses" myth once and for all.
