2018

Anyone Can Do it: Design Thinking

Sunipa Sen
Learner -Explorer
25/01/2018
 Anyone Can Do it: Design Thinking

Often, the innovators, architects and solution providers define and tell their prospect users what their
problem is and invariably convince the users that their solution is the ultimate in addressing the
prospective users’ problem. I have experienced this as an employee of an organisation when its
management decided to introduce the practice of Six Sigma and SEI CMM Level 5 in the organisation.

The process of Design Thinking is to know and care about those who you intend to create meaningful
innovation; to know and care about their lives too. Therefore, Design Thinking process intends the
innovator to empathize with the user of his innovation. Carefully study him, his lifestyle, their physical
and emotional needs, and their thought process in terms of their beliefs, their attitude and the resultant
perception of the world around them. The innovator then will be able to completely understand the
challenges the users’ experience.

The in-depth comprehension of the difficulties the users face in their life will help the innovator to
define the users’ challenges, the basis of ideating an innovative solution for the users.

Design Thinking Process comprises of five stages:

1. Empathise
2. Define
3. Ideate
4. Prototype
5. Test

ADDIE process comprises of:

1. Analysing
2. Defining
3. Developing
4. Implementing
5. Evaluating

The five stages an innovator needs to follow to develop a solution. The inherent difference between the
ADDIE and Design Thinking method of innovation is:

EMPATHY: When an innovator empathises with the user, he does not only logically analyse the
challenges user faces, but also goes the extra mile to understand the emotional aspects of the challenge
the user faces. This helps the innovator to observe the users, listen to the users and even get under the
users’ skin to clearly define all the dimensions of the challenge the users face. In the ADDIE method, the
Innovator will ANALYSE the users’ problem by interviewing the user. While interviewing the user, he will
listen to and observe the user

In the EMPATHY stage of the Design Thinking Process, the Innovator not only interviews the users, but
also engages in-depth observation and study of the process, lifestyle, from the perspective of the user
and not a Subject Matter Expert. The innovator elicits, anecdotes, vignettes and stories from the user
that are insightful in defining the problem.

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 Anyone Can Do it: Design Thinking

Often, the innovator is the Subject Matter Expert, who collaborates with the users to study the
challenges they face. For example, you must have read an inspirational Chocolate Ice-cream story doing
its rounds on WhatsApp. According to the story, the Automobile Company receives a complaint from a
buyer of a new model of their car. The buyer reports problem in starting the car. Preempting any more
such complaints in the future for the particular automobile model, the Company sends one of their
engineers to study the cause of the problem before they replace the car abiding by the norms of the
Warranty. When the engineer interviews the automobile owner, he learns that after dinner, the owner
often drives the car to a nearby ice-cream parlour to buy ice cream for the family. When he purchases
vanilla ice-cream he faces the problem with car. When he purchases the family’s favourite chocolate ice-
cream, he does not face the problem. On further questioning the car owner, the Engineer gathered that
the owner had to wait longer for the delivery of the chocolate ice-cream after he placed the order than
he had to when he would place an order for their favourite chocolate ice-cream. The engineer then
drove with him to the ice-cream parlour and checked the car while its owner went to pick vanilla ice-
cream from the ice-cream parlour. He detected the manufacturing flaw in the car’s engine and
immediately reported the matter to the Company. True, in this case the English Proverb, “A stitch in
time saves nine.” This prevented the Automobile Company from incurring tremendous loss due to the
manufacturing defect in the particular model of the car it had introduced in the market.

How to empathise? You may ask. Let us refer to the Empathy Map:

According to the Empathy Map, when an innovator engages a user in an interview, discussion, or a
demo-workshop, he keenly observes the user for data to the two quadrants: WHAT THE USER SAYS and

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 Anyone Can Do it: Design Thinking

WHAT AND HOW THE USER DOES. Based on these two categories of data or explicit information, the
innovator can garner implicit information about the user in terms of his thought process and feeling. The
innovator watches and listens to the user; his stories, experience, his method of doing any specific
activity to clearly understand how they think about the world; what and how they perform an activity;
their physical and emotional needs.

Please Note:

1. NLP Technique (for the Empathy Stage of Design Thinking) and

2. Mind Mapping (for all the five stages of Design Thinking) are effective tools for recording the
observation and mapping it with the subsequent solution address the user’s problem.)

Let us read the short story Empathy1 to understand the following stages of Design Thinking Process and
understand how it is easy to use the Design Thinking Process in our everyday life:

Now that you have read about Dipu and his careless attitude towards himself and his belongings and
how his mother, Roma tries to solve this problem in a novel way, let us learn how Roma covers all the
five stages of Design Thinking process to develop a solution to the problem.

Stage 1- Empathy: “To create meaningful innovations, you need to know your users and care about
their lives.” Roma, mother of ten-year old Dipu was aware of Dipu’s careless attitude towards himself
and his belongings. She was aware of this problem and its inherent effect on Dipu’s behaviour and his
attitude even towards himself in terms of self worth and self discipline.

Stage 2- Define: “Framing the right problem is the only way to create the right solution.” (Goal of this
stage is to define an actionable problem statement) Few problem defining techniques are
brainstorming, What-if Analysis and mind-mapping. Roma had identified the right problem, the root

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 Anyone Can Do it: Design Thinking

cause of Dipu’s careless attitude; his lack of self worth or self esteem. She now needed to ideate a
solution to the well defined problem.

Stage 3- Ideate: “It’s not about coming up with the right idea. It is about generating the broadest
range of possibilities.” (Goal of this stage is to formulate and evolve possible solution(s) to the defined
problem.) Few Ideation techniques are body-storming, mind-mapping, sketching, What-if Analysis etc.
Roma took the most pragmatic approach to ideate solutions to the problem:

a. She devised a method to make Dipu associate or identify with his belongings and also with the
objects he carelessly used and trashed. She devised a method that would trigger Dipu’s negative
emotion and he would immediately react by refusing to dissociate with the objects he trashed
so easily.
b. Roma also devised a method to channelize Dipu’s negative emotion to appreciate the source or
the providers of his sustenance, his parents and the planet Earth. Then how he could associate
with them to derive his own self esteem and self worth.

Stage 4- Prototype: “Build to Think. Test to Learn” (Goal of this stage is iterative generation of
artifacts as prospective solutions to the defined problem.) Few prototyping techniques are post-it
board, storyboard, models, role-play, etc. Based on her ideation, Roma built four different prototypes
that she could implement and test simultaneously based on Dipu’s reaction-response to them.

1. Roma implemented her first idea by putting Dipu’s image on all his books, dirty clothes, torn
books, used paper cups and paper balls that Dipu had thrown carelessly in his room.
2. Roma implemented her second idea by putting the image of planet Earth and his parents on the
garbage bins in the house.
3. Roma recycled one of the used large paper cups into a beautiful tooth brush and tooth paste
holder.
4. Roma placed a gift for Dipu that he was craving for.

There is a loose logical and emotional connect between the four prototypes, while Roma could use them
all together or an independent of each other without linking them to each other. Roma decided to link
the four prototypes and use them for a greater impact or influence on Dipu’s behaviour.

Stage 5- Test: “Testing is an opportunity to learn more about your solution and your user.” (Goal of
this stage is to test the prototype within the real context of the user’s life.) This iterative stage is an
integral part of the Prototype stage of Design Thinking process. Rule of Thumb applied: “Always
prototype as though you are right, but test as if you know you are wrong. Few testing techniques are
Field-Testing, Demonstration, Role-play, etc. Dipu’s reaction-response to Roma’s prototypes:

1. Dipu reacted to the first prototype exactly how Roma had expected him to.
2. Dipu’s reaction to the first prototype was a trigger for Roma to draw Dipu’s attention to the
second prototype and impress upon him the worth of the providers and how they are inherently
connected to his own self worth and self esteem. In this way Roma tried to achieve solving
Dipu’s behavioural problem and tried to inculcate self discipline in him.

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 Anyone Can Do it: Design Thinking

3. Roma used the opportunity, when Dipu was intellectually and emotionally tuned in to her
message, to present a beautifully recycled cup to Dipu so that he could easily identify with it and
revive his shattered self-worth on seeing his image on crumpled paper balls, crushed paper
cups, tissue papers and torn books. The intention was to revive his self esteem and tune him in
to creative solutions to the problems he faced.
4. The much desired gift that Dipu found along with the recycled paper cup was like a reward for
the initiative Dipu took to clean up his room and was a positive reinforce of the lesson Dipu
learnt in the process. Roma kept it as a much intended prompt for Dipu to acknowledge the gift
and ask the reason why Roma had gifted it to him. She could then use it to encourage him to
commit to change his behaviour towards himself and his belongings.

So, it is now quite evident that anyone can effectively apply design thinking process to innovate solution
to the challenges one faces in his or her life too. We can encourage children to apply the Design Thinking
process in their learning process to encourage them to apply the concepts and theories they learn in
solving problems they face in life.

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 Anyone Can Do it: Design Thinking

Design Thinking process too have lacunae that its users need to be aware of:

1. The time, know-how and resource constraint.

2. Innovator’s prejudice and bias can affect his listening skills.
3. Taking care of the possibility of an intelligent user high-jacking the process.
4. Need for the innovator to be aware of Disruptive Technique of Innovation.
5. The need to control the number of iterations of prototyping and testing stages of the process to
maintain the timely relevance of the solution.
6. Possibility of the solution becoming innovator specific and not user-specific, when the user is
influenced or compelled to accept innovator’s preferred proto-type as the viable solution to the
problem.
7. Design Thinking is a non-linear process; therefore the innovator may face a challenge of
anticipating the hurdles the innovator may face in transiting from one stage of the process to
another. Please refer to this write-up for insight: My Twenty-Day Stint with GCube

ACTIVITY:

Try to use the Design Thinking process to solve the following problems:

1. Devise methods to encourage a person out of his/her phobia or a habit they want to be rid of.
2. Encourage the inhabitants of your locality to keep it clean and tidy.
3. Discourage the school and college students from substance abuse.
4. Encourage gender equality in formal education, career and public life.
5. Encourage patients and their attendants, the medical care providers to be aware of their rights
and duties and how to educate the patients and their attendants in receiving optimum service
from a hospital.
6. Encourage consumers to be aware of their rights and how to use the consumer redressal
system.

References:
Design Thinking process:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking

https://dschool-
old.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/designresources/wiki/36873/attachments/74b3d/ModeGuideBOOTC
AMP2010L.pdf

https://think360studio.com/what-is-design-thinking-and-design-thinking-process/

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process

https://www.scribd.com/document/361914314/Lean-Mean-but

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 Anyone Can Do it: Design Thinking

NLP:

http://www.anildagia.com/

http://www.nlpu.com/NewDesign/NLPU_WhatIsNLP.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

http://sunipslearning.blogspot.in/2018/01/neuro-linguistic-programming-nlp-case.html

Mind Mapping:

https://in.linkedin.com/in/dharmendrarai

http://www.mindmapping.com/

http://www.tonybuzan.com/about/mind-mapping/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

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