I love Marvel movies and have spent hours understanding underlying themes and motivations of characters across the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While "Avengers: Endgame" is not specifically about Design Thinking, there are some parallels between the themes and ideas in the movie and the principles of Design Thinking. Some of the themes and elements of Design Thinking from " Marvel's Avengers: Endgame" could be interpreted through the characters in the movie. 1. Empathy Tony Sta

Creative Matrix is a tool or a framework that helps individuals and teams in generating new and innovative ideas during the Ideation Phase. The framework provides a structured approach to the creative thinking process and helps overcome common obstacles that often stifle creativity. Many big companies with the intention to drive Design Thinking and Innovation- use the Creative Matrix as a tool to drive innovation and creativity. Some real-life examples of companies that use t

Essentially, an elevator pitch is a snazzy sales pitch. An elevator pitch is the conversation starter between you and potential investors or collaborators. “What are you up to these days?”, “What are you working as?”, “Do you have anything new for me?” are several questions that create an avenue for your elevator pitch. These questions may hit you at the unlikeliest moments, when you run into an ex-colleague at the grocer’s or at a family Christmas dinner so it is crucial tha

After hours of brainstorming, you find yourself buried in heaps of promising ideas. Every post-it- promises a product, every doodle- dreams up the next big thing. However, you are also facing a looming launch date and a depleting budget. You also might have different perspective with your team-member who might be interested in another idea. So, what now? :) In Design Thinking, the skillset to converge and prioritise your ideas is really just as important than the skillset to

A Customer Journey Map (CJM) is a method of documenting and visualising experiences a customer has with a particular product or service - touchpoints! Understandably, it is used to a great extent in service design. What is Customer Journey Map? CJM is made up of 3 important components- who's our customer?, what's the steps for him to get their jobs done?, what's their job to be done? A CJM is a useful tool in creating empathy for your customers, as it helps you identify the b

Ideation Phase is the 3rd Phase of the Design Thinking Process and it is the most celebrated step as the team embark on the discovery of creativity and exciting ideas to solve problems. One very useful tool will be SCAMPER- and here's how you apply it. It's easy- try SCAMPER for your projects! SCAMPER is a brainstorming technique that pushes your team to innovate products/services in a directed manner. The acronym SCAMPER, stands for: 1. Substitute 2. Combine 3. Adapt 4. Mod

Before the packed room of presidents, prime ministers, governors, and mayors- Greta Thunberg was livid. “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be in school on the other side of the ocean,” she said. “How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just business as usual and some technical solutions?" This is actually a fantastic Opening Question. Let me explain- as we problem-solve in Design Thinking- the squad will have just spent weeks interviewing users, bu

Design Thinking is usually complex on paper- but let me break it down in simple terms so that it is rather easy for you. Also, there are so many other activities and mindsets to learn to gainfully understand the process, please click on the link (with free book or free masterclass) within the article to find out more! So here goes.. Empathize and Define – Empathize and Define Phase is the start of the Design Thinking process. It seeks to uncover user’s needs, wants and desi

Design thinking is mostly celebrated as a set of step-by-step framework with tools incorporated within each step. However, knowing all these tools and framework is like having a car without a driver’s license. A car needs a good driver who has set of driving know-how, do’s and dont’s of the traffic rules and good anticipation of the roads. These are the mindsets. It is important to recognize the importance of mindsets (or ground rules) in order to make your design thinking ef

A persona is a fictional meaning of a target segment that you are designing your service for. It embodies the functional, social and emotional aspects of a human being. Personas continue to be used extensively among Design Thinkers and User Experience (UX) designers. All in all, personas are relevant and effective when create and presented appropriately. Before we advocate our case for personas, we would like to elaborate on the difference between a "profile" of a customer an

“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic.” - Seth Godin Stories will help your audience empathise with your design direction. In a sea of Keynote presentations, Word documents and summary reports, a simple narrative is what it takes to convince your audience of your idea. Stories emote and inspire, moving your audience by tapping onto their empathy. Stories help your audience visualise your problem better and connect them to your message i

Successful products and services are used and loved because they solve a real problem or cater to a real need. Discovering real user needs requires empathy- empathy for who they are and why they do what they do. Empathy allows designers to design from a user’s perspective, which is essential in design thinking. Empathising ensures that you drop your own prejudices and gain insights into real user needs that are often not obvious immediately, though inherent in user behaviour.

Empathising with a user’s problem, in the Design Thinking methodology, starts off with plenty of questions and conversations. The first conversation that takes place between users and you, as the designer, will often be the interview. Interviews help designers gain a better understanding of the users, and therefore the problem one is aiming to solve. It may seem daunting to conduct an interview with users, especially if you are designing for a problem or industry that is com

I would like to kickoff with an important aspect of Design Thinking that many of my participants are very interested about. What makes Design Thinking a Unique Way of Thinking? In the previous article, we have discussed the important traits of Design Thinking. In this article, we will delve deeper into how and why it is different from other thinking methods. Comparison between Business Thinking and Creative Thinking Business Thinking Business thinking is a rational and str

In psychology, it is believed that the left brain controls the more logical, analytical functions, whereas the right hemisphere processes the imagination, creativity and emotions. Design thinking is probably one of the few disciplines that utilize both equally. However, it is not a genetic gift that only a few people possess. It is a thinking mindset where given time and application- you are able to master as a way to solve problems. As an introduction to design thinking, t

1. Companies Need Design Thinking to Innovate “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” - Steve Jobs, Apple CEO Companies need to innovate or die. Today’s consumers are very aware, are spoiled for choice, and can be very fickle. 3M and Apple were companies on the brink of failure- but they proceed to adopt an innovative culture through design thinking to achieve amazing records of success. Today, 3M generated nearly $30 billion revenue selling over 55,000