Transform Your Business with Design Thinking: A Step-by-Step Guide
Updated: Aug 14
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 desires. It is about understanding the context in which users live in, for example culture, language, place of work and background. We have to apply various activities such as contextual inquiry and interviews. After interviews, next steps are split to two parts- collecting insights and making sense of the insights.
Usually we would start by interviewing 5-8 customers each with a set of questions using the Discussion Guide comprising the 5Ws and 1H regarding the travelling experience.
We collected verbatims and inference insights from our interviews and wrote into post-its as below.
We tried to make sense of the data by applying Affinity Clustering of the customers that may be from the same demographics or life stage behaviours- and then we created Personas. Based on the collective knowledge of the persona, we created a fictitious name as well as adding in his profile, hobbies and interests, key challenges in travelling and moments of truth.
We also need to remove our blinkers- to be curious and look at things more objectively, contextual inquiry- to understand users right in their context and laddering- to see deeper perspective and motivations.
After which, we wrote How Might We (HMWs). It is a statement starter where it helps to create and rally a team together in the mode of problem solving.
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Ideate Phase –
Ideate Phase is about exploring ideas based on the insights from the contextual observation in the earlier phases. It is about generating ideas and selecting solutions that will meet the needs of the persona.
We started by downloading all the verbatims from our selected persona into an area where we fold common insights and create Affinity Clustering. From there, we summarize our findings.
We also applied Dot Voting. Dot Voting is a quick way of polling to reveal strongest How Might We which we can use. This ensures that our HMW be selected objectively and not due to one’s preferences.
Then we created a Creative Matrix.
Creative Matrix is a structured grid format for creating systematic combinationsto generate wide ranging ideas. A lot of ideas are created using enablers like POEMS- People/Policy, Objects, Environment, Media and Services. A Wildcard section can be used as enabler such as Alien, Minion or Rilakuma.
Then we use the Dot Voting to select 10 ideas into the Prioritization Matrix.
Prioritization Matrix allows us to map our ideas based on feasibility as well as importance. We also could decide which ideas could have potential to work well with one another as an ecosystem.
Great ideas still need the right strategy to move forward. Discover how our WSQ Entrepreneurship Business Strategy course and 5-Step Strategy Action Plan help professionals evaluate opportunities, make better strategic decisions and turn ideas into action.
Prototype and Test Phase-
In the Prototype Phase, we decided to do a quick storyboarding prototype of our service idea. Storyboarding is very useful for us to map out the end to end journey of our user.
After that we went into Physical Prototyping.
Test Phase is the opportunity to learn about our solution. By testing quickly, we are able to filter out ideas that are less valuable and focus on those which makes most sense.
For example, when we illicit feedback from users regarding our storyboard, one user commented that the mood meter may not appeal nor useful as the feeder taxi service is rather short journey. We applied the feedback and remove this feature from the final solution.
Last Words
I will be adding more articles on Design Thinking, Strategy and Innovation throughout the year. Articles of these 5 Step Action Plan and Modern Soft Skills will be added periodically to give my readers a broader insights to how to crush complex problems, overcome future challenges and spot AI opportunities.
Check out more articles via my blog: https://www.emerge-creatives.com/blog-1
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About the Author
Daniel Ling is a regional ex-Design Leader turned educator, and business owner of Emerge Creatives, an registered SSG training provider (RTP) to deliver modern soft skills to professionals through Design Thinking, Business Strategy, and AI Innovation.
With over 15 years of experience in the financial and e-commerce tech industries- including key leadership roles at Lazada, NTUC Income, OCBC, and DBS- Daniel has led cross-regional design teams, built design functions from the ground up, and spearheaded large-scale transformation initiatives. But beyond industry success,
Daniel has reinvented himself as a “designer in a business suit”- equally fluent in creative strategy and commercial impact.
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