What Is Design Thinking? (It's Not Just for Designers)
Design thinking is a bit of a misleading name, because it’s not just for designers. It’s for all who deem themselves a problem solver. Are you a product manager? A developer? An executive? A business stakeholder? [Insert job title here] you can be a design thinker! You just need to be empathetic, curious and reflective.
Design thinking is a repeatable process that can be applied to a variety of projects of varying scale and complexity. All in all, it is about knowing how to ask the right questions to gather insights that can help to build a successful solution.
Insights… But insights about what? PEOPLE. The goal of design thinking is to reframe the problem to be human-centric. By interviewing, observing and interacting with actual users, assumptions can be challenged and a new level of awareness can be achieved. This form of research removes the concern of designing a product for yourself vs the actual user it is meant for.
The process consists of a series of converging and diverging stages. Each member of the team can individually gather information to bring back to the group to synthesize. By having a diverse team completing these activities, the information gathered can be more thought-provoking and less likely to include a singular bias.
In summary, asking why and taking a design thinking approach can answer these 3 questions:
- Audience: Who is experiencing this problem? Why?
- Tech: What are the technical constraints?
- Business: What goals do we want to accomplish?
These outcomes insure that whatever product you are developing is:
- Human-centered
- Outcomes-driven
- Focus on quality
- Innovation-oriented
There are a variety of design thinking methods out in the world. Here at Atomic Robot, we have developed and follow the 3:6 Model. Stay tuned to learn more about our specific approach.
