The 5 steps that brand upwards the design thinking process: Empathize, Ascertain, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.


Past at present, you've probably heard almost design thinking. More industries than always are taking a human-centric approach to evolve their existing products and generating new ideas to serve their customers better. Permit'south take a closer await at what blueprint thinking is and how to employ it to your organization.

According to statistics, 79% of companies hold that design thinking improves the ideation procedure, and 71% accept enjoyed a significant shift in their work in civilization after adopting pattern thinking.

Design Thinking 101

What is Design Thinking Process?

Design thinking is a process for creative problem-solving. Rather than a one-shoe-fits-all mindset, information technology encourages a holistic view where doubt and ambiguity are welcomed and embraced equally to consider all sides of a problem. A blueprint mindset can be applied to any life state of affairs, and information technology aids in because the bigger picture and informatively interim accordingly.

The method is steeped in a deep belief that the end-user should be at the heart of all decision-making. The benefit of design thinking is that, through empathy for your customer, consumer, or client, you lot are able to create products and experiences that truly help people and even alter lives.

In this article, we'll explore the five-step process that enables teams to come up upwardly with impactful solutions to existent problems that are vetted past the people they intend to serve before they've even been built.

Pro-tip: use our Liberating Structures templates to get the most out of the design-thinking process with your team.

The 5-Step Design Thinking Process

1.Empathize

The first stage of the design process is to understand the perspective of the target audition/customer/consumer to place and address the problem at hand. To practise this, pattern thinkers are encouraged to cast bated all assumptions (because assumptions tin can stifle innovation!) about the problem, the consumers, and the world at large. This allows them to objectively consider any and all possibilities nearly the customers and their needs.

Typical activities:

  • Observations: Yous'll go where your users go and see what they care about.
  • Qualitative Interviews: Y'all'll concord one-on-one interviews with a scattering of your users to sympathize their attitudes on the topic you lot are exploring. Asking someone to tell a story virtually the last time they experienced the problem you lot're investigating provides a rich clarification that highlights details yous might non have otherwise considered.

Immersions: Step into your user'south shoes and then you lot tin feel and experience their twenty-four hour period-to-day.

Tools similar empathy maps can be a great mode to consolidate all of the valuable information gleaned from interviews. Empathy maps capture what people practise, say, think, and feel in the context of the problem. They help colleagues sympathize the context of the problem and how people feel it, besides.

2. Ascertain

Putting together all of the information gathered in the first stage, the next step is to define the problem argument clearly. The resulting trouble statement should be captured in man-centered terms rather than focused on business goals. For example, instead of setting a goal to increase signups by 5%, a human-centered target would be to help busy moms provide healthy food for their families.

Based on the frustrations, you observed or heard about come up up with questions for how y'all might solve them.

Typical Activities

  • Clustering and Themes:There's a lot of unlike ways to go nearly the Ascertain phase, just it'south rubber to say yous'll need a wall of viscous notes; these will be filled with the quotes, observations, and ideas y'all heard throughout your research. Group and cluster ideas together until yous find the prevailing or most prominent themes.

As you explore the empathy data, focus on identifying patterns and problems across a diverse group of people. Gathering information on how people are currently solving the problem provides clues on how to give a more than innovative solution. You can't solve all of your users' bug. Know the nearly significant or well-nigh impactful bug that y'all desire to consider equally you move frontward.

Define your problem statement clearly: group and cluster ideas together until you find the prevailing or most prominent themes.
Define your problem statement clearly: group and cluster ideas together until you notice the prevailing or most prominent themes.

3. Ideate

Now that the trouble is apparent, it's time to begin ways to address those unmet needs. You lot collect equally many ideas every bit possible at the get-go, and so that by the end, your team tin can investigate and examination them.
The ideation stage marks the transition from identifying problems to exploring solutions. Information technology flows between thought generation and evaluation, but it's important that each process remains separate from each other. When it's fourth dimension to generate ideas, do so apace without focusing on the quality or feasibility of the idea for at present.After ideas are collected, move into the evaluation stage.This is where you can go around the room and discuss the ideas presented to get description if needed.

The ideation stage is usually a very creative and freeing phase for a team considering they have permission to recall of out-of-the-box ideas before deciding what they are going to prototype.

Explore solutions and think out-of-the-box in the ideation phase of the design thinking process.
Explore solutions and recollect out-of-the-box in the ideation phase of the design thinking process.

4. Prototype

It's fourth dimension to experiment!Through trial and error, your squad identifies which of the possible solutions tin all-time solve the identified problem(due south). This typically volition include scaled-down versions of the products or systems in question so you can present and get feedback from the people they are intended to serve.

The goal is to kickoff with a low-fidelity version of the intended solution and improve it over fourth dimension based on feedback. Beginning with a paper epitome can help you learn quickly with minimal attempt. The epitome should be a realistic representation of the solution that allows you to proceeds an understanding of what works and doesn't piece of work. It is inverse and updated based on feedback from the Test phase in an iterative cycle. The low-cost, lightweight nature of prototyping also allows you to develop multiple solutions to examination in tandem to identify the best possible solution for coming together those unmet user needs.

Prototype example drawing
UX Sketch
In prototyping, you create a quick version of your solution so you can become feedback from users.

5. Test

All of the piece of work and data come together to test the product in the final phase. It's important to note that this is still an interactive stage. You will want to hear from your users again —merely equally you did in the Empathize phase. The divergence is that you are showing them your image to get feedback on whether or non information technology solves their problem.

Testing is essential considering everything, ultimately, should be most the people who will employ your products. At present'due south the time to revisit the problem statement and make certain the end solution is coming together those needs and resolving frustrations.

You want to run into what real people remember about your idea. This stage allows for all details to be flushed out and refined to create the best solution possible.

Two people collaborating
Test your prototype with users to get feedback and refine your ideas.
Test your prototype with users to get feedback and refine your ideas.

Need an expert facilitator for your next coming together, gathering or workshop? Allow'south talk.

Voltage Control facilitates events of all kinds, including design thinking workshops, innovation sessions, and Design Sprints. Delight reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com if you lot want to talk or for a consultation.