THE DESIGN THINKING EXPERIENCE
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METHODS LEARNED OR APPLIED
Review the methods we learned and/or applied during the Design Thinking Experience with Tandemic.
DISCOVER
Shadow
Interview
Emotional journey
User profile & persona
Card sorting
SHADOW DISCOVER A method method widely widely implem implement ented ed in user user resear research, ch, shadow shadowing ing entail entailss accompanying the user and observing how they use a product or service within their natural environment.
Shadow
Shadowing was one of the key methods that led P&G to develop Swiffer by understanding that users were cleaning their mops for the same amount of time they were cleaning the floor with them. Because of how time consuming and resource intensive this method is, it is best used to provide the basis for a quantitative research.
INTERVIEW DISCOVER User interviews can be a great way to extract information from users in categories ranging from user profile to user experience understanding and ideation. They give you an opportunity to speak directly with the people who can help you make informed decisions.
Interview
Through these interviews you gain a better sense of people and their view viewss of the the worl world d by subt subtly ly elic elicit itin ing g thei theirr true true feel feelin ings gs,, desi desire res, s, struggles, and opinions opinions through a few carefully crafted questions. questions. A good interviewer needs to be attuned to the interviewee to know when to probe for more information, when to redirect the conversation, and how to parse what is meant from what is said.
Here are two frameworks you can download to support this method: Interview Canvas Question Starters
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USER PROFILE & PERSONA DISCOVER User profiles and personas are fictional characterizations drawn from real research data. They are not preconceived stereotypes; they are archetypes borne of careful study.
User profile & persona
Therefore, personas can serve as a powerful way to make your data mean meanin ingf gful ul.. When When you you put put a face face to your your find findin ings gs,, you you make make your your insights visible and memorable. The best user profiles are comprised of illustrations, descriptive text, and a photo portrait. They can help your team remember and discuss the people for whom you are designing. As a reference for generating ideas, prioritizing features, or discussing trade-off decisions, personas are a valuable tool for decision decision making. making.
Here is one framework you can download to support this method: User Profile
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EMOTIONAL JOURNEY DISCOVER The emotional journey is an addition to the user journey, which helps you visu visual ally ly illu illust stra rate te an indi indivi vidu dual al cust custom omer’ er’ss need needs, s, the the seri series es of interactions that are necessary to fulfil those needs within a service proces process, s, and the touch touch points points the custom customer er experi experienc ences es during during the service. Emotional journey
The resulting resulting emotional emotional states states a customer customer experiences experiences throughout throughout the process is the highlight highlight of an emotional journey. This method highlights the flow of the customer experience—from the ups and downs along the way to those critical pain points where our attention and focus are most essential.
Here is one framework you can download to support this method: Service blueprint
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CARD SORTING DISCOVER A card sort is a quick and easy way to spark conversation about what matters most to the people you’re designing for. By putting a deck of cards, each with a word or single image, in someone’s hands and then asking them to rank them in order of preference, you’ll gain huge insight into what really counts. Card sorting
There are two common card sorting techniques. The open card sort; this is where people are given a deck of cards with no pre-established groups and are asked to sort them in any way they see fit. In closed card sorts, people are given the groups you want them to place the cards in. Some of the situations that this method will be useful could be when are you you clas classi sify fyin ing g the the prod produc ucts ts in an e-co e-comm mmer erce ce stor store, e, orga organi nizi zing ng questions in an FAQ section, untangling a complex site map or prioritizing features for a product.
SYNTHESISE
Insight patterns
HMW questions
INSIGHT PATTERNS SYNTHESISE Often seen as the most challenging step of the design thinking process, defi defini ning ng insi insigh ghts ts is what what help helpss you you refra reframe me a chal challe leng nge e and and find find opport opportuni unitie tiess that that speak speak to underl underlyin ying g needs needs of you yourr user. user. Insigh Insights ts reduce irrelevance and focus you on what is meaningful, setting the foundation for successful product and service development.
Insight patterns
The most powerful insights come from rigor and serious analysis to translate large amounts of data into concise and compelling findings. The insight patterns provide more clarity on the direction to think about the available data and how to combine different pieces of the puzzle to arrive to insights.
HMW QUESTIONS SYNTHESISE How might we questions are a way to frame your ideation, and often used for launching launching brainstorms. The insight definition identifies problem areas that pose challenges to the people you’re designing for. Reframing insight statements as how might we questions turn those challenges challenges into opportunities for design. HMW questions
A good how might we question should give you both a narrow enough frame to let you know where to start your brainstorm, but also enough breadth to give you room to explore wild ideas.
IDEATE
3rd
Creative matrix
Boldness/difficulty matrix
2nd
1st
Visualise the vote
CREATIVE MATRIX IDEATE The creative matrix provides a template for generating new ideas where topics intersect. In a creative matrix grid, each cell represents the intersection of two disparate categories.
Creative matrix
It’s best to use the rows as categories related to people (e.g., personas, mark market et segm segmen ents ts,, or prob proble lem m stat statem emen ents ts)) and and the the colu column mnss as categories for opportunities (e.g., HMW questions and insights). You can then use this combination of categories to help generate a wide range of concepts in each cell. This brings some structure to the ideation phase that can help the generation of new ideas when a problem is too broa broad, d, or you’ you’re re havi having ng trou troubl ble e brea breaki king ng away away from from conv conven enti tion onal al thinking.
BOLDNESS/DIFFICULTY MATRIX IDEATE This is a simple 2x2 matrix can be a powerful instrument for establishing priorities and plotting ideas by relative boldness and difficulty.
3rd
Boldness/difficulty matrix
2nd
1st
The first step to using this matrix to choose an idea is to organise them in a horizontal continuum of how bold they are in the eyes of the user. The bolder they are, the more they are moved to the right. After that, you vertically move these ideas ranking them according to how difficult they are to be implemented. Ideas on the top will be the most difficult ones. The items that land in the lower left quadrant are characterized as targeted because they are the easiest to realize. The upper left quadrant contains luxurious items—costly endeavors with little return. The items in the upper right quadrant are considered to be strategic because they require large investments to get big results. And last but not least, the items in the lower right quadrant are high-value because they yield great impact at a low cost.
VISUALISE THE VOTE IDEATE Visualise the vote is a quick poll of collaborators to reveal preferences and opinions. When choosing an idea to move forward with, this is a good way to get everyone’s input, giving each person the opportunity to indicate preferences and opinions before final decisions are made.
Visualise the vote
When using it to pick the best solution among many, you can give everyone a token to cast a single vote. Or, if you need to consider details or priori prioritiz tize e a subset subset of alter alternat native ives, s, give give everyo everyone ne multip multiple le voting voting tokens. When using this tool its important to have participants vote at the same time to avoid persons of influence skewing the votes of others.
PROTOTYPE
Lean experiment
Experiment board
User journey/storyboard
LEAN EXPERIMENTS PROTOTYPE Disc Discus ussi sion onss on conj conjec ectu ture ress are are not not prod produc ucti tive ve beca becaus use e the the best best everyone can do is to guess the answer. To reach clear decisions you will need actuals. And lean experiments are what transform conjectures into actuals.
Lean experiment
There There are differe different nt types types of lean lean experi experimen ments ts to differ different ent types types of questions that need to be answered. Some of the most widely used ones are: Exploration: do users have this problem? problem? Pitch: do do users want your solution? Concierge: are users willing willing to use your solution? Does it have an impact? •
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A good lean experiment allows you to iterate your solution based on the user’s feedback and goes beyond an interview or survey to understand the the user user’s ’s beha behavi viou our, r, appl applyi ying ng some some sort sort of curre currenc ncyy that that can can be
EXPERIMENT BOARD PROTOTYPE The experiment board helps you map and keep track of all conjectures you are testing and what happens to your solution depending on the results.
Experiment board
Here is the framework: Experiment Board
The vertical progression of cells allows you to move from conjecture to actual by identifying a problem you assume your user has, outlining how you plan to test that assumption, making clear when you take your assumption to be true, presenting the results of your experiment, and drafting a solution to tackle the identified problem. The framework gives 3 possib possible le ways ways to move move forward forward depend depending ing on you yourr experi experimen mental tal findings; either your assumption was false and you need to change something (pivot), your assumption was correct and you can move on to test testin ing g your your risk riskie iest st assu assump mpti tion on (pres (preser erve ve), ), or you you can’ can’tt make make a conclu conclusio sion n about about the validity validity of you yourr assump assumptio tion n and you need need to redesign the experiment (rethink). Things to keep in mind when using an experiment board are that your
USER JOURNEY/STORYBOARD PROTOTYPE Story Storybo boar ards ds prov provid ide e a grea greatt way way to visu visual ally ly unde unders rsta tand nd a set set of interactions with a given problem or solution. Each interaction (or touch point) is fictions and generated from insights you’ve come up with. In creating a story you can show a concept in action and identify any potential risks from an interaction. A great way to use storyboarding is in creating the user journey. User journey/storyboard
To create the user’s journey you need to map out the beginning, middle and end of a user’s interaction interaction with a product product or solution. solution. This includes includes their decision making process leading up to using the product as well as what follows their use of it. A key strength of storyboarding is that it allows you to jump to the future. Also, the use of images allows teams to communicate
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FRAMEWORKS LEARNED OR APPLIED
Review the frameworks we learned and/or applied during the Design Thinking Experience with Tandemic.
CORE FRAMEWORK
Design Thinking Canvas
DESIGN THINKING CANVAS DISCOVER The design thinking canvas serves as a roadmap guiding you through the design thinking process. The canvas will not be filled up all in one go; outcom outcomes es from from variou variouss parts parts of the proces processes ses will will feed feed you yourr responses to the different cells.
Design Thinking Canvas
Here is the framework: Design Thinking Canvas
Step on consist of identifying your challenge. Steps 2 and 3 will be addressed during discovery as you conduct benchmark research and interview users to create archetypes. Step 4 gets completed during synthesis when you reframe your problem through gathered insights. Ideation allows you to fill out step 5 identifying unique elements of the ideas you come up with the tackle your challenge. Step 6 then relates these ideas back to your user(s) demonstrating the value each idea brings to each user. This canvas is a great reference tool to maintain your focus in when applying design thinking.
DISCOVER
Question Starters Interview Canvas
User Profile
INTERVIEW CANVAS DISCOVER This canvas helps you plan out and structure your interviews so you can get the most out of you time with a user. It provides ways in which to divide your interview questions, highlighting various stages to reach when gaining insights from a user. Rememb Remember er to build build rappor rapportt with with you yourr interv interview iewee ee early early on; creati creating ng a safe, safe, comfortable space for them will mean you can more deeply understand your challeng challenge e and user. Interview Canvas
Here is the framework: Interview Canvas
QUESTION STARTERS DISCOVER These leading sentences can help you structure your interviews and allow you to gain deeper insights when speaking to users. They help you structures your ques questi tion onss into into ‘pro ‘probi bing ng’’ rath rather er than than ‘cla ‘clari rify fyin ing’ g’ ques questi tion onss help helpin ing g the the respondent deviate from a predetermined type of solution. In directing users to ‘sho ‘show w me’ me’ or ‘giv ‘give e an examp example le’’ thes these e star starte ters rs help help you you invi invite te user userss to thoroughly think about their their interaction with a concept concept or product.
Question Starters
Use these as a guide to create challenge specific questions for your users during the discovery or prototype phase.
Here is the framework: Question Starters
USER PROFILE DISCOVER Creating a user profile will help you contextualize your problem or challenge statement. The persona that your create here will serve as a reference as you progress progress through the design thinking thinking process. process.
User Profile
The framework offers suggestions for possible areas of the person that may be useful to include when trying to get to the core of who they are. Remember you use quotes rather than notes as often as possible as it will help you and others to understand the person rather rather than your perception of the person .
Here is the framework: User Profile
PROTOTYPE
Luma Service Blue Print
Experiment board
LUMA SERVICE BLUEPRINT PROTOTYPE This blueprint builds on a storyboard or user journey, giving space to outline additional layers that may or may not be visible to the user; it shows shows not only only the end-to end-to-en -end d experi experienc ence e but also also the ‘behin ‘behind d the scenes’ elements outline not only the design of a product but also its delivery. Luma Service Blue Print
The first row is where you can storyboard the user’s journey with your prod produc uctt or servi service ce.. The The rows rows belo below w are are wher where e you you can can incl includ ude e the the behavior of other actors that both come into contact with the user during their acquisition of your product or service and those those that remain hidden from the user but still contribute to the experience/delivery.
Here is the framework: Luma Service Blueprint
EXPERIMENT BOARD PROTOTYPE The experiment board helps you map and keep track of all conjectures you are testing and what happens to your solution depending on the results.
Experiment board
Here is the framework: Experiment Board
The vertical progression of cells allows you to move from conjecture to actual by identifying a problem you assume your user has, outlining how you plan to test that assumption, making clear when you take your assumption to be true, presenting the results of your experiment, and drafting a solution to tackle the identified problem. The framework gives 3 possib possible le ways ways to move move forward forward depend depending ing on you yourr experi experimen mental tal findings; either your assumption was false and you need to change something (pivot), your assumption was correct and you can move on to test testin ing g your your risk riskie iest st assu assump mpti tion on (pres (preser erve ve), ), or you you can’ can’tt make make a conclu conclusio sion n about about the validity validity of you yourr assump assumptio tion n and you need need to redesign the experiment (rethink). Things to keep in mind when using an experiment board are that your
