Design Thinking: A Common Sense Process

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Presentation at the Project Management Institute

Virtual Student Seminar

4 October 2017

Michael Zarro, PhD

About Me

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Michael Zarro, PhD

15+ years in technology innovation

I help people become design thinkers and

organizations develop user-centered strategies

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Design defined by Meriam Webster:

• to create, fashion, execute, or construct

according to plan

• to devise for a specific function or end

• to make a drawing, pattern, or sketch of

• to draw the plans for

Thinking explained • “The trouble with every one of us is that we don't

think enough” – Thomas J. Watson (IBM)

• “Think (think, think). Let your mind go, let yourself

be free” – Aretha Franklin

• “Everything around you that you call life, was

made up by people... you can build your own

things that other people can use” – Steve Jobs

We tend to focus on the last two bullets of the definition when thinking about design.

Design thinking is centered around the first two bullets.

More than anything (to me) design thinking makes you stop and THINK about your customers, and their needs.

Outline

1. Who are Design Thinkers?

2. What is Design Thinking?

3. When do we “Design Think?”

4. Where is Design Thinking Used?

5. Why use Design Thinking?

6. How to Manage Design Thinking Projects

+ Resources

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Who

are Design Thinkers?

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?

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1960’s/70’s 2000’s

The study of design as a science / process began long before design thinking was developed.

Design thinking, although new and “hot,” utilizes decades worth of experiences and research as its foundation.

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Today: Bring Together Business and Users

Business Users

Design thinking useful just for more people than just those with the title “Designer.”

What is Design Thinking?

• More than anything, design

thinking is a mindset, with

associated processes and

tools, which uncovers and

addresses real user needs.

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?

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10You should recognize many similarities between the different ways of visualizing Design Thinking

Design Thinking Defined?

The design-thinking ideology asserts that a hands-on, user-centric

approach to problem solving can lead to innovation, and innovation can

lead to differentiation and a competitive advantage. This hands-on, user-

centric approach is defined by the design-thinking process – NNGroup

Design thinking is a process—applicable to all

walks of life—of creating new and innovative

ideas and solving problems. It is not limited to a

specific industry or area of expertise. – Kaan

Tunali (SAP)

Design thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand

the user, challenge assumptions we might have, and redefine problems in

an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not

be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. As such,

design thinking is most useful in tackling problems that are ill-defined

or unknown. - Interaction Design Foundation

Design thinking utilizes elements from the designer's toolkit like empathy

and experimentation to arrive at innovative solutions. By using design

thinking, you make decisions based on what future customers really

want instead of relying only on historical data or making risky bets

based on instinct instead of evidence. – IDEO

Design Thinking is…

confusing?

“Design thinking isn’t one thing…

but a bundle of mindsets and

philosophies all wrapped up in one term,

which obviously has the potential to lead to

ambiguity and misunderstanding.”

Neil Stevenson (quoted in The Atlantic)

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/01/how-design-thinking-became-a-buzzword-at-school/512150/

Design Thinking is Philosophy?

What is Design Thinking?a) A jumble of terms like empathy, and arrows, and shapes, etc.

b) A linear process – moving forward

c) An iterative process – revisiting past decisions based on new learning

d) A way of finding innovative ideas and reducing risk

e) Confusing

f) A mindset and philosophy of focusing on the user

g) All of the above

Pop Quiz!

When, in a project, do

we use design

thinking?

Before You Build! (aka common sense)

This Atlantic City casino cost over $2 Billion to build.

It was open 2012-2014 and is now vacant because, while it offered luxurious

amenities, they were not in tune with most Atlantic City visitors.

Talk to your

customers

and test ideas first…

before committing

resources for

development

It’s Common Sense…

Design Thinking

Build &

develop

Observe

Evaluate

& Iterate

Isn’t it common sense to learn about your users/customers before building something for them?

Common Sense… Agile Edition

Design thinking intersects with IT project management concepts

like Agile and Lean when building

Inspired by Nordstrom Innovation Lab

Where is design

thinking used?

Design Thinking Organizations

Design Thinking with SAP is a

new, fresh way… to find human

meaning and use for technology

By carefully listening to our guests,

we were able to shift our

perspective.

Empathy and experimentation. Inspiration and

ideation.

Using Design Thinking,

organisations have been able to

transform their cultures to become

more innovative, which has had a

positive impact on their top line and

bottom line.

Human-centered design is all about putting

users first and designing a solution with the end

user in mind…designing a solution that matters

to the people using it, instead of creating

something solely from the organization's point of

view.

We regularly meet with our

customers, taking their

perspective into account

when developing new

systems.

Design thinking is used across industries and domains

Why use design

thinking?

Because It Works!

More common sense...

Companies that

differentiate on

the experience

outperform the

S&P 500 by

211% or more

60-90% cost savings

on fixing usability

problems

American Airlines

reduced the cost of

fixing usability problems

by up to 90% by

identifying and correct

them before

development

Top for reasons for

inaccurate cost

estimates are user-

related:

Requests for changes by

users, overlooked tasks,

lack of user-centered

requirements, and

insufficient understanding

between users and

analysts

79% decrease in

software defects

Designing around

user needs, reduced

defects by 79% and

increased customer

satisfaction

How do we manage

design thinking

projects?

Pick a process… or two or three,

or create your own

But here, we’ll use Stanford’s process

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Stanford has a well known process, with many accessible online resources to help you implement design

thinking in your projects. https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/

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Empathize

• Foundation of design thinking

• Observe users in context

• Interact and interview, structured and

unstructured settings

“In the Wild” Observations

• Get out of the building!

• Go to your users

• Watch them do their thing

• See ALL of it, not just bits and pieces

• Pretend you are the apprentice, and they

are the teacher

Interviews

• Ask users to “tell the story”

• Prepare some questions, but follow

“interesting leads”

• Always ask “why”

Define

• Define the challenge, based on what you

learned in the empathize phase.

• Synthesize findings and leverage insights

Define the meaningful challenge for the

project

• What problems need to be solved?

Provide focus for the project team

• Develop an understanding of the user

types, their needs and goals.

• Group themes and topics together

– Using post-its, photos, quotes, and

user-flows

Ideate

• Move from user problems to identifying

solutions

• Think and use your imagination

• Result in a wide range of possible solutions,

to be evaluated in later steps

Ideate = Think!

• Generate a lot of ideas

• Go beyond the obvious ideas

• Use the “Yes, and” technique from improv

comedy for collaboration:

– Think positive, not negative

• Identify which ideas to use in your

prototypes, the next phase

• Common categories of ideas:

– Most innovative

– Most unexpected

– Most expected

– Least like what we have today

Prototype

• Transform your ideas into something people can use

• Iterate, iterate, iterate!

• Use inexpensive options, like paper prototypes, quickly

coded HTML, etc.

Prototype

• Build prototypes you will put in front of

users in the next phase

• Do not get too invested in a design, keep

them low cost

• Identify the unique feature, called a

variable, that you plan to test in each

prototype

• Build your prototypes with the test in mind,

how will they provide insights?

Test

• Gather feedback from users using prototypes

• Learn how the proposed solutions perform, and

which solutions to move forward with

• Learn more about users and the way they will

use what you develop

Test

• Watch users interact with your prototypes

• Listen as they describe it, and their

questions.

• Compare multiple prototypes

• Repeat as necessary

• Identify winning designs, concepts, features

– Get ready to build the winner

Done! Ready to build

With confidence you are effectively

addressing real user needs

Example deliverables: Functional prototypes

Prioritized requirements / user stories

Design Thinking Report, including:

- Video clips and data from tests

- User quotes

- Winning concepts and features

Summary

THINKWork to

understand

your users

THINK

more and

prioritize

ideas

Test some

ideas as

prototypes

Repeat

until you

THINK you

got it right

A “THINK” based look at Design Thinking process

Resources

Stanford University Resources• The Bootcamp Bootleg

https://dschool.stanford.edu/

resources/the-bootcamp-bootleg

• Put Design Thinking to Work

https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/chart-a-new-course-

put-design-thinking-to-work

ResourcesLibrary at PMI.org

https://www.pmi.org/learning/library

Sample resources:

1. Contributions of design thinking to project management

in an innovation context

2. Agile by Design: Integrating Design Thinking and Agile

Approaches...

Tools, Templates, Webinars, and Articles

https://www.projectmanagement.comExamples:

1. Slashing Risks with Design Thinking and User Experience

2. Uncovering Design Thinking

Thank You!

Mike Zarro, PhD

www.mikezarro.com

@mzarro

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mzarro

Available from the publisher:

http://bit.ly/2mzfxHa

and Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1627059768