Design Thinking is a human-centered process that has many methods and is not linear throughout the different steps. In the Article, What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular, Rikke Dam and Teo Siang define Design Thinking as, “Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding.” This process focuses on failure and refinement to create different products and services. This allows designers, artists, and anyone to create the best product for clients. We must delve deep into the target audiences lives and take the time to fully understand them and not create anything based on our own opinions. Often our opinions are not accurate understandings of the target audience. Now I will take you through the process as I understand it.

      Primarily in the emphasize phase, one should focus on observing, engaging and immersion. As stated in the, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE by Hasso Plattner, “To create meaningful innovations, you need to know your users and care about their lives.” One can discover more about their target audience through qualitative and quantitative data collection, focusing on feelings and needs and identifying problem and pain points. This can be accomplished through numerous channels, such as research, interviews, surveys, shadowing, documentaries, journals, and body language. It is also imperative to drop assumptions and judgments about clients or the target group here. You need to take the time to know your users and care about what occurs in their lives and what problems you could solve for them. If you do not take the time to do get to know your target audience, your creation may not be useful to this group at all. 

      Once you understand and empathize with your target group, the next stage is to define the problem. Define is the second phase in which one has to unpack and gain insight into the given problem set and establish what the target group needs. This can be done through analysis, the five whys, different personas, (re)definition of the problem, problem statements and using the “how might we..” mindset to find the best solution for the giving problem at hand. In this stage, there is a lot of ambiguity, uncertainty, and need for time and space. This stage needs a lot of time since it is very important to the result. Time needs to be dedicated here to see problems from different perspectives, especially different consumer perspectives. If you do not consider the consumer in this phase it can be fatal to the success of the project.

      After you define the problem, it is time to generate ideas for the problems you have discovered. In the third phase, ideate, it is best to have a higher quantity of ideas that you generate, you must not focus on the quality of these ideas. The goal is to get the highest volume of ideas you can. You want to ensure diversity, and that every voice at the table is heard, and that no judgment is passed in the idea creation space. It is also key that novelty is prioritized over relevance, and at this sweet spot, idea generation will be optimized.

      In the fourth phase, prototype, you have to explore, inspire and converse. Through this phase, one cannot be scared to encounter failure and it is necessary to embrace it to have the best ideas and creative solutions. Through this phase, there will also be a lot of iteration and possibly revisiting other phases. Possible forms are paper prototypes, animatics, comprehensives, low fidelity, high fidelity, wireframes, walkthroughs, and maquettes.

      In the final phase, the test phase, one needs to REFINE, LEARN, and SOLVE. In creative professions, one needs to be comfortable with the fact that something’s are never finished (but somethings are). In both types of work that are continuous or defined, reflection and learning are vital in both. Key points in the test phase are screenings, launches, publishing, printing, debugging, shipping, promoting, releasing and beta.

      As a marketing major, I am in the School of Business, not the School of Communications so I was not introduced to the concept of “Design Thinking” until my senior year when I took GID101 as a recommendation from my friend who is a graphic design major. Through our discussions in class and the amazing Ted Talks from Tim Brown and David Kelley, I truly think this is a concept that should be shared through all the different disciplinary schools on campus. This concept would be able to help immensely regardless of your major. It is a building block that should be implanted in everyone’s studies. Since everyone solves problems in their different careers, being able to think creatively to solve different problems for many different kinds of people would be an invaluable skill to have for any field.

      In Tim Brown’s Ted Talk, Designers – think big, he introduced a lot of important points, by focusing on one product and just making it “more marketable” did not bring him success. He took a different view on design and started attacking projects with Design Thinking. He brings up the point you have to balance what people want, new technology and financials. It is an important triangular relationship in which you have to balance all factors for success. This brings Design Thinking into a real-world application. He does a tremendous job showing how Design Thinking can be used outside the classroom. Tim Brown’s insights relate to the point that Design Thinking can be used in any field. You have to think holistically and not just objectively. In any field, viewing a problem from multiple angles and different perspectives will bring you the best solution.

      In David Kelley’s Ted Talk, How to build your creative confidence, he brings up interesting points about creativity. He flashes back to elementary school. It shows the importance of fostering creativity at a young age. He explains how creativity is limited at a young age out of fear to be judged by classmates If creativity is fostered at the beginning of life and people did not judge each other’s ideas or projects, people may feel more confident in their creativity. People are scared to be judged which inhibits the sharing of a lot of creative ideas. It is important to creative judgment-free environments to foster creativity. If creativity was encouraged at a young age, grown people in the professional world would be more apt to share ideas and this would create better collaboration and possibly generate better solutions for companies.