20th century was the age of industrialization and required design doing
21st century is the knowledge economy and requires design thinking
Design is finding a balance between desirability, viability and feasibility
Ideas should not be favored based on who creates them (repeat aloud)
Ideas that create a buzz should be favored.
Encourage bottom-up creativity. Not by suggestion boxes and memos to management about an idea, but instead by prototyping and excitement around ideas.
We don’t draw to illustrate ideas. We draw to express ideas.
Drawing forces decisions.
“The Butterfly Test” – using post-its as a silent voting mechanism. Each person has an allotment to put on their favorite ideas.
“Prototyping allows the exploration of many ideas in parallel”
“The greater the investment in an idea, the more committed we become to it.”
Know when enough is enough for your prototype. There’s a delicate balance between not demonstrating the experience and overproducing your first guess.
You can prototype things far beyond just physical products. Use skits, role play and imagination to prototype experiences.
Look at all aspects of the customer journey. Not just their interaction with the physical thing.
Amtrak wanted IDEO to design the train interior so people would enjoy the ride more. . . The actual train is step 8 out of 10 in the process of riding. The scope needed to be wider. 70% of the opportunity to improve came before the customer stepped onto the train.
Own your prototype. Don’t outsource version 1.
Products and experiences need to connect to emotions, not just rationality.
The best experiences are not delivered by corporate mandate, but by the freedom of the employees on the spot.
Four Seasons employees are trained to “anticipate the needs of customers and build on the ideas of their colleagues.” They are put in the shoes of the customer as they’re given a free stay at any four seasons in the world after 6 months of being with the company.
Observations > assumptions
Experiences must:
- Have active customer participation
- Be delivered authentically by employees
- Be designed with the same level of detail as a physical product
“We are designing verbs.” – Bill Moggridge
Allow people to tell their story.
The Red Cross made cards for blood donors to write why they give and used them as inspiration in the waiting area and emotional reinforcement for donors.
Every design challenge at IDEO begins with “How might we?”
Make sure your “How might we” strikes a balance between narrow and broad.
Design thinking is about creating the experience for everyone to join the conversation.
The best experiences are a result of direct engagement with the people receiving them.
Visuals speak to us. Especially when the image is hard to conceptualize.
Using cards with questions to provoke thought and start discussion
Users on extreme ends of the spectrum can sometimes best inform development for the everyday user.
Design Thinking and You
Don’t ask what? ask why?
Open your eyes
Make it visual
Build on the ideas of others
Demand options
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