Intro to Design Thinking

Andrea Cavallaro
People & Innovation Associate Partner
Partners4Innovation – A Digital360 company

Senior Advisor Osservatori Digital Innovation

School of Management – Politecnico di Milano

[email protected]
www.linkedin.com/in/cavallaroandrea/

1
2

2
3

ART
DESIGN
3
‘Design is not just what
it looks like. Design is
how it works.’
Steve Jobs

4
Has this situation always confused you?

5
… And yet, there is such a simple solution!

6
Design Thinking: a definition

“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the
needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”
Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO

7
Human-Centered Approach

Human-centered design is an approach to interactive

systems development that aims to make systems usable
and useful by focusing on the users, their needs and
requirements, and by applying human
factors/ergonomics, usability knowledge, and techniques.
This approach enhances effectiveness and efficiency,
improves human well-being, user satisfaction,
accessibility and sustainability; and counteracts possible
adverse effects of use on human health, safety and
performance
[ISO 9241-210:2010(E)]

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_kelley_on_human_centered_design

8
9
«One Size Does Not Fit All»

A single process or tool that fits every single case does not exist. Nevertheless, tools and processes that people adapt to
their own needs do exist.

10
«One Size Does Not Fit All»

11
Design Thinking in the Innovation Process

12
Design Thinking in the Innovation Process

13
14
Key elements of Design Thinking approach

1 People-centered 2 Creativity

Start from people’s needs and It is necessary to look at situations

desires, from their motivations and from different points of view, in
the problems they are willing to order to identify new solutions.
face.
Emphathy is crucial, since
understanding others is necessary.

3 Concreteness 4 Iteration

Make ideas tangible and test your The path to success is not straight.
hypothesis.
The quicker you go through the
Failure is part of the process and “understand-create-learn“ cycle, the more
experimentation is fundamental. chances of success increase

15
When can Design Thinking be helpful?

16
When can Design Thinking be helpful?

«Wicked» problems
A wicked problem is a problem that is
difficult or impossible to solve because of
incomplete, contradictory, and changing
requirements that are often difficult to
recognize. The use of the term "wicked"
here has come to denote resistance to
resolution, rather than evil

17
When can Design Thinking be helpful?

▪ When you know nothing about the market and about customers’ needs
▪ When you are uncertain about the potential result
▪ When you have never experienced that problem before
▪ When you (still) do not have any hypothesis to test
▪ When your usual sources of data and analysis are not helpful in the
solution identification

18
Design Thinking: the mindset

19
Design Thinking: «Human-Centered»

20
Design Thinking: «Radical Collaboration»

21
Design Thinking: «Prototyping»

22
Design Thinking: «Show don’t tell»

23
Design Thinking: «Action»

24
Design Thinking: the process

The 5-stages process developed by Stanford Design School is a widely adopted model

25
Design Thinking: the process

26
Design Thinking: the process

Poblem Exploration Solution Development

In a first leg you would have done your Ideation is the starting point of the
empathy research to define a clear problem second “diamond” in
that you are facing and that is worth solving the popular Double Diamond framework
27
Design Thinking: the process

The 5-stages process developed by Stanford Design School is a widely adopted model

29
30
 The process: Empathize

Take action and involve others Dive into the context Observe with new eyes

31
The process: Empathize

32
Empathize: Some Tools for Data Collection

Autoethnography Observation Interview Co-creative Workshops

Team members firsthand explore a It encompasses a wide variety of Questions are asked to customers, Using the knowledge of a group
particular experience in a real-life methods: Shadowing, "a day in the staff, or any other relevant of people to describe a particular
situation, as customers or as staff. life of…", "work-along", etc. stakeholders to better understand a aspect of the service (Persona,
Some variations can include: Observation can take place at the certain group of people and their Customer Journey, System Map,
mystery shopping, mystery user's workplace, at their home, or needs, to comprehend a particular etc.)
working, service safari, etc.. by following them through various experience, etc. They can be
stages of the process. Based on conducted during the use of the
the situation being experienced, service (contextual) or in a neutral
the user can be asked to explain setting.
actions, artifacts, behaviors,
motivations, needs, issues, etc.
Variation: non-participant
observation.

33
Il processo: Empathize

Customer interview

Objective: collect detailed information

about customer’s mentality, behaviour
and frustrations

This creates emphathy, has richer

hunches and reveals opportunities that
you would have never considered before

34
Il processo: Empathize

Customer interview

• Do not start with saying that you are working on your idea. This may
influence the interviewee, who will distort the interview or try to Don’ts
decode your questions
• Do not ask allusive questions. Otherwise you are leading the
interviewee to answer what you want him to answer
• Do not put the interviewee in hypothetical scenarios. The more you
ask them to imagine an hypothetical situation, the less you can trust
their answers
• Do not start a question in the conditional form (would like, would
do…). This requires them to think «in the future», describing
something that is not foreseable and not reliable

35
Participatory observation

Put yourselves in your "customer's shoes"!

36
Participatory observation

A day in the life of (DILO) o A week in the life of (WILO)

Elemento da
Tempo/Durata Descrizione Valutazione
valutare

37
Design Thinking: the process

The 5-stages process developed by Stanford Design School is a widely adopted model

38
Define: some tools for data analysis and synthesis

Personas Journey System Map User Story

Creation of a detailed description of a Mapping of existing or future Set of different types of visualizations A synthesis of what a user wants to
specific persona archetype, to experiences through a series of steps aimed at representing the ecosystem be able to do. It originates as a tool
exemplify the characteristics of a and stages that define the overall surrounding a specific service, such to define the requirements of a
group of people. It focuses on experience from a very high level, as Stakeholder Map (mapping the software from the user's perspective
specific motivations and behaviors in down to mappings that can show levels of influence and interest in the but can be used more generally to
order to facilitate empathy and details of just a few minutes, if process by different actors), Value define the requirements of any
create solutions that address necessary. Network map (dynamics of the physical/digital product or service.
concrete problems. relationships among actors),
Ecosystem map (mapping all the roles
that have an influence on the user
and the value they exchange), etc.

39
The process: Define

User’s Name Needs a way to… Because…

(adjectives that describe user) (verbs to describe need) (insights from observations)

ex. Samuel, a curious 12th ex. Needs a way to ex. Because he needs
grader understand the financial aid financial assistance to attend
process college

Needs Statement:
Samuel, a curious 12th grader, needs a way to navigate the financial aid process
because he needs financial assistance to afford the cost of college.

40
The process: Define

41
The process: Define

42
The process: Define

Customer profile

Gains

Description of tasks that customers

Customer
perform during their daily job or
Job(s)
their spare time

Pains

43
The process: Define

Customer profile

Gains

Description of elements and situations

Customer
that bother the customer before,
Job(s)
during and after his/her activities

Pains

44
The process: Define

Customer profile

Gains

Description of customers’
expectations, of benefits they Customer
desire to obtain and that would Job(s)
satisfy them the most
Pains

45
The process: Define

Customer profile

Reach a
destination
Gains
Call a taxi

Customer
Find a taxi
Job(s)
Give directions

Pains
Pay

46
The process: Define

Customer profile

Gains

Customer
Job(s)
Wait a long
time

Pains
Mal
Unsafe di
driver
pancia
Compete with Overcharger
other customers by taxi

47
The process: Define

Customer
Cliente
profile
Fair price

Easy payment

Valore
Gains
Arrive on time

Professional
Customer
Job(s)

Pains

48
Design Thinking: the process

The 5-stages process developed by Stanford Design School is a widely adopted model

49
Definition of brainstorming

"A group research method aimed at stimulating problem-solving or the

production of creative ideas, through the free expression of insights,
impressions, and suggestions by individual participants."
Source: Accademia della Crusca

DIVERGE CONVERGE
create diverse ideas choose among the
different ideas

Source: IDEO

50
Why brainstorming?

To find innovative ideas, it's important to go beyond one's comfort zone.

Brainstorming is an effective way to:

• Produce a large number of ideas, quickly
• Expand one's portfolio of alternatives
• "Unblock" people
• Derive detailed insights from a group
• Create involvement and enthusiasm
• Solve difficult problems
• Improve team collaboration

51
1 Defer judgement

• There are no «bad» ideas in this phase

• There is plenty of time to judge in the
following phases
52
2 Encourage wild ideas

• The most strange and absurd ideas are the

ones bringing disruptive innovation
• It is easier to get ideas «down to earth» at a
later time 53
3 Build on the ideas of others

Think about «and’s» rather than «but’s»

54
4 Stay focused on the topic

There will be better results if

everyone stays focused

55
5 One conversation at a time

In this way all ideas can be

heard

56
6 Be visual

Try to use both the right and the

left side of your brain

57
7 Headline your idea

Communicate the essential,

without long speeches

58
8 Go for quantity (not quality)

Fix an ambitious objective

and overtake it

59
Ideation Methods

There are hundreds of methodologies to generate new ideas, although some are simply slight adaptations of more
basic techniques
▪ Brainstorm ▪ Provocation
▪ Braindump ▪ Movement
▪ Brainwrite ▪ Bodystorm
Generating ideas ▪ Brainwalk ▪ Gamestorming
Methods aimed at fostering a divergent
▪ Challenge Assumptions ▪ Cheatstorm
approach, with the goal of generating as
many ideas as possible in a short time. ▪ SCAMPER ▪ Crowdstorm
Participants are asked to refrain from
criticism, be open to ideas that may ▪ Mindmap ▪ Co-Creation Workshops
seem absurd, focus on quantity rather
than quality, and build on the ideas of ▪ Sketch or Sketchstorm ▪ Prototype
others.
▪ Storyboard ▪ Creative Pause
▪ Analogies

60
Ideation Methods

How might we…?

STEPS

1. Start from the statement you have created and try to reformulate it as a
question that begins with “How might we…”. The goal is to find opportunities to
propose something new. Therefore, it is better if the information at your
disposal suggests multiple “How might we” questions.
2. Now, starting from your question, ask yourself if it allows for generating a
variety of solutions. If not, you need to make it broader and more general.
3. Finally, make sure that your question is not too broad. It's not a simple process,
but a good “How might we” question should give you boundaries tight enough
to know where to start your brainstorming, but also broad enough to allow you
to explore creative solutions.

61
 Ideation Methods

How might we…?

ACTION SUBJECT WHAT

What do you want to achieve
+ that will be influenced or impacted, so + you can ideally achieve (result)?
(e.g., verb) that...

62
Ideation Methods - examples

How might we…redesign our high school to

improve student engagement and their
How might we…? academic outcomes?

How might we…rethink our approach to the

development and delivery of training to better
meet the needs and desires of our teachers and
students?

How might we…make the airport a place where

children want to go?
How might we…harness the energy of children
to entertain other passengers?

63
Ideate: Generating creative ideas

▪ A simple tool that requires thinking about the opposite of a concept to broaden
the horizon of possibilities and generate new creative ideas.
▪ When you have to design a chair, you can list the assumptions characterizing a
chair (e.g., it must have legs) and think about their opposite (no legs?!) to
stimulate new ideas: what if chairs were hung from the ceiling?
▪ How it works:
• In the first column ("Assumptions"), write down the assumptions on which
the product/service you need to innovate is based.
• In the second column ("Opposite"), write the opposites (or modified
versions) of the assumptions. For example, you can write (assumption = a
chair has 4 legs):
• The opposite: no legs?
• 10x: 40 legs?
• 50%: shorter legs?
• In the third column ("Solution"), write new ideas inspired by the opposites.

64
Ideate

Generating ideas Enrich and deepen

Methods aimed at fostering a divergent Methods aimed at "unlocking" teams

approach, with the goal of generating as that are unable to propose truly new
many ideas as possible in a short time. ideas or remain anchored to more
Participants are asked to refrain from familiar thoughts. They encourage
criticism, be open to ideas that may discussion, suggest new paths to explore,
seem absurd, focus on quantity rather and help apply existing solutions to new
than quality, and build on the ideas of problems.
others.

65
Ideate: Enrich and deepen ideas

▪ Starting from one or more case studies, it is required to

identify the insights that led to the success of the case and
translate them into new ideas that can be applied in one's
own business. When thinking about a new product or
service for one's company, looking outside one's own
reference context helps stimulate the generation of
creative ideas.
▪ How it works:
• In the first phase of the process, on the left side,
write down the insights on which the success of the
presented initiatives is based.
• In the second phase, write down the new ideas
inspired by the insights derived from the presented
cases.

66
Ideate

Generating ideas Enrich and deepen Evaluate and select

Methods aimed at fostering a divergent Methods aimed at "unlocking" teams Methods aimed at making teams
approach, with the goal of generating as that are unable to propose truly new converge on a subset of the most
many ideas as possible in a short time. ideas or remain anchored to more promising ideas. They facilitate mapping,
Participants are asked to refrain from familiar thoughts. They encourage evaluating, ranking, selecting, and
criticism, be open to ideas that may discussion, suggest new paths to explore, refining ideas.
seem absurd, focus on quantity rather and help apply existing solutions to new
than quality, and build on the ideas of problems.
others.

67
Ideate

▪ Post-it Voting or Dot Voting

▪ Four Categories Method

▪ Idea Affinity Maps Evaluate and select

▪ Now Wow How Matrix Methods aimed at making teams
converge on a subset of the most
▪ Six Thinking Hats promising ideas. They facilitate mapping,
evaluating, ranking, selecting, and
refining ideas.
▪ Lean Startup Machine Idea Validation Board

▪ Idea Selection Criteria

68
Ideate: Evaluate and select ideas

▪ Everyone is asked to place on a whiteboard all the post-its with the identified ideas.
▪ How it works:
• Participants are asked to read all the ideas developed previously. It's possible
to discuss the different ideas with colleagues but only for 1 minute.
• Each group will receive an idea shopping card and must fill in the top half of
the model by selecting and copying 6 of the emerged ideas. Some possible
criteria (just as examples):
o The most original idea
o The idea that can be implemented right away
o The idea that the team likes the most
o The idea that involves/impacts the most significant number of people
o ...
• Transform the 6 ideas into a top 3: it's possible to start from the existing ideas
and modify/integrate them.

69
Design Thinking: the process

The 5-stages process developed by Stanford Design School is a widely adopted model

70
Prototyping

71
Prototyping

72
Build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

Unlike traditional product development, which usually involves a troubled

and long incubation period and aims for perfection, the goal of an MVP is
to start a learning path. An MVP is created to test business hypotheses,
not to clarify technical aspects

73
What is an MVP?

• the smallest set of characteristics that allows you the greatest…

✓ learning, feedback, failure, …
✓ incremental and iterative
• It is not a saleable version with the minimum of features (no basic version)
• It is what allows you to test a hypothesis
• It can be a drawing, slide, video, etc.…

74
Types of (descriptive) MVPs

Make it «real» with a representation of a value proposition.

Datasheet: Specs of your imagined value proposition

Requirements: Word processor

Brochure: Mocked-up brochure of your imagined value proposition

Requirements: Word processor

Landing Page: Website outlining your imagined value proposition (mostly with a CTA).
Requirements: Web designer

Product Box: Prototype packaging of your imagined value proposition

Requirements: Packaging designer and prototype implementation

Video: Video showcasing your imagined value proposition or explaining how it works
Requirements: Video crew

75
Types of (working) MVPs

Use prototypes designed specifically to learn from

experiments with potential customers and partners.

Learning Prototype: Functioning prototype of your value proposition with

the most basic feature set required for learning
Requirements: Product development

“Wizard of Oz”: Set up a front that looks like a real working value
proposition and manually carry out the tasks of a normally automated
product or service
Requirements: Getting your hands dirty

76
Testing techniques

• Use experiments to test if customers are interested, what

preferences they have, and if they are willing to pay for what
you have to offer.
• Goal: get them to perform a call to action (CTA) as much as
possible in order to engage them and produce evidence of
what works and what doesn’t.

Call To Action (CTA)

Prompts a subject to perform an action; used in an experiment
in order to test one or more hypotheses.

77
Build a MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

People will buy shoes online

= Profit for Zappos

Build a website and upload a Launch of Ads campaigns to

catalogue of shoes bought in bring traffic to the website and
the city’s stores measure results in terms of Hypothesis confirmed
sales

BUILD MEASURE LEARN

Test a new hypothesis

78
Design Thinking: the process

The 5-stages process developed by Stanford Design School is a widely adopted model

79
Why should we test?

The Testing phase is fundamental to meet the

expectations and needs of the market.

Testing means collecting feedback and learning from it to

iteratively improve your idea.

80
(The Founder)

81
82

Drew Houston
Dropbox Founder & CEO

82
83

What I have learned

• Biggest risk: creating something that nobody wants

• Not launching your innovation → painful, but not
learning → fatal
• Put something in the hands of users (it doesn't
have to be a working product) to get real feedback
AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
• Actually, talk to your potential customers

Drew Houston
Dropbox Founder & CEO

83
The testing process

Prioritize
Extract Hypotheses Design Tests
tests

Make Capture
progress! learnings Run Tests

84
The Test Card

Name the test, set a due date, and

list the person responsible

Design an experiment:
describe the hypothesis that Indicate how critical this hypothesis
you want to test is for the entire idea to work

Outline the experiment you are going

to design to verify if the hypothesis is
Indicate how costly this test will be
correct or needs to be rejected and
to execute
revised

Indicate how reliable the measured

data are
Define what data you are going to
measure
Indicate how long it takes until this
test produces results
Define a target thresold to validate or
invalidate the tested hypothesis.
Caveat: consider following up with
additional experiments to increase
certainty

85
Prioritize tests

Design a series of experiments for the most critical

hypotheses.
Consider testing the most critical hypotheses
with several experiments. Start with cheap and
quick tests. Then follow up with more elaborate
and reliable tests if necessary. Thus, you may
create several Test Cards for the same
hypotheses. Rank Test Cards.
Prioritize your Test Cards. Rank
the most critical hypotheses
highest but prioritize cheap and
quick tests to be done early in the
process, when uncertainty is at its
maximum. Increase your
spending on experiments that
produce more reliable evidence
and insights with growing
certainty.

86
Learn: the Learning Card

Name the insight, the

date of learning, and
the person responsible.

Describe the hypothesis

that you tested.

Outline the outcomes of your

experiment(s) in terms of data and
results. A Learning Card may aggregate
Note how reliable the
the observations from several Test
data measured are.
Cards.

Explain what conclusions

and insights you derived Highlight how
from the test results. dramatic the actions
required are based on
what you learned.
Describe what actions you will
take based on your insights.

87
• Lean startup
approach

88
88
89

Explore the problem

Explore the
and the market
solution

• Customer discovery interview • Solution discovery interview

• Smoke test • Concierge
• Landing page • Wizard of Oz
• Fake door/404 page • Physical prototypes (paper, digital, ...)
• Video • A/B testing
• Pitch • Survey*
• … • …
• Pre-orders (crowdfunding)
• Test ads (Google AdWords, ecc.)
• Focus group
• Survey*
• …

89
Build your business only after finding the correct value proposition
and business model!

1. Test jobs, pains and gains of

your customers

2. Test products, services and

characteristics of your value
proposition

3. Test the willingness to pay

90
Key takeaways

Every test must be designed to learn as

01 04
Uncertainty is at its highest at the very much as possible about your clients and
beginning of an innovative project: your idea. The artifacts that you create
follow lean & agile approaches must be focused on the verification of a
specific hypothesis

02 Every innovative idea is based on some 05 The failed tests are as much useful as the
key hypotheses that must be verified to successful ones: you must use what you
make the idea work: start testing the learnt to change your idea accordingly
riskiest ones

91
Readings & Resources

▪ Change By Design (2009): Tim Brown

▪ Design Thinking (2011): Nigel Cross
▪ Insight Out (2015): Tina Seelig
▪ The Art of Innovation (2011): Tom Kelly
▪ The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage (2011): Roger Martin
▪ This Is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design and Design Thinking in the Real World (2017): Marc Stickdorn
▪ This is Service Design Thinking: Basics, Tools, Cases (2012): Marc Stickdorn
▪ Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience, and Brand Value (2009): Thomas Lockwood
▪ Creative confidence (2013) Tom Kelley
▪ Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation: What They Can't Teach You at Business or Design School (2014): Iris Mootee

92
Readings & Resources

▪ 15 TED Talks that Inspire Design Thinking https://blog.logodesignguru.com/15-ted-talks-inspire-design-thinking/

▪ A 40-Minute Crash Course In Design Thinking https://www.fastcompany.com/1670615/a-40-minute-crash-course-in-design-thinking
▪ Stanford-Design-Thinking-Virtual-Crash-Course https://vimeo.com/140556760
▪ How It Works: Design Thinking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXtN4y3O35M
▪ Stanford Webinar - Design Thinking = Method, Not Magic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSuK2C89yjA
▪ Design the New Business https://vimeo.com/31678404
▪ IDEO https://www.ideou.com/
▪ Board of Innovation https://www.boardofinnovation.com/
▪ Strategyzer https://strategyzer.com/

93