Table of contents

• Understanding Brainstorming in Design Thinking
• Setting the Stage for Effective Brainstorming
• Best Practices for Brainstorming in Design Thinking
• Tools and Techniques for Brainstorming
• Overcoming Common Challenges in Brainstorming
• Conclusion
• FAQs 

What if innovation could be cultivated through a structured yet boundless exploration of ideas? In the landscape of problem-solving, design thinking stands out as a beacon of creativity and empathy. But within this methodology, lies a crucial phase that often determines the trajectory of innovation: brainstorming. Yet, how can teams navigate the complexities of brainstorming in design thinking to unearth solutions that not only solve problems but deeply resonate with users? 

Let’s delve into effective brainstorming practices and discover how to cultivate an environment where creativity thrives and innovation flourishes.

Understanding Brainstorming in Design Thinking

Brainstorming, within the context of design thinking, is redefined as a collaborative ideation process, a symphony of minds converging to explore the uncharted territories of creativity. It’s an orchestrated effort to dismantle the barriers of conventional thinking, enabling a free flow of ideas that are both diverse and inclusive. 

A study by the Design Management Institute indicated that design-led companies, where brainstorming is a key component, outperformed the S&P 500 by 219% over 10 years. This underscores the economic impact of effective brainstorming within the design-thinking process.

This phase fosters a culture of innovation, where every voice is heard, and every idea is a potential key to unlocking new realms of possibilities. It’s not just about the quantity of ideas but the quality of exploration, the depth of inquiry into the realms of what could be.

Setting the Stage for Effective Brainstorming

According to a Google study on workplace dynamics, psychological safety, which is crucial for effective brainstorming, was identified as the most important factor in high-performing teams. The study highlights the importance of creating an environment where team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of each other.

Before anything else, the stage for effective brainstorming is set by creating an environment that breathes creativity and exudes psychological safety. A clear, focused problem statement acts as the north star, guiding the brainstorming voyage, ensuring that the ideation process remains anchored in relevance and purpose.

Best Practices for Brainstorming in Design Thinking

As a cornerstone of the design thinking process, brainstorming is that fine spot where creativity meets strategy to foster innovative solutions. To harness its full potential, certain best practices are essential, transforming ordinary brainstorming sessions into powerful engines of innovation.

• Encourage Diverse Participation: 

The richness of a brainstorming session is directly proportional to the diversity of its participants. Research found that diverse teams are able to solve complex problems faster than cognitively similar people. This supports the idea that diversity in brainstorming sessions contributes to more innovative solutions. When individuals from varied backgrounds come together, they bring unique perspectives that can challenge conventional thinking and spark creative solutions. It’s this confluence of different viewpoints that can lead to the serendipitous discovery of novel ideas. Encouraging participation from all team members, regardless of their role or seniority, ensures a wide range of ideas, fostering an inclusive environment where innovation thrives.

• Defer Judgment: 

One of the fundamental tenets of effective brainstorming is the suspension of judgment. Critique and evaluation at the idea generation phase can stifle creativity and discourage participation. Creating a safe space where ideas can be expressed freely without immediate scrutiny encourages a more open and fluid exchange of thoughts. This practice not only amplifies the quantity of ideas but also emboldens participants to share more radical, unconventional ideas, potentially leading to breakthrough innovations.

• Aim for Quantity: 

Linus Pauling, a two-time Nobel Prize winner, famously said, “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.” This quote could be applied to brainstorming sessions, grounded in the belief that the more ideas generated, the higher the likelihood of producing a truly innovative solution. It’s a numbers game where the sheer volume of ideas increases the odds of uncovering something truly unique and viable. This practice also helps in overcoming the initial resistance and self-consciousness that can hinder creative flow.

• Build on Others’ Ideas: 

Collaboration is at the heart of brainstorming, and building on others’ ideas is a testament to the collective power of a team. This practice encourages an additive rather than a competitive approach to idea generation. When participants actively listen and expand upon each other’s ideas, it not only validates individual contributions but also elevates the ideas to new levels. This collaborative spirit fosters a sense of unity and shared purpose, driving the group towards more refined and comprehensive solutions.

• Use Visual Aids: 

The use of visual aids like sticky notes, whiteboards, and digital tools can significantly enhance the brainstorming process. Visual representation of ideas makes them more tangible and easier to manipulate. This can lead to better organization of thoughts, easier identification of patterns, and more dynamic interactions with the ideas. Visual aids also cater to different learning and thinking styles, making the brainstorming session more inclusive and engaging for all participants.

• Set a Time Limit: 

Imposing time constraints on a brainstorming session can seem counterintuitive, but it serves a critical purpose. Time limits create a sense of urgency that can sharpen focus and increase energy levels. This can lead to a more intense and productive ideation phase, as participants are motivated to share their thoughts more freely and rapidly. Moreover, time constraints can prevent the session from becoming stagnant or veering off course, ensuring that the session remains dynamic and goal-oriented.

• Encourage Wild Ideas: 

The encouragement of wild, out-of-the-box ideas is what often distinguishes a good brainstorming session from a great one. These are the ideas that, at first glance, might seem too radical or impractical but can lead to groundbreaking innovations. Encouraging such ideas requires a culture that not only tolerates but celebrates creative risk-taking. Even a NASA study on creativity concluded that the freedom to make “far-reaching” associations fosters creativity. It’s about pushing the boundaries of what’s considered possible and exploring the edges of imagination.

• Clearly Define Roles: 

The clarity of roles within a brainstorming session is crucial for its success. Defined roles, such as a facilitator, note-taker, and timekeeper, help in organizing the session and ensuring that it runs smoothly. The facilitator guides the discussion, keeping it on track and ensuring that all voices are heard. The note-taker captures the ideas, freeing participants to focus on the ideation process. The timekeeper ensures that the session adheres to the set time limits, maintaining the pace and energy of the session. These roles help in structuring the session, allowing creativity to flourish within a guided framework.

• Prepare Warm-Up Activities: 

Warm-up activities are the prelude to the brainstorming session, designed to loosen up participants and shift their mindset towards creativity. These activities can range from simple icebreakers to complex problem-solving exercises. The goal is to break down barriers, encourage open communication, and stimulate creative thinking. Warm-up activities can also serve to build rapport among team members, creating a more cohesive and collaborative group dynamic.

• Follow Up: 

Harvard Business Review states that the follow-up is where most brainstorming sessions fail, as ideas are often lost or ignored post-session. This process is where the ideas generated during the brainstorming session begin their journey towards realization. It involves reviewing and evaluating the ideas, selecting the most promising ones for further development. This phase is critical for maintaining the momentum generated during the brainstorming session and ensuring that the creative efforts translate into actionable outcomes. The follow-up process also provides an opportunity for reflection, allowing the team to learn from the experience and improve future brainstorming sessions.

By embracing these best practices, teams can elevate their brainstorming sessions from mere idea-generating exercises to powerful catalysts for innovation. But are there any tools to make this process more efficient and engaging?

Tools and Techniques for Brainstorming

The arsenal of tools and techniques available for brainstorming in design thinking is vast and varied. 

Platforms like Miro or Mural offer expansive, collaborative online whiteboards where team members can contribute ideas in real-time, regardless of their physical location. These tools support the integration of visual aids and enable the seamless organization and categorization of ideas, which can be particularly useful in larger groups or distributed teams. Furthermore, they can facilitate the voting or ranking of ideas, helping to prioritize concepts for further exploration or development.

Moreover, incorporating design thinking software like InVision or Adobe XD into the brainstorming process allows teams to quickly prototype and iterate on ideas. This rapid prototyping capability can bridge the gap between ideation and tangible concepts, enabling teams to explore the viability of their ideas more concretely and collaboratively.

Overcoming Common Challenges in Brainstorming

Now that we’ve explored best practices and tools, it’s crucial to address common challenges that can arise during these sessions and strategies to overcome them::

• Combating Groupthink: Groupthink can lead to homogenized thinking and stifle innovation. To combat this, encourage dissenting opinions and diverse viewpoints. One effective strategy is the “devil’s advocate” approach, where one or more team members are designated to challenge ideas, prompting deeper exploration and more robust solutions.
• Managing Dominant Voices: In every group, some voices tend to dominate, which can drown out quieter members. Techniques like the round-robin method, where each participant is given equal opportunity to share their ideas, along with anonymous idea submission through digital platforms, can democratize participation. These methods have been associated with a 20% increase in idea generation in teams with diverse personality types, ensuring a more equitable and comprehensive ideation process.
• Overcoming Idea Fixation: Teams can sometimes become fixated on one idea or direction, hindering the exploration of other possibilities. To overcome this, take deliberate breaks from the current line of thinking, perhaps by introducing unrelated warm-up exercises or shifting focus to a different aspect of the problem. This can help reset the group’s thinking and open up new avenues of ideation.
• Dealing with Off-Topic Diversions: Establishing clear objectives and a focused problem statement at the outset can significantly reduce off-topic diversions, by as much as 30%, ensuring that the session remains directed and efficient. To keep the session on track, the facilitator should gently steer the conversation back to the main topic. Setting clear objectives and a focused problem statement at the beginning of the session can also help maintain direction. Maintaining the focus of a brainstorming session is crucial for its productivity. 
• Addressing Lack of Participation: Lack of participation can be due to various factors, including lack of confidence, fear of judgment, or simply not having the opportunity to speak. Creating a supportive environment that values all contributions can help. Techniques like “pass the baton,” where participants are encouraged to build on the previous idea, can also foster a more inclusive atmosphere.
• Handling Time Constraints: While time limits can enhance focus and productivity, they can also add pressure and potentially curb the creative process. To manage this, ensure that the time allocated is sufficient and clearly communicate the timeline at the start. If needed, be flexible and willing to extend the session or schedule follow-up sessions to explore ideas fully.
• Navigating Creative Blocks: Creative blocks are common in brainstorming sessions, where participants may feel stuck or uninspired. To counter this, introduce creative prompts, change the physical setting, or engage in a quick, unrelated creative activity to reignite the creative spark.

Teams that are proactively addressing these challenges can enhance the effectiveness of their brainstorming sessions, ensuring a more productive, inclusive, and creative outcome. 

Conclusion

The art of effective brainstorming lies not in the avoidance of obstacles but in the skillful maneuvering through them, leveraging diverse perspectives, encouraging wild ideas, and fostering a culture of psychological safety. It’s in this crucible that ideas are not only born but are also rigorously tested and refined, readying them for the crucible of real-world challenges.

As we look ahead, the future of brainstorming in design thinking shines brightly, buoyed by the advent of collaborative technologies and a deeper understanding of group dynamics. It beckons us to a world where ideas flow freely, unencumbered by the traditional constraints of time and space, and where every voice, no matter how faint, finds a resonant echo.

FAQs 

• How do you ensure that brainstorming leads to actionable ideas?

Prioritize ideas based on feasibility, impact, and alignment with user needs, using specific criteria to evaluate and select ideas for prototyping and further development. Additionally, set milestones for implementing and testing the chosen ideas to ensure they transition from concepts to tangible solutions.

• What do you do if the brainstorming session is not generating enough ideas?

Introduce new stimuli, such as relevant case studies or creative prompts. Break the team into smaller groups or pairs to generate ideas independently before sharing with the larger group.

• How can remote teams effectively brainstorm?

Utilize digital collaboration tools that mimic the physical brainstorming environment, such as online whiteboards and idea management platforms, ensuring clear communication and establishing ground rules to maintain engagement and productivity. Periodic check-ins can also foster a sense of connection and momentum among remote participants.

• How do you maintain focus on the user during brainstorming?

Start with a clear understanding of user needs and challenges, using personas or user stories as a constant reference throughout the session to anchor ideas in user-centricity. Regularly revisiting the user’s perspective can help maintain a clear focus on creating value for the end-user.

• How do you deal with conflicting ideas during brainstorming?

Acknowledge and explore differing viewpoints as potential avenues for innovative solutions. Use conflict as a constructive force to delve deeper into the problem space and uncover unique insights.

• What role does the facilitator play in a brainstorming session?

The facilitator guides the process, ensures adherence to the ground rules, manages time, encourages participation, and helps synthesize and organize ideas, which is crucial in maintaining the session’s momentum and focus. They also play a key role in ensuring that the environment remains inclusive and that all voices are heard, fostering a safe space for creative exploration.

The post Brainstorming in Design Thinking: Best Practices & Challenges appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• Understanding Co-creation in Design Thinking
  • Identifying and Engaging Stakeholders
• Fostering Collaboration in Design Thinking Teams
• Co-creation Techniques and Methods
• Overcoming Challenges in Co-creation and Collaboration
• Conclusion 
• FAQs:

Co-creation projects have a 30% higher success rate than those without collaborative efforts. That doesn’t come as a surprise because bringing together different viewpoints and skills from various people into the creative process can greatly improve the creativity and usefulness of solutions for organizations.

In this article, we’ll explore the significance of these elements in design thinking and how they can be used to create environments where innovative ideas are successfully developed and implemented.

Understanding Co-creation in Design Thinking

Design thinking transcends traditional problem-solving methods by emphasizing a holistic and user-centric approach. The magic, however, truly unfolds when co-creation and collaboration are integrated into this framework, bringing together diverse stakeholders to leverage collective intelligence.

Co-creation in design thinking is an approach where the boundaries between the ‘creator’ and the ‘consumer’ blur, leading to a participatory development process. This collaborative model ensures that the solutions devised are not only innovative but also intimately aligned with the users’ needs, aspirations, and contexts. 

The benefits of embracing co-creation are profound:

• User-Centric Solutions: Involving users in the creation process yields solutions that accurately address real needs. Forrester reports that user-centric companies see a 400% increase in customer loyalty, underscoring the value of this approach.
• Increased Buy-In: Stakeholders, having contributed to the development process, are more likely to support and advocate for the solutions.
• Shared Ownership: A collaborative approach fosters a sense of collective responsibility and ownership over the project, enhancing motivation and commitment among all participants.

Identifying and Engaging Stakeholders

What the success of co-creation hinges on is the effective identification and engagement of a diverse group of stakeholders. This includes end-users, clients, domain experts, internal team members, and possibly even broader community representatives. 

But how can you actually engage stakeholders? These are some strategies that might help: 

• Inclusive Workshops and Ideation Sessions: Organize workshops that are designed to be inclusive and encourage active participation from all stakeholders. Use creative exercises that draw out people’s ideas and insights.
• Regular Communication: Keep the lines of communication open with regular updates and check-ins. This can be through newsletters, digital platforms, or regular meetings.
• Feedback Loops: Create structured opportunities for stakeholders to provide feedback at various stages of the project. This can be through surveys, focus groups, or prototype testing sessions.
• Empowerment Through Responsibility: Assign stakeholders specific roles or responsibilities in the project. This can help increase their commitment and engagement.
• Digital Platforms for Collaboration: Utilize digital tools and platforms that facilitate easy collaboration and idea sharing, especially important in today’s remote or hybrid working environments.

Engaging stakeholders isn’t just about gathering input; it’s about building a relationship based on trust and openness. So, be transparent about the process and how their contributions will be used. This transparency fosters trust and encourages more honest and constructive contributions.

Fostering Collaboration in Design Thinking Teams

What comes next is building a collaborative mindset within design thinking teams. This means nurturing an environment where each member feels valued, heard, and empowered to share their insights and ideas. Here are some ways to cultivate such a culture:

• Emphasizing Openness and Trust

A collaborative team thrives on openness and trust. Encourage team members to share their thoughts and ideas freely, without fear of judgment. This openness can lead to the discovery of innovative solutions that might not emerge in a more restrictive environment.

• Active Listening and Respect

Promote active listening among team members, ensuring that everyone’s opinions and ideas are considered and respected. This not only helps in building a positive team dynamic but also ensures that diverse perspectives are integrated into the solution.

• Constructive Feedback and Iteration

Create a culture where feedback is seen as a tool for improvement rather than criticism. Teams that engage in frequent, constructive feedback loops are more agile and innovative, as this process allows for rapid adaptation to new information and challenges. Besides that, encouraging team members to provide and receive feedback constructively, can be used as a basis for iteration and refinement of ideas.

• Celebrating Diversity

Recognize and celebrate the diverse skills, backgrounds, and perspectives each team member brings to the table. Diversity is a key driver of creative solutions in design thinking, as it allows for a wide range of ideas and insights to be explored.

• Leveraging Digital Collaboration Tools

A survey by Deloitte identified that organizations with a strong digital workplace strategy are more likely to report high levels of innovation and employee satisfaction. These tools can, indeed, facilitate seamless communication, idea sharing, and project management, ensuring that team members are aligned and can collaborate effectively, regardless of their physical location. 

• Continuous Learning and Adaptation

Foster an environment of continuous learning and adaptation. Encourage team members to stay curious, seek out new knowledge, and be open to changing course based on new insights and feedback.

• Empowering Team Members

Empower each team member to take ownership of their contributions. When individuals feel responsible for the success of the project, they are more engaged and motivated to contribute their best work.

Co-creation Techniques and Methods

To bring co-creation and collaboration to life, there are several techniques and methods that can be effectively used:

• Participatory Design Workshops

One of the most dynamic methods of co-creation involves participatory design workshops. These sessions bring together stakeholders from various backgrounds to work side by side with designers and project teams. Through creative exercises, brainstorming, and prototyping activities, participants can directly contribute their ideas and insights, leading to solutions that are deeply grounded in the needs and experiences of users.

• Ideation Sessions

Ideation sessions are dedicated brainstorming periods where team members and stakeholders generate a wide range of ideas without judgment or censorship. These sessions encourage free-thinking and creativity, allowing even the most unconventional ideas to surface. Techniques such as mind mapping, sketching, and rapid prototyping can be employed to explore and expand upon these ideas.

• Storyboarding and User Journeys

Creating storyboards and mapping out user journeys are collaborative activities that help visualize solutions and how they fit into the users’ lives. Research published in the Journal of Usability Studies demonstrates that user journey mapping significantly improves the understanding of user needs and pain points, leading to more user-centered design solutions. By collaboratively constructing narratives and scenarios, teams can gain a deeper understanding of the user experience, identifying potential challenges and opportunities for innovation.

• Prototyping and User Testing

Prototyping is an integral part of the co-creation process, allowing teams and stakeholders to bring their ideas to life in a tangible form. Collaborative prototyping sessions enable rapid experimentation and iteration of concepts. Following prototyping, user testing with real users provides invaluable feedback and insights, guiding further refinement of the solution.

• Digital Collaboration Platforms

Online collaboration platforms enable remote and distributed teams to work together seamlessly, sharing ideas, documents, and feedback in real-time. A survey by McKinsey & Company found that the use of social technologies in companies enhances the productivity of high-skill knowledge workers by 20-25%. Platforms such as shared whiteboards, project management tools, and communication apps facilitate ongoing collaboration and ensure that all team members are aligned and engaged, regardless of their physical location.

• Feedback Loops

Establishing structured feedback loops throughout the project lifecycle is crucial for effective co-creation. Regular check-ins, surveys, and review sessions provide opportunities for stakeholders to offer their perspectives on the progress and direction of the project. This continuous exchange of feedback ensures that the project remains user-centered and aligned with stakeholders’ needs and expectations.

By incorporating these techniques and methods into the design thinking process, teams can harness the collective intelligence and creativity of all participants. This can help design thinking teams to navigate the complexities of modern challenges, creating solutions that are both impactful and sustainable.

Overcoming Challenges in Co-creation and Collaboration

Although co-creation and collaboration offer immense benefits, they also come with their own set of challenges that need to be carefully managed:

• Managing Diverse Perspectives: Ensuring constructive dialogues amidst varying viewpoints requires effective facilitation and clear ground rules to maintain focus on common goals.
• Ensuring Equal Participation: Creating an inclusive environment that encourages every participant to contribute is essential. This might involve structured activities or digital tools for anonymous feedback to prevent dominant voices from overshadowing others.
• Maintaining Focus on Project Goals: Keeping sessions productive and aligned with the project’s objectives can be achieved by setting clear agendas, regular checkpoints, and reminders of the core goals.
• Balancing Creativity with Practicality: While fostering creativity, it’s important to critically evaluate ideas for feasibility and alignment with user needs, employing prototyping and user testing to explore viability.
• Overcoming Resistance to Change: Building support for co-creative practices in traditional settings involves demonstrating value through success stories, case studies, and pilot projects to illustrate the benefits.
• Navigating the Logistics of Collaboration: Addressing the challenges of remote and diverse teams requires effective use of digital collaboration tools, clear communication protocols, and flexible scheduling to accommodate different time zones and cultures.

Addressing these challenges effectively enables organizations to leverage the creativity and innovation that co-creation and collaboration bring to design thinking processes.

Conclusion 

Embracing the spirit of co-creation and collaboration in design thinking isn’t just a methodology; it’s a transformative journey that reshapes the landscape of innovation. While navigating this path, we’re not merely designing solutions, but crafting a future that’s more inclusive, empathetic, and responsive to the real needs of our communities. 

The synergy of diverse minds coming together, each contributing their unique piece to the puzzle, is what fuels the creation of truly groundbreaking ideas. It’s a testament to the power of collective creativity and the boundless possibilities that emerge when we choose to work together, breaking down the barriers between creator and consumer, expert and novice, to build something greater than the sum of its parts. 

FAQs:

• What are the key differences between co-creation and collaboration in design thinking?

Co-creation involves stakeholders, including users, directly in the design process to generate solutions together, focusing on shared creation and innovation. Collaboration is broader, involving teamwork among design thinking participants, which can include co-creation as one of its elements but also encompasses other aspects like planning, execution, and evaluation.

• How can co-creation and collaboration help in addressing complex design challenges?

By pooling diverse perspectives, skills, and knowledge, co-creation and collaboration bring a rich variety of ideas and solutions to the table. This multidimensional approach is crucial for tackling complex challenges, as it allows for more innovative and user-centric solutions that might not emerge from a more singular or isolated approach.

• What strategies can be used to ensure equal participation and avoid biases in co-creation sessions?

Implement structured activities that give everyone a chance to speak, use digital platforms for anonymous feedback, establish clear ground rules for respectful interaction, and actively encourage quieter participants to share their thoughts. Facilitators should also be mindful of their own biases and work to mitigate them.

• How can digital tools and platforms facilitate co-creation and collaboration in remote or distributed teams?

Digital tools enable real-time communication, idea sharing, and project management, regardless of geographical constraints. Platforms like shared whiteboards, video conferencing, and cloud-based collaboration software allow team members to contribute equally and stay aligned, fostering a sense of unity and shared purpose.

• What are some common pitfalls to avoid when implementing co-creation and collaboration in design thinking projects?

Avoiding the dominance of louder voices, ensuring the process doesn’t veer off track from the project goals, managing the potential for conflict without stifling diverse viewpoints, and ensuring the co-creation activities are well-integrated into the overall project plan to avoid them becoming isolated exercises.

The post Fostering Co-creation and Collaboration in Design Thinking appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• What is Synthesis in Design Thinking?
• The Three Levels of Thinking in Synthesis
  • Deductive Thinking
  • Inductive Thinking
  • Abductive Thinking
• Key Stages of Synthesis
  • Learnings
  • Themes
  • Insights
• Generating Meaningful Insights
• Improving Insight Generation with Design Thinking Techniques
  • Be a Detective
  • Visualize Data
  • Build Empathy
• The Role of Insights Across Design Thinking Phases
  • Immersion
  • Ideation
  • Prototyping
• Best Practices for Effective Synthesis Sessions
  • Diverse Perspectives
  • Structured Frameworks
  • Iterative Nature
• Overcoming Challenges in Synthesis and Insight Generation
• Conclusion
• FAQs

Design thinking stands at the forefront of innovation, a beacon guiding the creation of solutions that are not just viable but deeply resonate with users’ needs and aspirations. Central to this creative process is the act of synthesis and the generation of insights—elements that transform superficial observations into profound understandings. This blog post delves into the essence of synthesis within design thinking, exploring its significance, methodologies, and the ways it catalyzes the journey from empathy to innovation.

What is Synthesis in Design Thinking?

Synthesis, within the scope of design thinking, is the transformative process of turning dispersed data and observations into a cohesive, insightful narrative. This crucial step acts as the conduit from raw information, garnered through empathetic research, to actionable insights that drive ideation and innovation. It necessitates navigating through both qualitative and quantitative data, identifying patterns, and capturing the essence to ensure every creative endeavor is anchored in real user needs and contexts. 

McKinsey & Company underscores this, revealing that design-led companies outperform industry growth benchmarks significantly, often by a 2:1 ratio, highlighting the substantial business value of robust design practices like synthesis . Additionally, looking at IDEO’s methodology of clustering observations into themes and insights provides a practical example of synthesis in action, making the concept more relatable and applicable .

The Three Levels of Thinking in Synthesis

Deductive Thinking

This approach mirrors the analytical prowess of Sherlock Holmes, beginning with overarching hypotheses and methodically deducing specific conclusions grounded in evidence. In the synthesis phase of design thinking, deductive reasoning plays a crucial role in validating initial assumptions against tangible data.

Inductive Thinking

In contrast, inductive thinking starts with specific observations and expands to broader generalizations or theories. This mode of thought is pivotal for identifying recurring patterns and themes within diverse data points, laying the groundwork for novel insights in the design process.

Abductive Thinking

Abductive reasoning is the creative leap, often described as “thinking what might be”. It’s about making educated guesses when faced with incomplete information, allowing designers to propose new ideas or explanations that spark innovation.

Key Stages of Synthesis

Learnings

The initial stage is about capturing the essence of what stood out during the research phase. It’s a collection of observations, feelings, and thoughts that emerge from engaging with users and their environments.

Themes

Organizing these learnings into coherent themes is next. This involves clustering similar observations, which helps in identifying broader patterns and areas of interest that warrant deeper exploration.

Insights

The culmination of synthesis is the formation of insights. These are the profound realizations that emerge from critically analyzing the themes and understanding their implications in the context of users’ lives and challenges.

Generating Meaningful Insights

According to the Nielsen Norman Group, empathy in design is fundamental to uncovering the underlying user needs that inform impactful solutions.

The process of generating insights is deeply rooted in empathy, which involves understanding users on a profound, human level. This goes beyond mere surface observations, allowing designers to unveil the true issues and aspirations that motivate user behavior. Equally important is the accurate framing of problems, which hinges on a comprehensive grasp of the user’s context. This ensures that the design efforts are directed at the appropriate challenges, setting the stage for solutions that have a significant impact. These insights then become the catalyst for ideation, sparking creative thought and steering the design journey toward innovative solutions that deeply resonate with users.

Improving Insight Generation with Design Thinking Techniques

Be a Detective

Engaging directly with the challenge and interacting with all stakeholders involved can uncover nuances and details that might otherwise be overlooked, enriching the insight pool. This hands-on approach ensures that every aspect of the problem is explored, allowing for a more comprehensive understanding and more targeted solutions.

Visualize Data

Leveraging visual tools to represent data can enhance cognitive abilities, making it easier to spot patterns, relationships, and discrepancies that could lead to groundbreaking insights. According to a report by the Aberdeen Group, managers who utilize visual data discovery tools are 28% more likely to find timely information than those who rely solely on managed reporting and dashboards 

Build Empathy

Observation and engagement with users are paramount. By walking in their shoes, designers can gain a nuanced understanding of user experiences, emotions, and needs, leading to more empathetic and user-centered solutions. This deep dive into the user’s world is a cornerstone of design thinking, ensuring that insights are not just data-driven but are also profoundly human-centric.

The Role of Insights Across Design Thinking Phases

Immersion

During the immersion phase, insights help in uncovering the real needs and context of the problem, ensuring that the design process is grounded in reality. This phase is essential for building a comprehensive understanding that goes beyond surface-level observations, thereby laying a solid foundation for the subsequent phases of design thinking.

Ideation

In ideation, insights act as a springboard for generating innovative ideas. They provide a solid foundation that ensures ideation is both creative and relevant to the user’s needs. This stage benefits significantly from diverse perspectives and interdisciplinary collaboration, as it allows for a broader range of ideas and solutions to emerge, guided by the deep insights gathered during the immersion phase.

Prototyping

When prototyping, insights guide the creation of solutions that are not just innovative but also deeply resonant with users, ensuring that the final product is both useful and desirable. A study by McKinsey & Company highlights that prototyping, when coupled with insights, can accelerate the innovation process by up to 30%, enabling companies to bring solutions to market more rapidly.

Best Practices for Effective Synthesis Sessions

Diverse Perspectives

Involving people from various backgrounds in the synthesis process can provide a multitude of viewpoints, enriching the pool of insights and leading to more innovative solutions.

Structured Frameworks

Employing structured frameworks like affinity mapping can help in organizing thoughts and observations, making the synthesis process more efficient and effective.

Iterative Nature

Embracing the iterative nature of design thinking is key. Insights should be continually tested, refined, and evolved, ensuring that they remain relevant and impactful throughout the design process.

Overcoming Challenges in Synthesis and Insight Generation

Avoiding surface-level observations by continually asking “why” can uncover deeper insights, leading to more meaningful and impactful design solutions.Being aware of and actively working to prevent personal biases from influencing the synthesis process is crucial for maintaining objectivity and ensuring that insights are genuine and relevant.

Conclusion

The power of synthesis and insight generation in design thinking cannot be overstated. They are the heartbeats of innovation, transforming ordinary observations into extraordinary visions for the future. By mastering these processes, designers can create solutions that not only solve problems but do so with a deep understanding and empathy for the user. As we continue to navigate the complex landscape of design, let us harness the power of synthesis and insights, and in doing so, craft a world that is not only functional but profoundly human.

FAQs

• What is design thinking and how does synthesis fit into it?

Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that emphasizes understanding users, challenging assumptions, and redefining problems to identify alternative strategies and solutions. Synthesis is a core component of design thinking, acting as the bridge between gathering data (through empathy and research) and generating actionable insights that drive the creative process forward.

• Can you explain the three levels of thinking in synthesis?

The three levels of thinking in synthesis include deductive, inductive, and abductive reasoning. Deductive thinking starts with a general theory and moves to specific observations. Inductive thinking begins with specific observations and leads to broader generalizations. Abductive thinking involves making educated guesses, allowing for creative leaps when faced with incomplete information.

• How do insights differ from observations in the design thinking process?

Observations are direct records of what the design team sees and hears during their research phase, often descriptive and tied to specific instances. Insights, on the other hand, are the deeper truths derived from these observations and the synthesis of gathered data. They reveal underlying patterns, behaviors, and motivations that inform and inspire the ideation and solution development phases.

• What are some effective techniques for improving insight generation in design thinking?

To improve insight generation, it’s beneficial to engage directly with stakeholders, use visual data representation to enhance pattern recognition, and deeply empathize with users through observation and interaction. These approaches can help uncover nuanced understandings of user needs and behaviors, leading to more innovative and user-centered design solutions.

• Why is it important to involve diverse perspectives in synthesis sessions?

Involving diverse perspectives in synthesis sessions introduces a wide range of experiences, expertise, and viewpoints. This diversity enriches the pool of insights and challenges homogeneous thinking, leading to more creative, inclusive, and innovative solutions that cater to a broader audience.

• How can designers overcome biases during the synthesis and insight-generation process?

Designers can overcome biases by being aware of their own preconceptions, actively seeking diverse viewpoints, and using structured synthesis frameworks to ensure a systematic approach to data analysis. Continual reflection, open-mindedness, and validation of insights through user feedback are also crucial in maintaining objectivity and ensuring relevance and accuracy of insights.

The post Unveiling the Core of Design Thinking: Mastering Synthesis and Insight Generation appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• Understanding Design Sprints
• Preparing for a Design Sprint
• Executing the Design Sprint
• Mastering the Art of Facilitating Effective Workshops
• The Iterative Journey of Integrating Learnings and Feedback
• FAQs:

When it comes to design thinking, two powerful methodologies stand at the forefront, driving rapid progress and fostering groundbreaking solutions: Design Sprints and Workshops. They form a potent combination, equipping teams to tackle problems with speed, creativity, and precision. 

In this guide, we’ll see how these methodologies can be integrated into the Design Thinking framework, providing a detailed roadmap for designers, project managers, entrepreneurs, and all innovators eager to harness their full potential.

Understanding Design Sprints

Design Sprints, conceptualized by Google Ventures, embody a condensed, time-boxed approach to problem-solving that mirrors the stages of Design Thinking but at an accelerated pace. This rapid prototype-to-test cycle is designed to fast-track projects from vague ideas to validated user feedback within a short span, typically five days. 

Each day of a Design Sprint is dedicated to a distinct phase: Understand, Diverge, Decide, Prototype, and Test, allowing teams to deep-dive into each aspect of the problem-solving process with focused intensity.

Preparing for a Design Sprint

The preparation phase is critical to the success of a Design Sprint, setting the tone and foundation for the intensive work ahead. This phase involves several key steps:

• Identifying the Challenge:
  • Deep Dive: Understand the problem at its core, going beyond surface-level issues to uncover the underlying challenge.
  • Articulation: Clearly define the challenge in a way that is specific, measurable, and time-bound, ensuring it is manageable within the sprint’s timeline.
• Assembling the Team:
  • Diversity: Include members from various departments and backgrounds to bring a broad range of perspectives and skills.
  • Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly define each team member’s role to ensure a cohesive and efficient workflow.
• Setting the Logistics:
  • Scheduling: Determine the dates and times for the sprint, ensuring all key participants are available.
  • Materials and Tools: Gather all necessary materials, tools, and digital resources required for the sprint.
  • Environment: Create a workspace that fosters creativity, collaboration, and focus, free from day-to-day distractions.

Executing the Design Sprint

Once the preparation is complete, it’s time for the execution phase of a Design Sprint. It’s a detailed choreography with five stages:

• Understand: This initial phase is dedicated to building a comprehensive understanding of the problem space. Teams immerse themselves in the user’s world, gathering insights and empathizing with the end-user to ensure the solutions developed are deeply rooted in user needs.
• Diverge: Here, the shackles of conventional thinking are cast aside. The team engages in expansive thinking, exploring a wide array of ideas and solutions without the immediate pressure of practical constraints.
• Decide: With a plethora of ideas on the table, this phase is about convergence. The team employs structured decision-making techniques to distill the ideas into one or a few workable solutions that offer the most promise.
• Prototype: The chosen ideas are transformed into tangible prototypes. This phase emphasizes speed and pragmatism, with the aim of creating a ‘good enough’ model that can simulate the user experience.
• Test: The sprint culminates with user testing, where the prototype is exposed to real users. The feedback collected is invaluable, providing direct insights into the viability of the solution and areas for improvement.

Mastering the Art of Facilitating Effective Workshops

While Design Sprints offer a comprehensive, end-to-end framework, Workshops provide a more malleable structure, allowing for deep dives into specific facets of the Design Thinking process. The success of a workshop is intricately tied to its clarity of purpose, the engagement and diversity of its participants, the relevance and creativity of its activities, and the adeptness of its facilitation.

Workshops serve as focused sessions where specific challenges can be unpacked and explored in depth. Whether it’s through empathy mapping to better understand user emotions, user journey mapping to visualize the user’s experience, or ideation sessions to generate innovative solutions, workshops offer a tailored space for exploration and creativity.

The role of the facilitator in these workshops cannot be overstated. An effective facilitator not only guides the flow of activities but also ensures that every participant’s voice is heard, maintaining energy and focus, and steering the workshop towards its objectives.

The Iterative Journey of Integrating Learnings and Feedback

The ending of a Design Sprint or Workshop is not really an end but the beginning of a new chapter in the iterative design process. Documenting the journey — the insights gleaned, the ideas generated, and the decisions made — is crucial for building upon the progress made. This documentation serves as a repository of knowledge, guiding future sprints and workshops.

The feedback gathered from user testing in a Design Sprint is particularly invaluable, offering a clear lens through which the solutions can be refined and improved. This iterative loop, where each cycle of feedback and learning informs the next, is the essence of continuous improvement. It is this relentless pursuit of refinement and innovation that drives the design process forward, inching closer to solutions that not only meet but exceed user expectations.

FAQs:

• How long does a typical Design Sprint last?

A typical Design Sprint spans five days, with each day dedicated to a different phase of the process. However, the duration can be adjusted based on the project’s complexity and team availability.

• Can Design Sprints be conducted remotely?

Yes, Design Sprints can be adapted for remote teams using digital collaboration tools. The key is to maintain clear communication and ensure all participants have access to the necessary resources.

• What is the ideal team size for a Design Sprint?

The sweet spot for a Design Sprint team is usually between 5-7 members. This size allows for a diversity of perspectives while still remaining manageable and efficient.

• How do Workshops fit into the Design Thinking process?

Workshops can be used at various stages of the Design Thinking process, providing focused sessions on specific challenges like empathy building, ideation, or prototype refinement.

• Do I need a dedicated facilitator for a Design Sprint or Workshop?

Having a dedicated facilitator can significantly enhance the effectiveness of a Design Sprint or Workshop. The facilitator guides the process, manages time, and helps the team navigate challenges.

• How do I choose the right challenge for a Design Sprint?

Selecting a challenge that is too broad or too narrow can hinder the sprint’s effectiveness. Aim for a well-defined challenge that aligns with your team’s goals and can realistically be addressed within the timeframe of the sprint.

The post Implementing Design Sprint and Workshop in Design Thinking appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• Techniques for Effective Brainstorming and Ideation
• Transitioning from Divergence to Convergence
• Criteria for Evaluating and Selecting Ideas
• Implementing Convergence in Design Thinking
• Testing and Validating Ideas with Stakeholders and End-Users
• Examples of Diverge and Converge in Action
  • Tips for Success
• Conclusion
• FAQ s

Design thinking is recognized as a holistic and user-centered methodology for addressing complex challenges. Central to this approach are two pivotal phases: diverge and converge. These phases facilitate a dynamic interplay between broad idea generation and targeted solution development, crucial for nurturing creativity and innovation. This article delves into the intricacies of these phases, their importance in the design thinking framework, and effective strategies for their implementation.

Understanding Diverge and Converge

Definition of Divergent and Convergent Thinking

Divergent thinking involves generating a multitude of creative solutions to a problem, characterized by open-ended exploration that pushes beyond traditional boundaries. In contrast, convergent thinking focuses on narrowing down these ideas to identify the most feasible and impactful solutions, employing analytical and critical skills to refine ideas into actionable plans.

The Role of Diverge and Converge in Design Thinking

The cyclical process of diverging and converging is fundamental to design thinking, ensuring a thorough exploration of the problem space and the generation of creative solutions, followed by a critical assessment and synthesis of these ideas into practical and innovative outcomes. This process promotes a deep understanding of user needs and the development of empathetic, user-centric solutions.

Benefits of Using Both Divergent and Convergent Thinking

Incorporating both divergent and convergent thinking into the design process offers numerous benefits. It enables a wide exploration of potential solutions, enhancing innovation and creativity. Moreover, it supports the development of practical and user-centric solutions by critically evaluating and refining ideas. This balanced approach improves problem-solving efficiency and increases the chances of discovering groundbreaking solutions.

How to Implement Divergence in Design Thinking

Maximizing the benefits of divergence requires fostering an environment that encourages expansive thinking and the free flow of ideas. Techniques such as brainstorming sessions, mind mapping, and sketching can stimulate creative thinking and idea generation. During this phase, it is crucial to withhold judgment, focusing on the quantity of ideas rather than their immediate quality. This open-ended exploration can lead to unexpected and innovative solutions.

Techniques for Effective Brainstorming and Ideation

Successful brainstorming and ideation hinge on several key techniques:

• Setting Clear Objectives: Start with a well-defined understanding of the problem or challenge. This clarity will steer the ideation process.
• Creating an Inclusive Environment: Ensure all participants feel comfortable sharing their ideas, no matter how unconventional.
• Encouraging Wild Ideas: Foster the generation of bold, innovative ideas, as these can often lead to groundbreaking solutions.
• Building on Others’ Ideas: Promote a culture where participants enhance and expand upon each other’s ideas, leading to collaborative innovation.

Transitioning from Divergence to Convergence

Moving from the open-ended exploration of divergence to the focused analysis of convergence involves a deliberate change in mindset. This phase requires establishing clear criteria for idea evaluation, such as feasibility, impact, and alignment with user needs. Techniques like affinity diagramming, which groups ideas into themes, can aid in organizing and prioritizing ideas for further development.

Criteria for Evaluating and Selecting Ideas

When converging, consider the following criteria to assess ideas:

• Feasibility: Is the idea realistically implementable within existing constraints?
• Desirability: Does the idea address users’ needs and desires effectively?
• Viability: Is the idea sustainable from a business or organizational standpoint?

Implementing Convergence in Design Thinking

Convergence focuses on refining and synthesizing the plethora of ideas into a coherent and actionable solution. This involves prototyping, testing, and validating ideas with stakeholders and end-users. Adopting an iterative approach, where the team alternates between divergence and convergence, ensures continuous refinement and enhancement of the solution, resulting in a more robust and user-centered design.

Testing and Validating Ideas with Stakeholders and End-Users

Involving stakeholders and end-users in the testing and validation phase is essential. Their feedback offers invaluable insights that can further refine and improve the solution. Prototyping, whether through sketches, models, or digital simulations, enables tangible exploration and assessment of ideas, facilitating effective communication and collaboration with stakeholders.

Examples of Diverge and Converge in Action

High-level examples illustrate the efficacy of the diverge-converge approach in design thinking. For instance, the redesign of a shopping cart and the transformation of a startup into a global hospitality leader both demonstrate how divergent and convergent thinking can lead to innovative and impactful solutions. These examples offer practical insights and inspiration for applying these principles across various contexts.

Tips for Success

To maximize the benefits of diverge and converge in design thinking, consider the following tips:

• Cultivate a culture that values and supports both divergent and convergent thinking.
• Use visual tools and collaborative platforms to enhance idea generation and evaluation.
• Engage stakeholders and end-users throughout the design process to ensure solutions are grounded in real-world needs.
• Embrace the iterative and non-linear nature of design thinking, allowing for flexibility and continuous improvement.

We encourage practitioners and enthusiasts in the design and innovation fields to integrate the principles of diverge and converge into their projects. By doing so, you can enhance your creative problem-solving capabilities and drive meaningful innovation. Resources, templates, and case studies are available to support your journey in applying these transformative design thinking processes.

Conclusion

The dynamic interaction between diverge and converge is a cornerstone of design thinking, driving the creative and innovative problem-solving process. By embracing and effectively implementing these phases, teams can explore a broad range of ideas and refine them into practical, user-centric solutions. This article has provided strategies and techniques to leverage the power of diverge and converge, aiming to inspire and guide individuals and teams in their design thinking endeavors.

FAQs

• What is design thinking?

Design thinking is a user-centric approach to problem-solving that involves understanding the user’s needs, ideating a wide range of solutions, prototyping, and testing. It emphasizes empathy, collaboration, and iterative learning.

• What do “diverge” and “converge” mean in design thinking?

In design thinking, “diverge” refers to the phase where the team generates a wide array of ideas and explores various possibilities without judgment. “Converge” is the phase where the team narrows down those ideas, critically evaluates them, and focuses on developing the most promising solutions.

• Why are both divergent and convergent thinking important in design thinking?

Divergent thinking encourages creativity and the exploration of numerous possibilities, ensuring a broad range of ideas. Convergent thinking is crucial for refining those ideas into practical, feasible solutions. Together, they ensure a balance between creativity and practicality.

• How can I encourage divergent thinking in a brainstorming session?

To encourage divergent thinking, create an open and inclusive environment where all ideas are welcomed. Encourage participants to think freely and creatively, without fear of judgment. Techniques like setting a high idea quota or using prompts can also stimulate divergent thinking.

• How do you transition from divergence to convergence?

Transitioning from divergence to convergence involves shifting from an open-minded, exploratory mindset to a more analytical and critical approach. This can be facilitated by setting clear objectives for the convergent phase, such as defining criteria for idea selection and establishing a process for evaluating ideas.

• Can the diverge-converge process be repeated?

Yes, the diverge-converge process is inherently iterative. Teams often cycle through these phases multiple times, refining their understanding of the problem and solutions with each iteration. This iterative approach allows for continuous improvement and adaptation.

• How do you involve stakeholders in the convergent phase?

Stakeholders can be involved in the convergent phase by participating in idea evaluation sessions, providing feedback on prototypes, and sharing their insights and priorities. Their involvement ensures that the solutions developed are aligned with user needs and business objectives.

The post The Synergy of Diverge and Converge in Design Thinking appeared first on Voltage Control.

By now, you’ve probably heard about the design thinking methodology. More industries than ever are taking a human-centric approach to evolve their existing products and generating new ideas to serve their customers better by getting curious about actual user needs, ideating potential solutions, and testing them with real users. Let’s take a closer look at what design thinking and user-centered design is and how to apply it to your organization.

According to statistics, 79% of companies agree that design thinking improves the ideation process, and 71% have enjoyed a significant shift in their work culture after adopting design thinking. While it does contain the word design, design thinking and it’s iterative approach to creative ideas is not only for design teams, in fact, any team can benefit from this human-centered design process. We’ve seen product development teams, multidisciplianry teams exploring new business models, customer success teams designing new customer experiences, and countless other examples.

What is the Design Thinking Process?

Design thinking is a process for creative problem-solving that helps teams move past the first “good ideas” and discover creative solutions. Rather than a one-shoe-fits-all mindset, the design thinking approach encourages a holistic view where uncertainty and ambiguity are welcomed and embraced to consider all sides of a problem. A design mindset can be applied to any life situation, and it aids in developing innovative ideas by considering the bigger picture and allowing that to shape our decisions as we move forward.

The method is steeped in a deep belief that the end-user should be at the heart of all decision-making. The benefit of design thinking is that, through empathy for your customer, consumer, or client, you are able to create products and experiences that truly help people and even change lives.

In this article, we’ll explore the five-step process that enables teams to come up with impactful solutions to real problems that are vetted by the people they intend to serve before they’ve even been built. These key steps will launch you into an innovative and experimental design approach.

Pro-tip: use our Liberating Structures templates to get the most out of the design-thinking process with your team. At Voltage Control we also love to use the Workshop Design Canvas.

The 5-Step Design Thinking Process

1. Empathize 

The first stage of the design process is to develop  a deep understanding of the target audience/customer/consumer and their unique perspective to identify and address the problem at hand. To do this, design thinkers are encouraged to cast aside all assumptions (because assumptions can stifle innovation!) about the problem, the consumers, and the world at large. This allows them to objectively consider any and all possibilities about the customers and their needs.

Typical activities:

• Observations: You’ll go where your users go and see what they care about. 
• Qualitative Interviews: You’ll hold one-on-one interviews with a handful of your users to understand their attitudes on the topic you are exploring. Asking someone to tell a story about the last time they experienced the problem you’re investigating provides a rich description that highlights details you might not have otherwise considered. Check out our Interview Observation template to interview someone that is close to the problem you are having and observe the behavior, success, and pain points.

Immersions: Step into your user’s shoes so you can feel and experience their day-to-day.

Tools like empathy maps can be a great way to consolidate all of the valuable information gleaned from interviews. Empathy maps capture what people do, say, think, and feel in the context of the problem. They help colleagues understand the context of the problem and how people experience it, too.

2. Define

Putting together all of the information gathered from emphasizing in the previous step. The next step is to define the problem statement clearly. The ideal problem statement should be captured from the perspective of human-centered needs rather than focused on business goals. For example, instead of setting a goal to increase signups by 5%, a human-centered target would be to help busy moms provide healthy food for their families.

Based on the frustrations you observed or heard about, come up with questions for how you might solve them. 

Typical Activities

• Clustering and Themes: There are a lot of different ways to go about the Define phase, but it’s safe to say you’ll need a wall of sticky notes; these will be filled with the quotes, observations, and ideas you heard throughout your research. Group and cluster ideas together until you find the prevailing or most prominent themes.
• Problem Statement: Take time to properly articulate the problem statement. Answer the following questions: 1) What is the problem? 2) Who has the problem? 3) Where is the problem? 4) Why does it matter

As you explore the empathy data, focus on identifying patterns and problems across a diverse group of people. Gathering information on how people are currently attempting to solve the problem and how they explore alternative solutions can provide clues into their underlying root problems. 

You can’t solve all of your users’ problems. Identify the most significant or most painful issues they face as you consider what you want to focus on as you move forward.

3. Ideate

Now that the problem you intend to solve is clear, it’s time to brainstorm ways to address those unmet needs. You collect as many ideas as possible at the start, so your team can investigate and test them by the end.

Typical Activities

• Brainstorming: Brainstorming is a critical part of the ideation phase, it is the best way to generate of a wide variety of ideas, all aimed at addressing the problem or challenge at hand. Brainstoming allows the entire team to bring their perspectives, experiences, and insights to the table, fostering diversity and richness in idea generation. Ideas shared can serve as stepping stones lead to innovative, out-of-the-box solutions that might not have been uncovered with a more conventional, linear thinking process. 

• Worst Possible Idea: The “Worst Possible Idea” activity may seem counterproductive,  but it can encourage creativity and eliminate psychological holdups that stall innovative thinking. It allows team members to brainstorm and share their ‘worst ideas’ without fear of judgment or criticism. This fosters an environment where coming up with the “perfect” ideas is eliminated, allowing freedom and creativity to shine. The process of identifying why an idea is ‘the worst’ can help in understanding the parameters and constraints of a problem, offering insights into what an ideal solution should avoid. This exercise also brings a sense of humor and fun into the brainstorming process!

The ideation stage marks the transition from identifying problems to exploring solutions. It flows between idea generation and evaluation, but it’s important that each process remains separate from the other.

When it’s time to generate ideas, do so quickly without focusing on the quality or feasibility of the idea. Ideation techniques are rooted in the idea that we’ll prioritize quantity over quality so that we can move past the first good idea(s) and find the truly novel ones. Only when you’ve fully exhausted your abilities to generate new ideas do you move on to evaluate them. This is your opportunity you can go around the room and discuss the ideas presented to get clarification if needed.

The ideation phase is usually a very creative and freeing phase for a team because they have permission to think of out-of-the-box ideas before deciding what they are going to prototype.

4. Prototype

It’s time to experiment! Through trial and error, your team identifies which of the possible solutions can best solve the identified problem(s). This typically will include scaled-down versions of a finished product or systems in question so you can present and get feedback from the people they are intended to serve.

Typical Activities

• Create a Vision Board: This visual representation of ideas, inspirations, and intended outcomes allows team members to envision the desired final product. By gathering images, drawings, materials, or words that symbolize the goals, functions, and user experience of the prototype, the vision board is a shared reference point for the whole team. It facilitates communication, aligns understanding, and encourages creative problem-solving. The actual process of creating the vision board itself promotes a deeper engagement with the project’s objectives and encourages innovative thinking. 

• Rapid Prototyping: The aim of rapid prototyping is to create low-cost, scaled-down versions of the product or specific features quickly for initial testing. Using paper, sticky notes, cardboard, or digital mockup tools, have the team put their ideas into tangible or visible models. This can be done by drawing, making 3D models, or even creating a storyboard to showcase user interactions. It helps teams understand the look and feel of their solutions, identify potential issues, and validate whether the prototype aligns with users’ needs and expectations. Check out our Take 5 template when you want to collect diverse ideas from the entire room. Within 5 minutes, everyone will be sharing from an intentional perspective using visuals!

The goal is to start with a low-fidelity version of the intended solution and improve it over time based on feedback. Beginning with a paper prototype can help you learn quickly with minimal effort. The prototype should be a realistic representation of the solution that allows you to gain an understanding of what works and doesn’t work. It is changed and updated based on feedback from the Test phase in an iterative process. The rapid, low-cost, lightweight nature of prototyping also allows you to develop multiple solutions to test in tandem to identify the best possible solution for meeting those unmet user needs.

5. Test

The prototype is at the center of the final phase as we put all our ideas to the test.  It’s important to note that the testing phase is part of an interactive cycle. You’ll have the opportunity to hear from your users again —just as you did in the early phase, Empathize. User testing is critical to understand how your audience will react to the ideas in your prototype and how desirable that experience will be. Unlike usability testing, where we are seeking to learn how difficult it is to perform certain tasks,  you are allowing them to interact with your prototype to observe their responses and gain insights on whether or not it solves their problem.

• Observational Testing: In this exercise, real users interact with the final prototype in a controlled setting, while the design team observes their behavior and responses. The goal is not just to confirm if the solution works as intended but to gain deeper insights into how the user interacts with the product, how they approach the problem the product is meant to solve, and where difficulties or confusion arrise. Observational testing can offer valuable, sometimes unexpected, insights into user behavior and experience that might be missed with traditional feedback. It’s an empathetic approach that focuses on observing and understanding the users needs and wants.

• Iterative Testing: This process is all about using the results of the initial testing to make improvements, and then testing again! Check out our 5 act Interview Cheat Sheet to build the best team for the project. The objective is to constantly refine and enhance the solution based on user feedback. Each iteration of the prototype is tested with users, and the insights gathered are used to further refine the solution. This could involve making minor tweaks or massive changes depending on the feedback received. Iterative testing helps in ensuring that the final product is as effective, user-friendly, and problem-solving as possible. The process keeps going until the team is confident that they have the most innovative and best possible version of the solution ready for launch.

Testing with real users is essential because everything is ultimately about the people who will use your products, and that is the true nature of the design thinking model. After you collect insights from users, it’s time to revisit the problem statement and reflect on how well the prototype is meeting needs and resolving frustrations.

You want to see what real people think about your idea. This stage allows for all details to be flushed out and refined to create the best solution possible.

Putting the 5 steps to work.

As you reflect on the 5 steps: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test, keep in mind that each step builds on its predecessor, guiding teams through an exploration of user needs, challenges, and solutions. Yet, as any seasoned design thinker will affirm, this journey isn’t strictly a linear process.

The beauty of the design thinking process is it invites and supports creativity and flexibility. While we’ve outlined the steps sequentially, it’s most effective for teams to revisit earlier stages based on newfound insights or challenges. For instance, feedback during the Testing phase might propel a team back to the Ideation or even Empathy stage. This iterative nature is not a sign of backtracking but rather a testament to the process’s commitment to staying true to user needs.

In essence, design thinking is a creative dance. It’s a dynamic interplay of understanding, ideating, experimenting, and refining. With each iteration, solutions become more attuned, innovative, and user-centric.

So, as you delve into the design thinking steps, remember: The route isn’t always straightforward, and that’s perfectly okay. Embrace the meandering path, the revisits, the detours. Because in this iterative journey, every step, whether forward or backward, is a step towards genuine innovation that resonates deeply with users.

Need an expert facilitator for your next meeting, gathering, or workshop? Let’s talk.

Our extensive network of Facilitation Certificaiton alumni are skilled at facilitating events of all kinds, including design thinking workshops, innovation sessions, and Design Sprints. Please reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com. We’d be happy to connect you with one of our expert alumni.

The post 5 Steps of the Design Thinking Process: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Voltage Control.

The best and most successful products and services are designed with the end-user in mind. When you understand your customer, you can effectively create what they want and need. That’s the idea behind design thinking– a human-centric approach to ideate and solve problems creatively. The methodology is both a mindset and a process to generate bold and innovative ideas and tackle business challenges and problems. You can better understand the human behind your next product, method, service, or process idea using design thinking exercises during any phase of your project. These exercises offer an engaging, interactive, hands-on approach to problem-solving.

Design thinking exercises and design thinking workshops encompass the 5-step design thinking process:

1. Empathize – Understand the perspective of the target audience/customer/consumer to identify and address the problem at hand.
2. Define – Define the problem statement clearly.
3. Ideate –  Brainstorm ways to address identified unmet needs.
4. Prototype – Identity which of the possible solutions can best solve the identified problem(s).
5. Test – Test the product with your target audience to get feedback.

This five-step process enables teams to come up with impactful solutions to real problems that are vetted by the people they intend to serve before they’ve even been built. There are specific design thinking exercises that can help you and your team get the most out of each step. Let’s take a look at some of our favorites.

Design Thinking Exerices

We’ve compiled some of our favorite design thinking exercises for you to use among your teams as soon as tomorrow. Plug them in where you need them in your project process and watch the magic unfold.

1. Warmups

At your next meeting, don’t dive right into logistics or action items. Open with one of these warm-ups or “icebreakers” to set the tone for the meeting. They help shake people up and establish that you will be thinking differently in this session. Use one or two of these design thinking exercises to start your meeting or workshop on the right note. They can also be used to punctuate the day and energize the group after long activities or breaks.

Yes, But vs. Yes, And

This warm-up shows the power of building others’ ideas versus shooting them down. Taken from one of the principles of improv comedy, in this activity, you pair people and have them do the following:

• Part One: Person A suggests doing something with Person B, who has to answer with a reason not to do it, starting with “Yes, but…” Person A responds with a counter-suggestion also using “Yes, but…” (Example: Person A: “Let’s go to the grocery store.” Person B: “Yes, but our refrigerator is broken.” Person A: “Yes, but, we still need to eat.”)
• Part Two: Person A makes a suggestion, but now Person B answers with “Yes, and…” And so on… (Example: Person A: “Let’s go to the grocery store.” Person B: “Yes, and let’s get avocados.” Person A: Yes, and let’s make guacamole.”)

Impromptu Networking

In this exercise, take about 20 minutes for participants to meet in pairs and introduce themselves to each other and answer the question: “What big challenge do you bring to this gathering? What do you hope to get from and give this group or community?” By the end, each person will talk to about four people and learn something new about their colleagues or teammates. Impromptu Networking is excellent when your meeting attendees don’t know each other, or even when they do; either way, participants quickly gain new perspectives on the people they’ll be working with throughout the meeting or day.

Nine Whys

Like Impromptu Networking, the Nine Whys is a Liberating Structures activity. Here’s how they describe this warm-up:

“Ask, “What do you do when working on ______ (the subject matter or challenge at hand)? Please make a short list of activities.” Then ask, “Why is that important to you?” Keep asking, “Why? Why? Why?” up to nine times or until participants can go no deeper because they have reached the fundamental purpose for this work.”

By asking “Why?” so many times in a row, you can ultimately get to a clear understanding of why you are gathering and what the purpose of your meeting is.

2. Empathize

Empathy is a critical starting point for any design thinking endeavor. It means making design and business decisions from the perspective of the end-user or customer and truly understanding and anticipating their needs. These design thinking exercises help you get into the minds of your users, identify patterns and challenges, and relate these to the problem your team needs to solve.

Personas

Creating personas is an effective way to focus on your user and ensure that you are designing for their top needs. Personas are a representation of your target user — their typical characteristics, challenges, and desires. On average, you create one to three personas for your project so that you can focus on different needs and inspire divergent ways of looking at a problem.

This worksheet (available for download here) shows you the different aspects you might define for your persona.

Find another good explanation for how to create a persona here.

User Journey Mapping

User or customer journey mapping is another critical exercise when you are trying to build empathy for the user and uncover new ways to answer their top needs. Start by identifying all of the moments that a user goes through from start to finish when interacting with your particular product, service, or experience. These are your moments or milestones along the top of your journey map.

For example, imagine that you are designing a new experience of going through the TSA checkpoint at the airport. Your moments along the top of this user journey map might be: Pack for Trip — Travel to Airport — Arrive at Airport — Find Security Line — Show ID to TSA — Go through Security — Find Gate — Arrive at Destination.

Once you have your top-level journey moments or touchpoints, use your personas (see above) to go step-by-step and capture what your user is feeling, thinking, and doing at every phase. Through this process, you can begin to map the breadth of problems your user faces to identify the most prominent issues to tackle through design or innovation.

Read more about journey mapping here.

3. Ideation

Ideation is the phase of your project when you need to generate many different possible solutions or answers to your user’s problems or challenges. You don’t want to come up with one idea and put all your energy and focus into that. The goal of ideation is to go wide, come up with tons of ideas (even crazy ones) so that you have a lot to work with when it is time to focus on some ideas to prototype and test. When you need to get the creativity flowing, these design thinking exercises will unleash your thought process.

SCAMPER

SCAMPER is a method of focused brainstorming. But, rather than just saying “Come up with ideas!”, the SCAMPER acronym runs you through seven techniques for idea generation: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate and Reverse.

You use SCAMPER like this: first, identify the product or service you’re working with or the business question at hand. Run through the SCAMPER list and ask yourself questions based on the letters. (You can feel free to jump around and focus on the ones that are inspiring you the most.)

For example, let’s say you work at Uber. You need to think of ways to innovate. You take Combine and think: How could I combine Uber with another experience that riders need? You say to yourself: Riders need food when they are coming home in an Uber late at night. This might lead you to think of an experience where Uber riders can order pizza and a car at the same time. Their driver arrives with a hot pizza in the car and the rider can eat it on the way home. (Ok, this example might just describe UberEats, but you get the idea.)

Read more about SCAMPER and find prompting questions for each letter here.

Crazy 8s

Crazy 8s is an activity that we run as part of every Design Sprint, but it can be used anytime you want to come up with a bunch of ideas quickly. The simplicity of this one is wonderful:

1. Grab a piece of paper and fold it into eight sections
2. Set a timer for 8 minutes
3. Have participants sketch a distinct idea in each section. (Remind them that the ideas don’t have to be amazing, or even viable. The point is getting ideas down on paper and not censoring themselves.)

Find out more about Crazy 8s here.

4. Decisions

It can be easy and fun to come up with new ideas and solutions. But, making decisions? Not always as fun or straightforward. Thankfully, design thinking provides us with some great methods to help filter information. Try these design thinking exercises to help you make creative and impactful decisions.

Affinity Grouping

Affinity grouping is a way to bubble up big themes in a large group of ideas. Assess all of the ideas you’ve generated as a group. Hopefully, you’re working with Post-its, and you can start to move or cluster like ideas together. Create a name or theme for each group of ideas. Once you have a set of big ideas, you can vote as a group about what is most important to focus on.

Dot Voting

Dot voting is another way you can get a sense of what ideas are resonating as most important with the group. Give everyone in the group 3–5 (or more!) sticky dots. At the same time, have everyone put their dots on the idea or concept that they like the most. In the end, you have a heat map of the ideas that the group gravitates toward.

Note and Vote

Note and Vote is another method that comes out of the Design Sprint. The benefit of this exercise is that it gives everyone an equal vote or voice in decision-making. It’s super simple but effective.

Let’s say you have a series of ideas that you are reviewing as a group. Have everyone silently write down which idea is their favorite on a Post-it note. Once they’re done, have everyone put their vote up on the wall or whiteboard at the same time. Review the votes, see what idea has the most votes, and have a conversation around the pros and cons of the 1–3 “winners.”

Design thinking exercises are a highly effective way to ensure your next project is a success. Incorporate them with your team today and create meaningful work together. Pro-tip: use our Liberating Structures templates to get the most out of the design-thinking process with your team.

Learn more about design thinking and facilitation at one of our workshops or events!

We host regular Facilitation Lab meetups, boot camps, summits, and virtual workshops. See a full list of upcoming events here.

The post The Best Design Thinking Exercises for Each Phase of a Project appeared first on Voltage Control.

Within any organization, change is a given. If leaders approach change without empathy, transparency, or understanding, that change can be blown out of proportion and feared. Each team member can and will interpret the consequences of change differently. As leaders shrinking the change at hand and reassessing culture are critical to the success and the sustainability of the change at hand.

We believe the change is challenging but possible to achieve with a healthy balance when handled proactively. In fact, change offers an opportunity to reassess culture and find ways to grow and innovate.

Reassessing Culture and the Importance of Change

Anytime you make a change, it’s wise to step back and understand the potential effects of what you’re implementing or what is happening. You must make a change, so why take your baggage into that change? Seize the moment. Think about who you are and who your team is versus replicating what previously existed in your organization’s space. 

For example, it can be a time to reassess culture if you’re going remote or forced remote. Use the shift to remote as an opportunity to ask how you do so and which cultural shifts might come along with the change. What are you happy or not happy with?

View this situation as an opportunity to debrief. Invite the team to discuss how you show up and operate so that you can design with intention. Are there company core values that you need to reassess? Are the needs of all of your employees being met? Is there room for growth within your values and company culture? Seize the moment. 

A UX design mentality captures this concept well. This is essentially the act of being open to criticism of the system’s design to add value to a situation or solve a problem effectively. 

Ask the following questions to start:

1. Why are you facing the change?
2. Is something in our culture causing the necessity for change?
3. How do you utilize experimentation and exploration to it move forward?

As another example, take organizations that build the AI systems of today. If they don’t take thoughtful care of how they build those systems, then bias, misunderstanding, and lack of empathy will creep in.

Bias represents traditional systems and how you all viewed work in the past. The same thing is true if you simply moved everything to remote without delicate consideration. Our policies and the ways you meet, connect, collaborate, and do things are influenced by past mistakes, consequences of things that are out of our control, or things you’re reacting to that are no longer valid.

On the surface, this concept is simple. The key is knowing and implementing the tactics to reassess. 

This article discusses the following tactics for thinking about culture and using change to your advantage.

• Establishing psychological safety.
• Asking questions.
• Staying in tune with the effects of change on people.
• Using design thinking.
• Reassessing urgency.

1. Establish psychological safety.

Recognize purpose within change. 

Innovation happens slowly. In our conversation with Jamie Gardner, she highlights the importance of patience within innovation. Real change happens with time, so communicating the change at a high level and diving deeper into the change incrementally helps build trust and psychological safety. 

Getting people involved will align your team at a high level from the start. 

It’s more productive and allows for transparency to align people and establish a culture of trust before diving deeper into the details and challenges of the upcoming change. 

Involve those that a change will affect. 

Building trust enables people’s willingness to experiment with change. When people feel invested in change, they want to see it through. They’re willing to listen to problems and assess what’s working and what isn’t for them on a personal and organizational level. 

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To make way for change, it’s essential to identify the “why” behind your desire for it. If so, it’s unlikely to last. Is your change aligned with shared values? Does it project a line of sight in a direction you want to head? That’s a promising start.

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Empathy and clear communication make all the difference in guiding a team through change.

Give people perspective so that they can trust through understanding. The more individuals are left in the dark about the “why”, the greater the tendency to question intention. When a change has the potential to alter finances dramatically, position, or social standing, for example, being left in the dark is a surefire way to invite resistance to change. 

2. Ask questions.

High-level navigation of change begins with asking the right questions. 

What are you proud of? What do you appreciate? What’s not so great? What’s aspirational? What’s dragging you down, and what’s lifting you up? How do you talk about our culture internally that is not being manifested?

You might say that you have specific values, and you aren’t actually living them. That’s the “saying – doing gap”. Change can, but doesn’t always have to, involve a values shift. However, when faced with change reevaluating our values on a company-wide level has the potential to lead to more meaningful answers.

Leave room to address miscellaneous questions and concerns. It provides space for empathy and growth as leaders and teammates. Worst case, set some time aside and don’t end up needing it, but it’s wise to assume that you didn’t cover all of our bases in the planning process alone.

3. Stay in tune with how change is affecting people.

Acknowledge possible negative outcomes. 

• How will this affect our culture?
• Which communication practices will be interrupted?
• How can you communicate effectively throughout this change?
• Is this change long-lasting?
• What can you do to evolve during and after this change? Do our teammates feel supported sufficiently enough to handle this change? 

Being human-centered is the key to lasting and innovative change. While facing your change, it’s important that you’re able to create a space for innovation. At times, you may need to lean heavier on specific team values. When sharing your change with your team, utilize experimentation. Ask everyone to express themselves in a new way. Rather than vocalizing, or writing out their fears or hesitations, invite them to draw their emotions. Get back to pencil and paper. When looking at getting your entire team involved, offer a variety of ways to express what values they hold near and dear. This allows for everyone’s voice to be heard, which will truly shift your company culture to one that is transparent, inclusive, and fully prepared to embrace change. 

4. Use Design Thinking.

Design thinking is worth considering as a more holistic approach. It centers around empathy first with a focus on people, and people are at the core of every organization. As you identify these possible effects of change, design thinking challenges us to move forward in testing the process of these ideas. 

Design thinking plays a crucial role in engagement by centering the needs of each participant and ensuring that each person involved has a stake in the organizational change’s success.

As we’ve said before, change is a type of experimentation. Some changes must be made, but you must keep in mind that you can find ways to work with change rather than settle on a single way of thinking or working. The process of ideation around this change, even if the change itself is inevitable, is essential.

As you implement the change, you challenge yourself to notice differences in how you think, work, and interact. Whatever process you choose to guide that change, you enhance your understanding of your team, strengths, and opportunities for improvement. Viewing the initial change as part of design thinking allows us to develop our approach with time. 

If you hold yourselves and each other accountable for checking in and making necessary adjustments to our practices, you’ll be much more successful at achieving our full potential. Again, if you’re aligned at a high level early on, you’re more inclined to work together towards a fitting solution.

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5. Checking in and reassessing urgency. 

Take some time to step back as a team and determine priorities. 

In the midst of change, it’s easy to get caught up in the logistics and push to have tasks completed quickly just to make progress, but that often leaves room for mistakes and forgotten priorities. 

We should consistently look to stick to our values, but beyond that, what are our cultural non-negotiables? What needs to continue, and what can take a backseat in order to keep our determined priorities at the forefront?

Step back and ask why you’re making this change in the first place — considering who’s involved. How can you work together to ensure you’re on the same timeline? What’s most urgent about the change process?

Small changes ultimately make the most significant differences within innovation. What are you making time for amidst this change? Which practices should you integrate? Are you leaving time for learning as individuals? Are you practicing self-awareness? 

If we want to innovate, we must change. If we want to create lasting change, we must consistently reassess the effects that change has on culture, what our teams and organizations value, and how the change ahead will be sustainable.

Voltage Control can help you change the way you think about growth and pursue innovation. Through custom-designed programs, we guide leaders in navigating change with cultural stability. 

Our change programs aim at unleashing full potential through practices that solidify learning and help you realize your potential as leaders and teams. We offer a range of formats, from courses to workshops, to support you through your transition. 

In need of some guidance? Reach out to us at hello@voltagecontrol.com to discuss what we offer.

The post 5 Tips for Reassessing Culture in the Face of Change appeared first on Voltage Control.

Using design thinking for change management can transform your approach to change leadership. Design thinking and change management are two disciplines that enable leaders to identify and implement new ways of working. Merging the two processes allows for a new approach to designing change.

Statistics show that change initiatives are 30% more likely to last when those most impacted by the change are also fully invested in creating it. Blending the best of design thinking and change management can create an engaging strategy for change.

In this article, we explore how to use design thinking for change management in the following ways:

• Design Thinking as a Practice for Change
• What does it Mean to Design Change?
• Redesigning Change Management 
• Embracing Design Thinking for Change Management
• Designing Your Next Change

Design Thinking as a Practice for Change

Though design thinking is typically considered a practice for product development, design thinking is an all-encompassing process that offers a different approach to change leadership. The design thinking discipline focuses on centering people at the heart of any initiative. Leaders can create solutions that best fit those most affected by the change by taking a human-first perspective to change. 

Design thinking for change management plays a key role in engagement by centering the needs of each participant and ensuring that each person involved has a stake in the success of the project. This process asks all participants to center each other’s feelings, attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs in the decision-making process. This approach increases the chance that any new changes will be accepted and implemented in the long term. 

Using design thinking for change management also encourages participants to keep refining their ideas. This process of consistently reviewing and revising is ideal for developing initiatives that best meet the needs of all parties involved.

What does it Mean to Design Change?

Designing change allows for an expansive and creative approach to change-making. This process encourages idea generation through the collaborative effort of team members, leaders, and stakeholders in an organization. Bringing together a diverse group of people to co-create change allows for the most innovative and intentional ideas going forward. Each participant can draw from their collective perspectives and experiences to design the best solutions. 

The design process completely challenges traditional problem-solving. Traditional problem solving uses convergent thinking: choosing a solution out of the only choices available. Alternatively, design thinking allows for creative problem-solving through divergent thinking: innovating the best choices in a holistic, integrated, and collaborative manner. 

Businesses like Airbnb reveal how design thinking for change management can completely transform a company. This innovative approach to change helped Airbnb create a culture of experimentation and double its revenue within a week. 

Frustrated with their lack of growth, the founders of Airbnb realized they needed to change and change quickly. Instead of operating as a tech startup, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia realized they needed a non-scalable approach: applying design thinking to their business model.

In a non-scalable experiment, Gebbia and his team rented a professional-grade camera, flew to New York, and hit the ground taking high-resolution images of renters’ properties. Within a week, Airbnb doubled its revenue and fast-tracked its success.

Redesigning Change Management 

Change is an unavoidable part of every organization. Companies that are best equipped to handle the challenges that come with change actively reframe change through the lens of innovative change management. Change is an abstract concept that often causes confusion, fear, and chaos. Change management responds to the chaos of change as leaders manage external factors. 

Leaders who champion organizational change management focus heavily on the process of implementation and acceptance of change as a whole. When we consider change management through the lens of design thinking, we can paint a picture of change that benefits all parties involved. 

Embracing Design Thinking for Change Management

Design thinking for change management focuses on cultivating a purpose. With design thinking, organizations can center their values and ideals for the future as the starting point for all change initiatives. Moreover, the design thinking process encourages participants to take a procedural approach to implement change. While the outcome may still be a mystery, organizations can use the established process of design thinking to embrace change management. 

Merging both design thinking and change management practices requires a keen understanding of the similarities and differences of each methodology:

Design Thinking

Design thinking focuses predominantly on designing with a solution in mind. This process highlights an innovative approach to creating change, focusing on ideation and experimenting to find the best solution. 

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In design thinking, participants focus on “what?” as they navigate a challenge. Relying solely on design thinking for change often misses the mark of addressing change initiatives’ implementation and adoption aspects. 

Change Management

Change management prioritizes the adoption of an idea, using the implementation of that idea as a vehicle for change. Proponents of change management rely on influential leadership to answer the “how” of change implementation. 

This approach is most successful when team members reach a certain level of “readiness” to accept change initiatives. Typically, change management misses the part of engaging others in the design and decision-making process. Without the necessary engagement, leaders may implement a change that stakeholders had no say in creating. 

When merging both change management practices and design thinking methodology, we can address the “why” of making change. On a larger scale, design thinking for change management allows all participants to develop a sense of authorship when it comes to deciding what changes best suit all parties and how to navigate the challenges that accompany a change. 

Relying on research, process, and new ways of working, design thinking for change management encourages each stakeholder to engage in the process of creating change by centering empathy. Together, both practices focus on creating a new way to work by asking why change needs to happen, what processes to use to implement change, and discovering how the change will ultimately take place. 

Designing Your Next Change

Change can be an ambiguous process. Applying design thinking principles to your next change will help you find clarity in the midst of the unknown. 

Consider the following 5-step design thinking model to best implement change management:

1. Empathize with Those Impacted By the Change

The first phase in design thinking for change management is to empathize with those that are impacted by the change. Change leaders should empathize with all stakeholders by acknowledging and validating their beliefs, experiences, and fears. Leaders should empathize with all parties involved by adopting their perspectives and mindset. This process should include research into how each person will be impacted by potential changes as well as the pain points associated with a change. 

2. Create Consensus on What Changes Need to Be Made

The next step is creating consensus on the most pressing changes. Leaders and team members should develop a relevant problem statement using the information from the first phase. All participants should reach a consensus on what the main problem is. This way, they can work together to co-create the best solution in the following phases. 

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3. Generate Solutions for Potential Challenges

Innovation drives design thinking for change management. Use this phase to harness the most innovative ideas. Encourage team members to think outside the box and develop as many potential solutions as possible. 

Techniques like storyboarding, role-playing, mind-mapping, and brainstorming are excellent ways to identify the most appropriate solutions. 

4. Prototype to Create Solutions 

The prototyping phase encourages all stakeholders to develop solutions on a small scale. The purpose of this phase is to further explore ideas from the ideation phase as they relate to the previously defined problem. Deliverables for this phase may include building a physical prototype or detailing a process or idea. 

5. Run Experiments to Find What Works

The final phase allows participants to test their prototypes. This step intends to identify a solution that is the most appropriate for real-world scenarios. All participants should agree on a final solution that resolves the problem from the second phase. 

Use design thinking for change management to bring innovation to the forefront in your future change initiatives. Apply the best of both practices to your next change strategy.

If you want to implement design thinking throughout your organization, we can help. At Voltage Control, we assist leaders and teams in thriving through change! Contact us to learn more about the best way to align design thinking to your next change initiative. 

The post Co-Creating Change: Why Design Thinking for Change Management Works appeared first on Voltage Control.

“It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.”

Designing change strategy is easier said than done. In a perfect world, changes are welcomed with excitement and eagerness to shift the status quo. However, change is often met with fear, anger, and resentment in the real world.

While change is the only constant in life, statistics show that only 34% of change initiatives are clear successes.  

In order to initiate successful changes, organizations must invest more time and resources in creating a human-centered change strategy that allows for long-term alignment, implementation, and acceptance. 

In this article, we explore the best way to begin designing change strategy on the following topics:

• Addressing Resistance to Change
• Exploring the Fundamentals of Change
• Designing Change Strategy with Design Thinking

Addressing Resistance to Change

Designing change strategy starts with acknowledging the main obstacle to change: resistance.

Resistance is a guarantee when it comes to introducing organizational change. While this is a well-known fact, the truth is that too few people plan for designing change strategies with this resistance in mind. Organizational change efforts are always going to face some form of resistance. Failure to consider this resistance may prove disastrous for any change initiatives going forward.

Bolster your change strategy by creating a plan to face resistance. Start by predicting the form resistance will take to tackle the most common forms of resistance. Experts reveal that people resist organizational change for the following reasons:

• Team members are afraid to lose a valuable experience.

Your team members likely have grown accustomed to the status quo in your organization. While change is inevitable, team members will likely resist if they’ve grown attached to your current company culture. In order to overcome this level of resistance, it’s important to communicate the value that the impending changes will bring to your organization. 

• Team members misunderstand the coming changes and their implications. 

Another cause of resistance is the fear of the unknown. Team members often attribute future changes to a negative impact on their work and their stability with the company. Leaders should address these fears by explaining the coming changes and detailing why they are necessary. This will help to alleviate the team members’ fears and help them welcome the coming changes. 

• The team members believe that the coming changes aren’t necessary. 

For organizational change to take place, leaders must achieve buy-in from all participants. Too often, team members believe a change to be unnecessary or ineffective. Leaders should make an effort to communicate why the change is necessary and bring all team members on board.  

• Team members have a low tolerance for change.

It isn’t uncommon for people to have a low tolerance for change. Most team members seek a sense of stability from the organization, and change threatens this stability. Team leaders must validate these facts and seek to reassure their team members that the changes that are coming will benefit everyone. 

Exploring The Fundamentals of Change

When designing change strategy, it’s important to understand what change means at its core. Learning about and adopting the fundamentals of change allow organizations to make change strategies a regular part of their company culture.

Change management experts share that organizations need three things for change to manifest:

• Time 
• An updated company culture
• Positive motivation

Apply these fundamentals of change in the following ways:

1. Take the Time to Make a Change

Lasting change needs time to manifest. In designing change strategy, it’s important to create sustained change initiatives that are built to last beyond the short term. Create a strategy that allows for temporary setbacks to ensure long-term success. With a reasonable timetable in mind, you’ll be best equipped to introduce new change initiatives and will give your team members the greatest ability to adopt these changes. 

2. Change Your Company Culture

In order for change to take hold in an organization, the work environment and company culture must change at its core. Designing a completely transformed work environment allows for the greatest behavioral change throughout every level of an organization. By redesigning your company culture and offering team members a new way to work, you’ll give team members the support and resources they need to face resistance to change in stride.

3. Focus on Positive Motivation

Designing change strategy around positive motivation changes everything. Successful change must be rooted in social change as it is the people who are responsible for supporting and sustaining new initiatives. Leaders should celebrate the upsides of change by highlighting the positive aspects of a better future and company culture. By getting all stakeholders excited about upcoming changes, you’ll be able to guarantee sustainable buy-in for the long term.  

Designing Change Strategy with Design Thinking

Design thinking is an innovative methodology that allows organizations to approach designing change strategies in an entirely new way. This process informs idea generation by encouraging stakeholders to implement change through collaboration. With the power of design thinking, organizations harness the perspective and experience of all team members to design, implement and maintain change. 

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Design thinking is based on divergent thinking: the process of inviting in a holistic and integrated manner. By merging design thinking and change management, organizations are able to increase innovation and collaboration as they introduce change initiatives. Through organizational change management, you’ll be able to start designing change strategy with design thinking and take a human-centric approach to change management. This helps team members align themselves with the goals and drives of an upcoming change as they become part of the transformative experience themselves.

By introducing change initiatives through design thinking, you’ll encourage team members to have empathy for the needed shifts as they adopt the changes even faster. 

As you start designing change strategy with a human-centered approach, consider the following elements of the design thinking process:

1. Develop Empathy for the Change

Change can only take place if everyone is truly aligned with the shift. Starting with the first phases of design thinking, you’ll encourage your team to empathize with the need for change and the new initiatives that need to take place. This stage should include learning as much as possible about your organization’s current issues and problems.

2. Define the Problem the Change Addresses

With the information from the first phase, your team should now define the specific problem the upcoming change will address. This phase aims to determine a human-centered change initiative that will place all stakeholders at the center of the change. 

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3. Ideate Solutions for Change Strategy

Inviting all team members to participate in the ideation phase is crucial to creating buy-in for the forthcoming change. In this phase, team members are invited to collaboratively develop as many solutions as possible.

4. Prototype and Test Change Strategies 

Implementing change is one of the most challenging aspects of designing change strategy. The design thinking approach encourages a trial and error process to test change initiatives before fully implementing them. This allows leaders and teams to review and refine each initiative before selecting the most appropriate and effective change management strategy. 

Significant change takes place in this phase as team members work to identify the best possible solution. During this phase, you’ll continuously adapt your strategy to account for systematic and environmental changes as stakeholders all play an active role in bringing this change into reality. 

Designing change strategy takes an intentional approach to creative problem-solving. Are you and your team struggling with an organizational change? We help leaders and teams thrive through change!

Contact Voltage Control to learn more about how we can help you make lasting change. 

The post Taking a Human-Centered Approach to Designing Change Strategy appeared first on Voltage Control.