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 Concept Development in Design Thinking
  • The Essence of Concept Development
• Best Practices for Concept Development
  • Foster a Collaborative Environment
  • Embrace a User-Centric Approach
  • Encourage Ideation Without Constraints
  • Utilize Visual Thinking Tools
  • Prototype Early and Often
  • Gather and Integrate Feedback
  • Iterate and Evolve Ideas
  • Prioritize Feasibility and Impact
  • Document the Process
  • Stay Open to Pivot
• Overcoming Challenges in Concept Development
  • Navigating Creative Blocks
  • Combating Groupthink
  • Overcoming Analysis Paralysis
  • Fostering a Resilient Mindset
• Conclusion
• FAQs 

How often do we find ourselves at the crossroads of innovation, where the spark of creativity meets the challenge of practical application? When it comes to design thinking, this intersection is not just a momentary pause but the very crucible where groundbreaking solutions are forged. 

In this article, we’ll delve into the art and science of concept development within design thinking, unveiling best practices that pave the way for innovation that is not only imaginative but deeply attuned to user needs. Join us as we explore how to cultivate a fertile ground for ideas to flourish, ensuring they grow into solutions that resonate, impact, and transform.

Understanding Concept Development in Design Thinking

Concept development is the bridge between empathetic understanding and tangible innovation. It’s where the insights gleaned from deep dives into user experiences, needs, and challenges are synthesized into viable ideas that have the potential to evolve into impactful solutions. But what exactly does this process entail in the context of design thinking?

The Essence of Concept Development

At its essence, concept development is an ideation process fueled by the insights gathered during the empathy and define stages of design thinking. It’s a creative endeavor that requires divergent thinking — the ability to think in varied and unconventional directions to generate a broad array of potential solutions. However, it’s not just about coming up with as many ideas as possible; it’s about fostering the right environment and mindset to nurture ideas that are both innovative and deeply connected to the user’s needs.

The Role of Empathy

Empathy is more than just understanding users; it involves reading between the lines to grasp unarticulated needs and behaviors. Design thinkers need to look for “thoughtless acts,” or subtle user behaviors that indicate how their environment shapes their actions, to find opportunities for innovation​. 

Moreover, empathy isn’t a static trait but a skill that can be cultivated and enhanced through practice. Research indicates that only about 10% of the variation in people’s empathy is due to genetics, suggesting that the majority of empathetic capacity is developed through experience and deliberate practice​​. This reinforces the idea that anyone involved in design can enhance their ability to empathize with users, making their designs more user-centric and effective.

The Iterative Nature of Concept Development

Concept development in design thinking is inherently iterative. It’s not a linear path from problem to solution but a cyclical process of ideation, prototyping, testing, and refining. This iterative approach allows for the continuous evolution of ideas, ensuring that they are constantly refined and adapted based on real-world feedback and changing user needs.

Balancing Divergence and Convergence

Divergent thinking opens up the ideation space, encouraging the exploration of varied and unconventional directions to generate a broad array of potential solutions. It’s characterized by techniques such as the Nominal Group Technique, where ideas are silently generated before being shared and discussed, ensuring all voices are heard. Mind mapping and scenario role play are other divergent techniques that aid in visualizing ideas and empathizing with user scenarios, respectively​​. An example of successful divergent thinking in practice is the early development of Twitter, where an MVP approach allowed for the exploration of various uses before refining the platform​​.

Convergent thinking, on the other hand, focuses on narrowing down these possibilities to identify the most viable and impactful solutions. Techniques such as grouping, prioritizing, and filtering help organize and refine ideas generated during the divergent phase. This phase involves making educated decisions based on available data and expert insights, ensuring the chosen solutions are practical and aligned with user needs.

In the following sections, we’ll explore the best practices for concept development in design thinking, offering insights into how to effectively navigate this complex yet rewarding phase of the design thinking process. From fostering a collaborative environment to embracing a user-centric approach and encouraging ideation without constraints, these practices provide a roadmap for transforming insights and empathy into innovative solutions that resonate with users and make a tangible impact in their lives.

Best Practices for Concept Development

Concept development is a critical phase in design thinking, where ideas begin to take shape. To ensure this process is as effective and innovative as possible, certain best practices can be followed:

Foster a Collaborative Environment

Collaboration is key to unlocking diverse perspectives and richer solutions. Research from Boston Consulting Group reveals that companies with diverse leadership teams see a significant increase in innovation revenue, which can be 19 percentage points higher than in less diverse companies. This innovation revenue contributes to 45% of the total revenue, emphasizing the crucial impact of diversity on a company’s innovative capabilities and adaptability to market changes. Even minor changes in the diversity of leadership can lead to notable improvements in innovation revenue, suggesting that the benefits of diversity span across multiple dimensions.

To enhance collaboration:

• Diverse Teams: Assemble teams with varied backgrounds and expertise to bring different viewpoints to the table.
• Open Communication: Encourage open and honest communication, ensuring all ideas are heard and considered.
• Co-Creation Sessions: Organize workshops where team members can co-create, building on each other’s ideas.

Embrace a User-Centric Approach

Keeping the user at the forefront ensures solutions are relevant and impactful. To maintain a user-centric focus:

• Empathy Workshops: Conduct workshops to deepen the team’s understanding of the user’s needs and challenges.
• User Involvement: Involve users in the ideation process through interviews, surveys, or participatory design sessions.
• Persona Development: Create detailed user personas to keep the team aligned on who they are designing for.

Encourage Ideation Without Constraints

Uninhibited ideation fosters creativity and innovation. The study “Creative Conspiracy: The New Rules of Breakthrough Collaboration” found that structured brainstorming sessions can lead to a 50% increase in viable ideas compared to traditional meetings..

To promote free ideation:

• Brainstorming Sessions: Hold regular brainstorming sessions with the rule that no idea is too outlandish.
• Idea Parking Lot: Create a space (physical or digital) where any idea can be ‘parked’ for later consideration, ensuring ideas aren’t lost or dismissed prematurely.
• Time for Reflection: Allocate time for individual reflection, allowing ideas to mature and evolve.

Utilize Visual Thinking Tools

Visual tools can make abstract ideas more concrete and understandable. To effectively use visual thinking:

• Sketching and Storyboarding: Encourage the use of sketches and storyboards to visualize ideas and user scenarios.
• Mind Mapping: Use mind maps to explore and expand on ideas, showing relationships and connections.
• Prototyping Tools: Leverage digital prototyping tools to quickly bring ideas to life and iterate on them.

Prototype Early and Often

Prototyping allows for the exploration and refinement of ideas which has been shown in a case study by the Design Management Institute that demonstrates how iterative prototyping in the design process of a leading tech company resulted in a 50% reduction in development time and a 25% increase in user satisfaction.

To integrate prototyping effectively:

• Low-Fidelity Prototypes: Start with simple, low-fidelity prototypes to test concepts and gather feedback quickly.
• Iterative Prototyping: Evolve prototypes based on user feedback, gradually increasing fidelity as the concept solidifies.
• Diverse Prototyping Methods: Use a range of prototyping methods, from paper models to digital simulations, to explore different aspects of the solution.

Gather and Integrate Feedback

Feedback is crucial for refining concepts and ensuring they meet user needs. Even a Nielsen Norman Group study indicates that iterating on a product based on user feedback can increase the usability of a product by up to 135%. 

To effectively gather and integrate feedback:

• Feedback Loops: Establish regular feedback loops with users and stakeholders to continually refine ideas.
• Feedback Channels: Create multiple channels for feedback, including direct user testing, online forums, and stakeholder reviews.
• Act on Feedback: Ensure there’s a process in place to analyze feedback and act on it, making necessary adjustments to concepts.

Iterate and Evolve Ideas

The iterative nature of design thinking means ideas should continually evolve. To support iteration:

• Iteration Cycles: Define clear cycles of iteration, with objectives for each cycle to guide development.
• Pivot Readiness: Be prepared to pivot or radically change direction based on new insights or feedback.
• Documentation: Keep detailed records of each iteration, including the rationale for changes, to inform future decisions.

Prioritize Feasibility and Impact

A study from the Project Management Institute indicates that 70% of projects fail due to a lack of user acceptance could highlight the importance of aligning innovative ideas with practical user needs and market demand. 

 To balance innovation with feasibility:

• Feasibility Studies: Conduct early feasibility studies to assess the practicality of ideas.
• Impact Analysis: Evaluate the potential impact of concepts on users and the business to prioritize development efforts.
• Resource Allocation: Ensure resources are allocated to ideas with the highest potential for success, considering both innovation and practicality.

Document the Process

Documentation provides a valuable record of the concept development journey. To effectively document the process:

• Digital Repositories: Use digital tools to create a central repository of ideas, sketches, prototypes, and feedback.
• Process Mapping: Map out the concept development process, including key milestones, decisions, and iterations.
• Lessons Learned: Capture lessons learned throughout the process to inform future projects and improve methodologies.

Stay Open to Pivot

Finally, flexibility is crucial in the face of new insights or challenges. A study from the Startup Genome Project found that startups that pivot once or twice raise 2.5 times more money, have 3.6 times better user growth, and are 52% less likely to scale prematurely than startups that either don’t pivot or pivot more than twice. 

To maintain agility:

• Regular Check-ins: Hold regular project check-ins to assess progress and decide if a pivot is necessary.
• Culture of Adaptability: Foster a culture that views pivoting as a positive step towards a better solution, not as a setback.
• Strategic Pivoting: Ensure pivots are strategic and based on solid data or feedback, avoiding knee-jerk reactions to minor issues.

By adhering to these best practices, teams can navigate the complexities of concept development with a blend of creativity, pragmatism, and user focus, ensuring the solutions developed are not only innovative but also viable and deeply resonant with user needs.

Overcoming Challenges in Concept Development

Being a complex and often challenging process, concept development is fraught with obstacles such as creative blocks, groupthink, and analysis paralysis. Overcoming these challenges requires a proactive approach, fostering an environment that encourages creativity, supports risk-taking, and promotes critical thinking. 

Navigating Creative Blocks

To overcome creative stagnation:

• Change of Scenery: A new environment can spark creativity.
• Cross-Disciplinary Inspiration: Seek ideas outside your field.
• Idea Generation Exercises: Techniques like SCAMPER or mind mapping can stimulate new thoughts.

Combating Groupthink

To ensure diverse and innovative thinking:

• Encourage Dissent: Welcome differing opinions to prevent conformity.
• Diverse Teams: Include members with varied backgrounds to enrich discussions.
• Anonymous Ideas: Use anonymous submissions to encourage bold suggestions without fear of judgment.

Overcoming Analysis Paralysis

To avoid getting stuck in decision-making:

• Set Clear Deadlines: Impose time limits to prompt action.
• Break Down Problems: Tackle issues into smaller, manageable parts.
• Embrace ‘Good Enough’: Aim for satisfactory solutions rather than perfection, especially in the early stages.

Fostering a Resilient Mindset

Resilience is key to navigating the concept development process:

• Learn from Failure: View setbacks as learning opportunities.
• Focus on Solutions: Keep a problem-solving attitude.
• Celebrate Small Wins: Acknowledge progress to maintain motivation.

By employing these strategies, teams can effectively navigate the hurdles of concept development, ensuring a productive and innovative environment.

Conclusion

As the sun sets on our exploration of concept development in design thinking, we find ourselves not at the end of a journey, but on the precipice of countless new beginnings. The path of innovation, much like the winding roads of a great adventure, is strewn with the seeds of potential—each waiting for the right conditions to burst into life.

Let us step forth from this journey not just as thinkers and makers but as cultivators of change, equipped with the knowledge and practices to turn the seeds of possibility into the fruits of innovation. In the landscape of design thinking, our concepts are more than mere solutions; they are the blossoms of human ingenuity, nurtured in the garden of empathy, and ready to transform the world, one user experience at a time.

FAQs 

• How many concepts should be developed before moving to prototyping?

The number of concepts to develop before prototyping varies depending on the project scope, objectives, and constraints. However, it’s essential to focus on a manageable number of concepts that allow for thorough exploration and refinement without overwhelming the process. This ensures that each concept is given the attention it deserves, leading to more effective and well-developed prototypes.

• What are the signs that a concept is strong enough to proceed with?

A concept is considered strong enough to proceed with when it effectively addresses the identified user needs, demonstrates potential for significant impact, and is feasible within the project’s technical and resource constraints. Additionally, a strong concept should resonate with users and stakeholders, eliciting positive feedback and support.

• How can teams avoid groupthink during concept development?

Avoiding groupthink involves fostering a culture of open communication and critical thinking, where diverse perspectives are valued and encouraged. Techniques such as brainstorming sessions, role-playing, and encouraging dissenting opinions can help in ensuring that a wide range of ideas and viewpoints are considered, reducing the risk of groupthink.

• What role does user feedback play in concept development?

User feedback is integral to the concept development process, serving as a critical tool for validating assumptions, uncovering new insights, and refining concepts. Engaging with users throughout the process ensures that the solutions developed are closely aligned with their needs and expectations, increasing the likelihood of success.

The post Best Practices for Concept Development in Design Thinking appeared first on Voltage Control.

“I allow myself to be very vulnerable and open because I know I’ll grow in it, but I also know it helps others step into being vulnerable alongside me.”- Susan Wilson-Golab

In this episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast, Douglas Ferguson converses with Susan Wilson-Golab about her evolution from a K-12 district administrator to an expert in educational leadership and facilitation. Susan delves into her career progression, the significance of adapting to different organizational cultures, and the patience needed for effective change facilitation. Her reflections offer valuable insights into the world of professional learning and the art of facilitation.

Show Highlights

[00:02:28] Early experience with facilitation
[00:08:59] Transition to facilitation
[00:16:10] Patience in facilitation
[00:23:13] Navigating a Career Transition
[00:26:23] Growth Through Vulnerability
[00:29:00] Embracing Vulnerability for Growth
[00:36:50] Future Horizons and Challenges

Links | Resources

Susan on Linkedin

About the Guest

Prior to receiving her doctorate in Educational Leadership, Susan spent twenty plus years leading adult professional learning. Her professional adventures have included high school English teacher, teacher leadership, Director of the Oakland Writing Project, regional literacy consultant, and K12 district administrator. She has co-authored multiple educational journal articles focused on the teaching of writing.

About Voltage Control

Voltage Control is a facilitation academy that develops leaders through certifications, workshops, and organizational coaching focused on facilitation mastery, innovation, and play. Today’s leaders are confronted with unprecedented uncertainty and complex change. Navigating this uncertainty requires a systemic facilitative approach to gain clarity and chart pathways forward. We prepare today’s leaders for now and what’s next.

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Voltage Control on the Web
Contact Voltage Control

Transcript

Douglas Ferguson:

Hi, I’m Douglas Ferguson. Welcome to the Facilitation Lab podcast, where I speak with Voltage Control certification alumni and other facilitation experts about the remarkable impact they’re making. We embrace a method agnostic approach so you can enjoy a wide range of topics and perspectives as we examine all the nuances of enabling meaningful group experiences. This series is dedicated to helping you navigate the realities of facilitating collaboration, ensuring every session you lead becomes truly transformative. Thanks so much for listening. If you’d like to join us for a live session sometime, you can join our Facilitation Lab community. It’s an ideal space to apply what you learn in the podcast in real time with peers. Sign up today at voltagecontrol.com/facilitation-lab, and if you’d like to learn more about our 12-week facilitation certification program, you can read about it at voltagecontrol.com.

Today, I’m with Susan Wilson-Golab. Prior to receiving her doctorate, educational leadership, Susan spent 20 plus years leading adult professional learning. Her professional adventures have included high school English teacher, teacher leadership, director of the Oakland writing project, regional literacy consultant, and K-12 district administrator. She has also co-authored multiple educational journal articles focused on the teaching of writing. Welcome to the show, Susan.

Susan Wilson-Golab:

Hi, thanks for having me.

Douglas Ferguson:

It’s so great to have you. It’s been a moment since the summit and it was such a pleasure having you here in Austin and leading us through an amazing workshop that was based off of your PhD.

Susan Wilson-Golab:

Yeah, I spent months actually wringing my hands over it, because I was going to be working with a different audience than I usually had, and then I realized you really deep-parlay your facilitation. Learning whether you’re in an education-based audience or an industry-based audience, it all transfers.

Douglas Ferguson:

Let’s dial back a moment In my typical tradition, we’ll start off hearing a little bit about how you got your start, or specifically, what was a pivotal moment for you where you realized facilitation was a thing or you were drawn to it, or you just experienced the power of facilitation? What’s one of those early stories that comes to mind?

Susan Wilson-Golab:

Well, I think people would say, “Well, you’re a teacher. Isn’t that what you do on a daily basis?” But really as teachers, especially young teachers, you think about that you’re just the content expert, you’re not really thinking of yourself as a facilitator. So it wasn’t until I landed into a wonderful learning community within a English department in my first job where our department chair would facilitate professional learning with us. And I didn’t know at the time that’s really what I was experiencing, all I knew is I couldn’t get enough of it. We would usually start sometimes very early in the morning before teaching or we would stay hours after school. But I loved the community of it. I loved the constant stretch of the learning. And when she was going to step down from department chair and she was retiring, for a moment I kept looking around the room saying, “Okay. Well, who’s going to step in because we need this experience. We need to continue this community.”

And I realized, “Well, Susan, you might have to step in.” So I always say I’m a reluctant to lead facilitator. People who knew me long ago would’ve said Susan’s a very quiet person. I love to read a room, sit quietly and really watch. And I think I’d been working all my time up to that point where I had that epiphany moment where, “Maybe I have to step up, maybe I have to step up and build that community within the place I’m working with other people.” So I’d say that was very early on, about five to six years into my teaching career. That really opened up for me. I wouldn’t know at the time that I would’ve said I was facilitating. I think I would’ve been saying I was hosting, I was creating a place, a community, and I think I really came into understanding facilitation when I got involved with the National Writing Project. And our local affiliate site was the Oakland Writing Project.

And I started facilitating our four-week summer institutes with a team of two other teachers who were very seasoned and veteran at facilitating. And I was at that point looking for what’s the script, tell me how I do this. And so I really had to learn by doing with the experience in the summer institute. So that would really be where I really turned a corner on facilitation, and that’s where I got the bug to be really the host, the designer, the instigator of bringing things together. And I never seem to shed that identity after making that turn.

Douglas Ferguson:

It’s really interesting that you use these other nouns like host and instigator quite often, folks that are exhibiting facilitation skills or collaborative leadership skills and putting these tools and these competencies to work. They often don’t identify as a facilitator, but there’re these other nouns, these other titles or roles or these identities that they’re called to. I’m curious if you have other thoughts on that.

Susan Wilson-Golab:

Yeah, I think in recent years, especially as I started leaning in on the Voltage Control professional learning, I realized a lot of my early learning and facilitation was being mentored alongside somebody. And so I wasn’t naming certain moves so I didn’t know. I was creating with them. So as I got further along in facilitation, liberating structures, for instance, would be like a model where I’d be looking at some of the protocols and going, “Oh, I kind of created those similar experiences.” So I think early on it was a very organic, I was watching and creating and thinking about the experience. And as I’ve gotten more seasoned at it, the more I’m naming what I’m doing, the more I can experience another facilitator’s moves and I can see behind it to see how they’re weaving together different protocols, maybe how they’re thinking about their arcs and how they want to have us have an experience. But in my early years of facilitation, I was totally not aware of that orchestration. I was doing it organically alongside those who I think probably had ways of naming it and I didn’t.

Douglas Ferguson:

Yeah, that’s really fascinating, this level of maturity and situational awareness that you speak about. And it can help us plan and be more mindful of how we approach facilitation. Do you recall a moment or a trigger where you feel like you transitioned or is it more just iterative over time?

Susan Wilson-Golab:

I would say I led the facilitation work with the writing project for I’d say three or four summers. And I’d say during that time I started also leading more inside of my district work, and I was leading more meetings. I was putting together different projects, and so I was having to design and facilitate that. And I’d say I really made that turn when I saw that it was feeling more comfortable, like it was in my bones, it was me, and I saw the impact it was having on others when they were conveying to me how powerful the community was that we had, how sad they were when something wrapped up. And I saw this tremendous impact that I was having in creating these experiences. And I think that was really the trigger that also led me to leave the classroom and to become more of a regional consultant.

And that’s when I really made the shift because my whole job was leading and developing professional learning. It wasn’t unusual for me to be in front of a few hundred people or try and create a workshop that had 70 people in it, but trying to make it really impactful when there’s one of you or two with some co-leads, all the decision making that I had to do.

So my facilitation journey really started, I think in a really small context where I was with small groups, and then the more I got confident and the more I pushed to be in that world of facilitation, the bigger the audiences became for me, and the stakes got higher as well. A lot of the things that I was leading were statewide projects that had to have deliverables, and I’d not ever had that kind of pressure on me as a facilitator. Now it wasn’t about just helping people through a journey, you also had to do it in a way that got to a deliverable and make it meaningful to them and as authentic as possible. But that was also tricky. So it was like layers of complexity kept coming on each year I continued in that role as a facilitator.

Douglas Ferguson:

It’s interesting. At first I was noticing this maybe level of practice that was happening where you were just getting more reps and more opportunity, but then as the story unfolded, I was hearing that there was also to use your language, these layers of complexity or the stakes were getting higher and higher the deeper you went. And it seems like those two things probably correlate.

Susan Wilson-Golab:

Yeah. It’s one thing to say, “I really want to create this professional learning community that people want to be in because they feel it’s feeding their needs, whatever their individual needs are for learning, for stretching themselves in their practice.” That can be pretty organic and you can allow for people to go in lots of different directions. But when you start having to come in and get a group to a finish line, but you don’t want to do it in such a way that they don’t feel like it’s a ride they even want to be on, you have to then really think about, well, how do we get there in a way that honors also what they feel they need in this experience? So that really, I think, significantly upped my learning curve.

And it was during those years when I was a regional literacy consultant that because I was working basically with the Michigan Department of Education in some respects, in terms of turnaround with schools, I had a lot of opportunities to learn lots of different models of coaching, of protocols to use. And so I kept beefing up this toolbox that I had, but I was also adamant that it wasn’t about just being one model, which I would butt heads with colleagues, because when you are working for a larger governmental agency, you have to follow certain ways that they want the work to happen. And so as a facilitator, sometimes I felt that my hands were tied to coach people into leading the experiences with district members in ways that weren’t necessarily how I thought would get them to the best finish line.

Douglas Ferguson:

How did that unfold for you when you’re in those experiences? What were some of the tactics that you found were really helpful, and then how did it turn out?

Susan Wilson-Golab:

I think one of the things was getting an opportunity to design a learning experience with one of our districts that we were working with and having some of my colleagues alongside in that, and they were experiencing it, the learning alongside the district administrators and leaders. And at the end it was like, “Oh, I see what you did there.” And that was amazing how it had this level of impact. So I found the opportunities where I could put them into an experience and it would start shifting their perspective of what’s the best way to facilitate a certain project or a certain group to get to what they felt were the deliverables. So I was a part of a very large organization that, again, facilitation is not… Everybody has learned on different paths, and we were all coming together as consultants and we all had very different styles, and so we all would have opportunities to learn from each other, and that’s where you would start seeing some epiphanies, some alignments, some changes.

But I found it was more impactful to have someone experience it versus me saying, “You could do it this way or research says.” That wasn’t going to change anybody’s mind about what’s the best way we go about this. Ultimately, I left the regional role to be in a district system because I was wanting to have more ownership over how you could design projects going forward. And I also felt that I could be closer again to the individuals, the teachers, administrators, the students in which I wanted to create a positive impact for. So to your question, how did I finally handle that? In some respects, it led me to take a different path.

Douglas Ferguson:

And oftentimes the frustrations, the frictions are signals that we’re not on the path, we’re in the briars. One thing I wanted to touch back on was something that emerged from me as I was hearing about your experiences of them getting the epiphany at the end. And it made me think about the word patience, the patience that we expect out of our participants and the patience that is required of us to be willing to let our participants be in a state that… They might not be where we want them, but having the patience to know that they’ll get there. I’m curious. I bet you have a lot of experience around this, so I’d love to hear your thoughts on that duality.

Susan Wilson-Golab:

Oh, yes. So in the work that I’ve done, I always call it, it’s really identity work because a lot of the times I was called in or leading something with practitioners, it was because there was the hope for some type of evolution or growth or shift in practice. And people step into that with values and beliefs on what they think is the best way for someone to learn or to experience something, and that it’s a lot wrapped in their identity. It’s their values, it’s their lived experience. So how far you need to try and nudge that can take time, and it needs to be done, as you said, at a pace that is respectful of the person who’s on a journey to make that transformational shift. So when I would be called in to work with a district system or a group of teachers, many times I was talking with someone higher up in a leadership role and their mindset was, “Well, can you work them with them for two full days? And by the end of that, can they have made this big a shift?” Which was usually a no.

So there was a total underestimating of how much time really people need to sit in something, and to sit in it in a way where there’s a constant little bit of burn that keeps the fire going versus we’re going to do a session and you’re not going to talk about it or think about it for a month and then we’re going to come back together and I’ll expect that probably you’ve made a change. It doesn’t work that way. Where are those continuity lines of, what are you trying? What are you thinking about? How are you continuing to reflect on this? When you’ve tried something out, what has happened? What has that made you think now differently? What are you going to try the next time? It’s all those multiple iterations that need to really be there if you’re really trying to shift people in whatever practice or shift in what you’re hoping to grow them to.

But unfortunately, many times what I have encountered is this idea of a one and done. In education, it’s very hard for teachers to be outside of their classrooms. So there’s a lot of pressure that whatever they’re pulled out to do, it better not be for very much time and great things better come out of it. So that has been my experience in an education-based facilitation for the most part. And that has always been very hard. You have to negotiate usually as if I was a facilitator talking with an administrator asking me to come in and consult, I’d have to manage their expectations and also get clarity of where really realistically we can get.

And so I really had to build that part of my facilitation learning, which is really the pre-facilitation where you’re talking with the potential clients, so to speak, and you’re trying to figure out what they really, really want. Because many times they don’t articulate exactly what they really want. They think they are, but after you have a conversation and you say some things back and pose it differently, it would be very different than what they thought they were saying was the thing that needed to happen.

Douglas Ferguson:

And what’s your go-to strategy or tactic to get the juice there, to get to the reality?

Susan Wilson-Golab:

Oh, I usually would try and have one or two pre-conversations before coming in, and I would really be open-ended questions like, “Tell me about what’s going on, what are you hoping for? What do you think are the biggest obstacles? What do you think looks like the ultimate? If we could beat this, what would it look like? What would it sound like?” And so really me talking less, them talking more and continue those open-ended questions. So I’d want to exhaust them with it. There’s a fine line where you can ask too many questions, but it was really getting them to talk out loud about what is it that your thinking is the need here. But also finding out the sticky spots because many times I also wanted to understand things in the contextual system because sometimes that was going to undo anything. So I could come in and work on something, but they would unknowingly be perpetuating something in their routines that was going to not make it work.

Douglas Ferguson:

In addition to these elements that might be detracting from the work, what other things are you listening for in these conversations?

Susan Wilson-Golab:

I’m always trying to understand the culture. Any place has a culture and you’re stepping into it. Many times when I was called in to consult and hired in, even outside of the system where I was working, I learned very quickly I was being called in because one, it might be too dangerous for anyone internally to do the work. Two, things were broken and I needed to understand really quickly, what were the dynamics going on in that context? What was the culture? Because how I designed also the learning and how I thought about who also were the individuals who were going to be coming into the room. I needed to understand what they were living in and how safe or dangerous it was for them to even push in certain directions with some of their instructional practices.

Douglas Ferguson:

So I want to talk a little bit about the transition you made from K-12 into embracing facilitation in more diverse context. And I’m curious if you could share a pivotal moment that signified to you that the transition was not just necessary but possible.

Susan Wilson-Golab:

I think that I started thinking about this in the last, I’d say three years before I ended my K-12 career. And I had been a part of some community stakeholder meetings, and Eric, your colleague and I had actually led some of these community stakeholder meetings. We were as a district going for a really large bond to totally overhaul almost every single building in the district. And so it was navigating working with community members, it was teachers, it was administrators, it was parents. And seeing that design play out and standing alongside Eric who we had done educational consulting work together, and now he was starting to make that straddling out of not just education but into industry. I think that was the moment that I was like, “Huh, I’ve been doing this in education, but maybe other people value it outside of education.” And that’s when I started getting involved in Voltage Control in workshops in the lab.

And I had great imposter syndrome the first, I’d say two years because I was in awe of the people I was meeting virtually around the globe. And when they would in breakout rooms, be really interested in what I had to say, I was always surprised. I didn’t really think I was going to bring anything that fantastic to the table here. I was an educator and my facilitation was all in that world, but I was finding that people were seeking me out who weren’t educators and who wanted me to be a thinking partner with them. And through those conversations, it was like for me, I felt like I was gaining more than I was giving because I was like, “Oh, I guess I really do know something here and I do think it can translate and I need to explore this.” And so that’s really the road I’m on at this point, is seeing how I pivot what I’ve learned into a non-education based audience.

But also, it never stops. You have to continuously be learning. So I certainly don’t feel like I climbed the mountain. I’m at the top. As AI has come on and ChatGPT, a lot of work is gone to all online. And so doing really impactful facilitation in a digital world, those are all those new stretch points for me. And it’s exciting. It’s exciting to really keep growing.

Douglas Ferguson:

It’s interesting you brought up imposter syndrome because I was going to that next, because you had mentioned earlier in the episode about wringing your hands over the talk at the summit, and this came up in your alumni story too. And so I wanted to come back to clearly you experience it like many people, myself included, but you’ve overcome it. And so I’m curious, what strategies or mindsets did you find to be the most effective in overcoming these barriers?

Susan Wilson-Golab:

I think for me, I’ve been blessed with having some great mentor and shoulder partners who are always confirming, you really do know something that’s valuable. But honestly, I put my hand up to facilitate at the summit because I was like, this is the moment I have to push myself to lead a group that is not an education-based audience. And so that leading up to that session, I was continuously designing, redesigning, designing, redesigning. My internal voice was talking back to me saying, “Susan, what are you doing? You don’t usually need this much time to put a session together. What is going on?” And it was my constant fear of am I not going to know the audience? And that’s where I realized, I really rely heavily on knowing my audience when I designed facilitation and I was really questioning if I knew them well enough.

And so by living through that experience and having people give me positive feedback after, that was the ripping the bandaid off moment for me. Like, “Okay, I’ve done it. I can do this.” And even though I’ve been involved in some other facilitation with Voltage Control, that summit was probably the most pivotal turn for me because I had to on my own stand up and do that work. I on my own designed it. I didn’t have any scaffold crutches in that process. So thank you for allowing me to facilitate the summit and make that big growth leap for myself.

Douglas Ferguson:

Happy to do so. And it’s by design. We pivoted the summit to focus on students and alumni and really provide these opportunities for practice and growth. And I was hopeful it would be transformative. And it sounds like we’re doing a decent job there. So I’m thrilled and we’re happy to have you. And it makes me think of something else I wanted to bring up with you, which is this idea of embracing vulnerability and stepping outside of comfort zones and how crucial that is for growth. And so I’d just be curious to hear how vulnerabilities played a role in your facilitation practice as a core, and especially when dealing with unfamiliar audiences.

Susan Wilson-Golab:

So in my writing project background and in the teaching of writing, I really developed my own ability to be vulnerable with others because writing is really many times brings up vulnerabilities for people. And also in the work that we were doing through our writing project site, those four-week institutes were transformative where you were really working on making some deep shifts for people. And we learn to handle many times deep emotions. So I don’t get afraid anymore when I see some emotions bubble up for people in a session, I can lean into it. And so that background experience really helped me. So it taught me to turn a switch. So when I know that I’m hosting and trying to create that experience for others, I allow myself to be very vulnerable, to be very open because I know I’ll grow in it, but I know it also helps them step into being vulnerable alongside me.

So going into the summit, I made a decision to be pretty vulnerable in that room because I knew I was designing something that could potentially make them feel very vulnerable. So I knew I had to right off the bat, have a voice of connection with them, and this is me, the sincerity, the honesty, me without putting on any facade, and I’m willing to share these struggles I have in the invitation that they may also be bringing up their own. So I have to say it was really a background from the writing project that helped me do that.

Douglas Ferguson:

Isn’t it interesting how some of these moments through our career and our life journey can just stick with us and inform all the future things we do? It’s quite cool. I did want to touch on your doctorate really quickly, and when we were talking about it at the summit, you told me about how the work you were doing was based on going through and cataloging and analyzing your journals throughout your life. I found that really fascinating, and especially in this conversation around vulnerability and how writing can bring up emotions. And there’s a reason people lock their diaries, they don’t want their older brother reading them. And so here you are, this future version of yourself going back and reading these things and going through them in a very methodological way. And so I’m curious, how did that feel peering back at yourself? Did you notice a vulnerableness to that?

Susan Wilson-Golab:

Oh yeah. So it was an auto ethnography approach to the research. And so yes, I am a proliferate hoarder of my notebooks. I’m eclectic too. I grab a notebook and sometimes it can have multiple things in it. It’s not just for one purpose or one group. So I had journals from my undergrad college days all the way up to present day. And what I was looking at was the impact of being a teacher leader, but being a leader of for other adults is really at the heart of teacher leadership and how that had impacted my identity evolution across 20 plus years. And I had to suspend, it wasn’t about me coming to what I wanted was the conclusion. I had to see it as data on the paper. And there were errors. I started seeing phases. And so I started creating timelines. And there were times in my life that as I was reliving them in the notebook, I was like, “Can this please be done again?” I was a lot to take back then.

And it was also very vulnerable for me to choose that as my dissertation because I had to use some very personal information and I was talking about me. And a lot of the data excerpts that I put in my dissertation are extremely vulnerable pieces about me struggling in some way with who am I, where am I going, what am I doing? And my committee chair and committee members were even commending me for the courage to do what I did because they chose not to do an auto ethnography themselves. They wanted to keep it distant from them. So I don’t know why that is. As I said, I’ve been an introvert, a really quiet person, but I also feel like these authentic connections are so powerful. And so I, when I feel like I have sincerity with the person, I will be very vulnerable and open up. And so that dissertation definitely was a journey, and there are definitely some errors of my life that I’m glad are done.

Douglas Ferguson:

It’s interesting your point you made about you were a lot to take at that point, and it reminded me of the point we were making about patience, and you had to be patient with yourself as you were reliving that. And wow, what a profound thing to experience. Because if you can be patient with yourself, this part of yourself that you don’t appreciate a lot or that you’re like, “I’m glad that I’m not that anymore,” I imagine that can be a great tool for being more patient with others that are maybe not cooperating with whatever we’re trying to do.

Susan Wilson-Golab:

Well, I think one of my favorite phrases in the last few years is about giving grace. Giving grace to those who you see that they’re having a struggle. They might not even know that they’re in midst of some conflict, internal conflict, but outwardly it’s coming out. And many times as that’s become a thread in education as well, is like instead of the quick reaction of jumping to conclusions and negative conclusions, how can you give grace more frequently and really step back and try and understand where are they at? What is going on in their lives at this point? And I feel very blessed that I was surrounded by a lot of mentors who gave me a lot of grace in some certain parts of my life professionally.

Douglas Ferguson:

Well, we’re reaching the end here, and I wanted to end by just peering into the future a little bit. And so you’ve achieved a significant number of milestones in your career and have gone through this transition, are now looking at a diversity of different facilitation environments. So I’m just curious, what new horizons and challenges are you looking forward to exploring?

Susan Wilson-Golab:

I think of Eli Wood. When I had a conversation with Eli, one of our Voltage Control colleagues, and I hadn’t quite made that leap yet. I hadn’t retired from my K-12 to go into full-time consulting. And he said one of his wise mentors that says, “You’ve got to get hungry.” And I have constantly come back to that phrase of like, now’s the time to take the leap and to really to dig in and to make facilitation a full-time part of my life, and for it to be beyond an educational based audience. I think my heart will always be somewhat tied to trying to grow future teacher leaders who in essence, what I am probably growing is them as facilitators. Because a lot of your leading is about facilitating and your peers as a teacher leader. And that was what my dissertation was really around.

But I really want to branch out into just audiences who it’s not about what industry they’re from. You’re creating some transformative experience for them. And to design into multiple kinds of situations, I really am excited. There are days where I’m a little bit, not scared, but it’s not a path I know. So I’m learning tremendously every day. How do you make this happen? This isn’t a K-12 or higher ed education endeavor now. This is like edupreneur, like an entrepreneurial educator who’s branching out, and it’s exciting and it’s daunting at the same time. But I’ve made it to this point, it’s time to take that plunge and persevere and make it happen.

Douglas Ferguson:

It’s exciting. Well, I hope that maybe some listeners out there are on the same precipice, and maybe this gives them a little bit of confidence and encourage listeners to check out Susan’s good work, and maybe she can inspire you to make that leap that you need to make. And Susan, it’s been a pleasure chatting with you today and hope to talk to you again soon.

Susan Wilson-Golab:

Thanks Douglas.

Douglas Ferguson:

Thanks for joining me for another episode of the Facilitation Lab podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave us a review and be sure to subscribe and receive updates when new episodes are released. We love listener tales and invite you to share your facilitation stories. Send them to us on LinkedIn or via email. If you want to know more, head over to our blog, or I post weekly articles and resources about facilitation, team dynamics and collaboration, voltagecontrol.com.

The post How Can Facilitation Transform Professional Learning in Education? appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• The Essence of Iteration in Design Thinking
• The Iterative Cycle Unveiled
• Implementing Best Practices for Fruitful Iteration
  • 1. Starting with the Basics: Low-Fidelity Prototyping
  • 2. Embracing the Learning Journey: Learning from Failure
  • 3. Seeking Out Varied Perspectives: Inclusive Feedback
  • 4. Making Iteration Ongoing: Continuous Improvement
  • 5. Documenting Religiously: The Value of Records
  • 6. Prioritizing User Needs: Staying User-Centric
  • 7. Innovating Within Boundaries: Practical Creativity
  • 8. Concentrating Efforts: Strategic Focus
  • 9. Fostering Stakeholder Engagement: Building Consensus
• Navigating Iteration Challenges
  • Overcoming Analysis Paralysis
  • Managing Resistance to Change
  • Managing Feedback Overload
  • Maintaining Momentum
• Concluding Thoughts
• Iteration in Design Thinking: FAQs

Navigating the intricacies of the iterative process in design thinking can be both rewarding and challenging. 

As a core element of design thinking, iteration is empowering teams to refine and enhance their solutions through continuous cycles of prototyping, testing, and feedback. But the path is not always smooth. Teams often encounter hurdles such as analysis paralysis, resistance to change, and feedback overload, which can stall progress and dampen innovation. 

However, with the right mindset and a few savvy strategies up your sleeve, you can leap over these obstacles with grace! Ready to dive in? Let’s roll up our sleeves and make magic happen in the iterative playground of design thinking.

The Essence of Iteration in Design Thinking

Iteration in design thinking is like the heartbeat of a project—it keeps the ideas flowing, the energy buzzing, and the solutions evolving. This approach is crucial for tackling complex, human-centered problems, requiring flexibility and a readiness to embrace change. The effectiveness of design thinking, especially its iterative nature, is evident in its impact on project success rates. A notable study by the Design Management Institute revealed that design-led companies outperformed the S&P 500 by a staggering 228% over ten years, showcasing the significant business value of embracing design thinking principles.

The Iterative Cycle Unveiled

The iterative cycle involves several stages: 

• Brainstorm: This is where creativity shines. The goal? Generate a plethora of ideas without the pressure of immediate feasibility.
• Prototype: Transform ideas from abstract concepts into tangible forms. These prototypes don’t need to be polished; they just need to convey the essence of the idea.
• Test: It’s showtime for your prototypes. Observe as users interact with them, noting what works and what falls flat.
• Feedback: Collect insights, reactions, and criticisms. This stage is less about validation and more about discovery.
• Refine: Armed with fresh feedback, tweak, adjust, or even overhaul your prototypes. Then, it’s back to the testing grounds.

This cycle isn’t a one-and-done deal. It’s about embracing the loop, knowing that each round brings you closer to a solution that’s not just good but great.

Implementing Best Practices for Fruitful Iteration

Now that we’ve walked through the stages of the iterative cycle, let’s dive into how we can make this journey not just productive, but truly transformative. Implementing best practices for fruitful iteration is about more than just going through the motions; it’s about making each cycle count, ensuring every round of feedback, every tweak and adjustment, brings you closer to a solution that truly sings.

1. Starting with the Basics: Low-Fidelity Prototyping

Low-fidelity prototyping is a cornerstone of effective iteration. It involves creating simple, quick, and cost-effective versions of solutions, such as sketches or paper models, that capture the essence of an idea without the details. This approach allows teams to explore a wide range of concepts without significant investment in time or resources. It encourages a focus on core functionalities and user interactions, making it easier to identify and test key assumptions. Moreover, low-fidelity prototypes facilitate rapid feedback, enabling quicker iterations and adjustments based on real-world insights.

2. Embracing the Learning Journey: Learning from Failure

Iterative processes inherently involve trial and error, a concept embraced by innovative companies like Google’s ‘X’ division. A culture that views setbacks as learning opportunities fosters resilience and creativity, as discussed in “The Failure-Tolerant Leader” by Harvard Business Review. Embracing failure means shifting the team’s perspective to view setbacks not as roadblocks but as opportunities to gain deeper insights into the problem space and refine solutions. This mindset fosters resilience, encourages creative risk-taking, and prevents discouragement in the face of challenges. 

3. Seeking Out Varied Perspectives: Inclusive Feedback

Iteration thrives on feedback, but not just any feedback—diverse, inclusive feedback from a broad spectrum of stakeholders. This includes direct users, team members with varied expertise, and industry experts. Each perspective offers unique insights that can uncover blind spots, validate assumptions, and inspire new ideas. Engaging a wide range of stakeholders also ensures that the solution is inclusive, addressing the needs and concerns of all user segments. Collecting and integrating this feedback requires active listening, empathy, and the ability to synthesize diverse viewpoints into actionable insights.

4. Making Iteration Ongoing: Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement, akin to the Kaizen model in Japanese manufacturing, emphasizes the importance of ongoing iteration in design thinking, ensuring solutions evolve with user needs and feedback. This means that iteration isn’t confined to a single phase but is an integral part of every stage, from ideation to final implementation. An ongoing iteration fosters a culture of continuous learning and adaptability, where the team is always open to refining ideas, experimenting with new approaches, and striving for better outcomes.

5. Documenting Religiously: The Value of Records

Detailed documentation of each iteration cycle is invaluable. It creates a tangible record of the journey, capturing the evolution of ideas, decisions made, feedback received, and lessons learned. This not only aids in tracking progress and making informed decisions but also serves as a rich knowledge base for future projects. Effective documentation includes clear notes, sketches, data from tests, user feedback, and reflections on what worked and what didn’t. This practice ensures transparency, facilitates communication among team members, and supports reflective practice.

6. Prioritizing User Needs: Staying User-Centric

At the heart of design thinking is a deep commitment to understanding and addressing user needs. A Forrester Research report found that user-centric companies see a 1.6x higher brand awareness and a 1.7x faster revenue growth compared to other companies. This data highlights the importance of regular testing with users, seeking their feedback, and observing their interactions with the prototype. Staying user-centric ensures that the solution remains relevant, desirable, and effective in solving real-world problems.

7. Innovating Within Boundaries: Practical Creativity

Innovation and creativity are essential, but they must be balanced with practical considerations such as feasibility, scalability, and resource constraints. Innovating within boundaries means pushing the envelope while being mindful of technical, financial, and temporal limitations. This approach encourages creative problem-solving within a realistic framework, ensuring that the solutions developed are not only innovative but also viable and implementable.

8. Concentrating Efforts: Strategic Focus

With infinite possibilities, it’s easy to get lost in the breadth of ideas and lose sight of the core objectives. Concentrating efforts involves identifying and focusing on the most critical aspects of the solution—the key features or components that will have the greatest impact on user satisfaction and project success. This strategic focus helps prevent scope creep, ensures efficient use of resources, and maintains clarity of purpose throughout the iterative process.

9. Fostering Stakeholder Engagement: Building Consensus

Involving stakeholders throughout the iteration process is crucial for building consensus, aligning expectations, and fostering a shared vision for the solution. This engagement includes not only gathering feedback but also actively involving stakeholders in the ideation and refinement processes. Building consensus ensures that the solution has broad support, addresses key stakeholder concerns, and is more likely to be successfully adopted and implemented.

Navigating Iteration Challenges

Tackling the challenges that come with the iterative process is key to maintaining the creative rhythm and momentum in design thinking. While iteration is inherently empowering, it can sometimes feel like a rollercoaster ride with its ups and downs.

Here’s how to navigate through some of these common challenges with finesse:

Overcoming Analysis Paralysis

• Set Clear Decision Criteria: Establish objective criteria to streamline decision-making.
• Limit Options: Reduce the number of choices to prevent overwhelm.
• Embrace Incremental Progress: Focus on progress and be open to adjusting decisions based on new insights.

Managing Resistance to Change

• Foster Flexibility: Build a team culture that values adaptability and is open to evolving ideas.
• Celebrate Learning: Normalize and celebrate the insights gained from failures and pivots.
• Involve the Team: Ensure team members are part of decision-making to increase buy-in for changes.

Managing Feedback Overload

• Prioritize Feedback: Evaluate feedback based on its relevance, impact, and feasibility.
• Organize Feedback: Use systems to categorize feedback, making it easier to identify key insights.
• Schedule Feedback Reviews: Set aside specific times to review and act on feedback to avoid continuous distractions.

Maintaining Momentum

• Set Short-Term Goals: Break down the project into manageable segments with clear deadlines to foster a sense of achievement.
• Regular Check-Ins: Hold frequent reviews to assess progress, realign goals, and adapt plans as necessary.
• Celebrate Milestones: Acknowledge and celebrate progress to boost team morale and reinforce the value of iteration.

Remember, each iteration is a step closer to uncovering insights that could lead to groundbreaking solutions. So, keep iterating with purpose, keep learning from each cycle, and watch as your project evolves from rough sketches to refined solutions that truly resonate with users.

Concluding Thoughts

In this playground of ideas and innovation, every sketch, every prototype, and every round of feedback is a step forward. The key is to keep moving, keep exploring, and keep the user at the center of it all. Every cycle isn’t just a refinement of your solution; it’s an evolution of your insight into the problem and the individuals for whom you’re creating.

As you step back into the iterative fray, remember that the challenges are just part of the dance. The magic of iteration lies not in the perfection of its outcomes but in the richness of the journey. So, keep the iterative spirit alive. Continue to question, to test, to listen, and to refine. In the iterative playground of design thinking, every round of feedback is a gift, every setback a lesson, and every iteration a closer step to making something truly remarkable. 

Iteration in Design Thinking: FAQs

• When is it time to stop iterating and finalize a solution?

The decision to finalize a solution often comes when further iterations yield minimal improvements or when the solution effectively meets the established success criteria and user needs.

• How can time be managed efficiently during the iteration process?

Effective time management can be achieved by setting clear deadlines, prioritizing tasks based on impact, utilizing low-fidelity prototyping for rapid testing, and avoiding the pursuit of perfection in the early stages.

• What indicators suggest an iteration is leading to significant improvement?

Identifying significant improvement through iteration involves observing a blend of qualitative and quantitative indicators. Here are key signs that suggest an iteration is steering you toward meaningful enhancements:

• Enhanced User Satisfaction
• Increased Usability
• Greater Engagement
• Achievement of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Positive Stakeholder Feedback
• Reduction in Complaints or Issues
• Streamlined Processes
• Competitive Advantage

The post Unlocking Success Through Iteration in Design Thinking: Strategies & Insights appeared first on Voltage Control.

Durell Coleman followed up our first session at the 2024 Facilitation Lab Summit with his dynamic workshop, “Building Consensus Amongst Multiple Stakeholders: Current State/End State.” This session focused on building consensus among stakeholders with diverse perspectives, a timely theme that resonated deeply with attendees from various sectors. Durell, known for his innovative approach to human-centered design, engaged participants in a series of activities designed to illustrate the power of collaboration in a fragmented world.

The workshop kicked off with an invigorating activity dubbed “Enemy Defender.” Participants scrambled around the room, assuming the roles of electrons in a chaotic dance of movement. This exercise was not just about physical activity but served as a metaphor for navigating the unpredictable nature of human interactions. As Durell guided everyone through this imaginative scenario, he laid the groundwork for a deeper exploration of consensus-building in complex environments.

Durell’s talk delved into the essence of effective facilitation, emphasizing the need for empathy and inclusivity. He drew on his extensive background in design thinking to discuss how these methodologies can be applied to real-world challenges. Durell highlighted the transformative potential of inclusive dialogue by sharing examples from his work, such as initiatives to combat multi-generational poverty and enhance community engagement through strategic design.

One of the key highlights was the group activity centered around defining “current states” and “end states” for specific societal challenges. Participants were grouped by persona—ranging from district attorneys to community leaders—to debate and define the desired outcomes of social interventions. This exercise illuminated the diverse viewpoints within any community and underscored the importance of every voice in the conversation about change.

Feedback from the audience was overwhelmingly positive, with many highlighting the practical applications of the lessons learned in their professional lives. The workshop’s interactive format kept participants engaged and fostered a sense of community among them.

In his concluding remarks, Durell reflected on the broader implications of the day’s activities. He reiterated the powerful quote from John F. Kennedy, “A rising tide lifts all boats,” and challenged participants to consider how they might act as catalysts for such a tide in their own spheres of influence.

Durell Coleman’s session at the Facilitation Lab Summit was more than just a workshop; it was a call to action for all attendees to think critically about their roles as facilitators in their communities and organizations. His engaging delivery and thought-provoking content set a high bar for the rest of the event, leaving participants inspired and equipped to bring about meaningful change.

Watch the full video below:

Transcript

Durell Coleman:

Hello. Hi everyone. Well, it’s great to be here and good to see all of you. I’m really looking forward to getting to know all of you better, and I’m excited for the next 90 minutes that we get with each other. Can you all hear me okay? Wonderful. Love it. The title of my talk is Lifting All Boats. As you know, this is really about how to build consensus amongst stakeholders with different perspectives. How do you bring people together in a world of difference?

But before we dive into that, I want to dive into an activity that I really love to start with, which in my background we call a Stoke. What I would love for everyone to do is to push, stand up if you can, and push your chairs in, move your bags in. We’re going to be moving through this space. We are going to need trip-free lanes. What I want you to do right now is I want you to begin moving around the room in a sort of unpredictable pattern. We’re a little bit constrained because we’ve got the tables, but I want you to imagine right now that you are an electron. You move randomly in your electron cloud.

Why don’t we just begin doing that? Everyone scramble. Go. All right, so you’re moving as if you’re an electron, but you’re actually, you’re a human being. I want you to find someone out of the corner of your eye, but I don’t want you to let that person know that you found them. Find a new person. Keep going, keep moving. Don’t let them know. Don’t let them know you found them. Keep moving. You see them out of the corner of your eye. They don’t know that you found them, but you’re watching them. As you go everywhere in this room, you keep your eye on that person. Keep moving. Keep moving. See if we can pick up the pace just slightly.

Okay, yeah. This is our New York pace now. I like it. All right. The reality for you is that the person you found out of the corner of your eye is actually your deepest, most mortal enemy, and you want to keep your eye on this enemy. Keep on moving, please. Yeah, keep your eye on that enemy. As you walk around, notice where they go, notice how they move. And now I want you to do a challenging task. Your enemy doesn’t know that you’ve chosen them, that you’ve found them. I want you to find another person out of the corner of your other eye, and I want you to keep your eye on that person. Go ahead and find someone. And again, don’t let them know that you found them. So you have your eye on your enemy and you got to find someone else too.

The person you’ve just found is your guardian angel. They are your hero. Your job is to keep your hero between you and your enemy. Go. Our patterns become a little bit less unpredictable. And scene. All right, stop. Freeze. Everyone, please point to your enemy. Some people are… Okay, and please point to your hero. Is anyone standing right next to their enemy? I got a few people. You’re standing right next to your enemy. Raise your hand if you’ve managed to keep yourself away from your enemy by keeping the hero in between. Raise your hand if your enemy is in close striking proximity to you. All right. All right.

That activity, we call it Enemy Defender. It’s just a fun activity. It’s a Stoke activity, and it really feeds into the mindsets of human-centered design, design thinking as a methodology, but also I think creative problem solving. We are here as facilitators to help encourage and guide people through processes of creative problem solving. As I believe with most activities, they’re not complete unless you do sort of a debrief on it. My question for you is how does that activity, we just did relate to the state of our world right now?

Audience:

The unpredictability around you and how you navigate through that.

Durell Coleman:

Yeah, great.

Audience:

Irrational.

Durell Coleman:

It’s irrational?

Audience:

Yeah.

Just the very framing of enemies and non allies, I guess.

Durell Coleman:

Yeah, great. So the framing itself is tied to the way that our world works.

Audience:

So of course, my enemy didn’t know that they were my enemy and I ended up being her hero.

Durell Coleman:

Oh, wow.

Audience:

I feel like there’s a message in there somewhere.

Durell Coleman:

I feel like there’s a deep message. What do you think the message might be?

Audience:

I mean, you just don’t know how others are perceiving your actions and how their intent perhaps, like what’s behind it. It’s all through your own filter.

Durell Coleman:

Right. Right. Wonderful. We’ll give you… Oh, [inaudible 00:05:30].

Audience:

It’s really superficial. It’s very superficial.

Durell Coleman:

Yeah.

Audience:

I was going to say having to be reactive more than proactive, and a lack of control.

Durell Coleman:

Tell me more about that.

Audience:

I can’t predict where my enemy or my hero are going, so I’m just having to react to where they’re moving and it’s not always in the right space, and it’s not always within my control to produce the result I want.

Durell Coleman:

Yeah, great. There’s a variability here, and we can’t do it all by ourselves.

Audience:

I actually did not like how much attention I was paying to the enemy, and I wonder how that plays out and how much emotional energy I’m actually expending in those negative relationships.

Durell Coleman:

Yeah, yeah. We might focus in on our enemies. Yes.

Audience:

I felt like before you asked us to find an enemy or a hero, there was a flow in the room and then it felt when the divisiveness started, there was a repelling energy with everyone around me. Everyone sort of was just repelling from each other.

Durell Coleman:

This level of having an enemy and then choosing who your defender is or whatever the thing is that’s supposed to save you from it, created this sort of… We had this silo here that jockeyed back and forth, definitely a lot less free-form, free-flowing movement, a lot of intentional positioning. Maybe there’s some abstract elements of that that relate to how we relate to one another when we’ve decided that you’re my enemy and this is my hero and this is my ally, and that’s the bad guy and that’s the good guy, and all of those things. Thank you all for that.

I’m going to ask you in a moment to return to your seats, sort of. What we are going to need to do is form tables of five. I’m going to ask you if you’re at a table with more than five, please find a few people at that table who are willing to get up and go join a new table. There are some free tables that no one’s been at just yet. If you are at a table with less than five, then invite somebody to come join you. Thank y’all.

All right everyone, thank you so much for engaging in that Stoke activity. I want you to keep some of those mindsets in your mind as we move through the rest of this activity today. We’ve got some fun activities here, but also I took the conversation into a more serious direction in some ways. Some of our conversation today is going to move into that direction. The title of this talk is Lifting All Boats. There is a commonly known quote, which is that “A rising tide lifts all boats.” As I was thinking about the origin of that statement, it was made popular by John F. Kennedy, and he was fundamentally talking about how policies that improve outcomes for a group of people in Michigan or Alabama actually are things that can help all of us. There are things that can benefit the state as a whole. It can benefit the nation as a whole.

What I thought was really interesting though as I thought about this was that a rising tide only lifts all the boats that are in the water, all the boats that are close to the water, all the boats that are included in that economic system using John F. Kennedy’s example. I actually think that we are in a world where we are not always including all boats in the water. We are not always making sure that that rising tide touches everyone. I want to talk today a little bit more about how we can go about moving through this world, facilitating conversations that include everyone, that bring everyone along so that everyone is truly lifted to the place that they need to go.

As I thought about this talk and this session that we’re going to have, I will be honest with you that I was in a state of deep reflection about our world. I look around us and I feel in many ways that we are facing a crisis of leadership. I look around at inflaming war in the Middle East, I see the fall of DEI, I see conflict about what’s happening out at the southern border in the United States. I see just the discourse and the division between political parties here in this country that we are in right now. I’m a believer that we can exist within a world of difference and sameness at the same time, but we have somehow inflamed difference to the point where we are on the verge or we are in the midst of war and conflict and strife all the time.

And so as I’ve looked at these conflicts around the world, I wonder, where are the leaders who can de-escalate these conflicts to design solutions that benefit everyone involved, that benefit as many people as possible? Today, my hope is that we can go through an exercise that we use at my firm to do that type of work. I can introduce it to all of you and then we can have a dialogue about how that might apply to the world that we’re in, how that might apply to the facilitation work that you all do going forward, and any other thing that comes up along the way.

I want to tell you a little bit about who I am and what my company does. My name is Durell Coleman. I’m the Founder and CEO of a company called DC Design. DC Design, our mission is to eliminate multi-generational poverty and uplift black, brown and low-income communities. We really look at the opportunity to help the country as a whole rise as something that we can engage in if we really focus on the areas that have not received the level of support that they need. We want to go in and we want to work with organizations as we do to help them address the root causes of multi-generational poverty.

We partner with social sector organizations, governments, foundations, and nonprofits to do a number of things, but primarily to help them succeed at their missions, to help those who are trying to fulfill their purpose and potential in life, but who are often challenged by the structures around them. Some examples of our past work, I want to give you four quick examples just so you understand how we apply this. The first is around housing. We worked with the City of Newburg to help them recognize that their process of code enforcement, which is the process of condemning buildings, was making 12 families homeless every single month.

They didn’t know this because often we think about the actions that have to be taken. You can’t have people living in condemnable buildings, the floor is falling in, the roof is falling in, there’s no hot water, the windows are broken, there are children living in these locations, it’s unsafe. But often, we don’t consider who’s most impacted by the actions we might be taking. This unknown was something that was unearthed through the course of our work together, and then we help them come up with a plan for how to repair and restore low income housing as well as secure $776,000 from a state-led grant. That grant came in the form of payments from those who had paid for the housing crisis back in 2008 to be able to address this problem.

Another example was working with the City of Newburg, New York, I’m sorry, not Newburg, the City of New Haven Connecticut to help them decide how to spend $53 million of the American Rescue Plan funds. Really the goal here was really around saying how do we invest these funds in a way that benefits our community, that uplifts those who are at the lowest socioeconomic conditions in our community? How do we help close the racial wealth gap by making sure that as we distribute these funds across the entire town and everyone benefits, that we also make sure that we benefit those who haven’t always benefited from previous measures.

One of the things that we learned was that in the City of New Haven, 41% of high school graduates don’t go to college after leaving high school, but there’s no viable business that can support that many non-post-secondary educated folks in town. So you have a lot of joblessness, you have a lot of low employment, and there’s a number of other social challenges that come when you have joblessness and low employment. One of the strategies we helped them develop was the creation of systemic pathways for vocational and trade-based jobs. How do you really set up the systems to help people become those vocations, the plumber, the construction worker, the other jobs that are desperately needed in New Haven and which are very hard to find right now, but that there’s no pathway for? We help them think through that and design the basics of that system.

Last two examples I’ll give. One is the Milwaukee Boss platform really focused on wealth creation. We worked with a number of CDFIs in Milwaukee. These are credit unions who are focused on increasing the flow of capital to under-invested business owners. One of the things that they really wanted to do was increase funding overall. When we went and talked with the entrepreneurs, we learned that their primary challenge was figuring out how to incorporate their business. It was figuring out how to get into a brick and mortar, how to shift from selling their shirts out of the back of their truck to a more established form of business.

The quote that I think really stuck out to me was, “I don’t want more debt bondage, but I need someone who can walk with me to help me on my journey. I don’t know where to find the resources I need. I don’t have an example of a positive role model who’s done this before.” And so in response to that, we created the Milwaukee Boss platform, the one-stop shop for Milwaukee’s entrepreneurs of color to find the resources needed to build, operate, scale, or sustain their business. It is a place where those who have the service, who have the specific course that is able to help you figure out how to incorporate your business or how to get the loan that you need or how to move into a brick and mortar can put their services and then the entrepreneurs themselves can actually go and use this platform to find those as well.

The last example, which is going to be relevant because we are going to do an activity today that engages with this topic was around criminal justice reform in Santa Clara County, California, really focused on helping figure out how can this county not build another jail but instead reduce the number of people that they have incarcerated? We worked with leaders across the criminal justice system to understand what their needs were and help develop a strategic plan which they’ve been implementing for the last five years to success.

I wanted to give you these examples mostly to say these are the types of challenges that the work that we’re going to go through today, the session we’re going to go through today is useful for. I think we are in a state of conflict frequently around challenges like this, things related to the human needs of different individuals where we’re trying to prioritize what does this person need, what does this person need? What does that group need versus this other group over here? I believe that we can actually create systems that serve everyone.

What is our agenda today? We did a Stoke activity. Thank you all for that again. I talked a little bit about the state of our world and I didn’t mention you as the solution as fully as I wanted to, but implicit in the statements I made before was the idea that I believe facilitators are what is needed to address a lot of these challenges, people who can wade into these challenging conversations and help guide us to a narrative and an outcome that really speaks to the inner voices that everyone has and it enables those people to come to the table to find positive solutions.

Did a little introduction. We talked about what is design thinking, and then we’re going to dive into an activity together on current states and end states. We’re going to move through a scenario and a prompt, and then you’re going to get a chance at your tables to really use this process itself. Okay, so what is design thinking? I’m in a room full of facilitators. I imagine there’s a lot of people who are like, “Of course we know what design thinking is. We’ve got this,” but maybe there’s someone in here who is also like, “I don’t know what design thinking is.” So can someone throw out a definition for design thinking for me? A tangible visualization.

Audience:

Yeah, that’s all.

Durell Coleman:

Wonderful.

Audience:

That was my guess.

Durell Coleman:

Yes. Yeah.

Audience:

It’s a way to collaborate and solve complex problems.

Durell Coleman:

Great.

Audience:

Designing, beginning with understanding the end user.

Durell Coleman:

Wonderful. These are all fantastic, fantastic definitions, everyone. Those are all true and there’s a lot of ways that you can define this process. I define design thinking as a way to solve complex human problems that have many possible solutions. It’s a human-centered approach that utilizes empathy and experimentation, understanding a user correctly from an issue and creating an innovative solution. The way I think about it is we use design thinking when we are trying to solve certain problems and not others. If we want to figure out how long it takes for a spaceship to get from here to the moon, that’s not a design thinking problem. That’s a math problem and a physics problem.

If we want to figure out how to design the conditions for the astronauts on board, where should the bathroom be? What’s going to be the easiest flow of work for them while they do what they need to do? Where should they sleep? How should they sleep that’s going to make it comfortable for them? Those are design thinking problems. As we think about that, we recognize there’s not one way to lay out a spaceship. There’s not one way to design that solution, but what we do need to consider are the specific individual human needs of the people who are going to be on board. We might even need to consider the range of different professions and roles that those astronauts are playing while they’re on board in order to truly design something that’s accommodating of that group of people.

I think the more stakeholders you start talking to, the more complex this gets. But that approach is a little bit more of what we’re going to be doing today. We’re going to be thinking about how we can consider the needs of multiple stakeholders at the same time. At the same time.

This is a version of that process. If you’ve seen this before, you’ve probably seen it laid out in hexagons. It may have been five hexagons in a sort of pattern. We like to put it in this circle here, but the main pieces are empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Iteration is an implicit element within this, which means that you constantly cycle through it. Empathy is about understanding the people that you want to design for, and we’re going to be using some of that today. Define is about defining clearly what the problems are that you want to address. What are the problems that those people have? What are their needs?

Ideate is about coming up with as many ideas as possible for how to address the challenges that you’ve defined. Prototype, it’s about building something tangible and real. Testing is about figuring out is the thing I built, does that work or does it fall apart? If it doesn’t work, I get to iterate and I get to go back to any of the previous phases to figure out what to do next. I give you this again as a background framing. We’re going to move beyond this design thinking frame into application current state and end state.

One of the things that I learned when I left the design school and I went to try to apply this to really complex issues is that there were some additional elements that needed be brought into it in order for it to work in an equitable way and in a way that really addressed the needs of everyone that we were working with. Current state and end state is one of those developments, so I place it as a natural follow-on from this. I want to give you an overview real quick and we’re going to move from the section where I talk to you a whole bunch into the section where you talk to each other a whole bunch very soon.

This is the overview of current state and end state. This process answers a question, how do we set goals in a way that helps the world transition from its current state of existence to its desired end state? We know that we live in a world full of challenges and I imagine if I just went around the room, we could all list off a number of challenges that we’re facing. But we also know that we have visions maybe as individuals or as groups of what we want the world to look like. What do we want it to feel like? If you’re familiar with the design thinking framework of a “how might we” statement, it’s useful because it gets a lot of people on the same page asking, how might we solve this problem? How might we approach this? But it doesn’t create consensus amongst people.

It gets a lot of ideas flowing, but it doesn’t build a common narrative of what we’re aiming for in the end. The purpose of current state end state is to do that, is to build consensus amongst a number of different people in order to get them on the same page about what world we’re trying to build. Defining these statements, current state is a statement written in the present tense that describes the current situation including its challenges and is juxtaposed with the end state, defining the status quo.

Here’s an example from work we did in Cincinnati focused on black infant mortality or infant mortality as a whole. Infant mortality as an issue affects women all across the board, affects families across the board, but statistically it affects black women and families at twice the rate of the rest of other groups. So twice the national average, about 10% compared to 5%. In Hamilton County with a predominantly black population, that is the framing for this statement. Black babies are dying because mothers and their families are disproportionately affected by systems steeped in racism.

A lack of equitable access to information and care is producing negative health outcomes for black mothers, fathers, infants, and communities. This statement is one that we worked on in collaboration with a powerful organization called Cradle Cincinnati that has already reduced the infant mortality rate by 42%, and was working with us to figure out what to do for the next five years. How do we go further into that? Where can we go deeper? The end state is a statement written in the present tense that describes the status quo. It describes the status quo and the hypothetical reality that you want to create. This is your goal.

If we look at our end state for this statement, whereas the current state describes what’s happening right now, there’s a lack of equitable access to information and care, which is producing negative outcomes for these groups, black mothers, fathers, infants, and communities. The end state which was developed by this community, was every black pregnant woman feels joy and safe because they honestly expect that the people they will encounter will echo that in their performance and interactions, and that they will honor and protect them. Black women are not worried about resources, access, quality care support for child-rearing. Black trauma is no longer a topic because it does not exist. And ultimately, black babies live to their first birthday. That is the goal with this end state here.

I see some snaps from folks in the audience, which I appreciate. This is an example of a current state end state. I want to give you one more example of a current state and end state as well and we can circle back to any of these examples. The main point here is that this reality does not exist right now. It is not true in almost any place in our nation, unfortunately. And so it’s something worth continuing to work toward. Once it’s true, we will know we have arrived at the place that we want to be. We will know that we have produced the outcome we want to produce.

As a second example using the military families work that this conference is here to support, I developed a current state and an end state that is not complete, but is an idea of how it could function. The current state, finding connections for military family members in locations, that lack of military installation is difficult to do, resulting in a lack of child care, employment, emotional, social and emotional support for military family members. Statement about the current state. That is the challenge that we learned about in many ways. We know that the micro-credentialing process is meant to address part of that.

It’s a solution to some of the challenges faced here, but it’s not the entire solution, because we can recognize there’s a number of things in this current state, a number of challenges in this current state that still would need to be addressed for military families to have what they ultimately need. And as an end state for that, military family members have the resources and support needed to thrive. They actively receive family support, employment, educational, social and emotional support from their surrounding community. They feel valued and cared for when moving to new locations.

In some ways, a flip side of our current state, but in other ways, there’s other things we want to add in there to characterize how the end state we’re trying to build feels. Is this making sense to everyone? Yeah. Awesome. I love it. Great. The point with these examples is that the end state can be written about anyone. There’s a lot of turmoil right now about terms in this country, about which groups we’re talking about and which groups we’re not talking about. I think there are a lot of groups… Actually, I think everyone should be included in our vision for the future. At times, we have to focus in on one group. We focus in on another group. So in the previous example it was black mothers. In this example, it’s military families, but we can also build statements that include everyone in them. We’re going to work on moving more toward that again today.

On your tables, there are a set of personas. Yes, they have orange banner at the top of them. What I want you to do is I want you to pick one at random. I want you to just pass them around to folks at your table and I’m going to walk you through very briefly what they are. Don’t get overly choosy with them, just kind of randomly distribute them to people. There’s a number of personas here, and the reason I didn’t have you read through each one is I kind of want your identities to be known, but I want your values and your belief systems to be held by you. So you’ve got your persona. You can say what your role is, but I want you to kind of protect a little bit the information that you have in front of you.

We have six personas. We have our district attorney, an incarcerated person, the leader of a community-based organization, a public defender, a leader of the local church and a sheriff. Now your table, as I see people are exchanging, they’re like, “I don’t want to be this person. I want to be this person.” Your table only has five people at it, so someone’s not going to be in your conversation, and that’s okay. I don’t want you to optimize too much for that. I want us to discuss that at a later point. Each of you should now have a persona in hand. There’s also on your table a prompt. I will read the prompt to you up here on the screen. You have it on your table so that you can return to what our activity’s ultimately going to be about throughout today as well.

The prompt here is this. The United States incarcerates 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. This is a true fact in case you didn’t know that. Of all the people in the world, 25% of them are incarcerated in America. Due to a new law, many people who are incarcerated at the state level are being sent back home to the county jail. Your local jail does not have the capacity to incarcerate these additional individuals. Your jail is not big enough. It doesn’t have enough space for everyone who’s coming. Your town has decided to try to reduce the number of people in your jail rather than building another one. But you have to decide what must change to make that happen.

The personas that you have are all local personalities. They’re all local individuals and they’re pulled from real examples based on real people that we’ve encountered throughout the course of our work. We did a similar project to this in Santa Clara County as I mentioned before, but we’ve also done other work in criminal justice overall. Each of these personas has a different perspective about what has to change, what’s important, what matters to me, why do we have so many folks incarcerated in the first place? Those are some of the conversations that I want you all to have at your table.

Your persona, your paper in front of you, gives you some details about the perspective I want you to embody. I think that the activity that we just did before where we learned a little bit about inner voices is something that we can think about as we engage this work. What are the inner voices of the persona that you have in front of you? What are they thinking about? What are they aiming for? What are they trying to accomplish in their own lives as well? What I want to do is I want to give you a moment to read over that and then we’ll have a moment where we center on those personas and then we’re going to move into the activity itself. Everyone take a moment to read through in depth the persona in front of you before we move into the next activity. You’re going to want to grab some Post-It notes as well, and a Sharpie from your table.

Here’s what we’re going to do. Current state, define the current state so that you can eventually define the end state. You’re going to have a chance to do this in your groups, but you are going to start by really sinking in to our persona. I want everyone to close their eyes for a second, and I want you to think about your persona and I want you to imagine embodying them, thinking about their experiences. Think if you can recall having a conversation ever with someone who is that persona, think about what some of the inner challenges that you might be facing having lived your life as that person. We’re going to dive in. Thank you all.

There will be places here where you find yourself reaching, you find yourself adding things, making up things, you’re not completely sure. My request is you try to stay as authentic as possible to what you think someone might be thinking or feeling. But recognize also that in this role play, we can’t be perfect embodiments of anyone else and we’re not trying to. We want to be honorable and be respectful of those roles so that we can represent them as authentically as we think we can now. We can reflect on where there are gaps in our knowledge and understanding later.

All right, so first activity. Spend the next three minutes thinking from the perspective of your persona and writing on Post-It notes some of the existing problems that you see leading to your county’s high jail population. Given what it says there on that sheet, some of those answers are written already on the sheet itself. You can write those out on Post-It notes. Others might be things that come to mind for you, and I’m sure you have thoughts on this already. Try to add those to Post-It notes as well, again from the perspective that you might be embodying. Okay, go.

I see some of you’re still writing, which I love. You’re still generating ideas, perspectives, content. Some of you have finished. That’s perfectly okay. What you’re going to do now is you’re going to enter into conversation. As a group, I want you to spend 15 minutes sharing your individual perspectives with one another and building on each other’s thoughts to come up with one current state. You should start by essentially sharing what your perspectives are. Go around your group and share a little bit more about these causes. What is it that’s driving your current jail population being so high? What are the challenges that are being faced in the current system? Listen to your fellow table mates as you think through this and take note of any areas of overlap or commonality and perspective that you’re hearing.

Okay, about 15 minutes, I’m going to circle around as well and sort of just see how those conversations are going. All right, ready? Go. If you haven’t yet, go ahead and start thinking about how you want to craft a current state. How can you describe it? Know that the current state can be four sentences, it can be five sentences. It’s okay to have more than one or two within that. Begin to write that statement. Think about how you can bring in these different perspectives you’ve heard at the table. All right, I’m going to call attention and we’re going to hear some current states from folks before we move on.

Give me one word to describe that activity. I would love to hear from some different tables.

Audience:

It’s difficult.

Durell Coleman:

Difficult. Give me a few other words. We got difficult.

Audience:

Real.

Durell Coleman:

Real. Others?

Audience:

Emotional.

Durell Coleman:

Emotional.

Audience:

Hard to stay in the persona sometimes.

Durell Coleman:

Hard to stay in the persona. That is a challenge for sure. The point being that we are different people and we’ll have different perspectives.

We heard a number of current states difference, but with overlapping elements to them pulled from these personas. I also heard that it was difficult at times to find the commonality. Well, we’re going to ramp that up just a little bit more as we talk about the end state now. Our end state, we want to remember that this is the outcome we’re trying to achieve. What I want you to do is spend three minutes really quickly, again, thinking about from your perspective, what is the world that you want to live in that your persona wants to live in? What does that look like? How would you describe that if things were solved?

Example, jail is a last resort form of criminal punishment. Someone might say that. There’s probably a few different statements that someone would discuss, that someone would put down from their perspective. I want you to spend three minutes writing those down. Think about your current state as well. Some of them will be counters to the current state, some of them might not be. They might just be different ideas. Okay, three minutes. Go. Think personally, what does this persona care about? What do they want to protect?

All right, I know you’re still writing a little bit on that, which is okay. You can bring it in through discussion as well. Now you’re all experts at this. We’re going to go back to our group conversation and share a little bit more about what we think the reality we’re trying to create in our town is. Realize that you are all bonded together. You live in the same community. Go ahead and craft that vision. Really aim toward creating that one to four sentence end state as you move forward. Go.

If you shared, work toward writing one end statement now. Write one end state. You have five minutes as a group to come up with and agree on that statement. If you have done that already, then awesome. If not, try to get something succinct. Three to four sentences max. We’re almost there. We are moving into the final phase of our activity, and so I would love to hear some end states from folks. Which table would be excited to share their end state? Okay, we got volunteers right here in the back.

Audience:

Yes. So our end state is a safe and thriving community where we prioritize the needs of the least resourced as in that way we built the equity to offer liberty and justice for all by giving support to the people that were incarnated through better legal representation, having more flexible options for legal enforcement than only reincarnation or for adequate housing and job support so that they feel more valued and can contribute again to that community.

Durell Coleman:

All right, thank you.

Audience:

Foster a sense of community where individuals feel safe and supported while implementing robust programs aimed at both assisting individuals post-incarceration and preventing incarceration altogether.

Durell Coleman:

Powerful. Great. Great job. In those statements, something I’m hearing, I’m hearing these elements of what a solution would need to entail. It doesn’t say exactly what the solution is, but what I’m hearing is there’s a focus for some on post-incarceration and release. This was not a conversation you all had with each other before coming in this room, but I’m hearing this idea around maybe we should create ways for people to exit jail appropriately and be able to live. Then I’m also hearing things around reducing the inputs, the entry, which is actually called no entry as well. It’s a very descriptive name. There’s another table.

Audience:

Our community sees the end state. Our community sees the incarcerated as valued members of the community and not as a threat. Our community believes rehabilitation is a human right and that we’ve all failed and deserve a path to re-enter society. Our community has created an effective and holistic rehabilitation system free from inequalities that starts during incarceration, rooted in the community, includes child care, mental health, career, substance treatment, funding, housing, legal and spiritual support.

Durell Coleman:

Wow. All right. Snaps around the room. Let’s get one more table. Yes?

Audience:

We choose and work to welcome each person back into our community with honor and dignity. We understand the systemic nature of this problem and allocate funds and resources more strategically to provide housing and transition support. Law enforcement options are a combination of proven alternatives with incarceration as only one in the last resort. We believe the strength of our community is shown by the strength of our network solving this challenge.

Durell Coleman:

All right, thank you. Let’s talk. I want to talk realism real quick, and then I want to talk your thoughts, your reflections on the activity that we just had. In your statement, it was interesting because I heard incarceration as only one of the solutions. I’m curious which persona pushed for that piece of it? The DA. Okay, that’s powerful. We often find people have their biases in certain directions. I thought you actually were going to say the sheriff as one of the possibilities for who that is as well, but the DA, that also tracks in a lot of ways.

What I have found having grown up here in Texas, the conservative bastion of America, having lived for 12 years in the Bay Area, California, the liberal bastion of America, having great people in my life from both those places, I have yet to meet people, when you meet them one-to-one… I don’t know if I have yet to meet people, but I have not met very many people, I should say. .001 maybe percent of people who don’t actually want good outcomes for other people, who don’t want other people to succeed and thrive if possible. I find that often we characterize the sheriff or the DA or these certain people in ways that removes their point.

I’ll give you the story is I was in a room with a community leader who said “People with mental illness shouldn’t be incarcerated.” Then I had a sheriff say, “My job is to maintain public safety.” But the reality was, when we broke the conversation down, they were just talking about their individual roles and their beliefs. They weren’t actually disagreeing with each other. The sheriff wasn’t saying, “Yeah, we should lock up way more people with mental illness.” He was saying, “I don’t have alternatives to incarceration.” And so I think the job of a facilitator, and in using an activity like this, is to get past some of the preconceived stereotypes about people to understand where we can actually agree.

Where do we have a commonality? I have these conversations frequently with people with varying political views, and we often find in those tabletop conversations, points of commonality, points of commonality, points of commonality. Differences remain, but there are things we could agree on that could actually help reduce some of the tension that I see elsewhere. I want to hear any final reflections from all of you before we close here. What are folks’ thoughts? Yes. Oh, here comes your mic.

Audience:

I have no personal experience with any of this, and so all my ideas just come straight from things that I read or other opinions on the matter, and I found that a little bit disturbing.

Durell Coleman:

Reflecting on your own personal-

Audience:

Just putting things down on paper that I am thinking could be the problem, even from the personal of a fictional reverend, because I don’t know. I have not had any personal experience with this topic.

Durell Coleman:

Yeah, I think it’s a really powerful point. There’s a discomfort in an activity like this if we don’t feel like we have a personal basis to speak through this. It was interesting though. I walked around to certain tables and I heard so many words that I have heard in other rooms before as you embodied these characteristics. I heard from over here this element around not knowing what to do when I’m released, not knowing where to go, not knowing who to talk to and where to get resources.

I heard a bunch of things about reentry solutions that I’ve heard in rooms with other people, and you might’ve just been playing off the personas, but there’s things in these end states, I did not put in these personas that you all pulled together. There’s two things to this. I think one side of it is it’s uncomfortable and can be challenging to engage in. I appreciate you for stepping into that. I think the other is any space that is really tense like this where we don’t have those personal relationships or that personal empathy, those are opportunities to go meet people, talk to people, learn from people directly to see what are their perspectives.

It’s not like it’s necessarily your job to go do that all the time, but if you have the chance to bridge some of those gaps going forward, then that’s an opportunity that you can take up as well.

Audience:

I am considering bias here and I’m considering from a facilitation standpoint how I hold that bias, because as our work was unfolding here, I’m making the assumption, check me table mates, that we are pretty biased towards what we consider the beneficial outcome is here, the end state. As I consider my bias as a facilitator, it seems this might be one place where I can leverage whether it’s optimism or intention in the room to support finding common ground. That that’s where I would lean in as a facilitator.

Durell Coleman:

Right. I think yes to that. Our biases do come into this and I think that’s a safer place to lean in. Did anyone at their table not have a sheriff as a persona? Any tables not have a sheriff? Anyone not have an incarcerated person at their table? Those biases are also extra prevalent when we don’t have all of the right stakeholders in the room. There’s an activity we do before this called Stakeholder Mapping where we figure out who are the right people to make sure that we have a rounded perspective. We also think about who are the people with veto power. People who, if they’re not included and they learn about this six months from now, all that work was worthless. The sheriff is one of those people actually, generally. They have the power to raise enough political pressure against what you’re doing to cancel it.

And so anyway, that’s a really important point. I think leaning into points of commonality is helpful. One move we also make is to take the end state, even if we didn’t develop it directly with people, and take it to all of those stakeholders to get their buy-in and help them shape it. In this work that we did before, we took the end states to the Department of Corrections. They made one change, which was to add a line to alternatives to incarceration that said, while maintaining public safety. And that was it. But that was enough to get the buy-in from the entire Department of Corrections for the entire plan moving forward.

This process works really well if you can enter into a frame of collaboration. It’s not always a frame people want to enter into. It is a frame that leaders can put people into. If you have a certain amount of power, for example, you can say, “Look, we’re going to do this differently,” because you have the power in that system to call for collaborative solutions. But to your point, how do you elevate the voices of folks who are often left out? I think as a facilitator, it’s your job to think about and understand who those people are.

When we did this work before, we originally started with 27 leaders in criminal justice, and it was the sheriff, the DA, the public defender, all of these different people. These are, like I said, based on real folks. At the end of that exercise, when they had talked about what’s gone well and what still needs to happen, I asked them this question. I said, “Who’s not in this room? Whose perspective is missing from your answers?” And it was a move toward exactly what you’re talking about. The answer they said was, “Well, we actually don’t have incarcerated people here.”

So had one of your tables not had that perspective, I would’ve been asking you who’s missing? I’ll come back to the sheriff in one second as my final closing comment. Basically, it’s a way. I think it’s important for you to hold those voices in mind. If you forget them, you likely will not have good solutions. You likely will not have something that actually works, and that’s foundational to human-centered design.

I think my closing questions or things for you to ponder, throw out a quick answer. What’s the difference between this activity and running it as a facilitator? Running this activity. You were at your tables, you are all facilitators, versus you stepping into a space where you’re facilitating another group through this. And they’re not playing personas. They are those people. Separate question, where do you think this approach could be useful?

Audience:

Wherever divergent perspectives exist.

Durell Coleman:

Wherever divergent perspectives exist. Awesome. I guess I want to close it, just bringing it back around to Leah’s point earlier, which is if we want to make peace, we have to look at the source of our wars. I think this is an activity that helps us move past some of the reflexive or reactive reactions that we have that create those wars, create those tensions, keep people from getting the resources they need to actually bring them to the same page.

All right, so hopefully this was helpful for everyone. Thank you so much.

The post Building Consensus Amongst Multiple Stakeholders appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• The Concept of Design Thinking
• Understanding Validation in Design Thinking
• Best Practices for Conducting Validation
  • Engaging with Users Early and Continuously
  • Adopting an Iterative Approach to Testing
  • Defining Clear Success Criteria
  • Utilizing a Mix of Validation Methods
  • Leveraging Technology and Tools
• Overcoming Challenges in Validation
  • Addressing Bias in Feedback
  • Ensuring Diversity and Representation
  • Interpreting and Acting on Feedback
  • Managing Expectations and Scope
• Conclusion
• FAQs

Validation is not just a checkpoint but a crucial phase that ensures your creative solutions truly resonate with users and meet business objectives. It’s the stage where you test the waters, measure the impact, and refine your ideas into actionable and successful outcomes. 

But how can you be certain that your design thinking solution is the right one? How do you evaluate its feasibility, viability, and desirability? 

In this guide, we will delve into the best practices for validation in design thinking, offering you a roadmap to confidently navigate through this essential process. From defining success criteria to engaging with users and stakeholders for feedback, we’ll explore the tools and metrics that can help you validate your solutions effectively. 

The Concept of Design Thinking

Design thinking is a user-centric methodology employed to solve complex problems and navigate the challenges of designing innovative solutions. It is characterized by a series of iterative stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and validate. Each phase plays an important role in understanding the user, challenging assumptions, redefining problems, and creating innovative solutions to prototype and test. 

A 2015 report by the Design Management Institute found that design-led companies maintained a significant stock market advantage, outperforming the S&P by 219% over 10 years. This approach is not strictly linear but rather a flexible and iterative cycle that encourages deep user understanding, creativity, and pragmatic problem-solving. 

At its heart, design thinking is about adopting a hands-on approach to innovation, grounded in understanding the people for whom products and services are being designed. It’s a mindset that prioritizes user needs above all else, promoting a culture of open collaboration, experimentation, and the willingness to fail and learn from mistakes. This philosophy is applicable across various disciplines and industries, making it a universal tool for addressing a wide range of challenges.

Understanding Validation in Design Thinking

Within the design thinking context, validation is the systematic evaluation of solutions to ascertain their effectiveness in fulfilling the intended user needs and business objectives. It seeks to answer several key questions: 

• Does the solution fulfill the user’s needs? 
• Is it feasible within the given constraints? 
• Does it offer a viable business model? 
• Is it desirable from a user’s perspective?

The validation process involves a series of activities aimed at testing the solutions with real users, gathering feedback, and iteratively refining the design. It’s about bringing the user back into the equation, ensuring that the solution is not only theoretically sound but also practically effective and emotionally resonant with the target audience. It serves as the bridge between theoretical design concepts and practical, impactful solutions. 

As validation is not a one-time activity but an ongoing process that extends beyond the initial launch of a solution, doing it continuously is essential for adapting to changing user needs, technological advancements, and market dynamics. Moving forward, we’ll explore specific best practices for conducting effective validation, methods and tools for gathering and analyzing user feedback, and strategies for integrating validation throughout the design thinking process. 

Best Practices for Conducting Validation

Effective validation confirms that the solution meets user needs while also ensuring it aligns with business objectives and constraints. Here, we expand upon the best practices for conducting validation, offering a comprehensive approach to this crucial phase.

Engaging with Users Early and Continuously

• Inclusive User Recruitment: Engaging users from the beginning is crucial. Research McKinsey & Company shows that companies that involve users early are 50% more likely to see market share growth. This is why is important to ensure that the group of users involved in validation represents the diversity of your target audience, including varying demographics, abilities, and backgrounds. 
• Continuous User Engagement: Validation should not be a one-off event but a continuous dialogue with users throughout the design process. Through ongoing engagement, you can receive real-time feedback and pivot quickly based on user feedback.
• Empathetic Interaction: Approach user engagement with empathy, understanding, and respect. Creating a comfortable environment for users to share honest feedback is crucial for gaining true insights into the user experience.

Adopting an Iterative Approach to Testing

• Rapid Prototyping: Utilize rapid prototyping techniques to turn ideas into testable artifacts quickly. It will allow you frequent testing and iteration, making it easier to refine solutions based on user feedback.
• Iterative Feedback Loops: Establish feedback loops that allow for the iterative refinement of prototypes. This cyclical process of testing, learning, and refining ensures that the solution evolves in close alignment with user needs and expectations.
• Fail Fast, Learn Quickly: Embrace the “fail fast, learn quickly” mentality. Validation is about learning from what doesn’t work as much as it is about confirming what does. Each iteration provides valuable lessons that drive the design forward.

Defining Clear Success Criteria

• Objective Metrics: Use objective metrics like the System Usability Scale (SUS) to define success in a quantifiable way. It will help you to evaluate success consistently and objectively, leading to better decision-making.
• Alignment with User Goals and Needs: Ensure that the success criteria are aligned with the user goals and needs identified during the empathy and define phases. This alignment guarantees that the solution’s success is measured by its impact on the user experience.
• Business and Technical Feasibility: Incorporate criteria that assess the solution’s feasibility from both a business and technical standpoint. Taking this holistic approach ensures that the solution is viable in the broader context of implementation and scalability.

Utilizing a Mix of Validation Methods

• Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Research in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies demonstrates that combining qualitative and quantitative methods leads to more robust and actionable insights in user experience research. Qualitative methods, like interviews and observation, provide depth and context, while quantitative methods, like surveys and analytics, offer measurable insights. 
• Contextual Testing: Whenever possible, test the solution in the context in which it will be used. Contextual validation provides insights into how environmental factors, user behaviors, and other variables affect the solution’s performance and user experience.
• Expert Reviews: In addition to user testing, consider expert reviews to assess the solution against best practices, industry standards, and technical requirements. This expert input can complement user feedback, providing a different perspective on the solution’s efficacy.

Leveraging Technology and Tools

• Digital Prototyping Tools: Utilize digital prototyping tools that allow for quick adjustments and facilitate remote testing. Tools like Figma, Adobe XD, and InVision offer collaborative features that make it easy to iterate on designs based on user feedback.
• Analytics and Heatmaps: Implement analytics and heatmap tools to gather quantitative data on how users interact with digital solutions. This data can reveal user behaviors, preferences, and pain points that might not be evident through qualitative methods alone.
• Remote Testing Platforms: Leverage remote user testing platforms to conduct validation with users from diverse locations. This global perspective can enrich the validation process, bringing in a wider range of user experiences and insights.

Adopting these best practices empowers designers and innovators to approach the validation phase with assurance, guaranteeing that their solutions are not just imaginative and groundbreaking but also closely attuned to user requirements and feasible within their operational framework. The ultimate goal of validation is to refine solutions into effective, user-centered outcomes that stand the test of real-world application and usage.

Overcoming Challenges in Validation

While essential, validation in design thinking, while indispensable, comes with its share of challenges such as feedback biases, user diversity, and the analysis of extensive feedback. Tackling these challenges head-on is essential for the fruitful completion of the validation phase and, consequently, the entire design thinking journey.

Addressing Bias in Feedback

• Triangulation of Data: Use multiple sources of data and validation methods to counteract the biases inherent in any single source. Triangulation helps in validating the findings across different methods, ensuring a more balanced and objective understanding of user feedback.
• Blind Testing: Consider blind testing scenarios where users are not aware of the specific goals of the solution being tested. Google’s application of A/B testing serves as a prime example of how blind testing can be employed to evaluate new features impartially, ensuring that decisions are data-driven and free from preconceived notions.
• Third-Party Facilitators: Engage neutral third-party facilitators for conducting user tests and interviews. Their detachment from the project ensures that they do not unconsciously lead users to provide responses that the design team hopes to hear.

Ensuring Diversity and Representation

• Broad Recruitment Strategies: Adopt inclusive recruitment strategies that reach out to a diverse cross-section of the user base. That might mean partnering with community organizations, using diverse media channels for recruitment, or offering incentives that appeal to a broad audience. 
• Accessibility Considerations: Make validation sessions accessible to people with disabilities by providing necessary accommodations and using inclusive design methodologies. This ensures that the solution is tested and validated across the full spectrum of users, including those with varying abilities.
• Cultural Sensitivity: Be mindful of cultural differences that may influence user feedback. Tailor the validation process to be culturally sensitive, ensuring that it respects and accommodates the norms, languages, and preferences of diverse user groups.

Interpreting and Acting on Feedback

• Structured Analysis Frameworks: Employ structured frameworks for analyzing feedback, such as affinity diagramming or thematic analysis. Using these frameworks makes feedback more actionable and prevents important observations from being overlooked.
• Prioritization of Feedback: Not all feedback will be equally relevant or actionable. Use criteria such as impact, feasibility, and alignment with user needs to prioritize feedback, focusing on changes that will have the most significant positive effect on the solution.
• Iterative Refinement: Use the feedback not just for immediate refinements but also as a source of insights for future iterations. The validation phase should inform not only the current design cycle but also future development and iteration cycles, ensuring continuous improvement.

Managing Expectations and Scope

• Clear Communication of Objectives: Ensure that all stakeholders, including the design team and users, understand the scope and objectives of the validation phase. This clarity helps in managing expectations and focusing efforts on what is most important.
• Flexible Validation Plans: Be prepared to adapt your validation plan based on initial findings and logistical challenges. Flexibility allows you to explore unexpected insights and adapt to constraints without compromising the quality of validation.
• Balancing Detail and Big Picture: While focusing on specific feedback and insights, do not lose sight of the overall goals and objectives of the solution. Maintain a balance between addressing detailed user feedback and ensuring that the solution remains aligned with the broader vision and user needs.

By addressing these challenges head-on, designers and innovators can ensure that the validation phase leads to meaningful improvements and refinements, ultimately resulting in solutions that are not only innovative but also deeply resonant with user needs and preferences. 

Conclusion

Along with the rapid technological advancement and shifts in societal needs, the principles of design thinking and the best practices for validation hold more relevance than ever. They remind us that at the heart of every successful innovation lies a deep understanding of the people it aims to serve. This user-centric approach, coupled with a flexible, iterative validation process, ensures that solutions are not only technologically sound but also meaningful and relevant to users’ lives. Moreover, the challenges inherent in the validation process highlight the importance of a nuanced, empathetic approach to design.

As we move forward, the principles of validation in design thinking serve as a beacon for innovators and creators worldwide. They encourage us to look beyond the surface, to question our assumptions, and to continually strive for solutions that are not just feasible and viable but also deeply desirable to our users. In this pursuit, we are reminded that the true measure of our success lies not in the elegance of our designs or the sophistication of our technologies but in the positive impact we make on human lives. It is a journey that challenges us to be not just creators but also listeners, learners, and, ultimately, champions of meaningful innovation.

FAQs

• How do you balance speed and thoroughness in validation?

Balancing speed and thoroughness in validation involves strategically prioritizing key aspects of the design that are most critical to user needs and business objectives for in-depth testing. Rapid prototyping and agile methodologies can be employed to quickly iterate on these aspects, allowing for immediate feedback and adjustments. Simultaneously, employing a mix of qualitative and quantitative validation methods ensures a comprehensive understanding of the design’s impact without compromising on speed. 

• Can validation lead to significant changes in the design solution?

Absolutely. Validation can and often does lead to significant changes in the design solution. This phase is where real-world user feedback intersects with the theoretical underpinnings of the design, revealing discrepancies, unmet needs, or unforeseen usability issues. Such insights can necessitate revisions ranging from minor tweaks to major overhauls of the concept or functionality. 

• How do you measure the success of a validation effort?

The success of a validation effort is measured against predefined success criteria, which typically encompass metrics related to user satisfaction, usability, and the degree to which the solution addresses the identified user needs. These criteria offer an objective framework for evaluating the effectiveness of the validation process.

• What role does user feedback play in validation?

User feedback is the linchpin of the validation process, offering direct insights into the solution’s relevance, usability, and impact from the user’s perspective. It is this feedback that informs iterative improvements, ensuring the final design is genuinely user-centric.

• How can designers mitigate biases during validation?

Designers can mitigate biases during validation by employing a diverse and representative sample of users to ensure a wide range of perspectives. Utilizing blind testing methods, where information about the design’s purpose or expected outcomes is withheld, can also help reduce confirmation bias. Additionally, involving third-party facilitators or unbiased observers to conduct testing sessions can help prevent the introduction of the designer’s own biases. Finally, triangulating data from various sources and validation methods can provide a more objective and comprehensive understanding of user feedback.

• Is validation only necessary for new products or solutions?

Validation is essential not only for new products or solutions but also for existing ones undergoing significant updates or being introduced to new markets or user segments. This process ensures that modifications or expansions meet the evolving needs and expectations of users and remain relevant in changing contexts. Regular validation helps in identifying areas for improvement, adapting to user feedback, and staying ahead of market trends, thereby maintaining the product’s effectiveness and user satisfaction over time.

The post Mastering Validation in Design Thinking: Best Practices & Strategies appeared first on Voltage Control.

Back in my early days, before the term ‘facilitation’ was even a blip on my radar, I was deeply immersed in the world of design and innovation. Design, to me, wasn’t just about crafting sleek interfaces or eye-catching visuals; it was a full-contact sport. I firmly believed that design needed to be a public act, a collaborative effort that engaged everyone from product managers to engineers. This belief nudged me into what would become my first foray into facilitation. Without even realizing it, I was taking the lead in discussions, eager to sway hearts and minds to bring collective visions to life. It was in these moments, standing in front of colleagues and guiding conversations, that I began to understand the essence of facilitation. It was raw, unrefined, and entirely intuitive. But it was a start.

Reflecting on those early experiences, one stands out vividly. While at LexisNexis, I was given the latitude to dive deep into mapping experiences. This wasn’t just any task; it was a challenge that threw me into the deep end of facilitation. Tasked with leading a mapping exercise for our European business unit, I orchestrated a session for stakeholders flying in from all corners of the continent. The stakes were high, and the audience was diverse. Yet, as I navigated through this intricate dance of ideas and insights, something clicked. The success of that session and the many that followed across the globe, from Australia to the Netherlands, was a testament to the power of effective facilitation. These were my formative years, where the seeds of facilitation were unknowingly sown, setting me on a path I never anticipated.

A New Chapter Begins

As my career progressed, the realms of design and facilitation began to intertwine more visibly. My move to Citrix was a notable milestone, not just for the shift in my professional landscape but for the deepening of my involvement in remote collaboration. Here, the essence of facilitation permeated through my work, albeit still in an informal capacity. I found myself at the forefront, not just as a designer but as a facilitator of ideas and conversations. This dual role was becoming a part of my identity, propelling me towards a greater understanding of what it meant to lead discussions that mattered.

The real turning point came with my engagement with Mural and, subsequently, Voltage Control. My collaboration with Mural opened new avenues, connecting me with a broader community passionate about facilitation and collaboration. It was during this time that I stumbled upon the treasure trove of literature on facilitation. Books like “Game Storming” and “The Art of Gathering” by Priya Parker became my guides, enlightening me about the structured world of facilitation I had been navigating through instinct alone. These discoveries were eye-opening, revealing a structured discipline where my self-taught skills could find validation and growth.

A Catalyst for Learning

Voltage Control emerged as a beacon in my journey. Their partnership with Mural, coupled with their reputation for deep dives into the facilitation process, intrigued me. The more I learned about Voltage Control’s offerings and their community-driven approach, the more I realized the gaps in my understanding. This was a world where my ad-hoc experiences could be honed into something more profound and impactful. The decision to engage more directly with Voltage Control and consider their certification program was a natural next step. It promised not just to fill the gaps but to elevate my practice to a level I had only begun to imagine.

The decision to join Voltage Control’s certification program wasn’t made in isolation. It was the culmination of a series of serendipitous events and realizations. The moment Douglas reached out with an invitation to participate, the decision felt like a natural progression of my journey. The seeds of curiosity sown during my time with Mural and my explorations into the literature of facilitation had prepared me for this step. It was as if all the paths I had walked were converging, guiding me toward a future I was meant to embrace.

Colleagues and Confidence

Knowing that individuals I respected and admired, such as Mark Tippin and Emilia Åström, had gone through the program and emerged with positive experiences provided a sense of reassurance. Their encouragement was a catalyst, pushing me to seize this opportunity not just for the knowledge I would gain but for the professional growth that would inevitably follow. This wasn’t just about filling gaps in my understanding; it was about joining a community of practitioners dedicated to elevating the art and science of facilitation.

Deciding to embark on the Voltage Control certification journey was, in many ways, a leap of faith. Faith in the program’s ability to refine and expand my facilitation skills, faith in my capacity to grow and adapt, and faith in the idea that this path would lead me to become a more effective leader, designer, and facilitator. The anticipation of what lay ahead was both exhilarating and daunting. Yet, the clarity of my decision was undeniable. This was the next step I needed to take, not just for my career but for my ongoing quest to unlock the full potential of collaborative design and innovation.

Immersive Learning

The certification program at Voltage Control was unlike anything I had experienced before. It was an immersive journey that stretched over three months, challenging and enriching in equal measure. The curriculum, meticulously designed by Eric, was both comprehensive and engaging, blending theoretical insights with practical application. This wasn’t just about acquiring knowledge; it was about embedding it into practice. The structure of the program—with its mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning, coupled with assignments that fostered collaboration with fellow participants—created a dynamic learning environment that kept me engaged and motivated throughout.

One of the most significant revelations for me was the depth and breadth of facilitation as a discipline. The program offered a panoramic view of the facilitation landscape, covering everything from the fundamentals to advanced techniques. It was enlightening to explore topics like the importance of warm-ups, the art of debriefing, and the nuanced role of a facilitator in guiding discussions and nurturing collaboration. These sessions weren’t just educational; they were transformative, challenging me to rethink my approach and adopt a more structured and intentional stance toward facilitation.

The Power of Reflection

Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of the program was the emphasis on reflection—both personal and professional. The process of developing my facilitation portfolio was a journey in itself, prompting me to pause and reflect on my past experiences, successes, and lessons learned. This exercise was not just about showcasing my work; it was an opportunity to introspect and consolidate my learning, providing clarity and direction for my future endeavors. It was a stark reminder of the power of reflection in fostering growth and self-awareness.

The certification program was a crucible of growth, pushing me beyond my comfort zone and expanding my horizons. It was here that I discovered not only the depth of my passion for facilitation but also the potential for impact beyond the confines of my previous experiences. The program didn’t just equip me with new tools and techniques; it instilled in me a newfound confidence and a deeper understanding of the transformative power of effective facilitation.

Post-certification, my toolkit for facilitation has not only expanded but also diversified. The program introduced me to a range of methodologies and practices that I had previously been unaware of or hadn’t fully appreciated. This broader arsenal has significantly enhanced my ability to adapt to different contexts and needs, ensuring that I can offer more tailored and effective facilitation solutions. Whether it’s incorporating more thoughtful warm-ups, leveraging pop-up rules to navigate unexpected challenges, or crafting more impactful debriefs, my approach has become more nuanced and impactful.

A Deeper Appreciation for Purpose

One of the most profound shifts in my perspective has been a deeper appreciation for the importance of purpose in facilitation. The discussions around the significance of setting a clear purpose for each session, and the exploration of various process design elements, have fundamentally altered how I approach my work. This newfound understanding has enabled me to design and lead sessions that are not only more engaging and effective but also more meaningful for all participants. It’s a shift that has not only improved the quality of my facilitation but also the outcomes of the collaborative efforts I lead.

Looking ahead, the capabilities and insights gained from the certification program have opened up new avenues for impact. Facilitation, I’ve come to realize, is more than a skill set for leading meetings or workshops; it’s a foundational competency that underpins effective leadership, innovation, and collaboration. As I continue my work at Mural, these capabilities are proving invaluable in helping me navigate the complexities of remote collaboration, drive product innovation, and foster a culture of inclusive and effective teamwork. The program has not just transformed how I facilitate; it’s reshaped how I lead and contribute to my organization.

A Catalyst for Continuous Growth

The journey through Voltage Control’s certification program has been a catalyst for a broader transformation in my professional life. It has sparked a continuous quest for growth, encouraging me to keep exploring, learning, and applying new facilitation techniques and approaches. This mindset of continuous improvement and the drive to further hone my facilitation practice are what I see as the most lasting impacts of the program. As I look to the future, I’m excited about the opportunities to further integrate these capabilities into my work, exploring new ways to leverage facilitation as a tool for driving change and innovation.

The journey through the world of facilitation has been nothing short of transformative for me. As I stand at this juncture, reflecting on the path behind and the horizon ahead, I’m filled with a sense of purpose and possibility. The future, as I see it, is ripe with opportunities to apply my newfound capabilities in ways that extend far beyond the traditional boundaries of facilitation. My role at Mural, coupled with the insights and skills honed through the Voltage Control certification, positions me to pioneer innovative approaches to collaboration, leadership, and organizational development.

The next chapter of my journey is dedicated to elevating the art and science of collaboration within Mural and among our global community of users. Armed with a deeper understanding of facilitation, I’m exploring new ways to enhance remote and hybrid work environments, making them more engaging, productive, and inclusive. The goal is not just to improve how teams work together but to transform the very fabric of collaboration, making it a source of competitive advantage and creative breakthrough.

Beyond the immediate realm of my professional duties, I envision a future where the principles of effective facilitation are woven into the cultural DNA of organizations worldwide. My ambition is to be at the forefront of this movement, advocating for the role of facilitation as a critical skill for leaders, innovators, and change-makers. By championing a culture of facilitation, I aim to catalyze a shift in how problems are solved, decisions are made, and visions are realized across industries and communities.

For Future Explorers

To those standing at the threshold of their facilitation journey, my message is one of encouragement and excitement. The path of learning and growth in this field is rich with challenges and rewards. Embrace the journey with an open mind and a committed heart. The skills you develop and the insights you gain will not only enhance your career but also amplify your impact on the world around you. The future of work, leadership, and innovation is inextricably linked to our ability to facilitate meaningful conversations and collaborations. I invite you to join this exploration, to discover your own path, and to contribute to the evolving landscape of facilitation and beyond.

The post The Unexpected Journey appeared first on Voltage Control.

Table of contents

• Understanding Storytelling in Design Thinking
  • Benefits of Incorporating Storytelling
• Crafting Compelling Narratives
• Visualization Techniques in Design Thinking
• Integrating Visualization with Storytelling
• Strategies for Harmonious Integration
  • Tailored Visualization Choices
  • Story-Driven Development
  • Engaging User Personas
  • Narrative Visualization in Workshops
  • Iterative Narrative Refinement
  • Ensuring Narrative Consistency
  • Emotional Resonance in Visuals
• Future Directions in Storytelling and Visualization
• FAQs

Did you know that stories can be up to 22 times more memorable than just facts? 

In design thinking, storytelling transcends traditional engagement tools, becoming a strategic framework that breathes life into user data, turning it into meaningful experiences and emotions. This synergy of storytelling and visualization acts as a bridge, merging abstract design concepts with the tangible experiences of end-users, thereby deepening understanding and connection.

This guide will lead you through effectively weaving narrative and visual elements into your design process, showcasing how this blend can revolutionize user understanding, simplify complex concepts, and create deeply resonant solutions.

Understanding Storytelling in Design Thinking

Storytelling in design thinking transcends the act of simply telling a story; it’s a strategic practice that melds user experiences, emotions, and aspirations with the narrative framework of design solutions. 

Recent advancements in cognitive neuroscience have shed light on the profound impact storytelling has on the human brain. Studies, such as those published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience reveal that narratives can significantly enhance memory retention and decision-making. For example, a narrative that connects users’ emotions with a product can create a stronger and more memorable association, compared to presenting the same product with factual data alone. This phenomenon is attributed to the brain’s natural predisposition to organize information in story formats, a concept known as “narrative transport.”

Benefits of Incorporating Storytelling

This kind of integration brings a multitude of benefits, enhancing the design process and its outcomes in various ways:

• Engaging Users: By making design concepts relatable and memorable, storytelling captivates user interest, fostering deeper engagement.
• Simplifying Complex Ideas: Storytelling distills complex design ideas into digestible, narrative-driven pieces, making them more accessible and understandable to all stakeholders.
• Building Empathy: Through vivid storytelling, designers and stakeholders can better understand and empathize with users’ experiences and challenges, fostering a more user-centered design approach.
• Enhancing Collaboration: Acting as a common language, storytelling aligns all stakeholders around a shared understanding of the user’s journey and design objectives, facilitating more effective collaboration.
• Motivating Action: A compelling narrative can inspire stakeholders, driving them to support and act on the envisioned design solutions with greater conviction.

Crafting Compelling Narratives

While storytelling breathes life into user data and design concepts, visualization complements these narratives by providing a tangible and intuitive understanding of the story. A practical example of this can be seen in Airbnb’s 2014 redesign, which focused on story-centric property listings. This approach not only humanized the user experience but also significantly boosted engagement and bookings, demonstrating the transformative power of well-crafted narratives in design. 

Furthermore, in the automotive industry, for instance, Tesla shares customer stories that highlight the environmental impact and innovative technology of their vehicles, creating a powerful narrative that resonates with eco-conscious consumers.

Developing such narratives often begins with user persona creation, which involves compiling detailed profiles that represent key user segments. These personas are then used in storytelling workshops, where teams collaborate to craft narratives that address the personas’ specific needs, challenges, and aspirations. This process ensures that the resulting stories are grounded in real user experiences, making them more authentic and impactful.

Visualization Techniques in Design Thinking

Visualization is what gives a form to ideas and narratives. It encompasses a broad range of techniques, each serving a unique purpose in making abstract concepts tangible, facilitating a deeper understanding, and enhancing communication among team members and with stakeholders. Here’s a closer look at some key visualization techniques and their roles in the design thinking process:

• Sketches and Doodles: The simplest form of visualization, sketches and doodles, provide an immediate and accessible way to propose, explore, refine, and communicate design ideas. They serve as a rapid visualization tool, allowing designers to explore multiple concepts quickly and with low fidelity. 
• Wireframes: Wireframes are more structured than sketches and are used to outline the layout and functionality of digital interfaces. They provide a clear framework for how the user will interact with a product, helping to visualize the narrative in a more concrete way.
• Prototypes: Prototypes range from low to high fidelity and are crucial for testing and iterating design concepts. The importance of prototyping in the design process is echoed by Fresh Consulting, which explains that prototypes, following wireframes and mockups, offer a high-fidelity, interactive representation of the final product, essential for finalizing design decisions
• Storyboards: Case studies, such as those from Stanford d.school, showcase the efficacy of storyboards in detailing user journeys and fostering empathy within design teams. This technique merges storytelling with visualization, offering a comprehensive view of user experiences and emotional touchpoints.
• Journey Maps: Journey maps visualize the user’s path through a service or product, from initial engagement to post-use. They highlight key moments in the narrative, emphasizing opportunities for design intervention and enhancement.
• Infographics: Infographics use graphic design to represent information, data, or knowledge quickly and clearly. They are particularly effective in conveying complex data and statistics within the narrative, making them easily understandable.
• Digital Models and Simulations: Advanced visualization techniques involve creating digital models and simulations that can provide dynamic and interactive representations of the design concept, allowing for in-depth exploration of the narrative in virtual environments.

These techniques ensure that the narrative is not just told but also visually represented, making it more accessible and engaging for all stakeholders involved in the design process.

Integrating Visualization with Storytelling

The true magic happens when storytelling and visualization are seamlessly integrated, each enhancing the other to create a more engaging and impactful design narrative.

However, choosing the right visualization technique is crucial. For example, a complex user journey might be best represented through a detailed journey map, while a specific user interaction could be more effectively illustrated with a wireframe or prototype.

Strategies for Harmonious Integration

The seamless integration of storytelling and visualization in design thinking is not just about choosing the right techniques but also about how these techniques are employed to enhance and complement the narrative. Here are some refined strategies for achieving a harmonious integration:

Tailored Visualization Choices

Research from the MIT Sloan Management Review highlights the cognitive benefits of selecting appropriate visualization techniques based on the narrative’s needs, ensuring that complex user journeys are effectively communicated through detailed maps, while specific interactions are succinctly depicted with wireframes or prototypes.

For instance, if the narrative revolves around the user’s emotional journey with a service, a storyboard might be the most effective tool, illustrating not just the interactions but also the emotional highs and lows. On the other hand, for narratives focused on the usability of a digital product, wireframes and interactive prototypes can provide a clearer picture of the user experience.

Story-Driven Development

Every visualization should be developed with the story at its core. This means that each visual element, from the color palette to the layout, should be chosen to reflect and enhance the narrative. For example, in a narrative focused on sustainability, green color themes in infographics can subtly reinforce the environmental focus.

Engaging User Personas

Creating engaging and relatable user personas is a foundational step in narrative development. These personas should be based on thorough user research and reflect real user segments’ needs, challenges, and aspirations. Using these personas, design teams can conduct storytelling workshops where narratives are crafted to address specific user scenarios, making the stories more authentic and impactful.

Narrative Visualization in Workshops

Incorporating visualization techniques directly into storytelling workshops can be a powerful strategy. As narratives are being crafted around user personas, teams can simultaneously sketch or draft wireframes, bringing the story to life in real-time. This approach ensures that the narrative and visual elements are developed in tandem, fostering a deeper integration.

Iterative Narrative Refinement

Both the narrative and visual elements should undergo iterative refinement based on feedback from user testing and stakeholder reviews. This iterative process allows for continuous improvement, ensuring that the final design effectively communicates the intended message and resonates with the audience.

Ensuring Narrative Consistency

Marketing studies stress the importance of maintaining narrative consistency across all visualizations, ensuring that each component contributes to a cohesive understanding of the user experience and design solution. Whether it’s a journey map, a prototype, or an infographic, each visual should tell a part of the same story, contributing to a cohesive understanding of the user experience and design solution.

Emotional Resonance in Visuals

Visuals should not only inform but also evoke the desired emotional response aligned with the narrative. This emotional resonance can be achieved through the thoughtful use of colors, imagery, and design elements that reflect the story’s mood and tone.

Once the integration of storytelling and visualization is mastered, design thinking transcends traditional methodologies, offering a more nuanced and impactful approach to solving complex design challenges.

Future Directions in Storytelling and Visualization

As design thinking continues to evolve, so too will the methods of storytelling and visualization. Emerging technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) offer new avenues for immersive storytelling and visualization, allowing users to step directly into the narrative and experience it in a more engaging and interactive way. Similarly, advancements in data visualization and interactive design can provide more dynamic and customizable ways to convey complex information and narratives.

The future of storytelling and visualization in design thinking is rich with possibilities. By staying adaptable, open to new technologies, and focused on the core principles outlined in this guide, designers can continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible, creating solutions that not only meet user needs but also enchant, engage, and inspire.

FAQs

• What distinguishes storytelling from visualization in design thinking?

While storytelling focuses on the human aspect, weaving ideas and emotions into narratives, visualization concentrates on translating those concepts into visual forms, making them tangible and comprehensible. Storytelling pulls the audience into the narrative by connecting on an emotional level, while visualization aims to clarify and articulate the ideas through visual means, often making complex data or processes easier to understand.

• How do storytelling and visualization contribute during the ideation phase of design thinking?

During the ideation phase, storytelling and visualization work hand in hand to foster an environment of creativity and collective brainstorming. They enable teams to explore a wide array of perspectives and solutions through engaging narratives and visual exploration, thus broadening the scope of possibilities and encouraging innovative thinking. Storytelling brings depth and context to the ideas being generated, while visualization offers a tangible representation that can be more easily manipulated and iterated upon.

• What are effective methodologies for collecting user stories and experiences for storytelling?

To effectively collect user stories and experiences, employ empathetic listening, conducting user interviews, and observational research to capture genuine insights. This approach allows designers to delve deep into the users’ world, understanding their motivations, challenges, and desires, which can then inform and enrich the design narrative. These stories become the foundation for creating solutions that resonate on a personal level with the target audience.

• How can visualization techniques be employed to elucidate complex design concepts?

Visualization techniques can elucidate complex design concepts by deconstructing them into visual components such as diagrams, storyboards, and prototypes. This approach breaks down barriers to understanding by replacing abstract concepts with concrete, visual representations that are more accessible and engaging for users and stakeholders. It also facilitates better communication within teams and with clients, as visual aids can often convey what words cannot.

• What are some prevalent challenges when integrating storytelling and visualization in design thinking, and how can they be surmounted?

One prevalent challenge in integrating storytelling and visualization is ensuring coherence between narrative and visual elements, ensuring that they complement rather than contradict each other. Another challenge is maintaining user engagement throughout the design process. These challenges can be surmounted by employing iterative design processes, where continuous user feedback is used to refine both the story and visuals. This iterative approach ensures that the final product is both cohesive and aligned with user needs and preferences.

The post Storytelling and Visualization in Design Thinking: A Comprehensive Guide 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.

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