My journey with DT began not so long ago, but I can already tell about the huge impact it had on my life, both personal and professional. I hope that through this small entry I can channel some of my passion to you, the reader.
I’m not nor I don’t feel like an authority or expert in any field of business, which,I hope will make my texts available and clear for layman and may present a new interesting perspective for those who are experts.
While still a student I was harassed by the thought and the feeling of lack of tools and methods that would allow to approach business more intuitively. A great deal of revolutionary solutions required a common sense approach and the ability to look at the reality from a little bit different perspective.
Given that the man is a source of inexhaustible needs, people with ability to see things differently will always be needed and desired.
Design thinking is a powerful tool, which enables those who see things otherwise, identify the needs and focus on specific issues, that are important and have a real impact on reality. Design thinking existed in the minds of the people for many years, but only now the steps were taken to define it.
What is Design Thinking for me ?
It is a revolutionary process, creative, fair and very engaging for all those who participate in it,in a nutshell, it consists of the following steps, the diagram is known to anyone who has heard of DT.
In these words, the magic is hidden.
Through EMPATHIZE
the process of identifying the causes and true needs is facilitated.
We learn how important is this step in the moment in which the customer experiences a true revelation and realizes what is was, what he really wanted. Getting to this point gives me a great satisfaction and certainty that the client will receive what he really wants and needs.
For example, let me bring up a situation:
The customer comes to us with the request to build a bridge. It has provided a significant budget for this investment and wants us to meet a specific deadline
After a short brief we can get the necessary information about the bridge,which methods and materials should be used in its construction.We will build the bridge on time , while not exceeding the budged, and it is higly possible that although the overall success the client will be left with premonition that this is not exactly what he wanted.
Design thinking makes us examine closely the need of the customer(receiver). We can find out what are the reasons behind the request for building a bridge, so we may find out that the whole bridge construction was completely unnecessary!
If a customer places an order to build a bridge over the river, and his real need is to give information or transport parcels to the other side you can use completely different solutions than constructing the bridge.
Just like on the image, even if the costumer places a request for a bridge, the ship is really what he needs and that need is hidden.
(Rob Gonsalves – Realism illusions)
By asking “what for ?” questions we can aware the receivers what need they want to fulfill in placed request.
Empathy is the first and, to me, the most important step in design thinking, since it focuses on the customers perspective and not only it involves him into the designing process, but by putting yourself in his position you can predict his requirements about the item.
There are many techniques to identify the real needs of the customer , one of them is the empathy map. It is based on writing out what the receiver says and what he hears what he does and what he thinks, you can extend it by adding pain/gain aspect.
By this I would like to finish my first entry, as it is the first part of my series of entries that I planned, I would be grateful for any feedback
Best regards
Krzysztof Dziembaj
