Entrep chap 3

• Design thinking is a constant process of finding innovative solutions to problems through deep understanding and empathy of the target user
• Design thinking involves questioning the problem, assumptions, and implications
• Ideas are formed through brainstorming sessions to re-structure the problem in human-centric ways
• Solving problems in design thinking involves appropriate research, forming prototypes, and testing products/services to satisfy users' needs
• Design thinking also involves experimentation and trying out concepts and ideas
• Airbnb and Apple are examples of companies that have used design thinking successfully
• Design thinking is problem-solving oriented and is beneficial for corporations and entrepreneurs aiming for customer-oriented businesses
• Principles of design thinking:

  • Human-centricity and Empathy: Focuses on human needs and user response
  • Collaboration: Forms a pond of perspectives and ideas for innovation
  • Ideation: Encourages producing many ideas without first considering quality
  • Experimentation and Iteration: Turns ideas into prototypes, tests them, and iterates for improvement
  • A bias towards Action: Favors practical, action-oriented solutions over discussions
• Design thinking emerged in the 50s and 60s as a way of collective problem solving for significant societal changes by engineers, architects, and industrial designers
• Herbert A. Simon first mentioned design thinking in his 1969 book "The Sciences of the Artificial" and contributed numerous ideas to the principles of design thinking
• In the 1970s, design thinking began to combine human, technological, strategic needs, and innovation technology
• Simon outlined the first formal models of the design thinking process with seven major stages
• In the 21st century, there are many variants of design thinking with different numbers of stages in the process
• The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford suggested a five-stage design thinking model
• Design thinking has been strategic to the success of prominent international companies like Google, Apple, and Airbnb
• Design thinking is now taught at distinguished universities worldwide and promoted in various types of organizations
• The five-stage design thinking model provided by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford follows a flexible and non-linear fashion, occurring in parallel and being repeated iteratively
• 2. Immersion and Observation:

  • Users should be observed in their natural environment or immersed in a certain situation while they are in action
  • Techniques: Photographing or videoing to identify users' needs, motivations, or challenges that they are not conscious of
  • Focus: Observing users as they act naturally
• 3. Extreme Users:

  • Purpose: Restructure the problem and discover fresh insights
  • Benefit: Needs of extreme users are intensified, aiding in problem-solving
  • Comparison: Extreme users find workarounds to existing problems more than average users
• 4. Ask what, how, and why in curiosity:

  • Considerations: The what, how, and why of users' behavior must always be taken into account
  • Questioning: Leads observation into more abstract user motivations
  • Details:
  • "What" question: Details of the action taken
  • "How" question: Manner of completion of the action
  • "Why" question: Unveils motivations and emotions as the action is completed
• The empathy map is a method used to efficiently record information from an interview
• The empathy map helps gather and organize data from interviews to lead to surprising insights
• The four main components of the empathy map are:

  1. Say - what the user says loudly in an interview or usability study

  2. Think - what the user is thinking throughout the experience

  3. Do - the actions the user undergoes

  4. Feel - the user's emotional state
• In the design thinking process, guidelines for generating questions include:

  1. Strengthen the good - intensify all positive aspects of customers' needs

  2. Eliminate the bad - remove all negative components in the problem

  3. Search the opposite - transform the problem into an opportunity

  4. Enquiry of the Assumptions - inquire about the assumptions at hand
• Design thinking involves seeking unanticipated resources not stated by the customer for control
• Analogies are formed in design thinking by creating relationships between the problem at hand and unconnected images
• Breaking down the problem into pieces involves analyzing the points discussed in the 'empathize' section into elementary fragments to make the work easier
• Ideate stage in design thinking challenges assumptions and constructs ideas
• Ideation techniques in design thinking include Brainstorm, Brainwrite, Worst Possible Idea, and SCAMPER
• Brainstorm:

  • Relaxed and informal way of solving a problem using imaginative thinking
  • Original and creative solutions to a problem that may seem crazy
  • Ideas generated can trigger more ideas
  • Encourages free thinking and shaking off usual ways of thinking
• Brainwrite:

  • Serial process of asking participants to write down ideas about a specific question or problem on sheets of paper
  • Participants pass their ideas to others who add new ideas
  • Process repeats for 10 to 15 minutes before discussion
• Worst Possible Idea:

  • Team members look for the worst solutions in ideation periods
  • Reverse way of examining ideas, contesting assumptions, and gaining insights
  • Strengthens creativity and boosts team members' confidence
• SCAMPER:

  • Concept aimed at looking for solutions to problems
  • Focuses on discovering unfamiliar and innovative solutions
  • Improves a product or service
  • SCAMPER stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse
• Combine:

  • Solutions that are already available can be combined to create a more effective outcome
• Adapt:

  • The right solution to a problem may already exist but is not yet known
• Modify:

  • Exaggerating a situation or problem can provide new insights or added value
  • Helps isolate the vital parts of a process or concept
• Put to another use:

  • Making an idea or concept work in a different way than originally planned
• Eliminate:

  • Involves eliminating waste in processes, similar to Lean Six Sigma principles
  • Removing ineffective procedures to reform them
• Reverse:

  • Doing things that are contrary to the original purpose to gain a different perspective
• Prototype:

  • A low-cost, scaled-down working sample of entrepreneurial ideas for new products or features