Design Thinking Process

The Design Thinking process involves five steps: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and
Test. It begins with empathizing with the customer or end-user, understanding their problems
and needs. This stage involves requirement gathering through interviews or field visits. Key
interview practices include brainstorming questions in advance, using open-ended questions, and
avoiding binary Yes/No questions. The interviewer should ask plenty of "why" questions,
employing the "five whys" method to dig deeper. Interview themes should be well-structured,
and questions must be clear and free of ambiguity. This step allows design thinkers to truly
connect with users and identify their core needs.

Case Study Problem Statement: Suppose the problem statement at hand is to contain the
attrition that happens in companies worldwide. High quality employees leave the organization,
mainly after the appraisal cycle. As a result, an average company loses its valuable human
resources and suffers from an overhead of transferring the knowledge to a new employee. This
takes time and additional human resource in the form of a trainer, which adds to the company’s
costs. Devise a plan to contain attrition in the company.

Design Thinking – Empathize Stage

This step involves putting oneself into the shoes of the customer or the end-user of our solution.
We need to understand the problems faced by the customer and the design thinkers, need to
empathize with the customer. This step is carried out in the form of requirement gathering, which
involves interviews and sometimes, even field visits. There are a few points to be considered
while interviewing the customer.

 The interviewer must brainstorm for the questions beforehand and must be fully
prepared for the interview. By brainstorming beforehand, you ensure that the interview
stays focused on the relevant topics and that you gather detailed, thoughtful responses.
This preparation will help you uncover the user’s needs, pain points, and desires,
providing valuable insights for the design process.
 The questions being asked must be open questions. No such question should be asked for
which the interviewee can answer only in Yes or No. Such binary questions must be
avoided. For example, instead of asking "Do you like this product?" (which only
 prompts a Yes or No response), ask "What do you like about this product?" This opens
up a conversation and allows the interviewee to explain their opinion, providing more
valuable feedback.
 The interviewer must have plenty of ‘why’ questions. Here, the ‘five whys’ method can
help. The themes of the questions must not be intermingled. The themes must be
arranged properly and questions pertaining to a particular theme must be asked together.
For example, don’t ask a question like, “How do you feel about the design and the
performance of the app?” Instead, ask separate questions like, “How do you feel about
the design of the app?” followed by “How do you feel about the performance of the
app?” This helps maintain clarity and allows the interviewee to address each topic fully.

Problem Statement: Employees are leaving the organization at a high rate.

1. Why are employees leaving the organization?

→ Because they feel dissatisfied with their jobs.
2. Why do they feel dissatisfied with their jobs?
→ Because they don’t feel valued or recognized for their contributions.
3. Why don’t they feel valued or recognized?
→ Because their managers don’t provide enough feedback or appreciation.
4. Why don’t managers provide enough feedback or appreciation?
→ Because there is no structured performance review or employee recognition
system in place.
5. Why is there no structured recognition system?
→ Because the organization has not prioritized employee engagement and retention
strategies.

 The questions must be refined thoroughly so that no trace of ambiguity is left in them.

Design Thinking – Define Stage

In the previous step of Empathize, it is learnt that the problems of our customers. As a design
thinker, we need to cover all the points and the answers that we got in the ‘empathize’ phase. We
have to club all the answers together and convert them into a single problem statement. This
statement will give us the necessary direction to proceed towards the issue faced by the
customer. In define stage the design thinker Clearly identify the root problem rather than just
addressing symptoms
The first step towards defining a problem is to find who the user is, what is his/her/their needs
and then develop insights from the answers. Think of ‘How might we?’ questions.

For example,

How might we motivate the employees in DT?’

How might we address the concern on the connection between appraisal ratings and attrition?
How might we reduce the cost of knowledge transfer program without compromising its quality
and the mandatory pre-requisite resources?’

The following guidelines will help a design thinker to come up with such questions.

 Amplify the good:

 Eliminate the bad:

 Question the Assumptions:

 Break the Problem into Pieces:

Working over each aspect, we come across the following problem statement

Problem statement – "How should DT motivate its existing employees along with training its
new human resources effectively at low cost?"

Design Thinking – Ideate Stage

The Ideate stage is the third phase in the Design Thinking process and is considered both
exciting and challenging. This is where creativity flows, and divergent thinking takes place to
generate a wide range of ideas, without immediately judging their feasibility or practicality.

Guidelines for Brainstorming in the Ideate Stage

The Ideate stage in design thinking is all about coming up with as many ideas as possible—
without worrying about whether they will work or not. The goal is to think freely, creatively,
and collaboratively. Here are some key rules for effective brainstorming:

1. Defer Judgment – Don’t criticize or dismiss any idea, no matter how wild it seems.
Every idea is valuable.
 2. Encourage Wild Ideas – Sometimes, the craziest ideas lead to the most innovative
solutions. Think outside the box!
3. Go for Quantity – The more ideas, the better. Aim for as many ideas as possible, even if
they seem repetitive.
4. Build on Others’ Ideas – Instead of saying, "That won’t work," say, "Yes, and..." to
improve or expand someone else's idea.
5. Stay Focused on the Topic – Keep the brainstorming session relevant to the problem at
hand.
6. Use Visuals – Sketch ideas, use sticky notes, or make diagrams to help explain thoughts
more clearly.
7. One Conversation at a Time – Everyone should listen and contribute, but not talk over
each other.

The main idea behind the ideate step in design thinking process is to generate ideas and try to
segregate them into categories. This helps in brainstorming without judgment, helps in bringing
all the ideas to the table and helps proceed to the next step called ‘Prototyping’, where the ideas
are checked for their feasibility and value.

Some of the ideas can be as follows.

 Have a different mechanism for appraisal of employees.
 Organize events that feature team-building activities. This will help boost the morale of
employees and will make them work in a team in a better fashion.
 Discard the appraisal system.
 Paste motivational posters in cubicles and pantry area.
 Call a motivational speaker and conduct a session.
 Encourage fellow employees to take the onus of motivating other employees.
 Introduce a bond period for the employees so that they don’t leave soon.
 Eliminate knowledge transfer program.
 Ask only for expert employees to join the organization.
 Ask employees to take care for themselves for knowledge transfer.
 Conduct large classroom sessions with a huge audience listening to one instructor.
 Make an online document for knowledge transfer program.
 Make video tutorials.
 Have online instructor teaching across geographies.
One of the fine thinking by a small boy

A boy walking by and witnessing the intense debate looked at the truck, at the bridge, then
looked at the road and said , "Why not just let the air out of the tires?" to the absolute amazement
of all the specialists and experts trying to unpick the problem. When the solution was tested, the
truck was able to drive free with ease, having suffered only the damage caused by its initial
attempt to pass underneath the bridge

Design Thinking – Prototype Stage

This step focuses on building ideas and evaluating their feasibility to arrive at the final solution.
Three key aspects are addressed during this phase:

 Creation of Experience – Developing a tangible or conceptual prototype to bring the

idea to life.
 Getting Feedback – Gathering insights from stakeholders to assess effectiveness and
relevance.
 Iteration – Refining and improving the idea based on feedback to enhance its viability.

The step of prototyping is the one in which the end user comes into picture. The end user is
actively involved in this component of design thinking. All the feedback is taken from the
customer, and based on the criticisms, suggestions, and appreciations received, the design
thinkers create a better solution after iterating the process of design thinking’s first three steps,
viz. Empathize, Define, and Ideate.
Prototyping requires thinkers to create tangible products, which can be small-scale models of the
exact solution.

Guidelines for Prototyping

 Start Immediately – Take the first step and begin building. Avoid procrastination.
 Be Time-Efficient – Don’t spend excessive time perfecting a single prototype. Iterate
quickly.
 Focus on the End User – Design with the user’s needs, expectations, and experience in
mind.
  Create Meaningful Experiences – A prototype should be more than just a rough model;
it should provide a valuable and realistic experience.
 Anticipate User Questions – Think ahead about potential feedback and be prepared to
address open-ended questions from users.

By following these guidelines, prototyping becomes a powerful tool for testing, learning, and
refining ideas effectively.

So, our prototype looks like this. We can renovate a small section of the company’s premise, for
example, a small section in the ground floor of a building of the company, which will have
motivational posters pasted on walls. A set of team-building activities will Design Thinking be
conducted for a week and feedback will be taken from the employees on how they felt about it.
We need to understand if they felt happy to have such an activity inside DT.
In the meantime, a single instructor led classroom session can be organized for a week for all
new joinees and feedback can be taken on their level of satisfaction over the session. An exam
will check their learning levels as well. Along similar lines, many other prototypes can be
created for testing.

Design Thinking – Test Stage

This phase is also called as 'Execute’. This is the phase where the final solution is tested on a full
scale basis. The idea that seems the best according to the feedback of the customers and end
users in the prototype phase will be executed. In this step, the design thinkers are supposed to be
collaborative and agile.
DT problem.
If the prototype yields positive results on a small scale, it can be expanded across the company
with motivational posters, team-building activities, and digital classroom sessions. However,
employees at client locations may feel excluded from in-house activities. While classroom
sessions work for software training, hands-on machine operations require personal supervision.
Large-scale training for such tasks demands either more instructors or extended program
durations, increasing costs. Client restrictions may also limit activity expansion. Design thinkers
must redefine the problem, brainstorm solutions, and ensure a uniform implementation strategy.
The process remains iterative, adapting to new challenges for an inclusive and effective solution.
Design Thinking in Social Innovation

Design thinking is a powerful approach for tackling social issues because it emphasizes human-
centered solutions, creativity, and iterative problem-solving. Social problems are often deeply
interconnected, and traditional problem-solving methods may overlook key factors.

Naandi Foundation’s Example

In the city of Hyderabad in India, Naandi Foundation’s community water treatment plant
provides safe water. However, villagers still use free water which is not safe for consumption
and makes people sick. The villagers use unsafe water not because of affordability issues or
accessibility issues, but because of the flaws in the overall design of the system. The problem is
that the womenfolk cannot bring the heavy containers of water back to their homes from the
plant. Such problems can be solved by design thinking process. Consider it as an exercise to
think of ideas how this problem faced by the villagers can be solved by design thinking
methodology.

Embrace Baby Warmer: A Life-Saving Innovation for Newborns

Every year, millions of premature and low-birth-weight babies struggle to maintain body
temperature. In low-resource areas, the lack of incubators increases the risk of hypothermia,
leading to severe health issues or death. The Embrace Baby Warmer offers a cost-effective and
innovative solution. It helps keep newborns warm, improving their chances of survival.

The Embrace Baby Warmer uses a paraffin-based phase-change material (PCM), a special
substance that can absorb, store, and release heat efficiently. When heated, the PCM melts and
absorbs energy, maintaining a stable temperature of 37°C (98.6°F)—the optimal warmth needed
for a newborn.

 Innovative Phase-Change Material (PCM)

 Non-Electric and Portable
 Easy to Use & Safe
 Affordability