Five Habits of Design Thinking That'll Help The Government
Design Thinking is a learned skill - one that governments can incorporate for better problem-solving
Governments face complex and undefined problems that have a huge impact on people's lives. Design Thinking, with its human-centered approach, is an ideal solution for tackling these types of problems. In fact, Design Thinking has been successfully implemented in various government departments worldwide, including the Aarhus Public Library in Denmark, the City of Calgary, the Australian Taxation Office, The White House's Office of Science and Technology, Denmark's Municipality of Holstebro, the US Federal Government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Government of Singapore. By using Design Thinking, governments can better serve their citizens and improve the quality of life for everyone.
Design Thinking: What Is It?
Design thinking isn’t just for governments though, anyone can apply it. In today's world, three powerful thinking styles have revolutionized the way we create new products: Agile, Lean (Startup), and Design Thinking. However, of these three, Design Thinking remains the most enigmatic and challenging to articulate.
Some may describe Design Thinking as simply the way designers approach problem-solving. But what sets it apart from conventional thinking or other methodologies like Agile or Lean?
The key differentiator is the rhythmic pattern of "go wide, narrow, go wide, narrow" that Design Thinking employs. This approach generates an expansive range of possibilities, ultimately leading to innovative solutions. While other methods may rely on iterative cycles or constant experimentation, Design Thinking emphasizes a dynamic process of exploration and refinement, resulting in truly game-changing outcomes.
Design Thinking isn't a shortcut to innovation; it's the proven path to effective innovation. The mantra of "move fast and break things" has grown stale; nowadays, the smartest approach is to "move smart and make things better".
Design Thinking doesn't come naturally - even for designers themselves. In my experience teaching at CCA, I noticed that sophomore interaction design majors rarely tackled problems in a designerly way. Rather, they'd conduct research, latch onto a promising idea, prototype it, and present it to me with a look that reminded me of my cat's dead mouse offerings.
Design Thinking isn't an innate skill - it requires deliberate practice, and even then, some students struggled to fully adopt it. It's not something you can pick up in a one-day workshop or boot camp; those experiences are more akin to design theater than true Design Thinking.
To truly internalize Design Thinking, one needs to to commit to practicing it regularly. Here's a list of five methods that you can incorporate into your routine. By consistently applying these techniques, you'll cultivate habits that will revolutionize your work. Trust me, it's the real deal.
Interviews Are Conversations
An interview isn't a rote exercise - it's a conversation. And in the world of research, interviewing is the core skill. If you can't ask insightful questions about your products and services, you'll never glean the insights you need to succeed.
Most of us approach interviews like a survey - we scribble down a list of questions, ask them of our subjects, and move on. But that's not the Design Thinking way. To conduct truly effective interviews, you need to treat them as dynamic conversations.
With practice, you'll develop the intuition to know when to veer off script and when to dig deeper into a promising line of inquiry.
Of course, there are nuances to interviewing that take years of practice to master. But the most common mistake people make is failing to listen to their interviewees and ask follow-up questions. After all, what can a survey do that a human interviewer can't? Nothing beats the power of a well-timed follow-up question.
One handy trick is to use a topic map instead of a rigid script. It keeps you focused on your goals without stifling the natural flow of the conversation. With practice, you'll develop the intuition to know when to veer off script and when to dig deeper into a promising line of inquiry.
Inhabiting Data
Now that we've gathered a ton of data from our interviews, how do we make sense of it all?
Most of us tend to approach this instinctively - we read through it, maybe highlight some parts, and jot down what resonates with us. But let me tell you, that's a biased way of doing things!
The Design Thinking way is different - we take all the interesting insights and organize them into modular formats like post-it notes. Then, we sort them using an emergent classification scheme, based on the patterns we discover (often called affinity grouping). We pay attention to the frequency of certain themes, which helps us either build a report or conduct more research.
And here's a bonus trick: sort your data based on multiple factors, including time and a 2x2 criteria such as frequency/passion. Check out the approach in Needfinding for Disruptive Innovation.
By rearranging the modular insights, you'll unlock new information and insights that you may have otherwise missed. It takes effort to get the most out of your research if you want to innovate beyond the obvious. So go ahead and inhabit the data!
Getting Weird
Design thinking isn't just about coming up with one great idea in a moment of inspiration. It's a deliberate process that takes time, patience, and a willingness to explore all possibilities.
Many of us default to our instincts when it comes to generating ideas - taking a walk or shower and waiting for inspiration to strike. But in the world of design thinking, we know that quantity leads to quality. We don't wait for inspiration, we actively seek it out.
Here's a bonus trick: bad idea brainstorming. Instead of trying to come up with good ideas, we deliberately try to come up with the worst ideas. It's a silly trick, but it can help us break out of a rut and open up new possibilities.
Whether it's Crazy 8's, 30 thumbnails, or good old-fashioned Freelisting, we generate as many ideas as possible. We don't dismiss any of them, even the weird or dreadful ones, because we know that they may lead to something interesting and new.
And when we hit a wall, we push ourselves to come up with even more ideas. That's where the innovation happens - in the ideas that no one has heard of yet.
Critique vs Criticism
When a designer shows you their work, how do you respond?
The instinctive approach is to react based on personal preference or what's familiar. But in the Design Thinking way, we first seek to understand the designer's goals and strategies, then collaborate with our own expertise to enhance the design.
Instead of just criticizing or offering surface-level feedback, we aim to provide valuable insights that can help the work reach its potential. For instance, if you're an engineer, consider how it can be implemented, and if you're a product manager, focus on how it will convert. Sure, you can still have opinions on colors and fonts, but is that the most valuable contribution you can make?
To help you remember this approach, I've got a handy acronym for you: GASP. What are the Goals? What have been the Attempts? Where are the Successes? And finally, what Possibilities can you suggest to make the design even better? So next time you see a design, GASP and elevate it to new heights.
Iterating With Your Target Market
Congratulations on coming up with something wonderful! Now it's time to get feedback from people who have no expertise except life. Here's how to do it the Design Thinking way:
First, make a topic map of all your concerns about the product or service. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that you cover all the bases when getting feedback.
Next, refer back to point #2 and really inhabit the data you collect from your potential customers. Use the techniques we discussed earlier, such as affinity grouping and sorting, to analyze the data and identify patterns and insights.
Getting feedback from people who have no expertise except life can be incredibly valuable, but it's important to approach it in a structured and thoughtful way.
Then, generate a lot of potential solutions for any issues that arise. Use brainstorming techniques like Crazy 8's or 30 thumbnails to come up with as many ideas as possible.
Finally, get your team involved to make you smarter. Share your findings and potential solutions with them, and ask for their feedback and suggestions. This will help you refine your ideas and come up with even better solutions.
Design Thinking vs Design Doing
Design Thinking is a valuable tool for solving problems and fostering innovation, but it's not enough to make successful products and services. Even if you've mastered the five habits of Design Thinking, you need to have a deep understanding of the craft of design to create something that is not only innovative but also good. User experience research, information architecture, interaction design, and interface design are just a few of the essential skills needed to make quality software, and there are entire books written about each of these areas.
While Design Thinking is versatile and can be used in a variety of scenarios, it's important to remember that if you're aiming for disruptive change, you must have a comprehensive knowledge of the industry and the ecosystem in which your product or service will operate. Disrupting the wrong things or offering something that's not better than what already exists could lead to negative consequences.
In short, don't become so engrossed in the process of Design Thinking that you forget the importance of actual design. To make truly great products and services, you need to master the craft of design as well as the habits of Design Thinking.
Governments face complex and undefined problems that have a huge impact on people's lives. Design Thinking, with its human-centered approach, is an ideal solution for tackling these types of problems. In fact, Design Thinking has been successfully implemented in various government departments worldwide, including the Aarhus Public Library in Denmark, the City of Calgary, the Australian Taxation Office, The White House's Office of Science and Technology, Denmark's Municipality of Holstebro, the US Federal Government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Government of Singapore. By using Design Thinking, governments can better serve their citizens and improve the quality of life for everyone.
Design Thinking: What Is It?
Design thinking isn’t just for governments though, anyone can apply it. In today's world, three powerful thinking styles have revolutionized the way we create new products: Agile, Lean (Startup), and Design Thinking. However, of these three, Design Thinking remains the most enigmatic and challenging to articulate.
Some may describe Design Thinking as simply the way designers approach problem-solving. But what sets it apart from conventional thinking or other methodologies like Agile or Lean?
The key differentiator is the rhythmic pattern of "go wide, narrow, go wide, narrow" that Design Thinking employs. This approach generates an expansive range of possibilities, ultimately leading to innovative solutions. While other methods may rely on iterative cycles or constant experimentation, Design Thinking emphasizes a dynamic process of exploration and refinement, resulting in truly game-changing outcomes.
Design Thinking isn't a shortcut to innovation; it's the proven path to effective innovation. The mantra of "move fast and break things" has grown stale; nowadays, the smartest approach is to "move smart and make things better".
Design Thinking doesn't come naturally - even for designers themselves. In my experience teaching at CCA, I noticed that sophomore interaction design majors rarely tackled problems in a designerly way. Rather, they'd conduct research, latch onto a promising idea, prototype it, and present it to me with a look that reminded me of my cat's dead mouse offerings.
Design Thinking isn't an innate skill - it requires deliberate practice, and even then, some students struggled to fully adopt it. It's not something you can pick up in a one-day workshop or boot camp; those experiences are more akin to design theater than true Design Thinking.
To truly internalize Design Thinking, one needs to to commit to practicing it regularly. Here's a list of five methods that you can incorporate into your routine. By consistently applying these techniques, you'll cultivate habits that will revolutionize your work. Trust me, it's the real deal.
Interviews Are Conversations
An interview isn't a rote exercise - it's a conversation. And in the world of research, interviewing is the core skill. If you can't ask insightful questions about your products and services, you'll never glean the insights you need to succeed.
Most of us approach interviews like a survey - we scribble down a list of questions, ask them of our subjects, and move on. But that's not the Design Thinking way. To conduct truly effective interviews, you need to treat them as dynamic conversations.
With practice, you'll develop the intuition to know when to veer off script and when to dig deeper into a promising line of inquiry.
Of course, there are nuances to interviewing that take years of practice to master. But the most common mistake people make is failing to listen to their interviewees and ask follow-up questions. After all, what can a survey do that a human interviewer can't? Nothing beats the power of a well-timed follow-up question.
One handy trick is to use a topic map instead of a rigid script. It keeps you focused on your goals without stifling the natural flow of the conversation. With practice, you'll develop the intuition to know when to veer off script and when to dig deeper into a promising line of inquiry.
Inhabiting Data
Now that we've gathered a ton of data from our interviews, how do we make sense of it all?
Most of us tend to approach this instinctively - we read through it, maybe highlight some parts, and jot down what resonates with us. But let me tell you, that's a biased way of doing things!
The Design Thinking way is different - we take all the interesting insights and organize them into modular formats like post-it notes. Then, we sort them using an emergent classification scheme, based on the patterns we discover (often called affinity grouping). We pay attention to the frequency of certain themes, which helps us either build a report or conduct more research.
And here's a bonus trick: sort your data based on multiple factors, including time and a 2x2 criteria such as frequency/passion. Check out the approach in Needfinding for Disruptive Innovation.
By rearranging the modular insights, you'll unlock new information and insights that you may have otherwise missed. It takes effort to get the most out of your research if you want to innovate beyond the obvious. So go ahead and inhabit the data!
Getting Weird
Design thinking isn't just about coming up with one great idea in a moment of inspiration. It's a deliberate process that takes time, patience, and a willingness to explore all possibilities.
Many of us default to our instincts when it comes to generating ideas - taking a walk or shower and waiting for inspiration to strike. But in the world of design thinking, we know that quantity leads to quality. We don't wait for inspiration, we actively seek it out.
Here's a bonus trick: bad idea brainstorming. Instead of trying to come up with good ideas, we deliberately try to come up with the worst ideas. It's a silly trick, but it can help us break out of a rut and open up new possibilities.
Whether it's Crazy 8's, 30 thumbnails, or good old-fashioned Freelisting, we generate as many ideas as possible. We don't dismiss any of them, even the weird or dreadful ones, because we know that they may lead to something interesting and new.
And when we hit a wall, we push ourselves to come up with even more ideas. That's where the innovation happens - in the ideas that no one has heard of yet.
Critique vs Criticism
When a designer shows you their work, how do you respond?
The instinctive approach is to react based on personal preference or what's familiar. But in the Design Thinking way, we first seek to understand the designer's goals and strategies, then collaborate with our own expertise to enhance the design.
Instead of just criticizing or offering surface-level feedback, we aim to provide valuable insights that can help the work reach its potential. For instance, if you're an engineer, consider how it can be implemented, and if you're a product manager, focus on how it will convert. Sure, you can still have opinions on colors and fonts, but is that the most valuable contribution you can make?
To help you remember this approach, I've got a handy acronym for you: GASP. What are the Goals? What have been the Attempts? Where are the Successes? And finally, what Possibilities can you suggest to make the design even better? So next time you see a design, GASP and elevate it to new heights.
Iterating With Your Target Market
Congratulations on coming up with something wonderful! Now it's time to get feedback from people who have no expertise except life. Here's how to do it the Design Thinking way:
First, make a topic map of all your concerns about the product or service. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that you cover all the bases when getting feedback.
Next, refer back to point #2 and really inhabit the data you collect from your potential customers. Use the techniques we discussed earlier, such as affinity grouping and sorting, to analyze the data and identify patterns and insights.
Getting feedback from people who have no expertise except life can be incredibly valuable, but it's important to approach it in a structured and thoughtful way.
Then, generate a lot of potential solutions for any issues that arise. Use brainstorming techniques like Crazy 8's or 30 thumbnails to come up with as many ideas as possible.
Finally, get your team involved to make you smarter. Share your findings and potential solutions with them, and ask for their feedback and suggestions. This will help you refine your ideas and come up with even better solutions.
Design Thinking vs Design Doing
Design Thinking is a valuable tool for solving problems and fostering innovation, but it's not enough to make successful products and services. Even if you've mastered the five habits of Design Thinking, you need to have a deep understanding of the craft of design to create something that is not only innovative but also good. User experience research, information architecture, interaction design, and interface design are just a few of the essential skills needed to make quality software, and there are entire books written about each of these areas.
While Design Thinking is versatile and can be used in a variety of scenarios, it's important to remember that if you're aiming for disruptive change, you must have a comprehensive knowledge of the industry and the ecosystem in which your product or service will operate. Disrupting the wrong things or offering something that's not better than what already exists could lead to negative consequences.
In short, don't become so engrossed in the process of Design Thinking that you forget the importance of actual design. To make truly great products and services, you need to master the craft of design as well as the habits of Design Thinking.