#6 Design Thinking Micro Course
Success, Data and Learning (5 min read)
So now that you’ve implemented your solution, what’s next? Does the design thinking process end? Well no, it doesn’t. In fact it’s only just begun. Design thinking isn’t a linear task or project, but it’s a way of thinking- an ongoing process which should drive any decision on solutions, new products, or processes. An important element of design thinking then is ‘learning’. Taking your experiences and using it to your advantage. This final stage is all about assessing your success, and using data effectively.
Assessing Success
Design thinking in practice is all about outcomes. From the moment you begin coming up with ideas all the way through to implementation, there is a purpose driving your actions. The purpose though isn’t necessarily the end result- instead it’s the journey. This may seem like a cliché, but it’s true. The generation of greater internal decision making processes, and a more innovative environment is a much more valuable outcome than a short term gain. By merely undertaking the process of design thinking, you should be fostering a more pro-design thinking environment. Design thinking then turns into a sub-conscious action, rather than a structured process.
This more holistic set of outcomes means that measuring success is a bit more complex. Instead of merely measuring the end result, you should look at an alternative set of metrics- was innovative thinking generated, were there multiple solutions presented, were new stakeholders engaged in ways they haven’t been previously? While they’re less tangible, they are no less critical. Yes, it’s important that resources spent are accounted for and that the initial objective has been reached, however looking at these metrics alone will be detrimental to the overall long term success of your initiative or your business.
Using Data
Using this broad and diverse range of metrics as a guide, you must draw information and inferences from the implemented solution. It’s best to gather in-depth feedback during the design thinking process, and asses the results and outcomes based on this feedback after implementation. This feedback can take the form of data analytics, survey responses or observations. This data can refine your perception of the end-user or customer, and provide further information around the problem you are trying to solve, and the solution you are designing. As mentioned, this data collection should be undertaken according to some kind of rubric that reflects a much broader definition of ‘success’.
Key Takeaways
So that’s it for this MicroCourse on design thinking. Do you think design thinking can take your business to the next level? Hopefully the course has given you some insight into the role design thinking can play within your organisation. Remember:
- Follow these four rules and you cant go wrong: the human rule, the ambiguity rule, the re-design rule and the tangibility rule;
- Empathise with your customers and involve them in your decision making process in order to truly understand their needs and problems;
- You need to be able to systematically expand your ideas (ideation) and then refine them (prototyping);
- Design thinking challenges you to constantly be on the look out for more suitable solutions to your problems; and
- Make your solution, idea or product pop by using effective visual analogies.
"You've got to be prepared to take a bit of a risk... if you spread your efforts across too many products, you are more than likely to produce a lot of ordinary products" "by the time we got to market in eighteen months, which was very quick, other companies got to market because they'd started before us, they'd recognised the opportunity before us... we still creamed the market because we brought to market a product that was smaller, faster, really good looking and a little cheaper"
Dr Alan Finkel AM FTSE - Chief Scientist, Australia
Ducere Global Leader
