Five Phases of the Design Thinking Process

I have talked at length about how the design thinking process helps us to be prepared for tomorrow. Let’s once again brush up what design thinking is and how it should be implemented. Design thinking is an approach in which we are first required to understand the problem and then look out for solutions. This design thinking approach started as a process for accelerating innovations at the organisation and tailor products which particularly solves a customer’s problem. But this is now widely used across the nations in private and public sectors and non-profit organisations as well.  

The approach is broken down in five critical phases to yield the desired results -  

Phase 1 – Empathise  

This phase is all about gaining quite a deep understanding of the customers’ problems. We as technology solution providers need to put our feet in our end-user's shoes, empathise with their needs, wants and challenges to be able to draft an effective solution.  

Activities included in this phase -  

• Observe your customers’ activities and visit channels they use to find any important information.  
• Interview a set of users to understand their attitude or approach towards a topic on which you are working.  

The phase is imperative because it forces you to step out of your comfort zone and push yourself to dive deep into the customer’s problems.  

Phase 2 – Define  

This phase requires you to refine all the rich information that you have collected by observing your end users’ activities or by interviewing them. You can then use these insights to take action and identify opportunity areas to drive your product development project in a direction.  

Activities included in this phase -  

• Brainstorm with your colleagues and study deeply about every approach you can take to convert your insights into actions.  

The define phase lays the first step of any project and hence is of utmost importance. 

Phase 3 – Ideate  

After identifying the problem and tapping the opportunity areas, the next thing to do is to find some functional ideas around these. In this phase, you can try to innovate and apply some strategies or production methods that you haven’t tried before.  

Activities included in this phase - 

• Gather your team members and create a good framework around the opportunities you found during the define phase.  

The phase is crucial as this is the time where you invent and try out methods that have never been applied before.  

Phase 4 – Prototype 

This phase might not appear exciting to your team members as ideas come onto paper here. You need to create simulation of your idea and present it to your team members or stakeholders to check its market and production feasibility.  

Activities included in this phase 

• Use digital prototyping or paper prototyping techniques to present your concepts to the decision-makers.  

This phase is imperative because it surpasses all the talking and ideas. You need to face reality here and see if your most prominent idea has legs. You might have a spectacular plan of action after this phase or you might have to start from zero again.  

Phase 5 – Test  

This is the final step of your design thinking process where you again ask your users to review your newly created solution and give feedback.  

Activities included in this phase 

• Do an online survey or conduct face to face interviews to derive valued feedbacks from the customers.  

This phase is ultimate because it determines if any of the customers would like to use your products or services. You might acquire some insights on which features need to be included in any product.  

The Take Away  

I would like to define design thinking here again as a process in which you understand the various aspects of your customer’s problems and the conditions which attribute to this problem. Design thinking being an iterative process constantly questions the existing processes and pushes you to innovate and come up with a solution that determines growth and success of your business.