1: IntroductionThis section deals with the preparation for your Design Thinking Process.
You should know that Design Thinking is not a methodology, but a process that integrates many different methods in order to reach the best possible solutions for the problems we want to solve.
In this section you will learn how to prepare your team and yourself as a facilitator for the task ahead. You will have a list of usefull tools and metarials to use, and last bu not least, you will learn how to think about the Challenge for your Design Thinking process.
Let's begin...
Facilitators must be familiar with the Design Thinking methodology. It is recommended to have 1 facilitator per working group (i.e., with 15 workshop participants: 3 facilitators for 3 groups). The overall facilitator can be one of them. The staff team should prepare the entire process together and define rules.
Different phases and methods of the Design Thinking process demand different functions of a workspace. While the team will need plenty of space to collect and document their data in the Synthesis Phase, they might have different requirements while prototyping or testing. It is helpful to create a flexible workspace, which allows the team to move around, use space differently and get a change of scenery. A great way to hack a workspace is to have mobile furniture on castors and plenty of free wall space. The team should feel comfortable to use the space as needed.
Be clear and transparent up front how many workshop sessions they are expected to attend and what is expected of them apart from these sessions. Plan it and write it down, so there are no surprises.
What will happen with the results, what are expectations from stakeholders? In which framework is the project embedded? Take time to talk about these questions with the team and provide sufficient context.
The following tools and materials are recommended by experienced Design Thinkers. They are preferable, but not final, and users can modify them according to their needs and resources.
Time boxing enables teams to work in dedicated time slots. Setting a limited time for specific work steps helps us to focus as a team and stops us from getting into endless discussions. A time timer is a great tool to help us with time boxing. It exists as a physical timer or can be downloaded as an app.
It is common to use sticky notes in Design Thinking. Due to their flexible usability they are an extremely helpful tool. Once they are up the wall, they can be moved around, clustered, colour coded, documented, passed on or simply removed again. Better have too many than too few. It is essential that sticky notes are easy to read (short, capital letters and / or visualized explanations).
Two sizes are needed at least: Whiteboard and flip chart markers in multiple colours and smaller black ones for writing on sticky notes. Make sure you have enough for every participant, and that they have broader tips.
Brown Paper lets you turn walls into canvases for working and drawing. You can prepare frameworks and templates for the teamwork on brown paper in advance, so you have them at hand in the workshop. Plus, you can easily roll them up after the workshop and "save" what the teams have worked on.
Gongs or bells signal the end of working sessions and are crucial to keep teams in synchronization and offer a subtle signal to the participants to direct their attention away from the team work.
Music works wonders, especially in phases like ideation. Have a little speaker at hand to play some soft upbeat tunes. Be aware though that sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming to have background music blasting and teams talking loudly, which might stress participants. So be mindful when and what music to play.
This is highly dependent on what the challenge is but blank white paper and cardboard boxes are always good. Pipe-cleaners, duct tape, old magazines, rubber bands, aluminium foil, scissors, glue and, of course, Lego bricks are also a good start.
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A diverse team enables a collision of different ideas, perspectives and approaches. Working in an interdisciplinary team will broaden your horizon and create a greater range of thoughts and ideas. While putting together a Design Thinking team you should consider:
Gender diversity
Age diversity
Cultural diversity
Diverse socioeconomic backgrounds
Diverse expertise
Working with Design Thinking is different from usual working modes. Before you begin brief your participants and/or team members thoroughly. If they are familiar with Design Thinking share your planning with them, so a common understanding of the project and scope is established. If your participants are not familiar with Design Thinking it is important to brief them why you want to work with this methodology and process.
Set the tone for the project by being open and playful but structured. Enable collaboration and openness from the beginning with a longer check-in where all team members introduce their background and share their expectations and wishes.
As a team it is valuable to begin every work day/-session with a check-in where every team member can share whatever (s)he wants to share. This can be in the form of sharing personal things but also sharing expectations and to do's for the day. This tool helps us to create a safe space and empathy in our team. Knowing how our team members feel and understanding their expectations will get us closer together and avoid conflicts.
At the end of a workday/-session we can finish with a check-out. Share how things went for you, reflect on your expectations together and set to do's for the next steps. Keeping up this tool will help you create a common language and path.
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The Design Thinking Challenge is an initially formulated sentence that serves the team as a starting point. Developing and formulating your challenge is an important part of your Design Thinking process and should never be underestimated. Your challenge provides the frame and direction of your project and should therefore be well thought out and precisely formulated.
The ideal Design Thinking Challenge:
Finds the right combination of concreteness and openness
Is human-oriented
Gives a direction
Does not provide a solution
Is not restrictive regarding possible solutions
Enables inspiration and emotion
The typical structure of a Design Thinking challenge
(re)Design SOMETHING (an object, a service, a business model, …)
for/of SOMEONE (target group)
to reach a GOAL.
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Depending on the time you have for your project you might want to adapt the scope of your challenge:
Challenges of a more concrete nature are better suited for short projects. A concrete problem is characterised by the fact that it concerns only one specific user group, has a very specific context, has few or similar problem areas and addresses needs to a limited extent. Results are therefore easier to control and predict but the challenge may also be less interesting for the team and may hinder the novelty due to its limited scope.
A very open challenge, on the other hand, opens a wider context and a multitude of problems and needs. An open challenge is therefore better suited for longer projects with the aim of discovering unknown needs and opportunities. It offers space for more innovative ideas and thoughts. The disadvantages, however, are the difficulty of managing the project and the danger of overwhelming the team.
For examples of different problems and therfore different types of Design Thinking Challenges, you can vites out Case story descriptions with concrete Design Thinking processes implemented in the following areas:
You are now fully prepared to start your own Design thinking process.
In the next module you will be introduced to the different phases of the Design Thinking process:
Go to the course here: The Design Thinking Process
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