Design Thinking For Dummies

Introduction

About This Book  

Conventions Used in This Book  

Foolish Assumptions  

What You Don't Have to Read  

How This Book Is Organized  

Part : 1 Getting Started with Design Thinking  

Part : 2 The Problem Phases  

Part : 3 The Solution Phases  

Part : 4 The Part of Tens  

Icons Used in This Book  

Beyond the Book  

Where to Go from Here  

Part 1: Getting Started with Design Thinking 

Chapter 1: Everything You Need to Know About Design Thinking

• This Is Design Thinking
• More than just design
• More than just a workshop
• More than just brainstorming
• More than just methods
• Seeing What Design Thinking Can Do
• Developing new products
• Creating new services
• Designing new business models
• Designing social and organizational innovations
• Establishing a culture of innovation
• Understanding the Basics of Design Thinking
• Following and communicating the principles
• Getting an overview of the whole process
• Going through the process in detail
• Start Design Thinking Right Away
• Assembling the team
• Defining team roles and communication practices
• Planning the project work
• Furnishing the work environment
• Asking for support

Chapter 2: Understanding the Principles of Design Thinking

• Focusing on People Early On
• More than Traditional Market Research
• Finding the Lead User
• Actively Involving the Lead User
• Developing Empathy
• Illustrating Ideas
• Failing in Order to Learn
• Ensuring Diversity on the Team
• Offering Team-Oriented and Creative Workspaces
• Making the Process Flexible Yet Focused

Chapter 3: Creating Ideal Conditions

• Ensuring a Positive Attitude
• Creating the vision for the project
• Communicating the vision
• Encouraging the Willingness to Change
• Arousing Curiosity  
• Presenting the task as a challenge
• Presenting the task as a reward
• Presenting the task in a comprehensible fashion
• Training curiosity
• Asking For (and Receiving) Support from the Top
• Asking For (and Receiving) Creative Freedom
• Enabling Fast Decisions in the Design Thinking Process
• Setting up the steering committee
• Clarifying responsibilities
• Preparing the decision in an efficient manner
• Conducting the decision-making process in an efficient manner
• Following up on decisions
• Tolerating Mistakes During Design Thinking
• Defining mistakes
• Looking at mistakes in a differentiated way
• Find the Competencies You Need for the Task at Hand
• Determining the target competencies
• Taking stock of the actual competencies
• Comparing the target and actual competencies and coming up with the next steps
• Checking the competencies on an ongoing basis
• Ensuring that the work is appreciated

Chapter 4: Planning a Design Thinking Project

• Defining the Project Goals
• Compiling goals and determining their order
• Clearly formulating goals
• Communicating goals
• Planning Work Packages
• Planning work packages for incremental progress at just the right time
• Formulating and determining the work package order from the user's perspective
• Using a task board
• Correctly Planning for the Sequence
• Estimating the required time
• Creating a bar graph for a better overview
• Correctly Planning for Your Resources
• Correctly Planning for the Project Budget

Chapter 5: Supporting Teamwork in the Project

• Assembling the Team
• Relying on variety in team makeup
• Defining roles on the team
• Creating a matrix of responsibility
• Applying the principle of self-organization
• Clarifying Communication within the Team
• Determining the project reporting format
• Communicating is more important than documenting
• Setting up communication rules
• Arranging Workshops
• Preparing a workshop
• Holding workshops correctly
• Providing equipment and materials
• Designing Common Spaces
• The right rooms promote communication and creativity
• A flexible environment promotes flexible work

Part 2: The Problem Phases 

Chapter 6: Understanding the Task

• Finding the Right Search Area
• Searching in the market segment
• Searching in the area of technology
• Searching in your own area of competence
• A Well-Defined Task Is a Task Half-Solved
• Clarifying what the task is and how it manifests itself
• Clarifying who has the problem or wish
• Clarifying where and when the problem or wish occurs
• Clarifying why the problem or wish occurs
• Identifying Knowledge Gaps
• Systematically Closing Knowledge Gaps
• Estimating Influences on the Task
• Evaluating environmental influences
• Identifying stakeholder influences
• Reformulating the Task

Chapter 7: Putting Yourself in the Roles of Others

• Recognizing Empathy as a Key to Success  
• Proceeding with Empathy
• Create openness
• Discount your own ideas/Tamp down your own biases
• Share results
• Proceed methodically  
• Collecting Information
• Evaluating Information
• Characterizing a customer using the Persona method
• Understanding the situation with the help of an empathy map
• Exploring the process with the customer journey
• Describing the phases of the customer journey
• Discovering the problems (and improvements) in the customer journey

Chapter 8: Observing People in Action

• Putting Observations to Proper Use
• Thoroughly Preparing Your Observations
• Determine who should be observed
• Determine what you should observe, whom you should observe