During the pandemic, while we all were locked down, I wanted to use this time to learn new skills. My kids were working on one of their school projects, they were stuck with no ideas so they came to me and asked if I could help them.
As a mom, I didn't want to help them with ideas but wanted them to learn how to think and tackle problems in general. [Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime] [Chinese Proverb].
I sat with them and tried to give them some guidance. My suggestions were:
This is the process I wanted them to follow for every problem they face, at school and in their life.
I started a search for any existing process to solve issues. At this time I didn't know Design Thinking :)
During this search, the term Design Thinking was coming over and over. As a (Graphic) Designer, the term Design resonated, and wanted to learn more about this Design Thinking Process.
The more I learned about it, the more I was attracted to it because I was using a similar process without knowing about it. And now, I can learn a new thing that could be used on any of my projects as a professional consultant/freelancer.
Design thinking is a process for creative problem-solving.
More specifically, design thinking is a problem-solving process that involves five key steps:
At the core, Design thinking is user and human-centered.
Design thinking is used to help people innovate. Many organizations around the world use Design Thinking to spark innovation.
“It is about them and for them. The closer the end-users’ needs are analyzed and answered, the more successful the adoption or purchase of a solution. You iterate until you get it right from a customer perspective. This the power of HCD (Human-centred design).” – Olivier Delarue