The New York Times has an article on ‘Design Thinking for a better you‘. With the start of the new year, its a great time to revisit the steps of design thinking, and recognize that this type of thinking is a really effective way of problem solving.
As summarized in the article, design thinking consists of 5 steps:
Step 1 is to “empathize” — learn what the real issues are that need to be solved. Next, “define the problem” — a surprisingly tough task. The third step is to “ideate” — brainstorm, make lists, write down ideas and generate possible solutions. Step 4 is to build a prototype or create a plan. The final step is to test the idea and seek feedback from others.
Reflecting on what inspired us to build ProtoShare – it really is this kind of thinking. When we’re working on solving a new design problem, it’s really easy using ProtoShare work all five of these steps, and to iterate through the steps until you get where you’re trying to go. The key here is really the collaboration – when all stakeholders can view and interact with your prototypes, leave feedback and upload information, you can easily crank out ideas and validate them with others. When all the players have a shared understanding of the issues, you can make rapid progress and eliminate unnecessary rework.
It’s a new year – if you would like help improving your processes and incorporating design thinking, reach out to us. Or if you’ve got tips and tricks, let us know and we’ll pass them along!