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Intro to Design Thinking

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Design Thinking Terms and Practices

2:32 with Devin O'Bryan

Let’s define a few terms and practices that we’ll be referencing throughout the course. With these, we’ll have a vocabulary to build on to better understand design thinking.

New Terms:

  • User – the person(s) who will be engaging with your product
  • Empathy – the ability to understand and share the feelings of another
  • As-is – the current state of a user’s experience
  • To-be – the future state where a design thinking solution has been employed to a user’s pain to improve their experience
  • Timebox – The simple act of defining a length of time that a task should take and enforcing those parameters

Further Reading:

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    Before we can really start, we will have to define a few terms and practices. 0:00
    Likely the word you'll hear most during this course is user. 0:05
    We're defining that term as anyone that will touch your product or service. 0:10
    They are the one you're looking to understand. 0:15
    And this concept of understanding your user is core to design thinking practices. 0:18
    It's called empathy. 0:25
    Empathy will play a role throughout this course. 0:26
    The most profound place for 0:29
    us to approach with empathy however would be in your user's as-is scenario. 0:31
    The as-is scenario is what a user is currently experiencing. 0:37
    The good, the bad, then the ugly. 0:41
    Once we've begun solving for their pain points in their as-is, 0:45
    we'll develop a solution that will exist as a to-be. 0:50
    Which is an empathy based solution that 0:54
    addresses their greatest experienced pain points. 0:57
    To make our efforts count, we need to maintain an active approach to 1:02
    the problem-solving meaning less talking and more doing. 1:06
    To do this, we tend to use sticky notes to stay nibble and 1:12
    to keep a conversation to a minimum. 1:15
    Because stickys can be moved quickly and grouped according to similarity or theme. 1:18
    Think about it, you can only listen to one person talk at a time, but 1:24
    several people can communicate simultaneously 1:29
    if their ideas are all on sticky notes on the walls. 1:32
    As a result, this method is a huge time saver. 1:36
    Another time saver is something called timeboxing. 1:41
    The act of defining a length of time that a task should take and 1:44
    enforcing those parameters. 1:48
    Timeboxing is not only a means of timekeeping, but it also aids in breaking 1:51
    design thinking workshop methods into realistically manageable pieces. 1:56
    Remember that so much of design thinking is not only centered around your user, 2:02
    but also moving quickly, and creatively. 2:06
    Whether you're performing these methods as an individual, or 2:11
    with a team, or even if you have team members who are remote. 2:14
    You'll find that getting your ideas into a single place, physical or 2:19
    virtual, in a low fidelity way, 2:23
    will help you maintain creative momentum without spending much time or energy. 2:26

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