A Crying BabyIn his book "Hit Refresh", Satya Nadella
(now, CEO of Microsoft) talks about the interesting incident when he was
getting hired into Microsoft. In Year 1992, when Nadella, went through his
first round of interview, he was posed a question by the recruiting manager
Richard Tait that "Imagine you see a baby
laying on the street, and the baby is crying. What do you do?"
Nadella quickly replied, "You call 911."
Nadella quickly replied, "You call 911."
As Tait walked Nadella out of his office, he
put his arm around Nadella and said, "You need some empathy. If
a baby is laying on the street crying, you pick up the baby."
Nadella still got a job but the lesson of
"EMPATHY" and he would take this lesson throughout his career at
Microsoft.
Empathy is formally defined as "the ability to
understand and share the feelings of another."
Renewed Interest
The word "Empathy" is coming back to center
stage recently and this empathy is towards customer needs and the kind of the
experience they would love to emmerse themsleves into. The process of Design
Thinking has this empathy at its core.
There is a renewed interest in Design thinking by
companies in Software Engineering, Healthcare industry, Automotive industry and
other industries who are proactive in taking their User Experience &
Engagement to a next level and use that as competitive edge in the overcrowded
market.
Design thinking is a method for resolution of problems
in a practical, creative and Emphatic way. Let us look at the crux of this practice.
A) It is
Different from a normal Problem Solving method
Normal “Scientific method” is more about the coming up
with a hypothesis/theory resulting in model supporting by stats/facts. However,
Design thinking goes one step ahead by considering “emotional” aspect of the
problem along with traditional ways of designing. It not only considers the
stated issues by a user for a particular product, but also throws a light on
non-stated problems which helps in discovering the intangible underlying issues
which cannot be uncovered by using pure maths/physics based approaches. This
method brings in “Human-Centric Point Of View” and has “Empathy” to its core.
Constructive and practical solution is the aim of Design thinking.
A normal PROBLEM SOLVING results in Answers but Design
Thinking results in “New Possibilities” and Solutions. Following simple example
will help in understanding this better.
B) Main
3 Ingredients of “Design Thinking”
Following three factors are vital in using
this method which results in what is referred as PREDICTIVE INNOVATION
1. DESIRABILITY (About
People)
- Tries to answer the question “What
your User want?”
- This is #1 and most overlooked area
- Answer to this question will generally
result in
① Value
Proposition,
② Customer
Relationship and
③ Customer
Segments
2. Viability
(About Business)
- Tries to answer the question “What can
be sold in the market?”
- Lot of companies start from here but
this should come after “Desirability”
- Answer to this question will result in
① Cost
Structures
② Revenue
Streams
③ Channels
3. Feasibility
(About Technology)
- Tries to answer the question “What is
possible with Today`s Technology?”
- This is point where one should make
best use of the Digital innovation both in Software and Hardware to our
disposal. This is the right way to become digital (if required)
・Answer to this question will result in
① Key Partners
② Key
Activities
③ Key Resources
C) The
meeting points and the Core innovation
As indicated in the figure below,
1.
The area where Desirability and Viability meet results
in EMOTIONAL INNOVATION and helps in branding, marketing and Relationships.
2.
The area where Viability and Feasibility meet results
in PROCESS INNOVATION
3.
The area where Desirability and Feasibility meets
result in FUNCTIONAL INNOVATION
4.
And as a whole, this activity results in “Most
Valuable Design and Innovation” at its core.
D) 5 Main steps in Design Thinking
Main Five steps in design thinking are
broadly divided into
1.
Problem
- Empathize with the user situation and
problem
- Define the problem
2. Solution
- Ideate based on the inputs
- Prototype as early as possible
- Test the prototype with use
- If it meet and solves the problem,
implement is vision in full scale.
There are whole set of tools (will explore
in other post) on how to go about actually engaging with a client who intend to
solve their problems and want to bring the Customer-Centricity, User Experience
and Engagement to the core of the their business. By using Design Thinking, an
enterprise can get started on their journey towards Innovation, rather
Predictive Innovation.
You might have your own views/experiences
around Design Thinking, it would be great to hear those and to take this
discussion beyond this forum too.
