Design Thinking Session
— Planning and facilitation of a full scale Design Thinking Workshop with a team
Project Overview
Design Thinking is a people-centered approach to solving complex problems by using hands-on methods to understand user needs and identify opportunities for solutions. A team then uses these ideas and potential solutions to apply to the creation of a product or service.
Here I planned and oversaw a 5-hour workshop in Design Thinking, conducted with a team to generate ideas and facilitate critial team thinking around a new product: a mobile day planner. After running through various activities, we had a specific direction to take our product forward.
Details
Role: Workshop Coordinator + Facilitator
Duration: 2 weeks, including 5 hr workshop session
Tools: Lots of pens, paper and Post-Its
**With a hypothetical design team through the UX Process course at Brandeis University User Centered Design Master’s Program
For this project, my team and I were tasked with designing a new type of mobile day planner that equally allows user customization and organization. In this session, the team identified potential issues, generated ideas + potential features to include and talked strategy to determine the best course of action for building this user-driven app.
The main goal for the session was to explore and define solutions to the question: How can we build a user-centered mobile day planner for the on-the-go user?
The Goal
For this session to be successful:
Enough members needed to be participating
They must understand and identify the specific goals for the session
Participants must understand the concepts of Design Thinking and why it is important to product development
Each team member, no matter the department or experience level, knows that their voice is equally important
Assumptions and Dependencies
Who
Ideally, members from the cross-functional team involved in the project would participate in the session.
For this workshop, I had 4 participants that were not in any design field.
The session ran for about 5 hours with a short break half way through. We got through all activities in the plan and created some insightful and usable artifacts to move forward with development.
View my detailed Schedule outlining the activities and timing of the session
Schedule of Activities
— My Workshop
User Research Blitz
Empathy Mapping
Empathize
Viewpoint Statements
“How might we…” Questions
5 Whys
Problem Statements
Define
Brainstorming Blitz
Journey Mapping
Sketches
Ideate
— Introduction
The start of the session began with an introduction to Design Thinking and it’s process, going over each phase and how it is important to the overall development of our product. Since not everyone knew what Design Thinking was, it was imperative to provide an easily digestible definition and was arguably the most important step to determine the success of the workshop overall.
In this workshop, we moved through the Empathize, Define and Ideate phases of Design Thinking. Follow along with my Slide Deck used during the session
— Empathize
To get all participants in the mindset of who our users are and understand what their various goals, wants and needs might be for a mobile day planner. This includes what their behaviors and emotions might be in attachment to our topic.
User Research Blitz
Paired activity where partners take turns conducting a short interview asking about their last experience using a day planner or calendar. To get them to start thinking about the topic and gather some insight into how a user interacts with a planner.
Paired activity creating an Empathy Map for a user they defined, each group then presented their map to the group
Empathy Maps
After presenting our Empathy Maps and discussing our potential audience, we determined and agreed that:
Empathize Phase Review
With a planner, people want to alleviate feeling…
Stressed
Disorganized
😵💫
😰
😩
Overwhelmed
— Define
To identify where specific problems or pain points might exist for a user. With those issues identified, soltuions can start to be formed.
Individual activity where each participant writes out one statement from the viewpoint of their user from their own empathy map.
Viewpoint Statements
Individual activity where each participant takes their viewpoint statement and turns it into “How might we...” framed questions. Viewpoints and Questions are then presented to the group.
Participants Viewpoints + Questions
“How might we…” Questions
Whole group presented with the general problem statement: “Users find current planner and calendar options frustrating.” Individually, each wrote a cascade of 5 Whys -- statements on why they believe this problem exists for users. The goal is to get to the root of the user’s issues.
5 Whys
After presenting each of their 5 Whys to the group, dot voting was conducted to choose the top 5:
Based on outcomes of the previous activities, each participant wrote 2 specific problem statements using the format “[User from the Empathy Maps] needs a way to [user need] because [insight].” Each then presented their statements to the group.
Problem Statements
— The Problems
Throughout all of the potential problems identified within the Define phase, common themes were that people have the most issues with:
Lack of Customization — being able to add in details, adjust and tailor a planner to their preferences
01
Disorganization — finding a method that works well for their daily needs
02
Complexity — they want their life to be simplified, meaning having a straightforward and easy to use planner
03
— Ideate
Generate solutions and ideas based on those issues identified. This is where participants got innovative and had fun brainstorming creative solutions for our users.
Individual activity where each participant brainstorms as many ideas, solutions or features for our mobile day planner as they can using words or sketches.
Brainstorming Blitz
After each participant shared their ideas, the group discussed and came to a concensus about the main ideas and solutions to include in the final product:
The group created one Journey Map together defining the Steps, Phases, Goals and Pain Points a user might encounter with our product.
Journey Mapping
Each created their own sketches of screen designs based on the Steps from Journey Mapping. From voting, a combination of the first and second sketches were decided on to move forward with for the product.
Sketches
— Conclude
The last portion of the session was dedicated to reviewing the Design Thinking process we just flowed through, as well as discussing what next steps would occur in the process since the Prorotype, Test and Implement phases had not yet been addressed. The group also had time to reflect on the Design Thinking process as a whole and on the ideas we created together.
Like I mentioned in the beginning, this workshop focused on the Empathize, Define and Ideate phases of Design Thinking. The next phases for the team to work through would be Prototype, Test and Implement.
— Next Steps
Moving through the Prototype, Test and Implement phases, the next steps after this session would be to:
Conduct a team retrospective on the Design Thinking session to garner feedback for future workshops
Start turning sketched designs into wireframes
Iterate wireframes and create a working prototype
Outline protocol for user testing and conduct usability tests on wireframes and prototypes
— Reflection
Read my personal Retrospective
If I were to conduct another Design Thinking session, I would have it in a more formal setting like a conference or work room set up with a projector, whiteboards and larger table spaces for participants to work individually, in small groups or as a whole team. Especially if there were more people, a larger space that allows for better collaboration than I had would have helped.
I would also like to conduct the session with an actual product team. Working with a real project provides a bit more motivation in participation and enthusiasm within the different activities. However, it was a great learning experience to work with non-designers to discuss the concepts of Design Thinking and conduct the activities, making me focus carefully on explaining them clearly. I do wonder if and how any dynamics would shift if there were participants more technical, knowledgeable about design, or those that focused on business goals for the product.
Challenges
One of the main challenges of this Design Thinking session was evaluating how the session went when not being in a formal design team setting. Due to the constraints of the course, recruited participants were not in a design field or worked in product development. So although the session went very well and I was able to explain Design Thinking clearly and move through the activities easily, I don’t necessarily know how this would have turned out with a more design focused team, and with more participants.
Another challenge was keeping the participants engaged and enthusiastic for a 4-5 hour workshop. One participant did have to leave early, so I had to adjust the rest of the activities on the fly. Conducting the session in a more formal setting might influence participant focus and collaboration.
Improvements
