Before embarking on the Challenge Detroit Journey, I had no prior knowledge of the design thinking process, but that has quickly changed. Detroit has not only been a full immersion into the city, it has also been an introduction into the immersive design thinking process. We use it navigating our challenges, and it is a focal point of my work at GM.<\/p>\n
That said, I\u2019m going to quick hit of my experience w\/ and exposure to design thinking over the past few months.<\/p>\n
Empathize<\/p>\n
The first phase of the process is empathy based – which teaches you to listen, observe and learn. I know, I know – listening to people\u2019s feelings isn\u2019t for everyone, but it should be. There\u2019s a reason why \u2018empathy\u2019 is resurfacing as a valuable professional (and life) skill to have. What I like most about this phase is that it invites the user to embrace not having all the answers and truly learn through experience. It\u2019s okay to not know, you know?<\/p>\n
Define<\/p>\n
After an actual conversation with a real person with real issues, it\u2019s time to define problems and the pain points they create. It\u2019s a lot easier than guessing, I promise.<\/p>\n
Ideate<\/p>\n
Break out your white boards and sticky notes – it\u2019s brainstorming time. Now you\u2019ve empathized w\/ your target person\/customer\/whatever have you and defined the issues they represent – it\u2019s time think about solutions. Big, small or otherwise, this is the place to invite any and all ideas to the table. Don\u2019t worry about plausibility or scale, get all your ideas out in the universe and the right ones will shine.<\/p>\n
Prototype<\/p>\n
Imagination worked for Einstein and Spongebob so it better work for you too. This is where you build out your ideas, literally. I\u2019m talking construction paper, pipe cleaner, you name it – build out your concept and the user experience – don\u2019t forget to have some fun.<\/p>\n
Test<\/p>\n
Your done! Kind of…the last and final step of design thinking is bringing your finished concept back to the person\/customer\/whatever have you and getting their opinions and feedback. By this point you should have tangible reasons as to why you built your concept out the way you did, but also be prepared for some failure. But that\u2019s okay because like like, failure is part of the process. Fail faster, my friends.
\nWelcome to the Human Centered Design process. Now you know enough to be an amateur, like me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before embarking on the Challenge Detroit Journey, I had no prior knowledge of the design thinking process, but that has quickly changed. Detroit has not only been a full immersion into the city, it has also been an introduction into the immersive design thinking process. We use it navigating our challenges, and it is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}