The concept of Design Thinking has been gaining momentum these days, mainly due to the fact that it offers a very structured yet simple way to meet design challenges effectively. The methodology of problem solving stays the same in its inner core irrespective of the industry vertical being served.
Blending creativity in solutions construct, with customer understanding and iterative learning is what Design Thinking is based on. To help you out more in this regard, we have broken down the concept of design thinking into 8 vital steps. Let’s take a look at how these different steps or phases of design thinking can prove to be overall useful for designing a new IT solution.
1. Find the Purpose– It is the feel that one gets when something new should be introduced into the market and it has huge potential as a concept. The same feel or desire can fuel your vision as well as mission to bring that product or idea into the market.
2. Get a Closer Look– This step is about understanding the potential customers for the idea or product that we are going to bring into the market. So, market research companies can prove to be helpful in this regard. They will provide a clear picture of the probable future of your idea.
3. Find your Targeted Customers/Audience – Once you figure out who your targeted customers are, it is the time to understand them more closely, which can be done by diving deep into their world or environment. This process will help you know the blind spots.
4. Interact with your Targeted Customers/Audience – Once you get into the environment of your potential customers and analyze their behavior, it is the time to collect direct inputs from them.
5. Assimilate the Ideas – Your idea of building a product and its application on the actual ground is a complete different thing. So, based on the inputs received from your potential customers, you have to modify your product or idea accordingly. No doubt, numbers of brainstorming sessions are required in this case, and I feel that this is one of the most important steps, as it allows you a last major chance to bring up any significant changes before your product or idea finally rolls out in the market.
6. Integration – Based on the results obtained in the above step, now you should start building the first model or the prototype. The prototype should incorporate the inputs from design, marketing, development and intelligence department.
7. Test your Product/Service – This phase is about testing your prototype in the real environment.
8. Strengthening– From the last step’s result, we can get a little idea about how the idea or product should be promoted in the market. Dealing with the competition is something you have to plan out in this very step.
To wrap up
Following the above mentioned steps of Design Thinking can surely help us in rolling out a product or idea in a better way, with immense potential of achieving successful results.
‘Design Thinking’ is at the core of our DNA at GoodWorkLabs, and we practice it for every single product or a feature we craft. Our UX Design studio has been successful in creating path breaking products in software, mobile apps, and games arenas because we true follow ‘Design First’ philosophy and everything starts from the design perspective.
