1. A keynote about making ideas happen
ONEK _ 2017
Natasa Christou
‘DESIGNERLY’
WAYS OF THINKING

3. Today is about YOU
HAVING
MULTIPLE
DREAMS
ENVI-
SIONING
YOUR
FUTURE
Dream - What you see when
you are imagining a hypothetical scenario
Vision - What you see when you look
to the future without hypothesizing,
wishing or imagining

4. Has creative
ideas
Develops
concepts
Has the ability
execute ideasExperiments
through trial
and error
1.
2.
.
4.
.
Provides better
alternatives to
what already exists
5.
.
3.

5. David Kelley , co-founderIdeo
“We movedfrom
thinking ofourselves
as designersto
thinking ofourselves
as designthinkers. ”

7. We aretalking about design
in its broadest meaning.
WHAT + HOW = RESULT

8. Synthesize + Design Paradoxes
Synthesis is orientation and is therefore giving direction. After
engaging with users it’s time to transform your data into in -
sights. This is a difficult mental task to work out what connects
to what, which ideas are more outliers on their own, and which
concepts tie to the core of the design challenge. By looking at
your findings, try to link similarities, contradictions, exceptions
or patterns. Common themes provide inspiration for new,
improved prototypes which solve uncovered user needs. The
process of focusing your needfinding and testing data enables
you to create a shared understanding and team knowledge.

9. How the Design Thinking Process is...
(Re)define the problem
Design never ends
Needfinding
& Synthesis
Understand the
users & the design
space
Ideate
Brainstorm
Prototype
Build
Test
Learn

10. How the Design Thinking Process feels...

12. + +
KNOWLEDGE
EXPERIENCE METHOD
THE MAGIC RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
*

13. DENTAL CARE
Focus on the method

14. Designthinking is a
user-centered approach
to problem solving
2

15. People-centered
You start from what people, users, customers,
consumers, (…) need or want to do . Their motivations and
the problems they are trying to solve.
Empathy is key. It’s not about you. You need the ability to
understand and share the feelings of others.
1

16. HighlyCreative
Design thinking stimulates you to look at situations
differently and come up with new solutions , that go
beyond and improve existing alternatives.
Integrative thinking is key. You need the ability to look at
all the different aspects of a problem
2

17. Hands-on
Stop discussing, start working. Make ideas tangible.
Prototyping is thinking with your hands. Test your
hypnotises.
Failure is a (necessary) part of the process in order to
succeed. Experiments with trial and error are key.
3

18. Iterative
The road to success does not follow a straight line. The
more you are able to loop through “understand > create >
learn” cycle, the higher chance you have for good results.
4

19. Collaborative
Swarm intelligence may provide key insights to some
of humanity’s greatest challenges: Can the collective actions
of a group of focused individuals help humanity solve its biggest
crises, such as climate change and world poverty?
If the ants are any example, collaboration is key to evolution
and advancement. In the worlds of Helen Keller,
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
5

21. Why we are where are we now?

22. Why we are where are we now?
Emergence of
Collec�ve
evolu�on

23. The Design Thinking journey begins with really
understanding the customer…..
https://vimeo.com/106505300

24. The Design Thinking journey begins with really
understanding the customer…..

25. How Might We
Every problem is an opportunity for
design. By framing your challenge as a
How Might We question, you’ll set
yourself up for an innovative solution.
Interview
A way to understand the hopes, desires,
and aspirations of those you’re designing
for than by talking with them directly.
Design Principles
Guardrails of your solution—quick,
memorable recipes that will help keep
further iterations consisted
NOITARIPSNINOITAEDI
Create a Concept
A more polished and complete than an
idea. It’s more sophisticated, it’s
something that you’ll want to test with the
people
Prototype
A chance to run your solution for a couple
weeks out in the real world.
TNEMELPMI
Pilot
A longer-term test of your solution and a
critical step before going to market
Examples of design methods..

26. Howdoyou apply
designthinking ?
Keypillars , model & process
3

27. When can design
thinking be helpful?

28. ‘Wicked’problems?
Problems that are ill-defined: both problem and solution
are unknown at the beginning. A large part of the
problem solving is actually defining the problem.
And/or tricky: it involves quite a bit of risk, as you are
leaving the comfort zone of the organisation.

29. Not everyproblem!
Design thinking (creative, intuitive, emotional) is not the
answer to every single problem.
For some question you will need rational thinking

30. No ‘one sizefits all’ approach
!
There is not one single proces or toolkit that serves every
single case. There is a wide variety of processes and tools
that people customise to serve their needs.
The five step process from Stanford Design School is a
model that is broadly used and has proven its value.

31. Empathise
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
An iterative cyclic proces
The DesignThinking Proces by Stanford Design School

32. Empathise
Understand the experience , situation and emotion of the
person who you are working for
• Observe users and their behaviour in the context of their lives .
• Engage with people in conversations and interviews. Ask why.
• Watch and listen : ask someone to complete a tas k and tell you
what they are doing
1

33. Define
Process and synthesise the findings in order to form a
user point of view that you will address
• User: develop an understanding of the type of person you are
designing for
• Needs: synthesise and select a limited set of needs that you think
are important to fulfil
• Insights : express insights you developed and define principles
2

34. Cultivate a mindset of what is possible
not on what is available

35. Ideate
Focus on idea generation. You translate problems into
solutions. Explore a wide variety and large quantity of
ideas to go beyond the obvious solutions to a problem.
• Creativity: combine the un/conscious with rational thoughts and
imagination
• Group synergy: leverage the group to reach out new ideas an
build upon other’s ideas
• Separate the generation and evaluation of ideas to give
imagination a voice
3

36. Ideate
Ideation is the mode of generating a large quantity of diverse
ideas. Mentally, it represents the process of “going wide” which
enables to explore a broad solution space. Brainstorming is a
renowned method to come up with a lot of ideas. It leverages
collective thinking of your team by engaging with each other,
listening, and building on each others ideas. Generating ideas
based on specific user needs and insights provides the fuel
and source material for building rapid prototypes in order to
get relevant innovations into the hands of your users.

37. Go for quantity
Defer judgement
Encourage wild ideas
Be visual
Build on the ideas of others (Yes, AND...)
Stay focused on topic
Team up!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Brainstorming Rules
IDEATE
7.

38. Prototype
Build to think. A simple, cheap and fast way to shape
ideas so you can experience and interact with them.
• Start building: Create an artefact in low resolution. This can be a
physical object or a digital clickable sketch. Do it quick and dirty.
• Storyboard: create a scenario you can role play in a physical
environment and let people experience your solution
4

39. Prototypes
Prototyping is a tool to deepen your understanding of the design space and your
user, even at a pre-solution phase of your project. Identifying a variable to explore
encourages you to break a large problem down into smaller, testable pieces.
» Paper prototypes
» Customer Journey
» Storyboards
» Graphics and interface mock-ups
» Role Play
» Videos
» And many more

40. Test
Ask for feedback on your prototypes. Learn about your
user, reframe your view and refine your prototype.
• Show: let people use your prototype. Give it in their hands and let
them use it. Listen to what they say.
• Create experiences: let people talk about how they experience it
and how they feel
5

41. Test
Testing is the chance to refine solutions together with the user.
It is another opportunity to gain empathy through observa -
tion and engagement and often yields unexpected insights.
Testing is the mode in which the low-resolution artifacts are
put into practice by placing the prototype in the appropriate
user context. Handing over a prototype into the users’ hands,
observing how they interact with it and listening to what they
say, allows your team to discover new insights and gain deeper
understanding of hidden user needs.

42. Albert Einstein , theoretical physicist
“Ifyou always do
whatyou always did,
youwill always get
whatyou always got .”

43. What shouldyou
remember?
Keytake outs
!

44. Designthinking is a user-centered
approachto problem solving.
Empathyis key.
1

45. Designthinking is especiallyhelpful
for“wicked”problems.
2

46. Designthinking is a step-by-step
processthat is repeated over
multiple iterations.
3

47. Designthinking is about doing.
Let’s starttogethertoday.
4

49. QUESTIONS?
SHOOT.
Natasa Christou
+357 99756409
info@tellalis.com