Slides from a talk by Mary Poppendieck

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Design Thinking
First of All – Design the Right Thing
mary@poppendieck.com Mary Poppendieck www.poppendieck.com

2. The Design Problem
The Design of Design
Understand the problem
“Deciding what to design is the hardest part of the design task. …
A small team is much better [at this] than an individual.”
Iterate
Design a solution
“Design isn‟t just to satisfy requirements, but also to uncover
Iterate
requirements. … Design isn‟t simply selecting from alternatives,
but also realizing their existence.”
Implement the design
“One of the most striking 20th century developments in the design
disciplines is the progressive divorce of the designer from both the
implementer and the user. … [As a result] instances of disastrous,
2 November 11 Copyright©2011 Poppendieck.LLC l e a n
costly, or embarrassing miscommunication abound.”

3. The Single Owner Problem
The Design of Design
Understand the problem
“Deciding what to design is the hardest part of the design task. …
A small team is much better [at this] than an individual.”
Iterate
Design a solution
“Design isn‟t just to satisfy requirements, but also to uncover
Iterate
requirements. … Design isn‟t simply selecting from alternatives,
but also realizing their existence.”
Implement the design
“One of the most striking 20th century developments in the design
disciplines is the progressive divorce of the designer from both the
implementer and the user. … [As a result] instances of disastrous,
3 November 11 Copyright©2011 Poppendieck.LLC l e a n
costly, or embarrassing miscommunication abound.”

4. What is Design Thinking?
Diverse Design Team
Framing
 Observe the Situation
 Conceptualize the Problem
Reframe*
Ideation
 Obtain Customer Insights
Iterate
 Visualize/Prototype Ideas
Experimentation
 Try Tentative Solutions
*Pivot
4
 Refine Mental Models
November 11 Copyright©2011 Poppendieck.LLC l e a n

5. Design Thinking
How Might We Improve the Shopping Experience?
 Multiple Perspectives
 Time Constraints
 Go and See
 Brainstorm
 Prototypes
 Convergence
 Build to Learn
 Critical Evaluation
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6. The Imagination Problem
The Design of Design
Understand the problem
“Deciding what to design is the hardest part of the design task. …
A small team is much better [at this] than an individual.”
Iterate
Design a solution
“Design isn‟t just to satisfy requirements, but also to uncover
Iterate
requirements. … Design isn‟t simply selecting from alternatives,
but also realizing their existence.”
Implement the design
“One of the most striking 20th century developments in the design
disciplines is the progressive divorce of the designer from both the
implementer and the user. … [As a result] instances of disastrous,
6 November 11 Copyright©2011 Poppendieck.LLC l e a n
costly, or embarrassing miscommunication abound.”

7. Design the Experience
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Simulates the Flying Experience – Not the Buying Experience

8. Disruptive Design
GE Healthcare “Our engineering and marketing teams now interact
closely with the customers here [in India] to understand
Kjell Kristoffersen
Chief Engineer
their requirements. We look at their work flow, their
environmental limitations, their profitability issues and
other factors and we then price, design and manufacture
the products accordingly”**
**Ashish Shah, General Manager, GE Healthcare Technology - India
The Vscan: $8000 Ultrasound unit
the size of a mobile phone. Based
on designs originating in China, it is
revolutionizing global healthcare.
“We realized that the biggest
impediment was that we were
selling what we were making
[rather than] making what the
customers here needed.”*
*V. Raja, president and CEO of GE Healthcare-South Asia.
8 November 11 Copyrignt©2011 Poppendieck.LLC l e a n
The MAC-i: ~$500 – EKG’s for Rs 9

9. The Divorce Problem
The Design of Design
Understand the problem
“Deciding what to design is the hardest part of the design task. …
A small team is much better [at this] than an individual.”
Iterate
Design a solution
“Design isn‟t just to satisfy requirements, but also to uncover
Iterate
requirements. … Design isn‟t simply selecting from alternatives,
but also realizing their existence.”
Implement the design
“One of the most striking 20th century developments in the design
disciplines is the progressive divorce of the designer from both the
implementer and the user. … [As a result] instances of disastrous,
9 November 11 Copyright©2011 Poppendieck.LLC l e a n
costly, or embarrassing miscommunication abound.”

10. Don‟t Divorce Design
From Implementation
Domain Experience Concurrent Engineering
Designers and implementers Implementers
work at the job they are intimately
are automating. involved in the
(Canadian Air Traffic design process.
Control System.)
Cross-Functional Teams Incremental Development
The team includes and Iterative Delivery
people from every Build a minimum-function
function necessary
for success, and has
version that works and
direct contact with give it to users. Get
users from the onset.
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feedback. Repeat.
See Fred Brooks: The Design of Design

11. Systems Engineering
Decades of successful software development
without detailed requirements, a backlog of
stories, or long list of features and functions.
Control projects with the critical-few results that define value.
People do not do development projects to get function, features and stories.
Most of our so-called functional requirements are not actually requirements.
They are designs to meet unarticulated, higher-level, critical requirements.
Give developers the freedom to discover how to deliver those results.
The worst scenario I can imagine is when we allow real customers, users, and our own
salespeople to dictate „functions and features‟ to the developers, carefully disguised as
„customer requirements‟. Maybe conveyed by our product owners. If you go slightly
below the surface of these false „requirements‟ you will find that they are not really
requirements. They are really bad amateur design for the „real‟ requirements.
Let developers engineer technical solutions to meet the quantified requirements.
This gets the right job (design) done by the right people (developers) towards
11 November 11 Copyright©2011 Poppendieck.LLC l e a n
the right requirements (higher level views of the qualities of the application).
From: Value-Driven Development Principles and
Values by Tom Gilb, –Agile Record, July 2010

12. The Linear Thinking Problem
The Design of Design
Understand the problem
“Deciding what to design is the hardest part of the design task. …
A small team is much better [at this] than an individual.”
Iterate
Design a solution
“Design isn‟t just to satisfy requirements, but also to uncover
Iterate
requirements. … Design isn‟t simply selecting from alternatives,
but also realizing their existence.”
Implement the design
“One of the most striking 20th century developments in the design
disciplines is the progressive divorce of the designer from both the
implementer and the user. … [As a result] instances of disastrous,
12 November 11 Copyright©2011 Poppendieck.LLC l e a n
costly, or embarrassing miscommunication abound.”

13. The Fastest Learner Wins
Model Build
Learn Measure
13 November 11 Copyright©2011 Poppendieck.LLC l e a n

14. The Lean Startup
Agile Vs. Lean Startup
Adapted from similar
chart posted by Joshua Agile Lean Startup
Kerievsky, Industrial
Logic Blog† August, 2011 Product Roadmap Business Model Canvas
Product Vision Product Market Fit
Release Plan Minimal Viable Product
Iteration Build-Measure-Learn Loop
Iteration Review Persevere or Pivot
Backlog “To Learn” List
User Story Hypothesis
Continuous Integration Continuous Deployment
Definition of Done Validated Learning
†https://elearning.industrial
Acceptance Test Split Test
logic.com/gh/submit?Action
=PageAction&album=blog200 Customer Feedback Cohort-based Metrics
9&path=blog2009/2011/agil
eVsLeanStartup&devLangua On-Site Customer “Get Out Of The Building”
l e a n
ge=Java
Product Owner Entrepreneur
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Thank You!
More Information: www.poppendieck.com
mary@poppendieck.com Mary Poppendieck www.poppendieck.com