Design Thinking: A Common Sense Process
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Presentation at the Project Management Institute
Virtual Student Seminar
4 October 2017
Michael Zarro, PhD

About Me
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Michael Zarro, PhD
15+ years in technology innovation
I help people become design thinkers and
organizations develop user-centered strategies

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Design defined
by Meriam Webster:
• to create, fashion, execute, or construct
according to plan
• to devise for a specific function or end
• to make a drawing, pattern, or sketch of
• to draw the plans for
Thinking explained
• “The trouble with every one of us is that we don't
think enough” – Thomas J. Watson (IBM)
• “Think (think, think). Let your mind go, let yourself
be free” – Aretha Franklin
• “Everything around you that you call life, was
made up by people... you can build your own
things that other people can use” – Steve Jobs
We tend to focus on the last two bullets of the definition when thinking about design.
Design thinking is centered around the first two bullets.
More than anything (to me) design thinking makes you stop and THINK about your customers, and their needs.

Outline
1. Who are Design Thinkers?
2. What is Design Thinking?
3. When do we “Design Think?”
4. Where is Design Thinking Used?
5. Why use Design Thinking?
6. How to Manage Design Thinking Projects
+ Resources
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Who
are Design Thinkers?
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?

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1960’s/70’s 2000’s
The study of design as a science / process began long before design thinking was developed.
Design thinking, although new and “hot,” utilizes decades worth of experiences and research as its foundation.

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Today: Bring Together Business and Users
Business Users
Design thinking useful just for more people than just those with the title “Designer.”

What is Design Thinking?
• More than anything, design
thinking is a mindset, with
associated processes and
tools, which uncovers and
addresses real user needs.
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?

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You should recognize many similarities between the different ways of visualizing Design Thinking

Design Thinking Defined?
The design-thinking ideology asserts that a hands-on, user-centric
approach to problem solving can lead to innovation, and innovation can
lead to differentiation and a competitive advantage. This hands-on, user-
centric approach is defined by the design-thinking process – NNGroup
Design thinking is a process—applicable to all
walks of life—of creating new and innovative
ideas and solving problems. It is not limited to a
specific industry or area of expertise. – Kaan
Tunali (SAP)
Design thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand
the user, challenge assumptions we might have, and redefine problems in
an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not
be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. As such,
design thinking is most useful in tackling problems that are ill-defined
or unknown. - Interaction Design Foundation
Design thinking utilizes elements from the designer's toolkit like empathy
and experimentation to arrive at innovative solutions. By using design
thinking, you make decisions based on what future customers really
want instead of relying only on historical data or making risky bets
based on instinct instead of evidence. – IDEO

Design Thinking is…
confusing?

“Design thinking isn’t one thing…
but a bundle of mindsets and
philosophies all wrapped up in one term,
which obviously has the potential to lead to
ambiguity and misunderstanding.”
Neil Stevenson (quoted in The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/01/how-design-thinking-became-a-buzzword-at-school/512150/
Design Thinking is Philosophy?

What is Design Thinking?
a) A jumble of terms like empathy, and arrows, and shapes, etc.
b) A linear process – moving forward
c) An iterative process – revisiting past decisions based on new learning
d) A way of finding innovative ideas and reducing risk
e) Confusing
f) A mindset and philosophy of focusing on the user
g) All of the above
Pop Quiz!

When, in a project, do
we use design
thinking?

Before You Build! (aka common sense)
This Atlantic City casino cost over $2 Billion to build.
It was open 2012-2014 and is now vacant because, while it offered luxurious
amenities, they were not in tune with most Atlantic City visitors.

Talk to your
customers
and test ideas first…
before committing
resources for
development
It’s Common Sense…
Design Thinking
Build &
develop
Observe
Evaluate
& Iterate
Isn’t it common sense to learn about your users/customers before building something for them?

Common Sense… Agile Edition
Design thinking intersects with IT project management concepts
like Agile and Lean when building
Inspired by Nordstrom Innovation Lab

Where is design
thinking used?

Design Thinking Organizations
Design Thinking with SAP is a
new, fresh way… to find human
meaning and use for technology
By carefully listening to our guests,
we were able to shift our
perspective.
Empathy and experimentation. Inspiration and
ideation.
Using Design Thinking,
organisations have been able to
transform their cultures to become
more innovative, which has had a
positive impact on their top line and
bottom line.
Human-centered design is all about putting
users first and designing a solution with the end
user in mind…designing a solution that matters
to the people using it, instead of creating
something solely from the organization's point of
view.
We regularly meet with our
customers, taking their
perspective into account
when developing new
systems.
Design thinking is used across industries and domains

Why use design
thinking?

Because It Works!

More common sense...
Companies that
differentiate on
the experience
outperform the
S&P 500 by
211% or more
60-90% cost savings
on fixing usability
problems
American Airlines
reduced the cost of
fixing usability problems
by up to 90% by
identifying and correct
them before
development
Top for reasons for
inaccurate cost
estimates are user-
related:
Requests for changes by
users, overlooked tasks,
lack of user-centered
requirements, and
insufficient understanding
between users and
analysts
79% decrease in
software defects
Designing around
user needs, reduced
defects by 79% and
increased customer
satisfaction

How do we manage
design thinking
projects?
Pick a process… or two or three,
or create your own
But here, we’ll use Stanford’s process

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Stanford has a well known process, with many accessible online resources to help you implement design
thinking in your projects. https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/

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Empathize
• Foundation of design thinking
• Observe users in context
• Interact and interview, structured and
unstructured settings

“In the Wild” Observations
• Get out of the building!
• Go to your users
• Watch them do their thing
• See ALL of it, not just bits and pieces
• Pretend you are the apprentice, and they
are the teacher
Interviews
• Ask users to “tell the story”
• Prepare some questions, but follow
“interesting leads”
• Always ask “why”

Define
• Define the challenge, based on what you
learned in the empathize phase.
• Synthesize findings and leverage insights

Define the meaningful challenge for the
project
• What problems need to be solved?
Provide focus for the project team
• Develop an understanding of the user
types, their needs and goals.
• Group themes and topics together
– Using post-its, photos, quotes, and
user-flows

Ideate
• Move from user problems to identifying
solutions
• Think and use your imagination
• Result in a wide range of possible solutions,
to be evaluated in later steps

Ideate = Think!
• Generate a lot of ideas
• Go beyond the obvious ideas
• Use the “Yes, and” technique from improv
comedy for collaboration:
– Think positive, not negative
• Identify which ideas to use in your
prototypes, the next phase
• Common categories of ideas:
– Most innovative
– Most unexpected
– Most expected
– Least like what we have today

Prototype
• Transform your ideas into something people can use
• Iterate, iterate, iterate!
• Use inexpensive options, like paper prototypes, quickly
coded HTML, etc.

Prototype
• Build prototypes you will put in front of
users in the next phase
• Do not get too invested in a design, keep
them low cost
• Identify the unique feature, called a
variable, that you plan to test in each
prototype
• Build your prototypes with the test in mind,
how will they provide insights?

Test
• Gather feedback from users using prototypes
• Learn how the proposed solutions perform, and
which solutions to move forward with
• Learn more about users and the way they will
use what you develop

Test
• Watch users interact with your prototypes
• Listen as they describe it, and their
questions.
• Compare multiple prototypes
• Repeat as necessary
• Identify winning designs, concepts, features
– Get ready to build the winner

Done! Ready to build
With confidence you are effectively
addressing real user needs
Example deliverables:
Functional prototypes
Prioritized requirements / user stories
Design Thinking Report, including:
- Video clips and data from tests
- User quotes
- Winning concepts and features

Summary
THINK
Work to
understand
your users
THINK
more and
prioritize
ideas
Test some
ideas as
prototypes
Repeat
until you
THINK you
got it right
A “THINK” based look at Design Thinking process

Resources
Stanford University Resources
• The Bootcamp Bootleg
https://dschool.stanford.edu/
resources/the-bootcamp-bootleg
• Put Design Thinking to Work
https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/chart-a-new-course-
put-design-thinking-to-work

Resources
Library at PMI.org
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library
Sample resources:
1. Contributions of design thinking to project management
in an innovation context
2. Agile by Design: Integrating Design Thinking and Agile
Approaches...
Tools, Templates, Webinars, and Articles
https://www.projectmanagement.com
Examples:
1. Slashing Risks with Design Thinking and User Experience
2. Uncovering Design Thinking

Thank You!
Mike Zarro, PhD
www.mikezarro.com
@mzarro
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mzarro
Available from the publisher:
http://bit.ly/2mzfxHa
and Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1627059768