Homelessness and Haircuts? Design thinking sure is complex
This past semester at Elon University, I took a class called Entrepreneurial Finance. In this class, my group was assigned an immense project and worked on it for a duration of two months. We chose to do this project on design thinking, and it consisted of teaching this innovative problem solving process to others. You can watch our final deliverable of this video below, which gives an overview of design thinking and how it is related to Elon University.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ8bweqIjSo
If you don’t have time to watch the video, I will quickly cover the steps of design thinking and what they consist of, then we can dive into the design thinking process in relation to solving homeless happiness. Having practiced design thinking in the past has prepared me to write this post accurately.

Design thinking empowers even the most traditional thinker to develop new, innovative solutions to the problem at hand. Below, you will learn about this problem solving process and how you can embrace it.
Step 1: Empathize
As design thinkers, we must understand how people interact with the challenge they are facing. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task. To properly empathize with their audience, a design thinker must take in the environment around them by listening, observing, and engaging. By using empathy, they can engage individuals around them and begin to put themselves in others shoes.

Step 2: Define
Defining the problem is essential in bringing clarity and focus to the task they are about to take on. To define their problem, they will discover common patterns or behaviors that come out of their empathy. Once they have picked out some themes, they should synthesize their problem into one clearly defined sentence to begin the solution creation process.

Step 3: Ideate
After a design thinker has their one sentence problem, the ideate step focuses on idea generation and going wide. Through brainstorming and generating a multitude of solutions, they will be able to easily adapt their process during the prototype and testing phases. One way to effectively ideate is to silently brainstorm solutions and put them on paper no matter how outlandish they may sound. These ideas may inspire future innovation when narrowing down possible prototypes. Spaces with whiteboard walls, post-its, and collaborative resources are great spaces for ideation and allow design thinkers to let their ideas flows without fear of being shut down.

Step 4: Prototype
The prototype phase is the most hands-on step in the design thinking process. This step can be accomplished by creating rough models of a design thinker’s proposed solution, allowing them to receive important feedback on their concept before you spend money to produce the real thing. Prototyping can be accomplished through making a model using sticky notes, app prototype makers such as appypie, or by 3-D printing models of their idea. Possibilities are endless, but they keep in mind their end goal of receiving feedback and altering their prototype.

Step 5: Test
With their prototype in hand, the final step of the design thinking process is testing. When asking users to try their concept, they make sure to constantly ask why instead of only asking whether they like it or not. To adequately test their solution, they show instead of telling. They observe their user in how they interact with the prototype. This allows the design thinker to see potential errors they may have overlooked, using this for revision purposes in the future. Additionally, they allow their users to ask them questions. The more feedback they have going forward, the closer their solution will meet the needs of their user. Any feedback is good feedback.

Now that we have covered the steps of design thinking, we will discuss them in relation to homeless happiness.
Step 1: Empathize
In order to empathize with my audience, I need to immerse myself in their environment. So far, I have really only observed and conducted secondary research, so I’m not able to fully empathize with the homeless of San Francisco. By reading nearly 20 pieces of articles regarding homelessness and happiness, I will have a pretty good understanding on what makes a homeless person happy and unhappy. This is where my empathy on this topic will come from, as well as walking around the city and seeing homeless first hand. I have already started reading these articles, and I understand that the majority of homeless are happier than I expected. The homeless seem to be content, not necessarily “happy,” but okay with where they are. There are certain cases of deep depression, sadness, and feelings of helplessness, and that’s where we should focus.

Step 2: Define
By empathizing with my audience, I have discovered a common pattern of neutrality. Diving deeper, there is a pattern of sadness among homeless. Lots of homeless have a past that isn’t so bright, and causes their future to be harder. The hopelessness it what really bothers me, and is the problem I’d like to focus on. How do we give the homeless hope?
Step 3: Ideate
Time to come up with ideas. 60 seconds on the clock. Go!

After 60 seconds of rapid idea generation, I have a sheet of paper with a bunch of words on it. Now that I have a ton of ideas, I can start the prototyping process.
Step 4: Prototype
Prototyping is traditionally physical, with a product, like the Wright Brothers did with the Wright Flyer. In my case, it is an idea, and hard to put into a tangible product right away.

Physical appearance is huge for self-confidence, and having self-confidence is a major factor when evaluating your own happiness. A part of physical appearance is your hair. If you are homeless, hair is one of your lower priorities. If we set up a barber shop in a location where homeless people would feel comfortable getting haircuts, or traveled to where the homeless are to give haircuts, it could increase their happiness.

Unfortunately, people would have to volunteer their time for this, so we need to find barbers and hairdressers willing to donate that. Once we do, we can start our testing.
Step 5: Test
I haven’t been able to test this idea, as I have not had the time or resources, but this is what I imagine it would look like.



Finally, remember that design thinking isn’t just hopping from one step to another. These steps are all related and work cohesively. If you encounter an issue, return to the last step, maybe even the step before that one. Keep in mind this isn’t supposed to be a quick process. This will take a long time and will require many attempts. Stick with it and show dedication and you will eventually see the results you were hoping for!
Good luck!