How To Apply Design Thinking Into Your Daily Life
“Above all, think of life as a prototype. We can conduct experiments, make discoveries, and change our perspectives…” –Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO
There is no one definition of Design Thinking. It’s a set of both mindsets and design-based activities that foster the collaboration required to solve problems in human-centered ways. According to IDEO, which popularize this mindset, Design Thinking is a framework for creative problem solving. In organizational context, Design Thinking can help your team to generate solutions that are revolutionary, not just incremental.
I am one-hundred percent agree — but I also think:
This mindset or framework, if I might say, when utilized in the everyday problem could also result in a more effective solution and lead to more fulfilling life.
So here’s my encounter. I took a part in a project about mental health as an Event Coordinator and wondered how to make my team more engaged and inspired as they do their job. I know I love my job and would do more than my role including making sure my team also have a good time. For some time, I saw that they didn’t seemed engaged.
At some point, the lack of engagement has dawned on me, so I knew I had to make amends.
1) Empathize
Judgments out the door. I started by asking myself, when do I most feel like the team isn’t engaged and what do I really feel. Then I started asking my team members what do they feel and think towards their role and responsibility, I went as far as I asked them their what their favorite books and films were. Never assume you know what the other person thinks or feels.
It turned out they sometimes felt too exhausted to have a meeting. More than half of them thinks that the meeting were ineffective. And we all agreed that sometimes our we feel bored during the meeting. Gathering information helped me to see in the eyes of my team members.
2) Define
After all the information are gathered. The uneasiness seemed to revolved around meeting. I asked my team to write down on post-its (because we love them so much) what could be the root of the problem. To name a few, we wrote:
- The meeting start after they had more than 3 hours class
- Piling tasks outside of the project (homework, team assignments, etc)
- The place where the meeting took place wasn’t comfortable
- Sleep deprivation
We thought about all the possible causes. Then it comes down to the sense that everyone felt that their task is too repetitive. Even though we thought of it that way, we acknowledge the fact that our tasks were arguably the most challenging and demanding than the other teams.
3) Ideate
After we have found the gap, we put down our heads again and wrote (in post-its of course) what could solve the problem. We wrote down all of the ideas that comes to mind. There is no right or wrong in this whole entire process.
One of my team member thought that we should have the meeting in different places each and every time. The other one thought that we should exchange our role and responsibility during meetings. Then the other one brought the idea of scheduling a team outing across the town.
However crazy the ideas were, acknowledge the fact that everyone had different opinions based on their experiences, backgrounds and knowledge. Often times, we forgot to gather information and assume that we know the facts then jump into solution. As this could solve a problem, but it is likely to solve small portion of the main problem or sometime create more problems.
4) Prototype
After we wrote down possible solution we determined which solution is the easiest and have the highest probability of solving our problems. We agreed that the team outing can wait. So first we chose to change places in every meeting. We listed all the possible places and just after two attempts we figured out that though it’s refreshing to experience new environment, it is time-consuming to commute and adapt to new environment every time.
We tried different approach which is to switch roles and responsibility in meetings. So we switched roles who would be the time-keeper, the one who lead the meeting and the one who take notes. So after two attempts we reviewed this approach, we thought it works well because everyone feel included in the meeting.
5) Test
If the prototyping phase help to put the best ideas to the forefront, in this phase of design thinking, the most favorable solution that was brought up in the prototyping phase is implemented.
Because the second “prototype” worked well I figured that I could take this to a higher level, I decided to stand in the back and be the one who facilitates the meeting rather than lead the meeting.
And in the next meeting we all could see how active everyone was. Even the most quiet team member threw out a joke, and my most outspoken team member took the time to be listen attentively. We still threw punchlines here and there but we’ve got all the job done!
Looking back, the journey felt like this:
One of the attributes of Design Thinking is constructive, creating new ideas based on old ideas, which can also be the most successful ideas. Also, holistic, which is looking at the bigger context and attempts to meet user needs. My team needed a place to grow and learn while also be authentic and express themselves.
Most importantly, open mindset which describes as embracing design thinking as an approach for any problem regardless of industry or scope.
This framework has helped me get through the simplest problems in life including what transportation should I take to get to work. This process is not linear and sometimes we need to go back and test other ideas or choose a different point of view. There is no right or wrong, but there is always new insight.
So, have you tried Design Thinking? or you may not realize that you already did? Whatever it is, I hope you have fun exploring the depth of Design Thinking.
