Solve problems like a designer
Product lesson
Summary: The Double Diamond is an approach to help find solutions to problems. It can be broken down to 4 phases: Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver. It requires asking questions and exploring (divergent thinking), and identifying patterns and insights (convergent thinking), to arrive at the best solution.
Let’s face it, designers are just straight up cool.
Their open mindset, their work (to pursue beauty and usefulness), even their dress sense; all I can think of is one word: cool.
In proper fanboy form, today, I bring you today their homegrown approach to design and research. The Double Diamond.
Let’s say you face a problem. Imagine you are hosting your new in-laws and are on kitchen duty, but you don’t know where to start, what to make (to dare I say) to impress them. What would you do? Chances are, like most of us, you would try and figure out what food can work. But without a structure.
The double diamond brings a structure to facing problems, it guides its participant through exploring the problem, focusing on ideas, and then exploring those ideas to later focus on the most effective idea.
Everyday, designers across the globe hold the double diamond as their compass to tackle real world problems and design some pretty “Cool” stuff.
“So what’s this gem or diamond you yapping on about?
It’s simple and I’ll break it down for you.
Meet the Double Diamond
There are four phases, we will shortly breeze through, but generally I see this approach in two parts.
You will notice later two terms I mention, ‘Divergent’ and ‘Convergent’. These are two opposite styles of thinking relating to HOW we think. Divergent thinking looks wide and outwards, the intention is to ask questions and explore. Take daydreaming, that’s actually a form of thinking.. Convergent thinking looks for answers, patterns, to bring a narrow and targeted focus. An example here is summarising a new topic you have learnt.
Double Diamond phases
- DISCOVER
First, you research the problem area and try to find out as much as you can. Starting off, you will look around at the resources that are already available, possibly any papers or websites you can access — formally known as ‘Secondary or desktop research’. The primary research is where the bulk of discovery occurs. It’s where you physically go and inspect the actual area of the problem. So in the example of the in-law dining crisis, you would be asking your partner if they know their preferences or maybe directly asking the parents. User Researchers have established many methods for carrying out ‘Discovery’. It all rolls up into this: ask questions, and ‘shut up and listen’.
2. DEFINE
At this point, you should be drowning in more information than you ever needed — that’s good. Next, you need a focus point and you get that through
dissecting all information you have. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for.
An excuse to use stickies, to use paper and ‘sharpies’ — to look creative. Typically, these sessions will involve a team of researchers sharing all their findings and working together to identify patterns and major insights. From my experience they are intense, immersive and result in a marvellous rainbow of colours painted across the walls.
From the ‘rainbow’ comes areas of focus, more questions and a succinct understanding of the core problem. It’s convergent thinking at its highest.
3. DEVELOP
We’ve grasped a solid understanding of the problem but that is half the job — we still need a solution. So out we go again. I say out — to represent ‘divergent thinking’ — the same style of thinking we adopted at the ‘Discover’ phase. Only this time we explore our options with the aim to develop new ideas to help address the problem.
In most cases you will start from scratch, and so need to ‘ideate’ — this is a fancy name for coming up with as many ideas as you can. Researchers and designers have come up with plenty of methods (ranging from the corporate to the down-right bizarre) to help come up with ideas. The methods totally work and are backed by a resounding bank of evidence that shows our creativity sores once we physically move, interact, and aggravate our minds from its usual slumber. Although the methods change, overall, the objective is to generate as many ideas you can and have some fun on the way!
3. DEVELOP
The solution is near. We can sense it, feel it, see it — we just aren’t sure which option to take. So ask the three following questions of each option:
- Is it loveable? Will the source of the problem (aka usually a human) love the solution
- Is it doable? Do we have the skills or time for this solution?
- Is it feasible? Do we have the necessary resources for this solution
Of course, what you are looking for is the option which ticks all three boxes comprehensively. Got it? Great! This is a BIG moment. You have a solution.
Not too fast though. You still have to execute this solution. You still need to wrap on an apron, get in that kitchen and cook up a storm.
Here, in the product and technology space we have all sorts of delivery approaches which can either be step-by-step (also known as “waterfall”) or in ‘chunks’ (iterative/ “agile”). At the highest level three key phases occur: defining the solution, building the solution, testing the solution.
Double diamond principles
That’s very much the theory behind the ‘double diamond’, but I wanted to quickly shed light on the mindset and principles behind this technique. Because without this, it isn’t going to work out. I’m talking about divergent and convergent thinking. I believe, Double Diamond is more than two diamonds, it’s a movement. It encourages us to go wide, and bring in, then go wide (again), then bring in (again), and so on. In the meantime, we explore, then make sense, then explore, to later make more sense. As you can tell by now, there are no hard rules with Double Diamond, it’s ongoing and boundless.
Life lesson
Summary: You can apply the double diamond approach to your real life problems or subject areas you want to learn. Apply divergent thinking to ask questions and understand more. Then apply convergent thinking to build your own understanding and insights or options.
Now you know the way designers solve problems, you should be able to solve your own life problems in the same way. Carrying forward the exact theory into the real-world is a stretch, mainly because it is more suited for product and technology solutions. But the principles and the mindset, oh…absolutely!
Take our ongoing example of cooking for your in-laws, and not knowing where to start. Here’s how it can be applied:
There are two real-life applications here: overcoming a problem, or researching or learning a new topic.
For any problem you pick up in life, always explore first and seek to learn about the problem — the more information you have the better. Don’t be afraid to take it away and build your own understanding into something that is based on facts, evidence, and away from emotion or poor judgement (e.g. bias). Explore your options and maybe apply the same assessment as above; consider if each option is: lovable, doable, feasible. One or (maybe two) options will make sense. Take it forward, remembering how critical delivering aka. execution actually is.
For all the students out there (physically in a school or metaphorically) adopt a divergent mindset when approaching new information. Ask plenty of questions and go wide to learn. Then, converge your thinking, try to make sense of all you have learnt, summarise, build your own insights. Inevitably you will have further questions. You know what to do…
