AZ573: Design It: Bring Forth the Innovation at GHC 2019

Courtesy of Katy Kahla’s LinkedIn

During the GHC 2019 Conference, Katy Kahla, a Development Manager at Intuit, taught a workshop on design thinking and walked the audience through a three-step process to designing a better backpack.

What is design thinking?

Courtesy of careerfoundry.com

It is a five-phase iterative process that helps your team keep the user in mind when designing a product. At the first phase, you empathize with the user through understanding who they are and what their needs and wants are. Through discovering issues and observing how the user interacts and uses the particular product, you began to define the problem. Your team brainstorms broader ideas on the possible solutions. Then, you pick a few of the solutions and began to look at how you might go about those ideas. Ask questions like, “how might we create/implement this idea?” This where the product begins to form. After, your team builds the prototype which will later be tested by the user. The feedback from the user on the particular product will determine whether you will have to repeat the stages or go back to a particular stage.

Three-step process on designing a better backpack:

1. Mindmapping (empathize and define): Who are you designing the backpack for? What are some of the issues the particular user is facing when using the backpack? Why do they need the backpack? What is the purpose? What are some broader solutions to making a better backpack?
2. Ideation (ideate stages): Pick 2–3 broad solutions and narrow them down. How might you design a better backpack through these solutions? What specific features will help solve the issues and problems pointed out in the mindmapping step?
3. Storyboarding (prototype and test stages): Create a user story for the specific user you are designing the backpack. First this happens (particular problem), then this happens (your solution), and finally our backpack solves the prompt because…

Storyboarding (user story)

Mindmapping GHC team example (developing a better backpack for what user)

Ideation (what are some features and how do we go about developing them)

Storyboarding example (designing a better backpack for working moms, including prototype)

Want to learn more? Connect with Katy Kahla on LinkedIn or learn about Intuit’s Design for Delight.