Final Reflection: Embracing Design Thinking for Creative Problem Solving and Innovation
Throughout the Design Thinking course, I’ve come to appreciate its immense value in enhancing my problem-solving skills and fostering innovation. The concepts and methods I’ve learned have not only reshaped my approach to problems, challenges, solutions, and opportunities, but also equipped me with a practical toolkit for future professional and personal endeavors.
A key learning from this course was the importance of empathy in design thinking and centering the user in the design process. It is fundamental to understand the user’s needs and problems so that we can create genuinely helpful solutions. For our team project, we wanted to solve the problems that international students encountered and faced in New York or the United States. Without talking to international students and understanding their real experiences and thoughts, we couldn’t reveal their problems and needs. Therefore, we interviewed international students, NYU professors, and working professionals based in New York who were international students to dive deeper. After the interviews, we learned that international students faced multiple problems, such as finding an apartment, preparing for a student visa, navigating the city, experiencing culture shock, experiencing language barriers, etc. Because of learning from their experiences, we could narrow down the problem we wanted to solve for them, brainstorm the solutions, and then find the helpful one. In addition, for the prototype testings, we got lots of insights from those international students to iterate our product.
The iterative nature of prototyping was also a significant insight. I learned that prototypes do not have to be perfect but should instead serve as a tool for learning and rapid improvement. Prototyping is a form of experimentation where ideas are quickly built to test assumptions and learn from failures. Before our final prototype, we had two prototypes. After testing our first prototype, we learned that TikTok is banned in India and only Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese version) is available in China. Our interviewees suggested we should have videos on more topics, such as things to do in NYC, restaurant recommendations, and commutes, instead of only focusing on housing. We also learned we must change how to generate awareness and build a community with events and group chats. Then, we iterated our prototype based on feedback and learnings. After testing the second prototype, we gathered feedback, such as tapping into community moderation, opening an official community account, and using live streaming to build connections. The feedback from our interviewees (international students) helped us realize our prototypes’ weaknesses so we could improve and iterate to generate our final prototype. This process underscored the value of iterative development — each cycle bringing us closer to a more refined and viable solution. The iterative cycle of creation, feedback, and revision was a powerful lesson in developing any product or service, emphasizing that early and ongoing user feedback is crucial to achieving a successful outcome. Cathy Tung also came to class one day and shared her prototyping and testing experiences, which also gave us lots of insights.
Another crucial learning was the art of problem framing. I learned that how a problem is defined can significantly influence the creativity and direction of solutions. For example, instead of summarizing international students’ problems, such as “It is hard to find a place to live,” we reframed the problem to “IST it is so hard to find an affordable, safe, friendly place to live.” This reframing led to more innovative solutions, such as our Urban U TikTok account, designed for international students to help them learn about life in NYC by watching our videos. This technique has taught me to think critically about the underlying needs associated with a problem rather than jumping straight into solution mode. The professor also introduced various ideation techniques that can be used to generate diverse and innovative solutions. I found the “SCAMPER” technique (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse) very interesting, which helped us rethink our solution.
The course has taught me that whether I am designing a product, service, or strategy, understanding the end-user’s needs and continuously refining ideas are crucial for success. I am particularly eager to apply this approach to developing new business strategies that are not only innovative but also deeply user-centric. All of my professional experiences were about marketing, whether CRM or digital marketing; the user-centered approach of design thinking is particularly pertinent to developing marketing strategies that not only meet but exceed customer expectations. For example, understanding user needs through empathy can lead to more targeted and effective marketing campaigns, significantly enhancing customer engagement and satisfaction. I wasn’t thinking about becoming a designer, but after this course, being a designer is definitely considered one of my career paths and possibilities. Looking forward, I am interested in further exploring the dimension of digital design and how technology can enhance the design thinking process. Tools like Miro or Figma are great, and we also utilized them during the course, which can help map out user personas, synthesis maps, and journey maps and create app interfaces in a collaborative environment.
During class activities, those lego blocks, drawing and sketching on sticky notes and cards, brainstorming on the whiteboards, creating journey maps, synthesis maps, affinity maps, reframing problems, and storytelling were instrumental techniques to fostering and cultivating our creativity, innovation, and collaboration, which made me gain a deeper understanding of design thinking and its process. In conclusion, this course has not only enriched my understanding of design thinking, problem-solving, and innovation. Still, it has also equipped me with practical tools and methodologies I can apply in various contexts, both in my ongoing studies and future career aspirations. They foster a mindset that I anticipate will be crucial for lifelong success in a variety of endeavors. Thanks again to Professor Kristine for this wonderful semester, all the knowledge I learned, and all the support and feedback.
