Final: “We spend a lot time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.” -Dr. Prabhjot Singh

The quote above puts the course into context for me. When we design products and services, we don’t always understand the people who are “crossing this bridge”. Over the semester, we spent a lot of time learning tools and techniques to ensure we understand the end-user at every stage of the design thinking process. From defining the user, interviewing, asking the right questions, and to diving deep into their feelings, we created solutions that would make this world a better place.

Many learnings come to mind when I reflect on this course and I would like to highlight three key takeaways:

1. A new perspective on asking questions makes the top of my list. Specifically, reading “The Five Why’s” and the professor’s feedback on the interviews. I started asking “why” more frequently and rephrasing questions to understand how people feel instead of understanding the facts. Using these tactics helped me discover the real root cause of problems. For example, I was tasked with creating a testing strategy at work. I started with interviewing stakeholders and specifically asking them how they feel about certain pain points. I asked why multiple times. I was able to get to the insights I would not have been able to discover in the past. As a result, created an effecting testing process and strategy for next year.
2. Understanding the difference between product design and service design. By reading “Designing Services at Engine“ by Anne-Laure Fayard and discussing this topic in class, I realized that I perform service design at work, and I can apply design thinking principles to my service-related projects. Service designers “observe and interpret requirements and behavioral patterns and transform them into possible future services”. This reading helped me think and design more innovative internal interaction models, understand the work of product designers with who I work daily, and better align processes and people.
3. Changing the recycling behaviors of those around me. Not only did I learn more about recycling and its impacts on climate change, I learned that by informally discussing this topic and asking people why they don’t recycle, but you can also change the behaviors of people around you. I have seen the difference in the recycling behaviors of my friends and my family. Topics that make this world a better place should be discussed in classrooms more often.

Overall, this is excellent and should be a core requirement at the Tandon School of Engineering. Understanding end-user’s needs is especially critical in today’s technical world. In a non-traditional way, it sets students for success not only in professional but also in personal life.