Crippling indecision, continuous delays (Part 2): Embracing the double diamond.

In the previous part, I talked about the two diamonds fallacy and its impact on the effectiveness and productivity of software development.

The two diamonds fallacy occurs when there is a separation of strategy and execution and fundamental principles are partially or completely disregarded:

Divergent and convergent thinking:
The process of creating options and making choices

Outcome obsession:
The unbreakable desire for a clear, meaningful and measurable result.

Empowered creativity:
An inclusive creative process to address cognitive bias in problem solving.

Embracing the double diamond

Now let’s look at how this changes with the double diamond or how it’s also known: design thinking.

Design thinking is the full realisation of the double diamond and its principles. Some people seem to be irritated by the term “design” and think that it only applies to visual design or that it is some exclusive framework for designers. But actually design thinking is a highly effective problem-solving process that can work for any problem and audience.

The design thinking process can be divided into 5 phases. Make sure that you follow a few golden rules throughout the process:

• Select your team that it represents different perspectives (business, technology and users)
• Limit the team size so that two pizzas can feed the whole group.
• Make sure that you get enough time for the workshop and that the whole group can participate full time without interruptions.
• Take care of your people and make sure that there are enough breaks and really good snacks. I repeat: excellent snacks!

Phase 1: Empathise (divergent)

We start the problem solving process by creating a deep and shared understanding about the problem-space and about motivations, expectations and requirements. Everyone on our team brings a different perspective and expertise which helps us to broaden the scope of our understanding.

Our insight comes either directly from our own research or via an existing knowledge repository about our target audience, business objectives and technical requirements.

For this we need to adopt a certain mindset:

• Empathise with real people
• Never assume — always be curious
• Be open to have your assumptions challenged
• Beware of blind spots and potential bias
• Separate facts (What actually happened?) from interference (What do we think this means?)

Phase 2: Define (convergent)

This is maybe the hardest part as it demands all of our attention and focus. Good facilitation and a creative atmosphere with clear focus and structure are key.

The purpose of this step is to turn our deep understanding into problem-statements that are insightful, interesting and inspiring enough to become the fuel of our brainstorms.

This is a really pivotal step in the whole process and it is important to follow certain guidelines:

• Resist the urge to think directly about solutions.
• The first version of a problem statement is NEVER a good version.
• Focus on the problem you are trying to solve.
• Ask yourself: Is this actually a problem? Why?
• Include the target audience in your statement

This concludes the first half of our double diamond and we will decide which problem we will continue with in the second half.

Phase 3: Think big (divergent)

This is the fun and I would say easy part: Having big ideas. Having ideas comes naturally to us and we tend to have a lot of them. But ironically it also seems to be the part that people feel most uncomfortable with.

In every design thinking workshop I’ve encountered the same two concerns: What if the others’ ideas aren’t good enough? What if my idea isn’t good enough? But I can assure you: These concerns are entirely unjustified.

There are many ways to “Think big”. The design sprint by Jake Knapp for example is a great workshop format that incorporates years of problem-solving and workshop experience. It offers everything you might need to kick start your own problem-solver career.

But whatever method you choose, it helps to follow a few basic rules:

• Push your concerns aside and trust the process.
• Don’t limit yourself and encourage big ideas.
• Don’t judge your ideas or others.
• Release your shared creative potential and build on each other’s ideas.

Phase 4: Prototype (convergent)

Now we turn our big idea into a tangible and testable prototype. This testability factor adds a very interesting dimension to the process and can have a major influence on the design of our prototype and the corresponding test-scenario.

This step is often outsourced due to time and availability constraints. But I can only recommend continuing as a team. Owning an idea means also owning its realisation.

Prototyping and designing a realistic test-scenario in itself is a real artform and can be a fascinating process. Here are a few helpful tips:

• Keep it simple
• Stick with your idea
• Don’t add things that aren’t needed to validate your hypothesis
• Don’t get blocked by perfectionism
• Don’t be afraid of the next step

Phase 5: Validate

We developed a deep understanding of the problem and its context and became a team of problem-solvers that is about to achieve something truly remarkable: Demonstrating a tangible outcome with real proof of impact in only a few days. But first it’s “the moment of truth”.

There are no ideas without validation. We have created a prototype and designed a test-scenario to validate our hypothesis with real users and to have clear proof of its impact.

Of course there is no guarantee. There is always the chance that we’ve missed or misunderstood something or that our idea isn’t as effective as we’ve hoped. Design thinking isn’t the promise of guaranteed success. It is the promise of continuous learning and improvement and a guide that leads us to a better solution.

In any case, we will gain something invaluable: Greater knowledge and deeper empathy for our audience.

And another thing: The final showcase will be amazing. Whatever the outcome, people will be filled with excitement and pride, and the feedback from users and stakeholders will boost our confidence, curiosity and hunger for more.

Common pitfalls

I would love to end on a high here, but there are reasons why a design thinking mania hasn’t swept the industry. Design thinking isn’t just a framework. It is a mindset that needs a certain environment and culture to actually prosper.

Here is a list of some of the most common pitfalls that eventually pull design thinking back into the two diamonds fallacy.

Not enough time

The greatest challenge for design thinking is not having enough time. A design sprint or a lean inception for example takes 5 days, not including time needed for research. It can be really difficult to free up your calendar and people for a 5 day workshop.

However, solving problems requires our undivided attention, concentration and cognitive potential and for this we need time.

It took me a long time to learn this and I tried many times to run sprints in one day or even less because I thought that something is better than nothing. But in this case something is nothing.

If there is no time for a workshop, then it is not time for a workshop.

Make sure that you get enough time for the workshop and that the whole group can participate full time without interruptions.

Disrupted flow

Another way people try to offset the impact on everyone’s calendars is to spread the process over several weeks in smaller chunks.

But an interrupted workflow also means an interrupted flow of information, which means that we ultimately need even more time and are less effective.

If a workshop in one block is just not possible, I would at least try to keep these steps together:

Understand and define: This has to happen in one block to ensure that we are aligned on the problem and fueled up for the following steps.

Think big: It will take a little more time to recapitulate the previous steps and get everyone back into design thinking mode. But it can be done in one step.

Prototype and validate: This is often done as a separate block. However, I would strongly recommend not outsourcing this and continuing with the entire team for the reasons mentioned in “Phase 4: Prototype”.

Brainstorms without fuel

Like so often in life, the most valuable things are also the hardest to achieve. Thinking big and having ideas is something that generally comes very easy to people. So it’s very tempting to jump straight to the fun part without actually understanding the problem first.

But design thinking is not about having ideas. It is about solving real and significant problems.

In my experience, workshops that quickly skip to the “think big” part also skip the rest, even executing the idea.

An idea needs the certainty that it has value and impact. Otherwise, people will not be sure or convinced to invest time in validating or even executing the idea.

Outcome control and biassed facilitation.

This is often the case when stakeholders are not comfortable yet giving up control. Sometimes the control of being the person with the ideas.

A good strategy to win over sceptics and to turn them into enthusiastic double diamond converts is by involving them early in the planning, aligning on the process and giving them space to voice their concerns.

But maybe it’s just not the right time.

I have made many compromises on my journey to make people fall in love with design thinking and I won’t give up trying. But I have also learned that there are clear limitations where we need to change our approach.

Sometimes it is just not the right time for design thinking. Sometimes we need to change and prepare the environment first, which will also require our full attention and empathy for our stakeholders and colleagues.

But this is a topic for another article.