There are limits to the application of analytics and consulting frameworks to strategic formulation and execution. Commitment, execution and most importantly radical/new ideas are some to name. The Design Thinking process and the methods applied in this process offer possibilities to overcome these limits.

After an intense hands on Design Thinking training, where I went from identifying the problem to rapidly developing a testable/showable solution, I am proud to present you my prototype, share some of my key takeaways and potential use cases.

Steps in the Design Thinking Process

Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test are the steps in Design Thinking, which help you to identify and solve a problem.

My challenge was to design a case for mobile phones.

Empathize – Observe and interview your customers. Try to understand their problems and desires. Through shadowing and interviewing a diverse group of people, I observed that mobile phone cases do not only comfort the need for protection, but also allow to individualize your mobile phone.

Define – There are different kinds of groups – those preferring a functional (e.g. protection) cases and those defining themselves through the cover. My target group/personas are those in-between these two groups – people who prefer not only to have their mobile phone protected but those who also want their personality reflected through their mobile phone case.

Ideate – Come up with solutions. Be radical in your approach and solution to the problem. It is easier to start with a radical idea than with an obvious one – this allows your innovation potential (variety and volume) to increase dramatically.

Prototype – Frankly speaking my prototype is not the most beautiful one. On the one hand I feel a bit ashamed, on the other hand I am proud of the result that I managed to achieve within such a short time frame.

The mobile phone is able to identify your mood when you look at it. The emoji’s reflect the mood and the arrows pointing at the post-it show you the color associated with the emoji or how you are feeling today. The edges on the top and the bottom have a reinforced protection. The front has a protection which becomes invisible when you look at it (this should be reflected through the eye in the bottom left corner).

Takeaway and potential areas of use

Commitment/Involvement through a Bottom-Up approach instead of Top-Down

Design thinking involves the whole team. Instead of providing a top down strategy, the identification of the problem and the solution occurs in the team.

Diversity is key to different ideas and execution

Whenever faced with a difficult problem, it is always good to have a diverse (different function, race, gender and educational background) team with different approaches to help you see the problem from various angles and eventually come up with unexpected solutions.

When you set up the team correctly it will enable you to have all relevant stakeholders involved. When it comes to execution, everyone knows what needs to be done.

Out of the box ideas, instead of best practice

Start with the most radical, disruptive idea and solutions. Reduce functions to come up with additional ideas. Prototype your idea and test the potential.

Depending on the problem you are facing approaches and methods might be different. Design Thinking is not the perfect solution to all problems.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me in case of any further questions or remarks.