How we use Design Thinking as a Framework and a Guiding Principle | Part II: Observe
If you think you know what your customers needs, you are probably wrong. If you ask your customers, what they need, you learn more. If you listen and find out about your customers needs behind the needs, you might find a solution to their problems.
A few weeks ago, we introduced you to how we reframe our clients' problems to a Design Challenge — a question that helps our teams follow a shared vision throughout the Design Thinking process, which is divided into six phases: Understand, Observe, Point of View, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.
Observe
Today we will introduce you to the second phase of the Design Thinking process, 'Observe.' While phase 1. Understand is dedicated to creating consensus regarding the Design Challenge, developing empathy for the people involved, and helping to grow together as a team and become a problem expert, phase 2. Observe aims to generate more information through desktop research, observation of people using a product or a service, or conducting interviews.
This approach helps us to check the assumptions we have made, sharpen our team vision, and learn about our customers' real needs — the needs behind the needs, which are often related to people's values.
Conducting interviews
In my opinion, conducting interviews with different stakeholders who are part of the value chain is the most vital tool to gain information regarding your customer and their clients or competitors. It helps you to understand your client's ecosystem better.
During our last Design Sprint, which was dedicated to finding out how a Public Utility Provider (PUC) should position itself to meet climate goals and ensure its city's energy supply, we conducted interviews with experts from other PUCs, solar energy, science, start-ups, and others.
That helped us to gain as much information as possible and generate valuable insights regarding our topic.
How to address potential interview partners
After proper desktop research, we approach potential interview partners via LinkedIn or, if the address is known, via E-Mail.
We shortly introduce the QLab, the topic we are dealing with, and kindly ask to meet the expert for a remote interview, which will no longer last than 60 minutes. What is helpful is to suggest a day and a time when the interview should take place and ask for an alternative if the proposed date doesn't fit.
In 8 out of 10 cases, we receive a YES! from our interview partners, and it is usually not necessary to conduct more than 20 interviews to gather information to produce a testable prototype (phase 5).
How to prepare and conduct an interview
Let's make our approach easy digestible and share it in simple steps:
- After the confirmation, we provide our interviewee with a link to an MS Teams Meeting.
- We prepare some questions for a guided interview.
- Asking questions, we follow these principles:
- We ask short and precise questions.
- We ask open questions, which cannot be answered just with Yes or No.
- We don't ask suggestive questions.
- We do not judge.
- We attentively listen because we want to learn.
- We conduct interviews with several team members who inherit different roles: The Moderator and Time Keeper, The Question Asker, The Note Taker, The Observer, and The Listener. This helps us to get a 360-degree view of our interview partner and to focus on our roles.
4. Conduction the interview, we follow these steps:
- Welcome to the interviewee (ask the person if you are allowed to record the meeting for internal use only.)
- Introduce of the team.
- Kick-off — This is our aim.
- Open the stage for your interviewee.
- Create a reference to your topic.
- Let's get a bigger picture — Great! Tell me more! How will we get there?
- Reflection — Did I get that right?
- Wrap-up — Thanks a lot and bye-bye!
(Pro-Tipp: Don't forget to ask your interview partners if you could get in touch with them again, if there are further questions and if they are willing to test your prototype!)
5. We ask
- Common Questions (e.g., How do you consider the situation of Utility Providers?)
- Questions about Facts (e.g., What kind of renewable energies do you provide?)
- Questions about Experiences (Work-, Life experiences, positive and negative experiences)
- Fairy Tale Questions (How would you imagine an impactful energy transition?) (Next to the question about experiences, this is one of the most powerful questions you can ask — you will learn a lot about the needs behind the needs!)
6. We collect our notes on our Miro-Board, share the different views and analyze them, discussing the insights we generated from the most interesting, astonishing, disturbing, curious, etc.
7. We reflect on our teamwork during the interview and inspect and adapt our approach if necessary.
Conducting a survey
To finish this article, I would shortly like to introduce you to Survey Monkey — a tool we use to gain anonymized end-user information and which is a very powerful tool to generate data and user-centered insights.
In my next article, I will introduce you to phase 3 of the Design Thinking Process — Point of View. So stay curious, and subscribe not to miss it!
Andrea Kuhfuss, Co-Founder and CEO of QLab Think Tank GmbH
