Lessons In Applying Design Thinking
Written by Puk de Jong
Employees of Tommy Hilfiger —in both our tech teams and beyond— are encouraged to attend regularly scheduled Design Thinking Fundamentals trainings. Want to know what we’ve learned? Here are our four most important Design Thinking lessons thus far.
1. Step Into Your Users’ Shoes
As children, we’re all curious. But, over time, we tend to lose that childlike wonder. Maybe it’s because answers are more highly valued than questions in the modern age. Regardless, Design Thinking tells us that it’s important to refocus our attention on asking questions and maintaining curiosity.
The first step in the Design Thinking process is to identify a driving question that inspires you to search for creative solutions. Let’s take the example: “How might we improve the online shopping experience?”
In order to answer this question, you’ll need to get out there and step into the shoes of different users (i.e. consumers). You need to understand: How do they currently experience online shopping? Do they even need a better shopping experience? By being curious and empathizing with the people you talk to (or better, listen to), you’ll discover what your end-users really need.
2. There’s No Such Thing As Bad Ideas
After defining your user and their needs, it’s time to generate ideas that can solve their needs. While you’re working on this, remember to build upon the ideas of others and go for quantity instead of quality. When you truly believe there’s no such thing as bad ideas, you’ll reach real breakthrough ideas.
3. Create Something Ugly
Have you ever received this instruction when you were about to start working on an idea? In fact, have you ever heard anyone say this within Tommy? I bet you haven’t, as we tend to produce shining creations backed up by flashy presentations. Because design is what we’re good at, right?
Design Thinking, on the other hand, teaches us that design is not all about looks, refinement and beauty. At least, not right away. Before adopting anything ‘extra,’ Design Thinking ensures you’re designing for the correct needs of your user. And in order to be certain of this, you’ll need their honest feedback.
But will your user really provide honest and critical feedback when they’re presented with a design that obviously required a lot of time and effort? It’s unlikely that any user is going to criticize this obvious hard work.
To prevent running into this obstacle, Design Thinking teaches us to create a minimum viable prototype that allows for iterative improvement. By working incrementally, you will leave plenty of space for honest feedback that makes your idea better along the way. Whereas users will find it difficult to come down on a fully finished prototype, addressing a minimum viable prototype allows for open communication, testing and experimenting.
“Have the mindset of testing to learn, not testing to validate. This is where many people get tripped up; they try to perfect the idea rather than use a low-fidelity prototype to learn from people.”
— Brendan Boyle, Founder of IDEO Toy Lab
4. Tell User Stories That Sell
Once you’ve immersed yourself in the daily life of the user and know how to solve their needs, you can tell their story. Walk your audience through their experiences, taking them on the user’s journey. Thanks to the experimentation of your idea with the actual user, you’ll be able to share their experience with real detail. Next, sell your idea by immersing your audience in the user story and the way their pain-points will be solved by using your design. Can you think of any better way to convince your final decision makers?
Design thinking relies on the human ability to be intuitive, recognize patterns and construct ideas that are emotionally meaningful as well as functional. These abilities are necessities in a world where user-first thinking is the norm. To enrich the mindset of the future, Design Thinking is indispensable in the skillset of each Tommy associate.
