Presented at UX Brighton 2019, 1st November 2019

1. The value for
product teams to
Design Think

2. My mission is to guide product
decision-making with research,
leading to impact for business
and its customers
ABOUT ME
JTBD
Design
Thinking
Lean
UX
Design
Researcher

3. IN THIS TALK
What/Why Design
Thinking?
Why Design Thinking
is not working?
I am talking from my personal
experience working with many talented
product teams and what I read.
!

4. What is Design Thinking?

5. Searching “DESIGN THINKING” is confusing …

6. But is just a question of perspective
Source: attherimmm

7. Standford’s d.School
https://intersol.ca/innovation-jitters/design-thinking/
The stages of Design Thinking

8. Double Diamond, Design Council 2005
Source: Jochen Schweitzer
The divergent/convergent nature of the stages

9. IBM’s Loop
Source: IBM and RandyGregoryII
The two ways nature of the stages when working within Agile frameworks

10. Two phases
Think Make

11. Design Thinking is not a formula you repeat.
If you use it as such you would achieve the Innovation Theatre.

12. Why do we need Design Thinking?

13. What had impact previous is not enough anymore
Viability
FeasibilityUsability
Interaction
IMPACT

14. Customers behaviours and expectations have changed and require new approaches
Source: econsultancy
of executives say their brand
meets customers emotional needs
of consumers say brands
emotionally bond with them.
80%
15%

15. To affect customer behaviour we need to understand more than us-ability
High
Low
MOTIVATION
ABILITYHard Easy
Activation
threshold
SUCCESSFUL
TRIGGERS
UNSUCCESSFUL
TRIGGERS
The Fogg Model
BEHAVIOUR = MOTIVATION * ABILITY * TRIGGERS

16. Complexity of customer interaction has increased
Context of use
Across
devices/channel
Interaction

17. Understand the landscape of motivators of customer interaction
SELF
ACTUALISATION
Functional jobs
Ability PHYSIOLOGICAL/SAFETY
ESTEEM
LOVE/BELONGING
Social jobs
Supporting personal brand
Emotional jobs
Feeling emotional connection
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Memorable experience
Loyalty and trust

18. Design Thinking Criticism has emerged recently

19. Before dismissing a whole framework, assess critically how we are using it

20. Theme 1: Designing blind
Source: CoolClips.com
You design blind when:
1. Not understanding the type of problem
you are solving.
2. You start building the product too
early.
3. Missing the Think part and only doing
the Make part.

21. It’s hard to find an impactful solution if you don’t fully understand the problem
Designing blind
Problem 1

22. Explore the problem space
Understand what, who
and why.
Use tools to identify
causal factors and get
to the root problem.
Define the problem type
Use a framework to
define the type of
problem - see Cynefin
next.
Find a problem-solving
methodology
Select a problem-
solving methodology
for:
1. the type of problem
2. the time/budget
3. the team skills
Get to the root problem and define it before moving into solution mode
1 2 3

23. Design Thinking works well
when solving complex and
complicated problems
Identify the type of problem before deciding how to solve it
Complex Complicated
ObviousChaotic
Unknown
CYNEFIN FRAMEWORK

24. Complicated problems need at least one round of Think
Complex Complicated
ObviousChaotic
Unknown
...
...
A problem with established, with known solutions, for
which we need to adapt the solution to our situation.
E.g. adapting Spotify’s playlist to ecommerce wishlist.
Think
Think
ThinkMake Make Make
Make Make Make Make
...ThinkMake Make Make Make

25. Complex problems need a customised mix of cycles between Think and Make
Complex Complicated
ObviousChaotic
Unknown
... ...
A poorly understood problem which is unique to our
situation for which we need new solutions.
E.g. HMW change traditional media to hooked millennials?
Think Make ThinkMake Make

26. Starting building before we have define the problem and the criteria to solve it
Designing blind
Problem 3

27. Building too early for complex/complicated problems will lead to a weak outcome
With complex and complicated problems, if we
start building before we know the audience,
the real problem and the affected JTBD, we
are highly likely:
● To start working on a symptom of the
real problem and realising when the
built effort makes it not
cost-effective to change direction
● To effect the wrong JTBD or none at
all, making the customer impact
unsatisfactory.
Your job isn’t to build more
software faster, it’s to maximize the
outcome and impact you get from
what you choose to build.
Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping

28. Know when to move FAST and SLOW
Complex Complicated
ObviousChaotic
Unknown
● Strategyzer’s a 12-week
Design Sprint.
● Don’t build until defining
the why, who and how.
● Problems where ‘build fast’
methodologies work.

29. Missing the Think phase makes it hard to design an effective solution
Designing blind
Problem 2

30. A team that never Thinks and only Makes is not Design Thinking
E D
Think Make
I P
T
E D
Think Make
I P
T
Looping in the Make phase
never doing the Think phase
Having a different team doing
the Think phase:
● Product teams missing
the empathy stage
● Product teams not
knowing how to use Think
definition outputs to
make product decisions

31. The Empathy stage takes
product teams to see the
customer in their real life.
There is no substitute to
observing it.
Bring product teams into the world of the customer

32. Customer journeys help identify opportunities
http://iristongwu.com/travel-mate/
Steps
Emotional journey
Across channel/
device journey
Frustrations
Opportunities

33. Customer journeys help identify opportunities
http://iristongwu.com/travel-mate/
Steps
Emotional journey
Across channel/
device journey
Frustrations
Opportunities
Seeing severity of frustrations, emotional
hurdles and problems in switches across
channel/device, we can assess where we are
not meeting customer jobs and see how does
affects business KPIs and objectives.
This help us to identify opportunities that
can have impact to both the customer and the
business.

34. Service blueprints help to identify backend and operational constraints
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_bluepr
int#/media/File:Service_Design_Blueprint.png
Device/channel
Customer interaction
Front-end response
Back-end response
Operational response

35. Service blueprints help to identify backend and operational constraints
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_bluepr
int#/media/File:Service_Design_Blueprint.png
Device/channel
Customer interaction
Front-end response
Back-end response
Operational response
Having a view of how the backend and
operations meet or not the customer
interactions helps us identify
business/tech/operational constraints.
Many times changes to the front end won’t
have impact until these constraints are
addressed.

36. Customer maps and service blueprint
help:
● id gaps of knowledge.
● to align understanding and
efforts across the involved
disciplines.
● to improve existing/id new
offerings that impact the core
audience JTBD and fit with what
they business can deliver.
Make product decision with the holistic view of the end-to-end journeys

37. Have clear, differentiated the core behaviours according to how they use the product
We need to observe customers
in the empathy stage to
extract the distinct product
behaviours and the core
motivations that drive them.

38. Use core behaviours to make product feature assumptions.
Jobs
Gains
Pains
Gaincreators
Pain relievers
Features
● Keep calm
● Look cool
to others
Bee can get upset
and get stung
No stopping
what I’m
doing
Video guide
for
effective/stylish
wafting
VALUE PROPOSITION CANVAS
The WafterProduct

39. We need people that are able to Think and Make, guiding product teams
using end-to-end journeys and core behaviours to make decisions

40. Theme 2: Missing out on core Design Thinking components
Design Thinking won’t work well when:
1. having the wrong mindsets for
discovery.
2. not iterating solutions or not
enough.
3. not collaborating effectively.

41. You won’t find new solutions without discovery mindsets in an exploration team
Missing component
Problem 1

42. Having Town Planners doing the job
of Pioneers.
Giving the work of Pioneers to
Town Planners without passing by
Settlers.
Having optimisation mindsets running discovery
https://blog.gardeviance.org/2015/03/on-pioneers-set
tlers-town-planners-and.html
Explore
Discover
Turn half
baked
things
into
something
useful
Build
Optimise

43. You won’t find effective, new solutions without playful iteration of ideas
Missing component
Problem 2

44. Not exploring and iterating enough the initial solutions
My first idea is probably not
going to be the best one, I cannot
fall in love with that. I need to
explore different alternatives
until I find a direction that
solves a big, hairy problem with
many different constructs, that is
Design Thinking.
Alex Osterwalder
https://ruwix.com/the-rubiks-cube/first-rubiks-cube-prototype-invention/First Rubik prototype:

45. Provotype to discovery and prototype to shape the solution
https://medium.com/@thestratosgroup/moving-from-prototyping-to-provotyping-cedf42a48e90
DISCOVERY CONCEPTING BUILD
Pioneers
Problem definition
Discovery/explorative research
Provotype
Settlers
Solution exploration
Definition research
Iterate prototypes
Town planners
Solution definition
Validation research
Optimise
Challenge assumptions Play with ideas

46. You won’t find new solutions without well orchestrated collaboration
Missing component
Problem 3

47. Over-collaboration happens when:
● not thinking of who needs to
collaborate.
● not having a compelling reason
for the collaboration.
Collaboration doesn’t happen by
asking people to collaborate.
Over-collaborating is as damaging as under-collaborating

48. Orchestrate collaborative efforts:
● Bring together the skills
needed at the right times.
● Have clear objectives to
direct the collaboration.
● Facilitate it using bespoke
approaches/methods, instead of
generic, formulaic
methodologies,
Have facilitators of collaboration
Source: Gavin Withner

49. To wrap up

50. To be a Design Thinker we need to develop a Design Thinking Mindset
● Go into your customer’s world and learn
from their real-life experiences.
● Ideate with the synthesis of the Think
phase - problem types, core behaviours
and end-to-end journeys.
● Focus on the why and how, not the what to
ideate/iterate.
● Boldly provotype and prototype to shape a
product.
● Practice, fail and learn the methodology.

51. Following ‘recipes’ does not make you a masterchef.
Learn from experience and use the right tool for the problem and the team you have

52. References
d.School
https://dschool.stanford.edu/
Fogg Behaviour Model
https://www.behaviormodel.org/
Cynefin framework
https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-d
ecision-making
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/cynefin-f
ramework.htm
Velocity should renamed future debt
https://jeffgothelf.com/blog/velocity-should-be-ren
amed-future-tech-debt/
Customer mapping course
https://www.servicedesignshow.com/courses/cust
omer-journey-mapping-guide/
Starting with the customer
https://www.strategyzer.com/blog/starting-wit
h-the-customer
Team mindsets
https://blog.gardeviance.org/2015/03/on-pion
eers-settlers-town-planners-and.html
Provotyping
https://medium.com/@thestratosgroup/movin
g-from-prototyping-to-provotyping-cedf42a48
e90
Prototyping
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/a
rticle/stage-4-in-the-design-thinking-process-
prototype

53. THANKS
carmen.brion@cbinsights.co.uk
@Tea_monster
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