Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
What You Don’t Have to Read 3
How This Book Is Organized 3
Part 1: Getting Started with Design Thinking 3
Part 2: The Problem Phases 4
Part 3: The Solution Phases 4
Part 4: The Part of Tens 4
Icons Used in This Book 4
Beyond the Book 5
Where to Go from Here 5
Part 1: Getting Started with Design Thinking 7
Chapter 1: Everything You Need to Know About Design Thinking 9
This Is Design Thinking 9
More than just design 10
More than just a workshop 10
More than just brainstorming 11
More than just methods 11
Seeing What Design Thinking Can Do 12
Developing new products 12
Creating new services 12
Designing new business models 13
Designing social and organizational innovations 13
Establishing a culture of innovation 14
Understanding the Basics of Design Thinking 14
Following and communicating the principles 14
Getting an overview of the whole process 15
Going through the process in detail 17
Start Design Thinking Right Away 24
Assembling the team 24
Defining team roles and communication practices 25
Planning the project work 25
Furnishing the work environment 26
Asking for support 27
Chapter 2: Understanding the Principles of Design Thinking 29
Focusing on People Early On 30
More than Traditional Market Research 31
Finding the Lead User 32
Actively Involving the Lead User 35
Developing Empathy 36
Illustrating Ideas 37
Failing in Order to Learn 38
Ensuring Diversity on the Team 39
Offering Team-Oriented and Creative Workspaces 39
Making the Process Flexible Yet Focused 40
Chapter 3: Creating Ideal Conditions 43
Ensuring a Positive Attitude 43
Creating the vision for the project 44
Communicating the vision 44
Encouraging the Willingness to Change 45
Arousing Curiosity 45
Presenting the task as a challenge 46
Presenting the task as a reward 46
Presenting the task in a comprehensible fashion 47
Training curiosity 47
Asking For (and Receiving) Support from the Top 48
Asking For (and Receiving) Creative Freedom 49
Enabling Fast Decisions in the Design Thinking Process 49
Setting up the steering committee 50
Clarifying responsibilities 50
Preparing the decision in an efficient manner 50
Conducting the decision-making process in an efficient manner 51
Following up on decisions 52
Tolerating Mistakes During Design Thinking 52
Defining mistakes 53
Looking at mistakes in a differentiated way 54
Find the Competencies You Need for the Task at Hand 54
Determining the target competencies 55
Taking stock of the actual competencies 55
Comparing the target and actual competencies and coming up with the next steps 56
Checking the competencies on an ongoing basis 56
Ensuring that the work is appreciated 57
Chapter 4: Planning a Design Thinking Project 59
Defining the Project Goals 60
Compiling goals and determining their order 61
Clearly formulating goals 62
Communicating goals 63
Planning Work Packages 64
Planning work packages for incremental progress at just the right time 65
Formulating and determining the work package order from the user’s perspective 66
Using a task board 67
Correctly Planning for the Sequence 70
Estimating the required time 71
Creating a bar graph for a better overview 71
Correctly Planning for Your Resources 72
Correctly Planning for the Project Budget 74
Chapter 5: Supporting Teamwork in the Project 77
Assembling the Team 78
Relying on variety in team makeup 78
Defining roles on the team 80
Creating a matrix of responsibility 80
Applying the principle of self-organization 81
Clarifying Communication within the Team 81
Determining the project reporting format 82
Communicating is more important than documenting 83
Setting up communication rules 83
Arranging Workshops 85
Preparing a workshop 85
Holding workshops correctly 86
Providing equipment and materials 88
Designing Common Spaces 89
The right rooms promote communication and creativity 89
A flexible environment promotes flexible work 90
Part 2: The Problem Phases 93
Chapter 6: Understanding the Task 95
Finding the Right Search Area 95
Searching in the market segment 96
Searching in the area of technology 98
Searching in your own area of competence 98
A Well-Defined Task Is a Task Half-Solved 99
Clarifying what the task is and how it manifests itself 100
Clarifying who has the problem or wish 101
Clarifying where and when the problem or wish occurs 103
Clarifying why the problem or wish occurs 103
Identifying Knowledge Gaps 106
Systematically Closing Knowledge Gaps 107
Estimating Influences on the Task 108
Evaluating environmental influences 108
Identifying stakeholder influences 111
Reformulating the Task 114
Chapter 7: Putting Yourself in the Roles of Others 117
Recognizing Empathy as a Key to Success 117
Proceeding with Empathy 118
Create openness 118
Discount your own ideas/Tamp down your own biases 119
Share results 120
Proceed methodically 120
Collecting Information 120
Evaluating Information 121
Characterizing a customer using the Persona method 122
Understanding the situation with the help of an empathy map 125
Exploring the process with the customer journey 129
Describing the phases of the customer journey 130
Discovering the problems (and improvements) in the customer journey 131
Chapter 8: Observing People in Action 137
Putting Observations to Proper Use 137
Thoroughly Preparing Your Observations 139
Determine who should be observed 139
Determine what you should observe, whom you should observe, and when you should observe 140
Determine how you want to observe 142
Determine who should do the observing 144
Your Observations in a Systematic Fashion 145
Observing the right thing 146
Observing correctly 148
Avoiding observation errors 151
Applying Consistent Observational Methodologies 153
Artifacts analysis: Analyzing the customer’s objects 154
Behavioral mapping and tracking: Documenting the customer’s movements and activities 155
Mental models: Describing the real behavior of the customer 156
Mystery shopping: Detecting shopping behavior 156
Chapter 9: Redefining the Problem 159
Finding the Task 159
Preventing a search field that’s too broad or too narrow 160
Avoiding the temptation to prescribe solutions 161
Formulating a meaningful and challenging question 161
Writing clearly from a user’s perspective 162
Formulating tasks clearly and comprehensibly 162
Focusing On the Right People 163
Recognizing the Needs of Your Target Users 165
Analyzing Needs as Tasks 166
Determining the problems of the target person 168
Identifying the target person’s wishes 169
Comprehending the reasons for particular problems and wishes 170
Selecting the Most Important Wishes and Problems 172
Determining the Right Point of View 175
Part 3: The Solution Phases 177
Chapter 10: Finding Ideas 179
Mastering the Creative Process 179
Opening Up Sources of New Ideas 181
Taking advantage of employee skills and knowledge at your own company 181
Surveying and observing customers and involving them in developing solutions 182
Surveying and working with suppliers 182
Keeping up with what the competitors are doing 182
Evaluating publications and patent information 183
Participating in trade fairs and conferences 183
Collaborating with experts 183
Understanding the Creative Principles 184
The decomposition principle 184
The associative principle 184
The analogy and confrontation principles 184
The abstraction and imagination principles 185
Know the Success Factors for Increasing Creativity 185
Questioning the conventional wisdom 185
Simplifying products and processes 186
Starting where others left off 186
Observing everything and everyone in every possible place 187
Experimenting with ideas 187
Networking 188
Overcoming obstacles to creativity 188
Selecting the Appropriate Creativity Techniques 190
Structuring the topic with mind-mapping 191
Systematically finding solutions with a morphological box 192
Chapter 11: Developing Ideas Intuitively and Creatively 195
Solving Difficult Problems Intuitively and Creatively 195
Generating Ideas by Brainstorming 196
Giving the flow of ideas a new boost 197
Getting to know the different brainstorming variants 199
Written brainstorming 201
Inspiring with Random Words 204
Getting New Stimuli through Provocations 205
Changing Perspectives with the Walt Disney Method 205
Assuming Different Mindsets with the Six Hats Method 207
Chapter 12: Evaluating Ideas 211
Selecting the Right Evaluation Method 211
Relying on Diversity in the Team for Your Evaluations 212
Quickly Selecting Ideas 212
Evaluating the Advantages of (and Barriers to) Ideas 213
Evaluating Ideas with Checklists 215
Determining feasibility 215
Estimating the fit 217
Testing your idea’s desirability from the customers’ perspective 217
Considering the economic viability and scalability of your idea 218
Ensuring sustainability 220
Determining adaptability 220
Making the Chances for Success Measurable 221
Finding and weighting appropriate evaluation criteria 222
Weighing criteria against each other 225
Evaluating and selecting ideas 226
Chapter 13: Designing Prototypes 227
Understanding the Benefit of Experiments 228
Clarifying Tasks in the Prototype Phase 228
Developing and Using Prototypes Efficiently 229
Plan less, experiment more 230
Minimize effort 230
Correct at an early stage 231
Tolerate errors 232
Using Different Prototypes 232
Making Ideas Clear and Tangible 233
Telling stories 233
Visualizing stories 235
Performing stories 236
Using digital prototypes 237
Demonstrating instead of presenting 238
Chapter 14: Testing Ideas and Assumptions 241
Clarifying Tasks in the Test Phase 241
Checking assumptions about the target users 242
Checking assumptions about problems and needs 243
Testing assumptions about the benefits of the idea 245
Testing with Interviews 247
Asking the right people 247
Asking the right questions 248
Asking the questions correctly 249
Testing with Online Studies 250
Comparing user behavior 250
Evaluating user behavior with key figures 251
Learning from Test Results 252
Part 4: The Part of Tens 255
Chapter 15: Ten Success Factors for Interviews 257
Ensuring Good Preparation 257
Finding the Right Entry 258
Taking Notes Correctly 258
Listening Actively 259
Paying Attention to Emotions 259
Always Following Up 259
Concluding Discussions Successfully 260
Completing a Sufficient Number of Interviews 260
Postprocessing Interviews 261
Using Every Opportunity 261
Chapter 16: Ten Success Factors for Implementing Your Idea 263
Prepare the Structures 263
Encourage Collaboration and Communicate Openly 264
Complete the forming phase in a positive way 265
Master the storming phase 265
Support the norming phase 266
Use the performing phase efficiently 266
Successfully prepare the adjourning phase 267
Create a Sense of Urgency 267
Establish a Leadership Coalition 268
Communicate a Vision for the Culture of Innovation 269
Establish a Company Culture Tolerant of Mistakes 269
Broadly Empower Employees 270
Overcome Resistance 271
Counter Objections 272
Curb Euphoria 273
Index 275
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