Innovation and Design Thinking — Part 01
Seeking inspiration and innovation through Design Thinking.
Inspire new thoughts by discovering what people need. In that sense, the key elements of the process are innovation and Design Thinking, because their strength lies in research and empathy with the customer or end-user, the ones we intend to know and understand more closely.
“Don’t wait for the proverbial apple to fall on your head. Go out into the world and seek experiences that generate creative thinking.”
- Chris Flink, Executive Director, Exploratorium
Design Thinking applied to innovation is about making changes through observation.
The problem:
Consider why during COVID19 pandemic times, have part-time ventures proliferated? What are people’s unmet needs?
The solution:
Innovation and Design Thinking involves observing natural end-users behaviors, which help you discover their unmet needs. Sometimes, you can’t just ask people their needs. Remember, they just won’t talk about that for a bunch of reason reasons. However, you can always learn a lot from them through observation, research, and of course, tons of empathy.
Innovation and Design Thinking along with six tips for observation
When you are curious about real people regarding:
- Their way of life.
- The way they attend to their current needs.
- How they solve their problems, and
- How they deal with day by day.
Once you’re able to answer these fundamental questions, you’ll spark new ideas on how to design better products and services for them. Below, I leave you six tips on how to observe people.
Look for things that trigger behavior.
Some factors that become triggers for behavior are obvious as highway signs on the road that tell us where to go. Others are more subtle, like the line printed on the edge of a train platform to warn passengers to stay away from there.
In this way, developing a keen sense of observation will undoubtedly help you while you’re doing field research, especially when you are implementing Innovation and Design Thinking as a strategy in your company.
Look for adaptations
Adaptations are hacks or workarounds that people develop to make a product or system work better, or at least more suitable. What does the adaptation tell you about final user needs?
In general, the adaptations are non-official product improvements, and of course not considered by the company. However, the adaptations, are there and many people are using them.
Along with that, the best you can do is take advantage of these hacks and adopt them as improvements within an innovation and Design Thinking framework to make them official soon.
Look for what people care about.
Innovation and Design Thinking are processes based on research and empathy, which can tell us a lot about someone based on the stories they tell and the things they surround themselves with.
Here’s where the wealth of initial research adds substantial value to the process, providing a lot of information that is considered important insights in future improvements or new features to be developed.
Look for body language.
People smile when they are delighted and hunch over when they are tired or detached. Interpreting end-users non-verbal language is an easy way to assess their emotional needs.
Some time ago, I learned that the body screams, what the mouth is in silence.
And if we pay attention to the body language of our customers when they are using one of our products or services, we can see beyond what they will eventually respond to us with a survey.
Finally, a pro tip puts special attention into the eyes of your customers. There’s a lot of things you’ll learn just watching them.
Look for patterns
Pay attention when people repeat something. You may discover hidden patterns or routines, which may point to underlying needs or values.
Once you decide to apply innovation and Design Thinking in the same process, finding out patterns of behavior not only helps you to identify unmet needs. In addition, you can establish new benefits of the product or services that you did not have planned. Finally, you are getting closer to the prediction of your end-users movements.
Behavioral patterns are clues that users and customers leave us during the path they’re taking, and we must learn to identify, to act quickly on them.
Look for the unexpected.
Things that are hidden or stand out in surprising ways often invite you to explore a deeper story.
And it is at this point where everything that has to do with innovation and Design Thinking in the company is based on since by investigating, observing, and empathizing with your end-users, you will discover things that you never thought would exist.
