Design thinking process and mindsets notes — Unit 1

Design Thinking is an iterative, non-linear, human-centered approach to problem-solving. It is used heavily by designers, engineers, and businesses to tackle complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown.

⇒1.1 What it is NOT

Design thinking is not about 'making things look pretty' (aesthetic design). It is about understanding human needs, re-framing problems in human-centric ways, creating many ideas in brainstorming sessions, and adopting a hands-on approach in prototyping and testing.

While designers have been using 'design thinking' intuitively for decades, it was formalized as an academic and business methodology relatively recently.

⇒2.1 Key Milestones

• 1960s: Buckminster Fuller and Victor Papanek began advocating for design as a science and a tool to solve massive social problems, rather than just industrial aesthetics.
• 1991: IDEO is founded by David Kelley. IDEO becomes the most famous design and consulting firm in the world, championing the term 'Design Thinking'.
• 2005: Stanford University launches the d.school (Hasso Plattner Institute of Design), cementing the 5-stage model taught globally today.

Design Thinking is specifically designed to solve 'Wicked Problems'.

⇒3.1 Tame Problems

A tame problem has a clear, agreed-upon definition and a definitive stopping point. Example: Solving an algebra equation, or fixing a broken database query. You know exactly when it is solved.

⇒3.2 Wicked Problems

First defined by Horst Rittel. A wicked problem has no clear definition, no single 'right' answer, and every attempt to solve it changes the nature of the problem itself. Example: Poverty, climate change, or designing the UI for a completely new type of social network. Design Thinking thrives here.

The Stanford d.school framework is the industry standard for the Design Thinking process.

• 1. Empathize: Research your users' needs. (Understand the human).
• 2. Define: State your users' needs and problems. (Frame the problem).
• 3. Ideate: Challenge assumptions and create ideas. (Generate solutions).
• 4. Prototype: Start to create solutions. (Build a representation).
• 5. Test: Try your solutions out. (Get feedback).

Crucial Note: This process is NOT strictly linear. It is iterative. Testing often reveals you misunderstood the problem, forcing you to loop back to Empathize.

If you treat Design Thinking like the Waterfall software methodology (Step 1 -> Step 2 -> Step 3), you will fail.

⇒5.1 Iteration Loops

• Prototyping sparks Ideation: Building a physical model might suddenly give you a completely new idea you didn't think of during the Ideate phase.
• Testing redefines the Problem: You test a prototype with a user, and they say, 'I don't actually care about this feature, my real struggle is X.' You must immediately jump from Test (Stage 5) all the way back to Define (Stage 2).

The goal is to fail early, fail often, and learn rapidly.

Created by the British Design Council, this is another highly popular framework that visually represents the Design Thinking process through 'Divergent' and 'Convergent' thinking.

⇒6.1 Diamond 1: The Problem Space

• Discover (Divergent): Open up your mind. Research widely, gather massive amounts of raw data, talk to everyone. (Broadening).
• Define (Convergent): Analyze the data, throw away the irrelevant parts, and narrow down to a single, specific problem statement. (Narrowing).

⇒6.2 Diamond 2: The Solution Space

• Develop (Divergent): Brainstorm 100 different ways to solve that specific problem. No bad ideas. (Broadening).
• Deliver (Convergent): Test the prototypes, select the single best solution, and build it. (Narrowing).

The 5 steps are just a framework. Without the correct psychological mindset, the framework produces generic, uninspired results.

⇒7.1 Human-Centered

Focusing heavily on empathy. You are not designing for yourself; you are designing for a specific user with specific pains. Check your ego at the door.

⇒7.2 Bias Towards Action

Stop sitting in a conference room debating if an idea will work. Build a cheap cardboard prototype in 10 minutes and test it. Doing > Thinking.

⇒8.1 Radical Collaboration

If a team consists of five software engineers, they will solve every problem with an app. True design thinking requires multidisciplinary teams: an engineer, a psychologist, a marketer, and an artist. Clashing perspectives generate true innovation.

⇒8.2 Optimism

The belief that we can improve the situation, no matter how wicked the problem is. If the team starts with 'This is impossible due to budget constraints', the Ideation phase will be dead on arrival.

We suspend judgment (feasibility, viability) during the early stages to allow crazy ideas to breathe.

Engineers are taught to seek clarity and immediately close the gap between a problem and a solution. Design thinking requires the exact opposite.

⇒9.1 Sitting in the Unknown

You must be comfortable not knowing the answer for a long time. When you start the 'Empathize' phase, you don't even know what the product is going to be yet.

⇒9.2 The Danger of Premature Convergence

If you rush to clarity and pick the first solution that sounds 'okay' just to relieve the anxiety of ambiguity, you kill innovation. You must trust the process to guide you through the fog.

Humans are terrible at visualizing abstract concepts explained through words. A 50-page requirements document is often misunderstood.

⇒10.1 Visual Communication

• Use sketches, storyboards, and physical props to communicate your ideas.
• Instead of explaining how an app flow works, draw three boxes on a napkin and point to them.

When you present a physical object (even a bad prototype) to a user, it gives them something concrete to react to. They will say 'I hate this part', which is immensely valuable feedback.

In B.Tech CSE, students are trained in the analytical, engineering mindset. Design thinking requires a cognitive shift.

According to IDEO, true innovation happens at the exact intersection of three lenses.

• Desirability (Human): Do people actually want this? Does it solve a real pain point? (This is where Design Thinking starts).
• Feasibility (Technology): Can we actually build this with the technology and time we have?
• Viability (Business): Does this make financial sense? Will it generate a return on investment?

If you build something Feasible and Viable, but not Desirable, nobody will buy it. If you build something Desirable and Feasible, but not Viable, your startup goes bankrupt. You must hit the center.

Historically, businesses used focus groups and demographic data (Age 25-34, Income $50k) to make products. Design thinking rejects this as too shallow.

⇒13.1 Deep Empathy

Empathy means experiencing the world through the user's eyes. It involves observing them in their natural habitat, seeing their frustrations, and understanding their emotional drivers.

Example: A hospital wanted to improve the MRI experience for children, who were terrified of the loud machine. Instead of 'improving the machine's efficiency' (engineering), they painted the MRI like a pirate ship and told the kids they were going on an adventure (design thinking). Fear dropped, and the need for sedation plummeted.

Understanding how designers think requires understanding logic.

• Deductive (Proving): From general rules to specific conclusions. (If A=B and B=C, then A=C). Used in coding.
• Inductive (Generalizing): From specific observations to general rules. (Every swan I've seen is white, so all swans must be white). Used in science.
• Abductive (Inventing): From an observation to a hypothesis that best explains it. (The lawn is wet. It probably rained).

Design Thinking relies heavily on Abductive reasoning. Designers observe a user struggling, and they hypothesize a completely new solution that doesn't exist yet to solve it.

While they complement each other, they are different.

⇒15.1 Systems Thinking

Looking at the big picture. Understanding how different parts of a complex system interact and influence each other over time. (e.g., How does changing a button on the app affect the server load, the customer support team, and the supply chain?).

⇒15.2 The Integration

Design Thinking is used to invent the new button based on user needs. Systems Thinking is used immediately after to ensure the new button doesn't accidentally destroy the rest of the ecosystem.

A concept from Zen Buddhism heavily adopted by Design Thinkers.

⇒16.1 The Curse of Knowledge

When you are an expert in a field, your brain automatically filters out 'impossible' ideas based on your past experience. You become blind to new, radical solutions.

⇒16.2 Adopting the Beginner's Mind

Approaching a problem as if you know absolutely nothing about it. Asking 'Why?' to things that seem obvious. Questioning every fundamental assumption. This forces you to see the problem exactly as a new user would see it.

Design Thinking cannot happen in a toxic corporate culture.

⇒17.1 What is it?

Coined by Amy Edmondson, Psychological Safety is the belief that you will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.

⇒17.2 Why it matters for Design

The Ideation phase requires people to say crazy, stupid, half-baked ideas out loud (because a stupid idea often sparks a brilliant idea in someone else). If team members are afraid the boss will mock them, they will only suggest safe, boring, generic ideas. Innovation dies instantly.

In modern tech companies, these two methodologies are stitched together.

The Workflow: Design Thinking is used upstream to figure out what feature the user actually needs. Once the prototype is tested and proven, it is handed off to Agile Engineering teams to build it robustly over several sprints.

Because Design Thinking is so effective at understanding human psychology and behavior, it can be weaponized.

⇒19.1 Dark Patterns

Using empathy to manipulate users into doing things they don't want to do (e.g., making it extremely confusing to cancel a subscription, or using FOMO to force a purchase). This is hostile design.

⇒19.2 The Responsibility

True human-centered design requires asking 'Is this actually good for the human?' If you design an infinite-scroll feed that maximizes engagement but destroys the user's mental health, you have failed the ethical mandate of Design Thinking.

To summarize Unit 1, Design Thinking is less about following a rigid 5-step checklist, and more about fundamentally changing how you view problems.

• Stop starting with code. Start with people.
• Stop debating in meeting rooms. Start building ugly prototypes.
• Stop trying to be right on the first try. Start failing fast to learn.
• Stop working in silos. Start radically collaborating with different disciplines.

The next unit dives deep into the very first stage: Empathize.