Get the best out of modern Approach to Design Thinking

Working on your idea requires focused effort. This approach will help you remain focused through an 18-step structured process spread across four stages that you can complete within six to twelve weeks. This is the best way to get the best out of modern approach to Design Thinking.

1. Build a Team

You are not likely to be working alone in this endeavor, so think about building a core team of two to five members who would be working together on the project. While building the team, consider the following aspects:
◾ Trust: This is the single most important aspect of any team’s success. Without trust between team members, no idea would see the light of day.
◾ Positive attitude: You do not want people who are skeptics or who drain your energy by pointing out how an idea could fail. Build a team with members who are upbeat about the topic and possess a “can do” attitude.
◾ Skills: You should look for members who bring complementary skills and experiences to the team so you could build on each other’s ideas.
◾ Personal chemistry: Finally, you need to build a team with whom you can hang out and spend hours at a stretch without getting bored

2. Review the Framework with the Team

Make sure every member of your team reads through all the steps in this framework and discuss their perspectives as a group.

3. Collaborative Engagement

I recommend gathering in one room as you work on your idea. Have a whiteboard or flip chart easel with an easel pad, a set of sticky notes and pens or markers to capture thoughts as you work through the framework.
In certain cases, you’ll realize that you already have insights about a specific topic. In those cases, just share your insights with the team and ensure that everyone is on the same page. You’ll be surprised to find at every step of this framework how much you assumed about the problem and how varied are the insights from different team members.

4. Capture Assumptions

Pay close attention to all the assumptions you are making at every step of this framework, and make sure you record these assumptions in one place. These assumptions help you focus on activities that are most important to move your idea forward. These assumptions also help you recognize the risk inherent in your idea.

5. Guidance

As you work on each step in this framework, you’ll need to follow a few
principles of brainstorming. These include:
◾ Give time for self-brainstorming. Different members have different personality traits. Some are more extroverted and get their energy from other people. Some are intrinsically introverted and get a boost
in energy when they are in isolation. You need to ensure ideas from all the individuals in your team are extracted and discussed. Self-brainstorming allows the latter group enough opportunity to think about and share their ideas.
◾ Document every thought on sticky notes. Divergent ideas often yield amazing results. However, if the ideas are not captured, discussed and contemplated, they tend to disappear and diffuse sooner than we realize. So it is imperative that you ensure ideas from the team are captured in a structured manner. If you are brainstorming in a room, capture these ideas on sticky notes or any other medium that works for your team.
◾ Defer judgment. Since the time of our birth, we have all been subjected to judgments by others. As a child begins to take his/her first steps, parents jump in to save them or warn them of falling (failing).
As the child grows up to imagine a new world, the culture or school system puts boundaries of conformity on his/her ideas. In school, we are trained in critical thinking –closely examining ideas – and
following rules. Throughout this journey, we start internalizing these judgments and start judging and questioning our own thoughts and ideas subconsciously. Never pass judgment on your own and others’
ideas.

Allow free speach

◾ Allow every member to share and describe their thoughts. Another pitfall that we all fall into is this: as soon as we have an idea, we tend to stick to it and consider that it is the best idea put forth by the entire team. We tend to overlook, dismiss or never listen to ideas from others. Ensure that you pay close attention to ideas, regardless of where they are coming from.
◾ Allow one person to speak at one time. In the excitement of the moment, we also fall into the trap of overpowering others and squelching their voice unintentionally. Ensure that you don’t speak over each other.
◾ Build on each other’s ideas. Finally, don’t be shy in connecting different ideas together to have better insights and solutions. Creativity is nothing but taking ideas from one domain and applying to another.

In the next posts, you’ll find instructions on how to run the corresponding brainstorming session for each step. You’ll need to dedicate one person from the team as the “lead” for the brainstorming session who will facilitate the session and have the team members contribute and discuss.