Design Thinking: Empathy as a Superpower

True innovation is achieved through good design thinking. Building products, platforms, and services for users requires empathy at the core of the process. In this session, we look at what this all means and the benefits that individuals and businesses can reap through empathetic design.

Transcript

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2. Design Thinking:
   Empathy as a Superpower
   How today’s innovative teams approach problem-solving
   

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3. First of all;
   Introduction.
   Caleb (@AbstractOnion)
   Director of Design at Semicolon
   and first-class roasted yam fanatic.
   

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4. What is Design Thinking?
   

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5. What Design Thinking definitely is NOT
   Some poster
   taken from
   Pinterest.
   Some “over-
   ambitious”
   interface design
   

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6. Seriously though…
   

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7. An approach to developing
   innovative solutions that are
   desirable, feasible, and viable.
   DESIGN THINKING IS:
   

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8. A way of thinking and
   working as well as a
   collection of methods.
   DESIGN THINKING IS:
   

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9. An iterative process in which we seek to understand
   the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine
   problems in an attempt to identify alternative
   strategies and solutions that might not be instantly
   apparent with our initial level of understanding.
   DESIGN THINKING IS:
   

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10. • The Design Thinking process happens
    in phases (or steps).
    • Various institutions have defined the
    phases in many ways.
    

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11. Don’t Panic
    

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12. At Semicolon, we follow the 6-Phase process:
    Understand Observe
    Define Point
    of View
    Ideate Prototype Test
    

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13. A brief breakdown
    Understand Phase
    This is where we frame the
    design challenge, do a lot of
    desk research, and get our
    facts right by reviewing our
    assumptions and biases.
    

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14. A brief breakdown
    Observe Phase
    In this phase, we engage with
    humans at the center of the design
    process. We aim to capture insights
    about these people, through
    interviews, immersion sessions, and
    guerrilla techniques amongst others.
    Above all, we aim to build empathy.
    

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15. A brief breakdown
    Define Point of View Phase
    In this phase, we analyze ALL the
    information collected thus far and
    drill for gold. We aim to extract
    quality insights and develop a
    more a refined problem statement
    or goal.
    

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16. A brief breakdown
    Ideate Phase
    We generate innovative ideas to
    address the problem statement. We
    start with a wide range of innovative
    ideas, then evaluate them and select
    the most creative, feasible or
    appropriate.
    

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17. A brief breakdown
    Prototype Phase
    In this phase, we create tangible
    artefacts that can be used to test and
    refine ideas.
    It can be a digital prototype made with
    Figma or Invision. It can also be
    physical prototypes crafted with
    cardboard, Legos and glue.
    

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18. A brief breakdown
    Test Phase
    Through a planned testing process,
    we discover what works, what doesn’t,
    and capture actionable
    recommendations through feedback
    loops with our users.
    

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19. Empathy as a Superpower
    

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20. ● Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another
    person is experiencing from within their frame of reference,
    that is, the capacity to place oneself in another’s shoes.
    ● Empathy is feeling by relation.
    ● Empathy is understanding not pity.
    Feeling by relation
    

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21. ● Human Centered Design (HCD) is a mindset to problem-solving
    that makes the user (or human) the major determinant in the
    innovative process.
    ● If Design Thinking is the bowl of salad, then HCD is the
    mayonnaise that enhances the flavor and improves the mix.
    The Human-Centeredness of Things
    

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22. ● The Piggyvest story
    ● Apple and its globally loved products
    ● Melinda Gates Foundation and tackling tough problems
    Using Empathy to Drive Growth.
    

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23. “But bros, all this ones na okoto
    meow kututu meow skrrr tbh”
    Maybe, but please stay with me…
    

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24. Is it really worth it?
    

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25. The UX Fund
    ● In 2006, partners Teehan and Lax decided to invest $5,000 in
    10 “design-forward” companies.
    ● Including Apple, Blackberry, Netflix, Yahoo!, Google, Nike et al.
    ● Their hypothesis? That companies focused on delivering great
    customer experiences, through empathy, would have a positive
    uptick in their stock market valuations over time.
    

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26. The UX Fund: 10+ Years Later
    ● Netflix has seen a 3000%+ valuation, and has continued to innovate in
    what they consider to be the best experiences for its users/customers.
    ● Blackberry lost its focus, and was kicked out of the same market it was
    a leader in, losing more than 200% of its market value since then.
    ● Apple went on to release more amazing products, and building strong
    customer loyalty that saw it become the world’s first $1trillion company.
    

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27. The McKinsey Design Index
    ● McKinsey, in an article on the Business Value of Design, claims to have
    effectively created a framework to assess companies for what they
    called the MDI.
    ● High MDI means great investment in delivering great customer
    experiences with empathy existing at executive level.
    ● They found that there was a consistent correlation between business
    performance and high MDI scores.
    

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28. Disruption
    v.
    Obsolescence
    

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29. The Distinction
    ● Disruption is different from Obsolescence.
    ● Disruption has been a buzzword for so long, but it has held its own.
    ● To disrupt is to do things differently in a stagnated industry. To do
    things more cheaply, more efficiently or more transparently.
    ● Understanding the problem and empathizing with the users will help
    you bring about disruption.
    

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30. It is one thing to disrupt an industry or
    product or platform. It is another thing
    to completely obsolete. To render
    entirely useless whole ecosystems by
    the sheer whims of raw innovation.
    BUT:
    

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31. The Wrong Problem Paradox
    ● Sometimes, we think we know what the problem is but we don’t.
    ● We are prone to tackling the most apparent problems.
    ● Sometimes, that is just good enough to cause disruption.
    ● But most times, greatness is achieved by seeing what no one else sees.
    ● You need to connect so deeply with your users that you “anticipate”
    their needs, wants, desires, fears and potential pain points.
    

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32. Final Words
    

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33. The Merits of Root Cause Analysis
    ● The “5 Whys” framework of Sakichi Toyota.
    ● Drilling deeper into the problem will help you see the diamonds in the
    rough and capitalize on them to deliver great experiences and solutions
    to the people around you.
    ● Solving the first-principle problems is where real value is.
    ● It creates entirely new industries, markets and ecosystems.
    

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34. Your Users are People Too.
    ● It is very easy to get lost in the numbers and equate users to the
    flashing digits on our screens.
    ● But in fact, users are real people with real lives. They feel emotions and
    go through a lot of things every day.
    ● Knowing this, maybe we all can design and develop solutions that
    show empathy for all use cases. For inclusion and accessibility.
    

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35. Further Reading
    

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36. 101 Design
    Methods
    Universal
    Methods of
    Design
    Innovating for
    People
    The Design
    Thinking
    Playbook
    DesignKit.org
    

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37. And now my ⌚⌚ has ended
    Questions? Send a dm
    @AbstractOnion
    

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