Mohinder Kohsla Design thinking A complimentary approach to agile

Editor's Notes

1. We are building software at an alarming rate, in many cases, without realising their impact before release. All companies want their products hit with their customers so they come back again and again. The reality, as we see later, is far from the truth. We are very impatient, we seem to be short on time and we jump to solutions too quickly. Therefore, we start with a narrower definition of the problem we are solving without understanding the underlying the problems our customers are facing Ideas are not validated for product/market fit before development starts. We rush into development fearing that our competitors would get their first. No wonder we are discovering requirements as we go through product delivery. We have streamlined the process and used the productivity card to deliver faster. What next? We need better tools to do our jobs
2. We have streamlined our processes and used the productivity card to deliver faster but not sure what else to try that would give us the edge We seem to have lost our way in Agile. Instead of focus on people and interactions, we prefer things on the right eg processes and tools
3. We build stuff hoping that customers would come. So we wait and we wait and they never come Try A/B testing and all sorts of trick to sell
4. We are impatient with ourselves and short on time . we all have a tendency to jump to solution mode far too quickly. Design thinking approaches force you to really live in this unclear, sometimes very muddy place, to get a better understanding. This ends up producing a much better understanding of the problem, and the challenges that you're trying to solve Is time cost or investment?
5. Empathy - Start by establishing a deep understanding human needs Invention – Discover new possibilities Iteration – Use the first solutions as stepping stones for a better one These are principle behind Design Thinking
6. Just to give you a feel how a great design looks. Lets look at these examples Golden Gate Bridge built 79 year ago this year
7. Roger Martin, author of The Design for Business and Fixing the Game:the former Dean and current Institute Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto Organisations are obsessed with analytical techniques. They are after big wins. The list of ideas under development that take 9-12 months to build and no person can use it. That results in slippage and over budget p 121 MYH Great American philosopher Charles Sander Peirce (purse) said no new idea in the world has been proven in advance analytically. You cannot prove anything new because there in no data about anything new
8. Aristotle said: things cannot be other than they are Also seems to have been quoted by Voltaire’s Candide Challenge for Design thinking is “What would have to be true”
9. Before we come to define designing thinking. Let’s look at popular view of design process
10. The difference between design thinking and other methodologies such as lean startup is that design start with a challenge whereas others start with an idea Design thinking emphasises the importance of study the people and their problems for which we are creating value before we are allowed to generate solutions The term design thinking is somewhat controversial, especially the thinking part. Manager get put off because they think they are thinkers. Designers get up some who say that design is much more involved and. specialised activity. There is no consensus whether we should be using this term. There is not inherently different about design thinking. It is another approach and skill set that is complementary to other forms of approaches such as agile. It is not competitive but complementary to other approaches to product development The construct for deign thinking comes from design such a convergent/divergent thinking, prototyping and iterations, ethnographic research that forms the rubric of design thinking
11. We start and end with the same place but we untangle the hairball in a manageable process we call design thinking. Despite a lot of fancy vocabulary like “Ideation” and “Co-creation”, the design process we follow here deals with by asking four questions that corresponds to the four stages of design thinking process Start with current reality of the customer so we do not frame the problem too narrow Human centred piece of design thinking
12. Possibility-driven
13. This is design thinking in a nutshell. Four questions 10 tools
14. No amount of data of yesterday will solve the mysteries of tomorrow Wicked: Harder richer problem system thinking, prototyping, experimentation
15. North Star, 2-3 page document that tells gives directions: why we doing, what to avoid, resources, research plan, how to manage risks Yogi Berra: If you don’t know where you are going You might end up someplace else
16. Makes ideas visible and concrete Remove ambiguity Different way of knowing What is: mind mapping, journey mapping, personas What if: concept development Visualise things that don’t exist, you are using different part of your brain
17. Yogi Berra: It is tough to make predictions, especially about the future
18. Social Sciences: Sociology, Anthropology Human cultures and People Revealing and understanding user needs requires sensitivity and empathy that can be found within ethnography Descriptive Collect qualitative data to understand their problems and their viewpoints We go to find new information not to prove a idea or hypothesis Systematic approach Tools: Observation and Interviewing (open-ended questions)- we have no idea Video the session (watch from behind how they use product but also front to capture emotions) Apart from cultural studies and social work, it is also used in design, computer science, human factors and ergonomics Smoking cessation:
19. fireworks display, lulls and then bursts. Bursts seem to beget other bursts. When dust settle there appears to be a mess to clean up. After the brainstorming are the raw materials for several innovative concepts (nuggests) Right Challenge (design brief/criteria) Right people (small, diverse free from political considerations) Right Stimuli (trigger questions) Right facilitation (ground rules: blue-card, write silently, use trigger questions, one voice at a time, withhold judgement) Kodak asked What if question 20 years ago, “ What if 90% of our customers switch to digital photography” but didn’t take it any further and lost the digital revolution in photography No judgement same goes with Ethnographic research
20. The value test: customers will buy it at a price that generate revenue Execution test: You can deliver at a cost that works for you Scale test: you can build in volume that it is worthwhile The defensibility test: you can beat the competition
21. Fake it before you build it Hospitality suite for frequent travellers: smiley face, Frowny face, yellow stickers. You are observing customers not only what they did but also what they didn’t. If they move cards/stickers around take note
22. A learning launch is a fast cheap experiment The purpose is to learn and go test
23. This is design thinking in a nutshell. Four questions 10 tools