One of the ways that design thinking adds value to business is the emphasis on observation and insight. Generally, the observations and insights are about people.
Yesterday’s d-studio focused on the students practicing seeing and then from their observations developing insights that assist in defining the problem or opportunity at hand.
The challenge: In the words of IDEO CEO Tim Brown in ‘Change by Design’ (2009),
“Design thinking . . . starts with people — what we call human-centered design — and applies the creative tools of design, like [observing and] storytelling . . . to deliver new breakthrough [insights and] innovations.”
Easily said, but how easily done? ‘Doing’ depends on cultivating an ability to ‘see’ — observe significant evidence of need or opportunity, sorting, filtering and interpreting that evidence to gain insight, and communicating both (observations + insights) in compelling, convincing ways that [from Ron Kellett’s activity]:
- connect with clients and customers
- identify issues and opportunities consistently and with clarity
- transform experience into data, data into insight, insight into action
The studio began with a warm-up to help students transition from the rest of their busy lives at UBC’s Sauder School of Business — they may have come from finance or accounting classes, or another realm of activity. The warm-up (a regular spot in the studio) yesterday was free writing — a useful technique for connecting the critical and creative voices in us all.
a wonderful Steinberg demonstrating the critical and creative voices "talking"
We then launched into an activity that had all of us practicing observing and deriving insights from our observations. But first we had a glimpse at the challenge of seeing. Have a peek at this little video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GEEvvTiiQk
It’s an eye-opener in terms of our observation skills. We then launched into watching a video of 3 different users stacking a bar fridge — if it sound tedious — it is. But it was interesting to force close observation of 3 different people doing the same very simple task. Students observed a variety of actions (and it is hard to keep focused on observation and not turn everything into interpretation — which is the insight step). Examples: users stacked from left to right, top to bottom; user 1 filled the shelves of the door first; user 2 folded one of the items; all users were squatting to fill the fridge. And so on. Then came the insight part — which is not about solutions although it is setting the context for the framing of opportunities and idea generation.
We had to keep reminding ourselves — these definitions are from the IDEO/ExperiencePoint DesignThinker simulation:
• An observation is a fact without interpretation.
** An insight is an interpretation of facts that is ‘authentic, non-obvious and revealing of significant meaning’.
Students came up with several insights based on the question: how can we improve the small fridge experience for users…
So the small fridge experience could be improved for users if:
- the shelves were more adaptable in height
- users didn’t have to bend down
- there were cues as to where to locate items with ease
and so on.
The learning here focuses on our tendency to not separate observation from insight — but to move directly to interpretation which probably causes us to miss key points that will help us frame our problems/opportunities much better and ultimately lead us to better solutions. At any rate, it makes us use our minds.
Next Blog — using the business canvas for observing, visualizing and patterning.