Design thinking approach

1. Empathy in design

Embracing customer empathy # customer is the boss

To put our customer first, we have to know what empathy is? Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what the other person in experiencing or going through.

Now here empathy means, putting yourself into the customers or target audience’s shoes to deliver the best of your potential.

Always think of the customer first because customers perspective is a real big deal.

Win the consumer moments of truth : there should be good purchasing, after usage and usage experience.

Speak to the heart : depending on the product the advertisement campaign is designed and then it is decided whether it has to be emotional or functional.

Emotional campaigns touch the heart and work well with the people of hearts. Example — spotify’s music for every mood.

Where as a functional campaign focuses on the product functions and aesthetics. Example — a pen company telling that the pen lasts 2x more than a normal pen and the ink is smudge free.

While talking about the empathy towards the customers and consumers we should be very much clear about the thin line of difference between these two.

Consumer is the end user of any goods or services. They can not re-sale the product. Where as the customer is the one who is purchasing the goods and reselling it, they can not use that product or service.

Manufacturer(you) — retailer(customer to manufacturer) — end user(consumer)

2. Use design thinking

Be the one to use the human centric design approach. It is the process of problem solving that prioritizes the user’s needs and wants, and if it is something you don’t do as a designer make a habit of doing it at the earliest. Creative approach to problem solving is the backbone of every company. Explore multiple ideas in the beginning. Sometimes we can combine multiple ideas and sometimes we get that magical idea in one go, we also call this process of exploration as divergent thinking.

Allow yourself to investigate and opt for the best idea. Refining and narrowing down the best idea is really important. We also call this process as convergent thinking

We also have to be iterative, understanding users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test.

Always evaluate solutions according to the three criterias :-

1. Desirability — does idea suits the needs of the users
2. Feasibility — how technology can be used for the betterment of the idea
3. Viability — how to build a sustainable business idea.

3. Pause autopilot thinking

• Obsess over every detail : take a do it yourself approach.always consider the good points of the existing product. Test early prototypes in real situations. Gather unbiased feedback.
• Prototype : experimental tangible forms of the product to be launched on paper or on digital format.

4. Fall on your face : Assess your stumbles. Learn from each failure, brush yourself off, and try something new.