This article focuses on the application of design thinking in product development, and introduces relevant materials, including its concept explanation, application scenarios and implementation steps.
Design thinking, Design Thinking, is a human-centered approach to product innovation.
It is widely used on the fuzzy front-end of new product development: digging into user pain points, generating creative solutions, and so on.
Whether it is a product manager, an industrial designer or a R&D engineer, you should learn and master design thinking.
1. The three dimensions of design thinking
Design thinking mainly conducts in-depth thinking from three dimensions to find creative solutions that users want.
- Desirability people's needs: Product innovation, we must find the pain points of users and meet the needs of users; Such a product is the product that users really want and can be sold.
- Viability business viability: product innovation must be in line with the company's strategic planning and business goals, and be commercially viable; With such a product, the enterprise is profitable.
- Feasibility technical feasibility: product innovation must meet the current resource and capability requirements of the enterprise, and have technical feasibility; Only such products can be made by enterprises.
2. The three characteristics of design thinking
Design thinking has three main characteristics:
- Empathy: By immersing yourself in real user scenarios and experiencing users' thoughts and needs, you can empathize with them. Empathy is the most significant feature of design thinking, which ensures that design thinking is people-oriented for product innovation.
- Create self-confidence: Everyone is creative, and encourage "thinking outside the box"; We also treat ideas that don't follow the mainstream and seem unrealistic at first glance.
- Quick trial and error: Encourage early testing and early failure. Once you have an idea, you need to quickly create a prototype and test it, weed out the wrong and unreasonable ideas and solutions as soon as possible, and filter out the right and reasonable ideas and solutions.
3. The double-diamond model of design thinking
The Double Diamond Model is a design thinking model proposed by the British Design Association.
It is very visual to depict our problem-solving process in the shape of two diamonds.
1. The diamond on the left
Represent the choice of direction and do the right thing.
First, use divergent thinking to uncover as many customer problems as possible;
Then, use convergent thinking to define the problem: what is the most important and urgent problem of the current customer, what are the customer's pain points, etc., to complete the problem definition.
2. The diamond on the right
Represents execution, doing things right.
First, use divergent thinking to conceive as many solutions as possible;
Then, use convergent thinking to determine the optimal solution at the moment and balance customer expectations, business model, and technical feasibility to deliver the solution.
Fourth, the application of design thinking in product development
The new product development process, from market opportunity to product definition, is often referred to in the industry as a fuzzy front-end.
The product innovation activity on the fuzzy front-end can be represented by a double-diamond model.
1. Why the diamond on the left?
The main answer is "why", that is, why this product was developed.
First, discover market opportunities through market research and opportunity exploration. The main thing is to find out the market opportunities that are suitable for us by looking at the market scale, growth trend, competitive situation, technical barriers, and their own resources and capabilities.
Then, according to market opportunities, dig deep into user pain points and form demand insights. The main thing is to find out the unmet user needs and potential user needs by mining, analyzing and screening user needs.
2. What to do with the right diamond
The main answer is "what to do", that is, to clarify what kind of product we want to develop.
First of all, according to the user's pain points, carry out creative ideas, and clarify the differentiation and competitive advantages of the product.
Then, according to the preferred creative plan, a detailed product definition is carried out, and the value proposition, function, features, attributes, etc. of the product are clarified to lock in market opportunities.
This article is written by Everyone is a Product Manager Author [Product Life], WeChat public account: [Product Life], original / authorized Published in Everyone is a product manager, without permission, it is forbidden to reprint.
Image from Unsplash, based on the CC0 license.