The document provides an overview of design thinking methodology and how it can be combined with LEAN principles for product development. It discusses the key stages of design thinking - empathizing to understand user needs, defining insights, ideating potential solutions, prototyping ideas, and testing prototypes with users. It also explains how minimum viable products and build-measure-learn cycles from LEAN can help accelerate the design process. The presentation aims to illustrate how design thinking and LEAN can be applied together to more efficiently develop products that meet user needs.

1. Product Development using Design Thinking & LEAN
Lavanya Raja
Dallas, October 19th

2. Agenda
1. Introduction to Design Thinking
2. Design Thinking Methodology
3. Design Thinking with LEAN

3. Design Thinking
“Design thinking is a human-centered
approach to innovation that draws
from the designer’s toolkit to integrate
the needs of people, the possibilities
of technology, and the requirements
for business success.”
- Tim Brown, IDEO
Innovation lies in the sweet spot

4. A Brief History of Design Thinking
Design for
Consumption
Design to Sell
Design for
Innovation
Design as Biz
Strategy
Period 1800s -1920s 1930s – 1960s 1960s – 2000s 2000s - present
Marketing
Focus
Production Marketing Marketing Holistic Marketing /
Relationship
Customer
Influence
None Little For feedback As co-creators
Related
Movements
/ Influencers
Industrial revolution;
Modern architecture
Advertising; Marketing
research; Industrial
design
User-centered design;
Ergonomic & human
factors design;
Human-computer
interaction; usability
Service design;
Design strategy;
User experience
design

5. Design Thinking Methodology
Empathize &
Define
Prototype &
Test

6. Empathize Customer Research Toolbox
Prototype
Test it
Card Sort
Get Creative
Guided Tour
Tell me
Video observation
Watch & Listen
Diagram it
Get a Report
Show me
Focus group
Survey / Questionnaire
Users not yet conscious of need
Users can articulate need
Ask the
user
Observe
the user
http://thoughtformdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/01_Research_Toolbox.pdf
Empathy is understanding the customer
needs. It involves
1. Recruiting participants
• Who? – Extreme users, diverse
mix, non customers
2. Interviews & Notes
• Be sure to capture emotions,
tensions, surprises and
contradictions
Wider research on the needs can be done
through
• Secondary empathy using channels like
social media, academic journals, etc.
• Research analogous experiences.

7. Empathy – Example
Sample Empathy findings from one of the projects
• Empathy allowed to understand the
knowledge gap of the product with the
customers
• It revealed how customers perceived the
product
• It enlightened about how customers
implicitly assume the product to behave
certain way in spite of the detailed
description / help on the product behavior
• It helped identify the actual root cause of
the challenges the product was facing
than the superficial reasons why we
thought the product wasn’t working for the
customers

8. Activity
We are setting up work space for our Agile pods and want employees to be comfortable in
the set up. We are surveying other employees in Agile set up and asking their feedback
• What are some challenges you encountered in Agile set up?
• Do you prefer a cabin to an open set up? Why?
• What benefits do you see with an open space set up?

9. Define
1. Group similar needs
Notes that share a similar intent,
problem or issue
2. Write down Themes for each
Ask “why” to broaden and “how?” to
narrow the themes
3. Level set and redefine themes
Empathy mapping exercise

10. Activity

11. Ideate
• Focuses on generating solutions to address a problem
• Creates a list of “How might we..?” brainstorming topics
Some of the ideation techniques widely used are - Brainstorming,
mind mapping, sketching and prototyping.
Most important theme throughout the process is to defer the
judgment, enabling separation of idea generation from evaluation
We experimented ideation with the “Product Box” exercise and were
very successful
Teams (product + business + tech + marketing) were given a few
cardboard boxes and asked to design a product box that they would
buy. When finished, they were asked to present their ideas.
Collaboration of members from various teams helped generate
unique ideas and perspectives.
Product Box exercise
http://www.innovationgames.com/product-box/

12. Activity
Use the post it / paper at your tables and as a group come up with ideas

13. Prototype & Test
The Prototype is the iterative generation of artifacts intended to answer questions that get you closer to
the final solution. A prototype can be anything that a user can interact with – be it a wall of post-it notes,
a wireframe, a gadget, a role-playing activity, or even a storyboard.
Prototype helps test various possibilities without committing to a direction early on and also helps fail
quickly giving time to course-correct.
Prototyping thumb rules
• Don’t spend too long on one prototype
• A prototype should answer a particular question when tested
• Build with the user in mind
Testing is another opportunity to understand the users and their choices. It is the chance to refine
solutions and make them better. Letting users compare multiple prototypes help reveal latent needs.

14. Design Thinking meets LEAN
Identify Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
A minimum viable product has just the core features
needed for the product deployment. It not only helps
to get the products to the customers faster, but also
provides accelerated learning and reduction in wasted
engineering hours.
Buy a feature exercise - Buy a feature is a
prioritization technique used to identify MVPs.
Participants (product team) are given limited amount
of virtual currency and features are assigned a price.
Participants are then asked to work together to
purchase what features they want.
http://www.innovationgames.com/virtual-market-games/

15. Build-Measure-Learn (BML)
The Build-Measure-Learn cycle is a feedback loop that is one of the core components of the Lean
Startup methodology. Its goal is to turn uncertainties, assumptions and risks into knowledge or “sure
things” that will eventually guide organizations and business towards progress. Through this process,
the key unknowns can actually be transformed into knowledge that can be used in product
development.
Below is an example of the knowledge gained by one of the BML cycles executed during a product
development.
Graph on the left depicts the # of hits to a page when the link to the page was changed in the website
based on the findings from user testing.
Graph on the right depicts the change in the no of requests made offline consistently stayed low after
the change
#ofhits
Date Month#ofofflinerequests

16. THANK YOU
Any questions?
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/lavanya-raja/25/a57/881