GDG Cloud Southlake #19: Sullivan and Schuh: Design Thinking Primer: How to Build Better Ideas

GDG CLOUD SOUTHLAKE(MARCH 1, 2023)
DESIGN THINKING
HOW TO BUILD BETTER IDEAS WITH

confidential | ©2017 Sabre GLBLInc. Allrights reserved. 2
Design Thinking is a framework that
translates user needs into products,
services, and experiences.
It is a highly collaborative approach that
yields better, more innovative solutions.

(products, processes, customer engagements)
• Redesign an entire application or experience
• Create and illustrate a new product concept
• Reimagine the “next-generation” of an existing product
• Create a digitally enabled regional sales process
• Rethink the customer onboarding process for a BU
Design Thinking can be applied broadly.

Design Thinking must be interdisciplinary.
Product
Sales Tech
• Product Owners
• Solution Architects
• Developers & QA
• Design Production
• Sales
• Sales Engineers
• Account Directors
• Sales Support
• Product Managers
• Marketing
• Technical Product Managers
• Design & User Research
Clients and Users

• Know your customers better than you ever expected.
• Greatly speed up alignment and reduce churn
• Get more time, money, and resources for your ideas.
• Create a product vision based on what users want.
• Build cutting-edge solutions with the latest technology.
• Release your product faster with better requirements.
• Create more accurate estimates.
Benefits of Design Thinking

IDEO DESIGN THINKING
STANFORD dSCHOOL
IBM DESIGN THINKING
GOOGLE SPRINT

Major Brands Invest in Design Thinking Training
Number of employees reported to have participated in Design Thinking training
Many firms have invested in training a significant number of key employees in Design Thinking principles.
They want to create better strategies, products/services, and change how people approach new challenges.

So what is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking helps answer the fundamental question:
“How can we build better products?”

How might we
experience flowers
in a hotel.

Draw a vase. Draw a new way to
experience flowers
in a hotel.

experience flowers
in a hotel.
Create a better search
results page.
Create a better way
to learn about [topic].

experience flowers
in a hotel.
Create a better search
results page.
Create a better way
to learn about [topic].
Feature-focused. Experience-focused.

Design thinking is a critical thinking
framework used to translate human
needs into new products, services and
experiences.
9

DISCOVER
Insights into the problem
DEFINE
Focused opportunity
DEVELOP
Potential solutions
DELIVER
Solutions that work
UNDERSTAND THE OPPORTUNITY UNDERSTAND THE SOLUTION
BRITISH DESIGN COUNCIL “DOUBLE DIAMOND” MODEL

Understand
the User
How do they work? Why do
they want or need this?
• Determine your primary
users and key stakeholders
• Understand how they work
and the context
• Identify real needs and
motivations of your users
Explore ideas
& options
What happens today?
What if…
• Map the current-state
user experience
• Highlight gaps and current
user pain points
• Brainstorm ways to
improve a user experience
Define the
new concept
Clearly define a solution
and the impact it delivers
• Identify value propositions
“Who, What and Wow!”
• User-focused (Do not define
around feature requests)
• Concept definition must
resonate/align stakeholders
Create a
Prototype
Visualize the idea for
your users
• Sketch different ways to
solve a problem
• Vote on the best ideas to
explore with customers
• Build a light-weight
prototype to show users
Validate
with users
Test the concept
with real users
• Validate the prototype
with real users
• Determine what works
and does not work
• Refine and iterate the
prototype, as needed
Frame the
Opportunity
Clearly define the right
problem/opportunity
• Focus on a significant
business/user opportunity
• Meets the unique needs
of a specific user/role
• It is measurable
(time, revenue, steps, etc.)
DESIGN THINKING FRAMEWORK

DESIGNTHINKING / YEAR OVER YEAR PROJECTS
PROCESSES
2020
2021
2022
2023
(to mid-year)
PRODUCT
WORKSHOP
12
16
14
10
PROCESS
WORKSHOP
04
06
12
11
CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT
08
16
12
08

/ BY THE NUMBERS
DESIGNTHINKING
1K+ 357 60+
Internal Employees External Clients Products & Services

Let’s take a look at how we typically work
for a moment…

Start End
Why products fail?
Plan Build

Design Thinking can add clarity early on
DESIGN
CHALLENGE:
Problem or
opportunity
New, user-
validated concept
with prototype
and plan
DESIGN THINKING
Start End (Delivery pushed out)
Deadline
Plan Build

Putting “Fail Fast” in Context
Risk
Time
Failing here
is bad.
Rapidly
experiment here.
There is less risk and
you can learn/adapt.
Project
Plan Build
“Fail-Fast” is associated with Design Thinking and “Lean” approaches. Failing fast means making sure we
conduct rapid prototyping and validation early to avoid failing late in the product development life cycle.

THIS IS AN
ACCELERATOR!
LESS RE-WORK. MORE ALIGNMENT.

FRAME THE
OPPORTUNITY
CLEARLY DEFINE THE RIGHT PROBLEM OR OPPORTUNITY

Identifying a specific opportunity or problem is
the single most important factor of success.
If you are addressing the wrong one, you are not
giving your users what they need.
Frame the
Opportunity
Clearly definethe right
problem/opportunity
• Focus on a significant
opportunity or business
problem
• Meets the unique needs
of a specific user/role
• It is measureable
(time, revenue, steps, etc.)

Frame the Opportunity
Design is intentional. It must solve a specific problem or pursue
a business opportunity. Successful solutions achieve these goals.
Focused on a specific opportunity or business problem.
• What’s the core problem?
• What’s are the pain points?
Meets the unique needs of a specific person
• Who are the primary user(s)?
• What should we know about them?
Measuredin an exact way (revenue, time, steps, etc.)
• How is success measured by your users?
• How does the company measure success?
Who What Wow

PRODUCT DEFINITION WORKSHEET
is a document to work with your team to understand and define
the information related to the problem you are trying to solve
WHY USE IT
WHEN TO USE IT
WHAT YOU NEED
Before the workshop. The Product Definition Worksheet is used to review and
capture relevant information and insights for focused problem solving.
• 60-90 Minutes
• Copy of Production Definition
Worksheet
• Pen or Computer
To capture information in order to frame the opportunity to solvefor your
users.

Overview of the Worksheet
• Background Summary
• Project Overview
• Problem/Opportunity
• Business/User Metrics
• Customer Insights
• Key User Tasks
• Features & Functions
• Competitive Differentiation
• Requirements
• Project Team
• High-level Timeline

Our Team/Project is called:
It’s kind of like: (Story/Metaphor)
The person (or group) who uses it is _______________
Currently they struggle because __________________
In a perfect world, they would be able to ____________
This would be awesome because _________________
2 Minute Read Out
Two-Minute Readout
Our project is called
It’s kind of like
The person or group who uses it is
Currently, they struggle because
In a perfect world, they would be able to
This would be awesome because

UNDERSTAND
THE USER
HOW DO THEY WORK? WHAT DO THEY WANT AND NEED?

To learn anything meaningful about users,
you need to talk to people and observe them.
The bestdata comes from people who perform a
task.They can explain their pain points better
thananyone.

Understand the User
When you learn about users, it is impossible to know anything
meaningful without talking to people and observing them.
• Define the range of stakeholders and your primary users.
• Perform observations and interviews to thoroughly understand users.
• Identify the needs of users based on their current experience.
• Grounds your future designs in deep empathy for users.
• Focus on user motivations and goals—why are they trying to do things
— not just what they are doing.
• Insights gained from understanding users are used to explore and
develop meaningful experiences for your users.

Identifies stakeholders, their expectations, and relationships.
STAKEHOLDER MAP

• Tools to visualizekey stakeholders related to the
product, process or service.
• Shows the strength of the relationships between
stakeholders.
• Provides insightson what motivates stakeholders
• Uncover potential risks
• Determine how to account for objections
• Reveals potential bottlenecks
Benefits of Stakeholder Maps

An activity to help understandwhata user experiences during atask
Empathy Map

• Tool to collaborate with other people to collect
information about users.
• Helps your team to identify key insights about your
users.
• Create them before an important decision or after
observing users.
• Provides alignment on what the user needs from your
product or service.
• Startingpoint for building (or updating) user personas.
• Iterate on them when you collect additional data.
• Focuses on the experience as people use your product
or service.
BENEFITS OF EMPATHY MAPS

WHICH INSIGHTS ARE MOST IMPORTANT?
Empathy maps contain a lot of information and insights. Review the readout results
and determine which insights seem to be the most important to keep in mind moving
ahead.
WHERE ARE WE MAKING ASSUMPTIONS?
We often make assumptions about users during this exercise, which insights are
based on assumptions? Which ones should we validate further with some quick user
research?
WHICH INSIGHTS TRANSLATE INTO DESIGN THEMES?
Often you can cluster user insights and create theme that will drive the design
process. Which themes have you discovered? Break these out and document them
separately to reference throughout the Design Thinking process.
IDENTIFY DESIGN DRIVERS
Define specific user insights that the team should carry forward throughout the process

A research-based profile used to align the project team
USER PERSONAS

• Helps your team understandthe nuances of the user.
• Focus teams on key data and design drivers when
developing products
• Help teams to understand the pain points of the user.
• Communicatesthe motivations and goals of a particular
user
• Helps teams to gain context and understand the
environment which users work.
• Defines tasks and the responsibilitiesof the user.
Benefits of User Personas

HEADER
Here is a snapshot of the user and
their role. It explains some of the
user’s personal motivations, goals,
and high-level duties.
USER INSIGHTS
Here is additional information to
provide context to what your user
is experiencing on a daily basis.
DATA AND DESIGN DRIVERS
Here are some of the essential data and
design drivers that you should consider
when you enhance the user experience.

EXPLORE IDEAS
AND OPTIONS
WHAT HAPPENS TODAY? WHAT ARE THE PAIN POINTS?

New solutions are made by mapping the current
experience and highlighting user pain points.
Future-state solutions should resolve current pain
points and emphasize the benefits to the user and
the business.

Product-Centric User-Centric
• What do our customers need
to get done?
• Is it a problem or need that
we can help them solve?
• What do our customers expect us
to solve for with them?
• What do our customers need to
see before they want to buy?
• What products/services can
we sell to our customers?
• What features and functions
do our customers want?
• How can we make money from
existing and new customers?
• How can we reach our sales
targets and business goals?

User-Centric View of Travel
Prepare Plan/Pack
Travel
IBM Designcamp :: IBM Confidential :: ©2014 IBM Corporation
IBM Summer Designcamp :: IBM Confidential :: ©2013 IBM Corporation 1
Enjoy Your Destination
Shop / Book
Search Local Activities

Breaking Down the Whole Experience
A user journey map, or scenario map, is used to break an experience with a product down into discreet stages and
tasks. This allows the team to make sure they understand the end-to-end user flow and identify specific pain points
and opportunities in context.
Break the experience
or task down into
specific stages
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
1
List the user
tasks or activities
for each stage
Task/Activity 1
Task/Activity 2
Task/Activity 3
Task/Activity 4
Task/Activity 5
Task/Activity 6
Task/Activity 7
Task/Activity 12
Task/Activity 13
Task/Activity 8
Task/Activity 9
Task/Activity 10
Task/Activity 11
2
Identify current-
statechallenges and
pain points
Pain Point 1
Pain Point 2
Pain Point 3 Pain Point 4
Pain Point 5
3

• Identifies the customer journey in a logical order
• User-centric focus on where customers interact
with the business
• Provides a focus on the business needs of a
particularuser
• Show gaps in the current customer experience
and opportunitiesfor the future experience
• Allows teams to concentrate efforts and
expenditures to maximizean effective business
strategy
Benefits of Journey Maps

An activity to focus a team on what a user needs to
solve a problem
NEED STATEMENTS

___________needs a way to _____________,so they can ____________.
Who What Why
Good Example: Describes Need & Reason

• Answers the question, “What does our user really need?”
• Help a team to synthesize research into meaningful
statementsabout users.
• Pinpointsthe user’s pain points for your team.
• Startingpoint for future discussions on how to solve user
pain points
• Describes the user behavior you want to change in the
future.
• Helps to focus (or re-focus) the thinkingback on the
user.
• Based on real user observations, not expert opinions..
Benefits of Need Statements

An activity to rapidly brainstorm impactful ideas
quickly with a team
BIG IDEA VIGNETTES

Big Ideas Features
• Broad
• Conceptual
• User-focused
• Discreet
• Tactical
• Product-focused

A chart to quickly prioritize new ideas based on impact
and feasibility
PRIORITIZATION GRID

Prioritizing Big Ideas
• No Brainers
(Low hanging fruit,basicexpectations)
• Differentiators
(Waysyoubeat thecompetition)
• Performance Payoffs
(Makesuserfaster, moreefficient)
• Unwise Ideas
(Avoidtheseideas,don’twastetime)

Prioritized the Big Ideas
Now, we need to further describe each of the big ideas.

DEFINE THE
NEW CONCEPT
CLEARLY DEFINE THE CONCEPT & THE IMPACT IT DELIVERS

Defining the new concept is essential, so it
resonates with users and the product team.
Concept definition clarifies the product vision,
explains the value to users, and drives alignment
with the product team.

Anatomy of a User Objective
User Objectives are written as meaningful user outcomes. They tell you where to go, not how to
get there, empowering you to explore breakthrough ideas without losing sight of the goal.
Who
Who are your users?
Make it clear who you
aim to serve—and who
you don’t.
What
What’s the user need
that you want to meet?
Turn your user needs
into project goals.
Wow
How do you measure
success? How do you
differentiate from
your competitors?
source: IBM Design Thinking

It should take no more than 30 minutes for a
developer to build and run an app using IBM
and 3rd party APIs.
IBM Bluemix, 2014
Who What Wow
source: IBM Design Thinking
Example of a User Objective

CREATE A
PROTOTYPE
VISUALIZE YOUR IDEA FOR YOUR USERS

Prototypes allow product teams to visualize
ideas, refine concepts, and experiment quickly.
Business requirements are easily misinterpreted.
Prototypes provide clarity and alignment.

Prototypes Visualize & Demo Ideas

Different Levels of Prototypes
SKETCHES & WHITEBOARD LOW-FIDELITY DESIGN HIGH-FIDELITY DESIGN

Use low-fidelity tools to
drive high-fidelity ideas.
SKETCHES & WHITEBOARD

Critique
• Determines design intent
• Looks for what works and doesn’t work
• Asks for clarification
• Is honest and objective
• Is positive about what’s not working
• Is concrete and specific
• Is about the idea, not person
• Is collaborative
Criticism
• Finds faults
• Looks for problems
• Condemns what it doesn’t understand
• Can be abrasive
• Is usually negative
• Is general and vague
• Seems like a personal attack
• Is opinionated

I like…
I like…
I wonder…
Critique Template

Opportunity to ensure the prototype is user-
focused and will meet the needs of the users.
VALIDATE WITH USERS

Prototype validation lets you know how well your
solution can be used and learned.
You want to validate that your solution optimizes
how people work and objectively evaluate their
response to the prototype.

Why Do We Validate
with Real Users?
• Test our assumptions
• Validate/refine our prototypes
• Perform rapid experiments
• Learn more about users
• Test early with low-fi prototypes
• “Fail fast” (test, iterate, test…)

Validate with Users, Not Buyers
Cristina – Travel Agent
Main Goal:
She wants an easy-to-use product to help
her do her job. She uses it everyday.
Motivations:
• Intuitive user interface
• Easy to learn and use
Pain Points:
• Travelers are waiting on me
• Messy navigation
Roberto – IT Buyer
Main Goal:
To get a product that’s easy to integrate
in the IT infrastructure.
Motivations:
• Easy to integrate and scale
• Affordable product, low training costs
Pain Points:
• Requires customization
• Ongoing support and maintenance

How Many Users Should We Test?
• 5-6 users uncover the vast majority of issues per task.
• You may have multiple user groups, such as agents and managers.

Version 1 Version 2
PRODUCT DESIGN THINKING: EVOLUTIONARY INNOVATION
You can use the framework to do evolutionary innovation, where you update an existing product. For most people, we see
evolutionary innovation with a new release of a product. Examples would include the latest car or phone you bought.
EXAMPLES:
• Updating to the latest version of your phone (version 1 to version 2).
• Downloading the latest update of Netflix to your phone with new enhancements.
• As a designer, you make software fixes to an existing feature set.

New Idea New Product
PRODUCT DESIGN THINKING: REVOLUTIONARY INNOVATION
You can use the framework to do revolutionary innovation, where you create an entirely new product. Revolutionary innovation
transforms industries. When people see them, they don’t want to go back to the old way. It becomes a new market.
EXAMPLES:
• Imagine switching from feature phone (Blackberry) to a smart phone (iPhone).
• Purchasing an electric car rather than a gas-powered vehicle.
• As a designer, you build new software (or a new module) for your customers.

Customers
Services
SERVICE DESIGN THINKING: INNOVATE YOUR SERVICES
You can use the framework to do service innovation rather than product innovation. Service design thinking focuses
on the different touchpoints your customers have when you deliver experiences. People value good customer service.
EXAMPLES:
• You rethink the handoffs between internal teams to optimize how people work.
• Taking a manual process and automating it with machine learning and AI.
• As a designer, you make a touchless experience because of a global pandemic.

Business Model
(CURRENT)
Business Model
(NEW & IMPROVED)
EXAMPLES:
• You want to define customer value propositions for new and existing customers.
• Your business needs to understand early adopters, key partners, revenue streams, etc.
• As a designer, you want to run rapid experiment to validate assumptions.
BUSINESS DESIGN THINKING: CREATING NEW MODELS
You can use the framework to perform business innovation, where you are designing a business. In this case, you
want your customers to understand a value proposition and the business needs to develop a new model for its users.

LESSONS LEARNED
AND MYTH BUSTING

How do you scale design thinking?
• Executive sponsorship (includes all BUs).
• Small team of expert facilitators.
• Training program (includes Train-the-Trainer).
• Design thinking assets (toolkits, posters, video, etc).
• Success stories (with clients, products, and more.
• Use short videos for success stories and training.
How do you handle resistance?
• Educate people before a design thinking project.
• Get alignment with executives and stakeholders.
• Train people for larger workshops to assist you.
• Show your work in a success story video.
• Teach people design thinking during onboarding.
• Create a Community of Practice to help people.
What are tips and tricks to level up?
• Work smart across time zones and schedules.
• Pre-work saves you times versus co-creation.
• Give people time to learn new tools and technology.
• Plan for unexpected conversations in schedule.
• Start with easy activities and build up.
• Manage energy with break, coffee, icebreakers, etc.
What’s after design thinking?
• May need to do additional user research.
• Create prototypes to visual ideas.
• Build experiments to validate assumptions.
• Write a report/success story to socialize with others.
• Invest in more training to scale design thinking.
• Obtain funding with key executives.

Myth: Design thinking takes too long.
• Teams churn for months rather than a ½ day with us.
• We can split activities into 1-2 hour sessions.
• People do not do their pre-work or homework.
• Don’t have right people in session (they’re too busy).
• Design thinking is seen as a bottleneck.
Myth: Facilitation is easy!
• Facilitation is not the same thing as participation.
• Strong personalities are hard to manage.
• Hidden agendas affect the outcome.
• Plan, design, synthesize, report and facilitate.
• Some people will not want you in the room!
Myth: People want design thinking.
• No executive support for design thinking.
• People go straight to solutioning.
• It’s out of people’s comfort zone.
• They don’t want to understand the problem/users.
• Not in budget or schedule (slows us down).
Myth: We know the answer!
• Experts have a strong bias (may not be open).
• You are not the user. You are not the user!
• Quickest solution is the best solution.
• The customer told us they wanted this feature.
• Let’s just copy what the competition did!

Design Strategy Director
Brian Sullivan
Design Strategy Lead
J. Schuh
KEEP UP WITH US: LOVE TO CONNECT
linkedin.com/in/jschuh/
linkedin.com/in/briankeithsullivan/

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GDG Cloud Southlake #19: Sullivan and Schuh: Design Thinking Primer: How to Build Better Ideas