Design thinking helps to capture audience insights, feedback, aspirations, pain points, wants, and needs. Learn how you can incorporate design thinking into all you do.

1. Ready to be a
Design Thinking
Supa' Star?*
MELISSA SASSI
CHIEF PENGUIN, IBM Z
@MENTORAFRIKA
*Adapted from Interaction Design Foundation & an amazing, rock
star presentation from Tyler King from IBM & King Ade from SAP
from CodeTheCurve - a UNESCO, SAP & IBM Z hackathon

2. Melissa
Sassi
Chief Penguin
IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator
IBM Z Global Student Hub
@mentorafrika

3. What's
design?

4. HUMAN-CENTERED
TECHNIQUES TO HELP US
SOLVE PROBLEMS
What is
design
thinking?
It's the ability to systematically
gain access to insights. It teaches us
and others how we can learn from the
world around us. It can be applied
anywhere and everywhere! Let's go!

5. IT'S ALL THE RAGE!
Who uses
design
thinking?
Stanford | Harvard | MIT
IBM | Apple | Google

6. DESIGN THINKING IS FOR YOU! & YOU!
Designers Freelancers Founders Developers
DESIGN THINKING IS FOR EVERYONE!

7. Tell me more
about this
design thinking
thing!
Empathy is key to identifying
with our audience,
understanding their problems,
and seeing potential solutions.
Observe & Develop
Empathy
To solve any problem, we need
to identify alternative
strategies and ways of
thinking...hands-on.
Challenge your
Assumptions
To create products or solutions
for others or to work as a
team, we need to understand
others.
Understand your
Audience

8. Is
design
making
pretty
things?

9. Making
pretty
things.

10. The secret is to solve problems,
identify unmet needs, create joy
& resolve audience pain points

11. Lots of
people
build
cool
stuff,
right?

12. Smart
people
build
cool
stuff.

13. But...
they
don't
ever talk
to their
audience. UGH!UGH!UGH!

14. the people
who would
actually
use the
product...

15. Who
doesn't
want to
make cool
things?
So, what
if no one
actually
wants your
cool
thing?

16. What if people want to use
your cool thing but can't?

17. that's a
problem,
right?

18. A
systematic way
for solving
complex problems
and creating new
and innovative
ideas.
DESIGNDESIGNDESIGN
THINKING!THINKING!THINKING!

19. People1 Space2
Process3 Innovation4
THE
SECRET
SAUCE
FOR DESIGN
THINKING

20. Emphathize
with your
audience
Empathy*** Ideate TestDefine Prototype
Define
audience
needs, wants,
frustrations,
pain points.
Challenge
your
assumptions
and create &
innovative
ideas &
solutions.
Test your
solutions.
Start small
if needed.
Start
creating
solutions.
d-school method
DESIGN THINKING PROCESS
***Wait, what's empathy? It's the ability to
understand & relate to the feelings of others.

21. Design thinking is agreat way to betterunderstand problems thatour audience face.
PROBLEM UNKNOWN
Design thinking is ideal
when we do not have a
well defined problem
statement.
PROBLEM NOT
DEFINED WELL

22. Know the
problem
you are
trying to
solve.

23. Challenge
the Norm
Build a diverse and inclusive
team and talk to people from
different countries, age
groups, experience levels,
belief systems, abilities, and
learn from other.
Think outside in.

24. Who is facing the
problem?
Who
Why are they
facing the
problem?
Why
How are others
trying to solve
it?
How
PROBLEMSARE
BESTSOLVEDVIA
SYSTEMATIC
PROCESSES

25. What are the components that make up
the problem our audience faces?
These components (problems) make
up the features for us to explore
fixing.

26. Different
Genders
Different
Experiences
Diverse
Backgrounds Different
Abilities
DifferentAges
Different
Thinking

27. Now let's experiment until we find
that golden door of answers.
Test | Learn | Iterate | Ask | Listen

28. "It's easier
to tone down a
wild idea than
to think up a
new one."
- Alex Osborn

29. Brainstorming
Session
Brainstorming is super helpful to
throw out a lot of new, unique, and
innovative ideas; however, having a
moderator to keep people on track is
essential.
Do not worry about solving the
problem or making everything connect
perfectly.
Throw out ideas that pop into your
head and see where things go.
Throw out your ideas!

30. Think
quantity
first.
Not
quality.
Quality
comes
later.

31. Thenk
big
&
then
narrow
down.

32. HOW TO RUN A PROPER
BRAINSTORMING SESSION
TALK AS
A GROUP
TIME
LIMIT
START WITH
THE PROBLEM
ENCOURAGE
THE WEIRD
NO
JUDGING
SHOOT FOR
LOTS OF IDEAS
BUILD FROM
OTHERS
BE VISUAL
Don't forget to assign a note taker!

33. Share
your
ideas
freely
and
openly.
NO FEAR!

34. Sticky Notes
Picture Board
Whiteboard
Write stuff down. Illustrate. Share with the group.

35. STORIES CAN UNLOCK
UNHIDDEN IDEAS.
Think of outlandish, wild,
weird, and different things
that would break the norm.
Be
imaginative

36. Capture
the
Synergy
Keep people on topic and
make sure even the most
reserved and introverted
team members have a safe
place to share ideas and
be involved.
FREEDOM BABY

37. Liberate yourself from
the same ole, same ole
thinking

38. Turn ideas into digital
form!
Or...go analog!
Test em' out!
See what your audience
thinks.
Ask! Ask! Ask!
NOW LET'S
PROTOTYPE!

39. TALK TO PEOPLE.
STRUT YOUR PROTOTYPE MAGIC.
Start from somewhere so you
can collect ideas from your
audience. It won't be
perfect.
Foundation
Be prepared to rapidly
iterate to incorporate
feedback from your
audience.
Don't get stuck!
Adapt
Show your audience even if
V1 sucks and you know it is
not right.
Start somewhere or you will
never get anywhere.
Show
Take ownership over changes
and avoid errors before you
launch by listening to your
audience and incorporating
their feedback.
Minimize

40. Prototyping
IT'SANONGOING
EXPERIMENT Sketch it out Create a physical
prototoype
Test it out with
your audience
Use it to try out
new ideas or
concepts

41. Checkthis
prototypeout!

42. Thisisa
prototypetoo!

43. Let your audience take your baby for a
spin!

44. Prevent
a mistake
Corret
a mistake
Failing
miserably
Cost
Evaluateearly.
Askoften.

45. Desirability
+
Feasibility
+
Viability
=
Innovation
WE ARE GOING TO
FIND OUT!
Presentations are communication
tools that can be used as
demonstrations, lectures.
So, what is
innovation
anyway?

46. What worked?
What didn't?
Adapt to what
best fits to
meet your
audience needs.

47. ONE MORE TIME
WHAT'S THE DESIGN THINKING PROCESS?
UNDERSTAND OBSERVE DEFINE IDEATE PROTOTYPE TEST

48. observe | reflect | make

49. Fail
fast!

50. Fail
cheap!

51. Fail
better!

52. To design think, silly
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO DO AGAIN?
Build your
team
Identify your
audience
Plan your
project
Establish a
timeline
Focus
Validate
assumptions
with real
people
Shift if
necessary
#DoTheThing

53. Don't be afraid to pivot!

54. Create
choices.
Think
big.

55. Start making decisions.
Remember that yellow door?

56. You are
probably
not the
audience
of your
product,
right?
Don't
worry,
that's ok!

57. Find your
customers.
Go talk to
them.

58. Build
empathy
with your
customers.
Talk to
them.

59. He/She...Says | Thinks | Feels | Does
Document what you learned.

60. QUOTES | ACTIONS | EXPECTATIONS | REACTIONS | VALUES
Make sense of what you wrote down.

61. Focus there.
Pain points will emerge!

62. Find a
problem.
Map out
that
person's
life.
Focus.

64. A Quick Breakdown
PROJECT COST
UncomfortableScaryConfusingPainful Slow Challenging Costly
But, what do we mean by pain points?

66. How does your sticky
note map look now?
Do you see the
pain points?
What about the
opportunities?
Do you see
inneficiencies?
What about
confusion?

67. Now, let's translate everything we
learned into actionable needs.

68. Who? What? Why?
needs
a way
to
so
that
Do what you do best! Come up with ideas!

69. BUTBUTBUT
HOW?HOW?HOW?

70. MAP!MAP!MAP!
MAP!MAP!MAP!
MAP!MAP!MAP!Map out what your audience
experience looks like.

71. Don't keep ideas in your head!

72. Join your audience on their journey.
As much as you can.

73. Communicate!
Communicate!
Communicate!
Align with
your team!

74. Don't forget...your audience is made up of
real people with real problems and real pain points.

75. To learn more & earn your
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77. ANY QUESTIONS?

78. Melissa
Sassi
Chief Penguin
IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator
IBM Z Global Student Hub
@mentorafrika