Presented by Dupla Studios 6/19/19 at Pacific Tower.

1. Design Thinking
Your Creative Toolkit to Solving Real-World Problems
Kevin Decker, Head of Research and Strategy
Dupla Studios
Melissa Quintanilha, Head of Design

2. What is Design Thinking
Case Study 1: Automotive Infotainment
Case Study 2: Democracy Lab
Break
Practice: Interviewing skills
Practice: Making sense of user data
AGENDA

3. Design Thinking is an innovation methodology
WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING?
- for products, for services, for anything

4. WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING?
Design Thinking is a culture of mindsets

5. The Design Thinking Process

6. Getting the right design
Getting the design right

7. Case Study 1:
Automotive infotainment

8. Get into the field and empathize
1 DISCOVER
Make your observations with your
target profile/persona, at the front
lines of the problem.
Explore the problem from the classic
reporting vectors;
Who, What, Where, When, and Why
One important point: Your observations
have to be something you personally
observed or heard.
A behavior or a quote.
It’s ok to note other problems that you identify
as an expert, but you want to solve your
customers’ pain points.
Avoid jumping to solutions
Don’t assume to know what people need
before you’ve identified the common
problems.
Contextual Interviews and how to handle them
The beginner’s guide to contextual interviewing
RESOURCES

9. FIELD OBSERVATIONS
• Most people are distracted by things they bring into the
car, cell phone, coffee, food, makeup, electric razors etc.
• Existing in-car infotainment systems are overly complex
with multiple screens, confusing navigation, and unfamiliar
interaction models, (e.g. BMW dial/knob control)
• Overly complex systems take more cognitive resources and
attention than simple systems.
• Most modern infotainment systems use touch as the
primary input making people remove their hands from the
wheel (most allow for voice activation for phones).
CASE STUDY: AUTOMOTIVE INFOTAINMENT
1 DISCOVER

10. Make sense of the data
Extract themes from your field
observations. Themes are clusters of
observations that are associated.
Group themes into insights. Insights
are your analysis of how the themes
relate to your research problem/
questions.
Your insights become your product
requirements. Translating insights into
requirements is done by asking how the insight
describes the solution.
Scenarios are created which are stories of how
customers use the solution. Organizing the
scenarios together in chronological order
becomes the user journey.
Affinity Diagrams: Learn how to cluster and bundle ideas and facts
A Beginner’s Guide to User Journey Mapping
RESOURCES
2 DEFINE

11. • People are required to look away from the road for too
long in current solutions.
• People need a simple navigation schema to maximize
their attention to driving.
• People should not have to remove their hands from the
vehicle controls in order to interact with the system.
DESIGN INSIGHTS
CASE STUDY: AUTOMOTIVE INFOTAINMENT
• All screens need to be understood at a glance (a look
lasting under a few seconds).
• Interaction should be accomplished without touch.
• Information prioritization puts highest important
information closest to the steering wheel, HUD. Less
important on the console or screen.
PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS
USER SCENARIOS AND STORYBOARDS
2 DEFINE

12. 1. Defer judgement
2. Encourage wild ideas
3. Build on the ideas of
others (“Yes, and…”
mentality)
4. Stay focused on the topic
5. Go for quantity
6. Brainstorm with the data
in sight
EXPLORE OPTIONS
Operationally define your
success
1. What does success
look like?
2. How would you know
you were a success?
3. What behaviors would
characterize the ideal?
DEFINE SUCCESS
Ideate and Prototype
3 DEVELOP
Brainstorming
RESOURCES
Prototype most
promising ideas.
PROTOTYPE

13. • Screen layouts enable
understanding in less
than a few seconds
• All interactions are voice
first
• Primary information
appears in the HUD,
Secondary information is
surfaced behind the
steering wheel and
tertiary information lives
on the in dashboard/
console.
SUCCESS CRITERIA
CASE STUDY: AUTOMOTIVE INFOTAINMENT
3 DEVELOP

14. 1. Create prototypes with the idea
that the prototype may be thrown
away. (don’t fall in love with it)
2. Show customer (get feedback
early and often)
3. Catalog failures/Keep successes
4. Iterate
5. Wash, rinse, and repeat until
design meets success criteria
BIAS TO ACTION: CREATE, MAKE, DISCARD
Delighting your customers means
combining the pain points you
observed, as an expert, with the pain
points your customers explicitly
revealed to you into a single solution.
REFINE AND FINISH
Iterate and Perfect
4 DELIVER

15. CASE STUDY: AUTOMOTIVE INFOTAINMENT
4 DELIVER

16. Delighting your customers is a
process, not luck

17. Case Study 2

18. FIELD OBSERVATIONS
•Project owners often work in isolation
•Volunteers tend to me more hobbyist than professionals
•Projects are hard to discover
•Hard to get volunteers if project is not open source.
•Volunteers have limited time to devote, so they want to have impact with the
time they have.
•Difficult to maintain volunteer commitment.
•Cost of onboarding volunteers exceeds benefits
•Finding the right talent with current tools a challenge.
CASE STUDY: DEMOCRACY LAB

19. DESIGN CONSTRAINTS
•Volunteers need to find jobs that they already have
skills to do.
•Non-profits need to retain their volunteers to be
successful.
•Regular communication is key.
•Access anywhere so that volunteers can see
information at their convenience so they are not
working in isolation.
•Projects need to have resources attached to them to
onboard new volunteers as simply as possible.
DESIGN INSIGHTS
•Volunteers need to feel their work has impact.
•Non-profits need specific skills but do not know how
to advertise them.
•Skilled volunteers develop loyalty when they feel
responsibility for calling or purpose.
•Projects tend to have poor onboarding which leaves
new volunteers unsure of ability to help.
•Communications between the non-profits and
volunteers is random and comes in fits and spurts.
CASE STUDY: DEMOCRACY LAB

20. SUCCESS METRICS
•Increase in volunteer
sustainability in non-profit
engagements
•Increase in volunteer satisfaction
•Increase in volunteer acquisition
by non-profits using Democracy
Lab compared to those who do
not.
CASE STUDY: DEMOCRACY LAB

21. Success metrics
The solution is a Web application where volunteers can input their skills and
interests and the site will output opportunities and requirements for each
effort.
https://democracylab.org
CASE STUDY: DEMOCRACY LAB

22. “The design thinking process we learned from Dupla Studios was
essential to the subsequent success we experienced researching,
designing and developing our open source platform.
We learned the critical importance of talking to users, how to distill
users' observations into insights, and how to make those insights
actionable. These lessons now inform every decision we make.”
Mark Frischmuth, CEO Democracy Lab

23. WORKSHOP
Understanding your users

24. 15 MINUTES
Break

25. Even imperfect data trumps opinion
DISCOVER
Better to do something than nothing

26. FIELD OBSERVATIONS
Data are bits of information that you can
gather. There are three valuable pieces of
data that you can access.
•Primary data – 1st hand information you
collect.
•Secondary data – data supplied by a third
party, anecdote about themselves
•Tertiary – data from someone about
someone else's experience.
Any data trumps opinion
1 DISCOVER

27. Some popular research methods ranked from least to most expensive
Pros Cons Costs
Periodicals Easy to find and use Quality, interpretation of results Low
Surveys Easy to set up, large sample
size, analysis tools included
Access by target audience, data entry, actionable
results difficult
Low
1:1 interviews Easy to perform, flexible time
frame, deep dive on subject
matter
Invasive, interviewer ability, small sample size, analysis
is messy and time consuming
Low
Focus groups Quick to perform, modest cost Very challenging method to execute, data is similar to
interviews
Modest
Participatory design Immediate feedback, deep
dive,
Small sample size, time intensive, ability to respond to
feedback
Mid-high
Longitudinal Studies Data comes in over time, deep
dive, large sets of data
Costly in both time and money, small sample sizes,
attenuation.
High
Understanding the people you are designing for

28. Every method relies on one key ingredient…
CURIOUS MIND
Asking good questions

29. • Ask open-ended questions
• Ask about actual behavior, not intention
• Ask about illustrative stories
Good vs Bad questions
DO DON’T
• Ask leading questions
• Ask compound questions
• Point out specific issues

30. Good vs Bad questions
• Q: "So you feel that grilling outdoors fosters family togetherness?“
• A: "Sure."
• Q: "Is there anyone in your family who doesn't enjoy grilling?"
• A: "My father."
• Q: "But you feel it's a bonding ritual all the same?"
• A: "Yeah, kinda."
• Q: "How does grilling work in the text of your life? Would charcoal have interfered with the process of social bonding?"
• A: "I'm not sure, really. We just prefer gas."

31. Good vs Bad questions
Bad questions Good questions
Do you like free weights?
Answer can be given with a single word answer, does not
allow for alternatives
What kind of equipment do you like to use at the gym?
Invites longer answers, allows for a larger variety of answers
Would you say that Cardio classes are a better workout than
lifting weights?
A lot of people think weights are dangerous, you agree right?
Implies a “correct” answer
What type of exercise gives you the best workout?
Allows for all types of answers
When at the gym do you like free weights, or weight
machines or resistance bands, or cross fit?
Compound questions can be confusing.
Which strength training method do you like to do?
Lets interviewee inform you of their behavior.

32. • Easy to perform
• Flexible time frame
• Deep dive on subject matter
Method: Interviews
PROS CONS
• Invasive
• Interviewer ability
• Small sample size
• Analysis is messy and time consuming

33. • Create a discussion guide
• Pre-define a recording method – bring a
back up plan
• Limit the number of attendees – is it an
interview or inquisition?
• Know your topic boundaries – stay on task
• One interviewer per interviewee
• Use appropriate note taking method
Interviewing Best Practices
Prepare Respect participants
• Be on time/start on time
• ALWAYS ask permission for recording (even note taking)
• Explain reason for interview
• Explain confidentiality
• Make it a conversation
• Take notes but don’t be a stenographer
• Never judge responses
• Keep your timetable

34. • Participants = People
• Put yourself in the other person’s shoes
• Listen at least twice as much as you speak
• Don’t feel the need to fill silence
• Never interrupt!
• Don’t judge what you hear
Interviewing Best Practices

35. Data Gathering
Techniques
PRACTICE

36. • Break into groups of 3
• 3 minutes
Write a discussion guide to learn everything you can about your group mates
• 1 minute
Assign each person in the group a role (Interviewer, Interviewee, Observer)
• 5 minutes
Interview your group mates.
• 2 minutes
Have observer critique interview with specific examples
• Rotate roles until everyone has had a chance in each role
PRACTICE (30 mins)

37. • Tell me a little about yourself - where are you from,
where do you live now?
• What do you do for a living? For fun?
• Tell me about a typical day.
• What is your least / most favorite thing that happens in
a typical day?
• If you could wave a magic wand and have an app to
make the least / most favorite thing better, what would
you want to have happen?
Example Discussion Guide

38. Making sense of
user data

39. Assembling your observations
1
It has to be something
you saw your heard.
A behavior or a quote.
GUIDELINE
2
It can’t be a solution yet.
Don’t assume to know what
people need before you’ve
identified the common problems.
GUIDELINE
MAKING SENSE OF USER DATA
problem
definition
research
question
gather
observations
glean
insights
develop design
constraints

40. Populating your affinity diagram
MAKING SENSE OF USER DATA
USE SHARPIE
ONLY
WRITE ONE
DATA POINT
PER POST-IT
WRITE LARGE
AND LOUD
USE ONE
COLOR OF
POST-IT PER
INTERVIEWEE
problem
definition
research
question
gather
observations
glean
insights
develop design
constraints

41. Developing groups and themes
MAKING SENSE OF USER DATA
Look at your research and
create an affinity diagram
looking for groups of behaviors,
attitudes, or attributions.
FIND YOUR GROUPS
What do the groupings mean?
Not looking for a description,
but rather investigating why
those things are affiliated. Write
down the relationship between
the things in the group.
FIND YOUR THEMES
problem
definition
research
question
gather
observations
glean
insights
develop design
constraints

42. Extracting insights from user data
MAKING SENSE OF USER DATA
Identify which of these insights
has direct bearing on the design
challenge that you want to
resolve, discard the rest (archive
if possible).
AND EXTRACT THE MOST IMPORTANT ONES
Think about and document the
relationship between your
themes AND your problem,
domain, or design challenge.
FIND YOUR INSIGHTS
Theme + Problem = Insight
problem
definition
research
question
gather
observations
glean
insights
develop design
constraints

43. Insights become design constraints
MAKING SENSE OF USER DATA
Refine your insights into design
constraints depending upon what
type of solution you are attempting
to resolve.
Design constraints are no more or
less than the translation of how
your themes define the boundaries
of your solution.
REFINE YOUR INSIGHTS
problem
definition
research
question
gather
observations
glean
insights
develop design
constraints
Reframe your insights into
constraints for the design of
your solution (also known as
design requirements).

44. Thank You.
www.duplastudios.com
Kevin Decker, Head of Research and Strategy (kevin@duplastudios.com)
Dupla Studios
Melissa Quintanilha, Head of Design (melissa@duplastudios.com)