Colum Lowe, Design Council

1. Department of Communities and Local Government
Design Thinking
Colum Lowe
4th November 2014

3. Design as a
framework to
innovate

4. Innovating through design
Deliver
Solutions which work
Develop
Potential solutions

5. Innovating through design
Deliver
Solutions which work
Develop
Potential solutions
Define
The area to focus upon
Discover
Insight into the problem

6. Innovating through design
Deliver
Solutions which work
Develop
Potential solutions
Define
The area to focus upon
Discover
Insight into the problem
Being people centred
Being visual
Being collaborative & iterative

7. Principle one
Being people centred

8. The real customer
- Who pays for it?
- Who uses it day to day?
- Who told someone else to buy it?
- Who selects this product for retail?
- Who takes it from you out into the world?
- Who sells it to the customer?
- Who looks after it if it goes wrong?
Shopper
User
Specifier
Buyer
Distributor
Retailer
Service

9. Extreme Users
Rich insight can be found at the edges
Extreme
(Power users)
Extreme
(Rejectors)
Core

11. Principle two
Being visual

12. Physical stuff
Objects and spaces,
large and small.
Sketching an idea for a product

13. Showing the underlying technology

14. Water not miasma
1854 cholera epidemic

15. Principle three
Being collaborative
and iterative

16. Prototyping products

17. Prototyping communications

18. Prototyping environments

19. Can you afford not to prototype?
170,000 households
£65,000

20. Risk management
£1 - £10 - £100
For every £1 spent solving a problem
in design stage, it costs £10 to tackle
in development and £100 to rectify
after launch.

21. Prototyping
Manage risk by trying
things out quickly and cheaply.

22. Thank you
www.designcouncil.org.uk