The five phases of design thinking

This article is written by Jessica Zéroual, research and human-centered design advisor at the Treasury Board Secretariat for the Government of Canada

Are you often met with resistance in the boardroom as a designer or researcher? You’re not alone.

In this article, I want to suggest ways you can craft a persuasive, plain-spoken message about the importance of design thinking for decision-makers, by combining business vernacular with human-centered design concepts.

Design thinking typically involves five stages or phases which, though they may often be explained in straightforward terms, are hard to apply in a straightforward way. Designers and researchers like myself who use this approach to understand a target audience frequently cross-reference the five stages throughout the design process. This ensures that the constituent parts of the approach we take reflect user needs, mindsets and behaviours.

Here’s how each phase enables us to deliver meaningful results:

Phase one: empathy

Design thinking is becoming more common among public servants. It’s an approach that draws on our empathy with citizens, and relies on the power of real-life evidence, stripped of prejudice and assumption. The five-stage approach starts off with the attempt to understand human barriers, behaviours, needs and values. It also allows users to share their experience of a given product, programme, service, or even policy. So what explains its importance right now?

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Traditionally, policies, programmes and service developments are created within the insular confines of government buildings. They are carefully crafted by public servants whose job is to produce the best outcome for their intended demographic. However, any feedback on a final product is often only received once it has been implemented. By then it is, more often than not, too late to make changes.

If you want better data or evidence to help shape a policy or programme development, try flipping the process on its head. Instead of guessing or assuming what motivates or inhibits users, ask the user themselves and allow them to show you the way. In short, use empathy.

Phase two: problem definition

Problem definition focuses on the specific needs you uncovered in the first phase, and which are grounded in the user’s lived experiences. Defining the problem clarifies conditions for getting the best solution. By focusing once again on the user, especially those who are most disadvantaged, the result is often one that benefits all.

Let’s say you’re given the challenge of creating a new programme to help young people aged 20 to 25 enter the workforce. Most policy or programme groups start with a review of publications, reports, peer-reviewed journals, and other sources that help paint a picture of what people in this age bracket need. While that is a good first step, you should really seek to hear it directly from a group of young people. A design workshop might be an example of how to achieve this. Meaningful engagement of this sort is the most crucial step, because it sets up a safe environment for people to participate in a conversation that will ultimately affect their future. By enabling prospective users to share their lived experience, you ground your understanding of the challenge in the multiple barriers they face.

At its core, design thinking promotes greater collaboration between institutions and people, and, in the long run, creates trust, ownership and accountability.

From there, you can craft what is often called a ‘Problem’ or ‘Point of view’ statement. Both allow you to frame the challenge in a way that is actionable. They normally provide a description of the issue, one that keeps the user in mind. Once that statement is drafted, you can start to apply ‘How might we’ questions to set up for the next phase: ideation.

Phase three: ideation

Senior management and decision-makers often have more than one programme or policy they are responsible for. Boardroom presentations therefore often focus on solutions. Design thinking enables users and experts to generate ideas through visual and interactive exercises. This phase is fun, because it is all about coming up with solutions by showcasing ideas that, at minimum, are grounded in user experience. The goal here is to show how these ideas can fit into a government context, and deliver.

Let’s use the same example as before. You have worked directly with your intended target population and have been able to identify barriers that your literature review or environmental scan might have missed.

You have some exciting new evidence to present to your senior management. But wait, there’s more. Once your problem definition was complete, you were able to engage the participants in some ideation activities, such as brainstorming. You were met with a suite of ideas that resonated with others participating in the workshop. Picking an idea can sometimes be the most difficult task, but the design process allows you to reflect on the user needs you identified in the empathy phase of the process. You can even set up voting criteria for the minimum elements these ideas should include to be considered for the next phase: prototyping.

Phase four: prototyping

Tom and David Kelley, co-authors of the book ‘Creative confidence’, coined the line: “If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a prototype is worth 1,000 meetings.” We gain more from prototyping every part of an idea, including the process and experience for the user.

Prototyping allows users themselves to bring their ideas to life. In the previous section, participants had the opportunity to select their idea. Prototyping enables them to use different tools, such as storyboards, wireframes, sketching and even role playing. The idea comes to life through visual representation. For example, if one of the ideas was ‘Mentorship’, the participants could use a storyboard to map out the type of mentor or interaction they might need. It would include vivid details and explanations from start to finish.

Phase five: testing

Finally, usability testing allows you to shop your prototype around to users and, within government, to experts. This is how you iron out the details before you have something you can recommend for implementation. Testing follows the old saying: “Measure twice, cut once.” Testing helps decision-makers get it right the first time around. Furthermore, testing is low risk and low cost. In business terms, it means you save more money and reach more people at the same time. How’s that for added value?

As public servants, it’s not enough for us simply to recommend design thinking to senior management and decision-makers. We need to bring them along on the journey. Design thinking is, after all, an experiential approach that unfolds in real-time for those it benefits, and isn’t interchangeable between target audiences. At its core, design thinking promotes greater collaboration between institutions and people, and, in the long run, creates trust, ownership and accountability.

If we can use design thinking at the policy level, then programmes and services will reach their intended target audience with greater breadth and depth.

In a world that needs more understanding and unity, this process gives us a new language, rooted in empathy, to articulate people’s stories and find meaningful solutions for all. — Jessica Zéroual

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