Key Points

• The phases of design thinking aren’t a linear sequence of events.
• You might find yourself returning to phases multiple times throughout a project.
• The phases of design thinking are designed to be intuitive and natural to use throughout a project.

What are the 5 phases of design thinking? Design thinking is a human-centric approach to product development. However, it operates in five distinct phases when broken down into its core elements. As this is an iterative approach, some phases bear repeating, provided the product hasn’t met its design specifications.

So, with that in mind, we’re taking a closer look at how these five phases work. Further, we’ll break them down so that you can see how they apply to many industries and business sectors. Design thinking is one of the most exciting developments to grip the business world in the last decade, so it is worth exploring how to implement these phases in your organization’s game plan.

What Is Design Thinking?

Design thinking, as mentioned, is a product development approach that puts the end user first and foremost. It is similar in scope and execution to methodologies like Agile, Design for Six Sigma, and others, but the approach has some distinctions that need to be made. Design thinking is iterative, meaning you’re not just doing single passes of objectives.

While you can certainly set up the likes of milestones and KPIs to accommodate your workflow, there is more to it than that. Design thinking has made a splash in the last decade or so, giving some big names in the industry a surprise home run when it comes to new product launches. As such, we’re seeing the approach becoming commonplace, joining the ranks of other methodologies like Lean Six Sigma.

Design thinking isn’t unique in its approach focusing on the end user. However, it asks the team doing the design work to consider the problem from the end user’s perspective. As such, this leads to an approach that utilizes empathy to consider a problem before a solution is developed.

Why Businesses Are Flocking to This Approach

As I mentioned, design thinking has caught in a big way with some major players across several industries. Focusing on user needs first and foremost, this is leading to product launching that immediately catches the attention of the average consumer. When considering the various pitfalls that even a thoroughly vetted product can have, this can be a boon for any major organization.

Further, we’re seeing this creep into the likes of automotive design. While cars have been a central factor in the lives of Americans, providing a thoroughly enjoyable user experience is somewhat new. That said, it can be seen at its best in the likes of software design, where it directly competes with Agile methodology.

Software is 100% a user experience-driven endeavor, at least for apps geared toward consumers. By developing the means to create a friendly, viable, and reliable experience, teams are utilizing design thinking to change the landscape when it comes to how users perceive software. Simply put, design thinking might be what your organization needs to create its next big hit.

The 5 Phases of Design Thinking

When considering the five phases of design thinking, don’t think of them as a sequential order of events. Often, when we look at new approaches, these phases function almost as monoliths in their execution. Design thinking is iterative by its very nature, meaning that you will return to these. Further, you might even utilize these phases out of order from the norm.

What is important to remember is that the phases of design thinking serve as landmarks in a journey. Many organizations will rely on customer journey maps to develop their design thinking projects. However, the same sort of journey is what many teams will experience when utilizing design thinking for the design of a new product.

So, as we define each of these phases, keep in mind that this is not a set-in-stone way of handling your design thinking process. Rather, they are landmarks of sorts, helping guide the way as you navigate handling the various wants and needs of the customer experience.

Empathize

If is said that products are the solution to a customer’s problem. However, how often do we honestly think about this concept? Empathize, the first of the phases, considers this heavily. Often, many involved in the drafting and design of a product consider that they have their ear to the ground when it comes to developing a product. Empathize takes the guesswork out of this.

A great means of approaching the Empathize phase is to simply ask customers what they’re after. If you’ve been subjected to a user survey about a potential product in the last decade, you’re likely serving as the impetus of a design thinking initiative.

Empathize means you’re not only gathering user data, but you’re placing yourself in their shoes. You have the means to develop robust insights, so take the time to consider what that means.

Define

When you’ve gathered enough user data, you’re ready to consider the next phase. Of the 5 phases of design thinking, Define has a clear objective. You’re putting in the framework to consider what the problem is. You’ve got user data, you’ve collated it, you’ve developed insights, but now it’s time to construct the core problem.

Define is where the machinery of collaboration starts to operate in the context of a design thinking approach. A clear, creative, and definitive means of outlining the problem is a great way to lay the groundwork for the subsequent phases to come.

Further, this is where you lay the groundwork for subsequent phases of design thinking. Outlining and defining the problem might seem like a given, especially when considering the objective of design thinking. However, take your team and listen to client and internal feedback as you develop your definitions.

Ideate

By now, you’ve got insights and your problem defined, so what comes next? Well, with any team adhering to the phases of design thinking, you’ll start brainstorming solutions. This is where Ideate comes into play. Teams will gather together, brainstorm, collaborate, and communicate on how to achieve this objective.

This brainstorming phase is integral to the next two phases, so take your time with it. It can seem almost chaotic, with a mess of whiteboards, note cards, and online discourse elsewhere. However, this is where the proverbial magic happens.

You might move forward with multiple ideas for a potential solution, and that’s alright. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, yet at least. Having multiple potentially viable solutions is a good thing, as it allows you to move fully prepared into the next phases.

Prototype

How do you test a solution? Build it and give it to customers, to put it succinctly. This is one of the key phases of design thinking, and for good reason. The Prototype phase is where you take the solutions developed throughout the Ideate phase and place them into action. Some solutions might be pie-in-the-sky scenarios, lacking technological feasibility to accomplish.

However, this is where you can start to the seeds of your labor come into fruition. Prototypes should be developed swiftly, deployed, and then pulled back to refine as necessary. Multiple prototypes can naturally be used concurrently when testing your materials. However, it is important to document what works and what doesn’t.

As such, this is another of the phases of design thinking that promotes communication. Listening to your team and tester’s feedback is paramount as you go back to the drawing board. You might find certain aspects of one prototype mesh with the approach of a completely different prototype.

Test

Rounding out the phases of design thinking is the Test phase, where feedback is paramount to the entire process. Honestly, you can take the Prototype and Test phases as a package deal. You need user feedback to complete this phase, but there is no completion of this phase without the likes of a prototype to guide the way.

When posing questions to your testers, it is best to leave things open-ended. You don’t want to ask focused questions on a specific aspect. Rather, you’re looking for honest and earnest feedback about the functionality, viability, and ease of use of a prototype.

After gathering this data, you can go right back to the other phases to implement what you’ve learned into a new batch of prototypes. With any luck, you’ll be striking gold after a few passes of all the subsequent phases. When user feedback starts turning from negative to positive, you’ll know this phase is essentially completed.

Implementing the 5 Phases of Design Thinking

Now that we’ve outlined the phases of design thinking, let’s perform a thought exercise. You’re the team lead of the software development department of a major restaurant chain. You’ve been tasked with developing a new app that will help drive business to users. Before setting out to develop the app, you and your team go around to key branches of the restaurant and poll users. You ask questions about what they want to see in an app.

Later, taking the information gathered from your Empathize stage, you begin to outline the problem. During the Design phase, you find users want an app that reflects regional differences between branches of the restaurant. As such, you move into the Ideate phase reflecting on how to best implement the national chain’s pertinent deals with any local promotions run at specific branches.

You begin developing raw prototypes to send off to a batch of selected users for testing. They give valuable feedback about the app’s performance, but the lack of regional-specific information is noted as a pain point. As such, you continue developing and testing prototypes until you get nearly universally positive feedback.

With a slew of satisfied testers, you can move toward launching the app. After its launch, you can still take in data from customers to develop new features, and further refine the app into its best possible state.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

If you’re looking for other ways to bolster your organization, then you’re in the right place. As we’ve talked extensively about design thinking today, you might be curious to see which organizations are leveraging design thinking for their products. This fascinating and intuitive approach is transforming businesses around the world.

Additionally, you might want to consider implementing some of the tools used by organizations to promote business agility. An agile business can readily adapt to the challenges and pitfalls that come its way. With the right tools, you can navigate these challenges with relative ease.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you come away from this guide with a greater understanding of how the phases of design thinking function. They should come naturally to your team with a little practice. Thankfully, the way these phases are constructed makes for an intuitive and fun experience when it comes to developing new products for your customers.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Golden Dayz/Shutterstock.com.