Design Thinking.

As a Product designer design thinking is a term we use very often, its a core aspect of product design. To explain further Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. Involving five phases — Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test — it is most useful to tackle problems that are ill-defined or unknown. “According to iteration design foundation”. There are five stages of design thinking; Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

Empathize: which means to research your users needs; you should understand the problem you’re trying to solve, through user research. this stage allows you to set aside your own assumptions about the world, and gain real insights into users and their needs.

Define: which means state your users needs and problems; after you have made your findings from the empathize stage, you can then analyze your findings and synthesize them to define the core problems you and your team have identified. This definitions are called problem statements you then create personas to help keep your efforts human centered.

Ideate: which means challenge Assumptions and create ideas; you can start looking for alternative ways to view the problem and identify innovative solutions to the problem statement you have created. Brainstorming is particularly useful in this stage.

Prototype: start to create solutions; in this stage you start to identify the best possible solutions for each problem found. you could do paper prototyping to investigate the ideas you’ve generated.

Test: which means try your solutions out; here you test out your solutions by iterating, you can return to previous stages to make further iterations and refinements to find or rule out alternative solutions.

This different stages contribute to the entire project, rather than sequential steps. you just want to really understand the users and their solution/product would be. Design thinking is a very core aspect of product design and helps me understand the objectives of the business and consider three main factors which are; The problem I’m trying to solve, The people directly affected by the problem and my specific goals.