Another model to approach setting up a project or business stems from the world of (industrial) design and was developed at Stanford University in the US in the eighties, made popular by Tim Brown in 2009. Design Thinking focuses on understanding people’s needs and coming up with solutions to meet those needs. It fosters creativity and innovation.
Design Thinking is centred around the user/client/customer and based on three key principles: build, test, learn.
It consists of 5 steps:
1. Empathise
Develop a deep understanding of your client/customer. Empathise with their ‘problem’ or need. What is the urgency of the need? What has the client already done to solve the problem? What obstacles are there? To what extent is it in the hands of the client to make changes? What are the resources of the client?
For example: Many families with young children can’t attend Sunday afternoon concerts with chamber music because they can’t find people to look after their children. Bringing their children to the concert is not an option since the children do not have the concentration span to sit quietly and listen to long pieces of music. Many have tried to ask grandparents to look after their children, but then it appears that the grandparents also want to attend the concert. Hiring a babysitter is too expensive for most families.
2. Define
Define that need or problem from a wide perspective (outside-in). It is important to analyse the problem and look at it from different points of view. Urgency, resources and obstacles are taken into account, but from a wider perspective.
For example: The problem is not only a problem for these parents, but also for concert venues that miss a substantial part of potential audiences. Therefore, there are less opportunities for chamber music groups to give concerts on Sunday afternoons. The problem is not limited to Sunday afternoons but also arises on public holidays and on Saturdays, when schools are closed.
3. Ideate
Create as many different ideas as possible to solve the problem and apply a strategy to select the best solution. As in a brainstorm, every idea is welcome and many may contribute towards developing a long list of possible solutions. Develop a good strategy to select the best one(s).
For example:
- Concert venues should offer babysitters for audiences with children.
- Concert venues can hire a clown to entertain the children in an adjacent room during the concert.
- The ensemble playing the concert provides a workshop for children in an adjacent room led by a music educator during the concert.
- The ensemble playing the concert provides a workshop for children in an adjacent room led by a music educator during the concert to prepare the children to attend the last ten minutes of the concert.
4. Prototype
Design a prototype or a pilot that catches the essence of your product or project. The prototype or pilot is a small-scale version of your project that allows you to test your project without having to fully realise it or make large investments. Use this prototype or pilot to test the feasibility of the whole product or project and to test whether your goals have been achieved. It is important to define very precisely what it is that you are going to test.
For example: The value proposition/essence of our concept is getting audiences of people that have children to attend our concerts. We will test whether parents are more willing to buy a ticket for our concert if we offer this extra service. We will test whether our concept creates extra value for parents and children. We will test whether children will enjoy the workshop and how it influences their attending the last part of the concert.
For this, our pilot will be: We organise a concert for 5 couples (approached through friends and acquaintances) who can bring their children. We perform half an hour of music in the house of a friend that has a large living room, whilst a music educator is making music with the children in another room in the house. After half an hour the children attend the concert in the living room and enjoy five minutes of our playing.
5. Test/Validate
Test the prototype. What is it that you want to test? What feedback/data from the user/client/customer do you want to collect?
Keep in mind:
- How to collect data that will give you useful insights needs some thorough thinking.
- Pay attention to how to collect feedback from the user/client/customer.
- Will you hand out a questionnaire to your audience, or send it to them by email after your test?
- Will you do interviews?
- Do you collect feedback only from your clients/customers or also from collaborators/participants?
- How detailed do you want that feedback to be?
- Do you want feedback on very specific elements of your product or project?
- Carefully prepare and formulate your questions to make sure you collect valuable feedback.
- Do you record the test?
- Will there be observers/critical friends?
- Can you use quantified data/statistics?
For example: After the concert, we will have a conversation with all participants where we ask the parents what they think about this experience. What do they think about the fact that their children were not only looked after, but also musically prepared to attend the end of our concert? We will ask the children how they have experienced the workshop and attending the concert. We will film both the workshop and the part of the concert with the children present to study their responses. We will interview the music educator who led the workshop about her/his experiences. We will ask the parents whether, and if so, how often, they would go to a concert in this format at the weekend, and what they would be willing to pay for a ticket.