Case Study on the design thinking process and the phases of this process

Introduction of the design thinking process and the phases of this process

The report is made up for providing some significant information on the design thinking process and the phases of this process, a brief comparison on the personality profile that how it is compared with successful entrepreneur as well as tells about the most important challenges which the entrepreneurs are facing for the growth of the venture.

1.      Discuss the concepts of design thinking and its phases.

Answer: Design thinking is a complete process of creating different t ideas that explain the personality and thinking approach of a person. It is a complete process that creates innovations solutions to prototype and test, redefines problems, challenges assumptions and understands the users in a nonlinear and iterative process.  The process of design thinking includes five different phases as test, prototype, ideates, define and empathize. In organizations, the teams of design use design thinking to tackle the unknown and non-define problems. In last few decades the process of design thinking becomes more popular, and this has become very successful for many organizations as global organizations with high profile. In a disruptive and innovative way, design thinking improves the world that develops the ability to generate ground breaking solutions (Müller, 2011).

The various Phases of design thinking are given as under; empathize, define, ideate prototype, and test. Empathize is the first stage if thinking process that helps to obtain the understanding of empathetic issues that must be solved during the research for the users. Like design thinking, empathy is crucial to a human-centered design process, and it also prefers to set ideas related to assumptions that obtain the requirement of real needs and users.  Define phase means problems and needs of the users related to design. All the information that during empathize is created and gathered should be accumulated in this phase. To explain the core problems of team must be identified in detail by analyzing the observation and synthesize them ineffective way. The problem must be defined in the manner of human-created and in this phase itself, creation of ideas occurs with complete assumptions. The third phase is ideate that explains the new ideas and challenges new assumptions. When the design reached the third stage then designers are ready to develop new ideas according to new strategies. When the information is collected from the first two phases then the new approach of thinking started as the thinking out of box is started according to new techniques. View the problems in a new and innovative way and also identify the innovative solutions created with the problems statement. The fourth phase of thinking design is prototype. It means that solutions of different ideas are created. This phase is also known as experimental phase and basic purpose of this phase to identify the best solution of all those problems identified in the first three stages of the design thinking (Beckman & Barry, 2007). To investigate the solutions of problems generated in the previous phases, the team of designers will develop new and different inexpensive and scaled-down versions of products that help to select the best solution and also provide a variety of products with different alternatives. Fifth phase is test. It means that when the solutions are identified then proper test must be taken to determine the best possible solution. Different evaluators or designers test the complete product and identify the best solution on the prototype phase. Although it is a final phase due to iterative process the whole phases repeat again and again and also redefine the problem for future use. In the process the designers can select the return of previous phase’s method to make further changes and also implement refinement, alteration, and iterations rules on the different solutions to generate better results and outcomes (Tschimmel, 2012).

These phases are an important part of design thinking, but this is not compulsory that these phases always follow in the same sequential, and they also utilize in parallel according to requirement of the designers and utilize the iterative fashion to make the product according to actual requirement.

2.      How does the personality profile of a design thinker can be compared with the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur?

Answer: Design thinking is a problem solving method for the human-centered that reaches to solution of radical innovation which includes the viability of products, desirability, and feasibility. Different software also presents that act as design thinking for the different problems and also identify best solutions for the problems. Different approaches are used for the designer thinker and for that it also elaborates different solutions for the product. There are also some characteristics of design thinker include: collaborative and teamwork, optimistic, experimentalist, empathic, balance feasibility, viability, and desirability, human-centric, observational, intellectual and emotional, open and radical culture of collaboration, integrative thinking, friendly thinking, and expertise of management and intense customer contact.

Different success factors of design thinking are; divergent and convergent thinking, optimism through confidence and trust, team learning , simple prototype receive the early feedback, focus on the empathy, behavior and human needs, go beyond status quo, collective ownership of ideas, heterogeneity of team members, optimism through confidence and trust, and trying by building physical prototype (Djankov, Qian, & Zhuravskaya, 2007).

Different characteristics of the designer thinker as entrepreneur are recognized as optimistic, pragmatic and experimentalist, tolerant, holistic and integrative thinking, knowledgeable, empathic, and observational and curious.

Optimistic include that design thinker start from the right according to solution of the problem that can be found in existing ones. Optimistic people know very well that how to maintain the mood and stay professional for the job purpose and also remain proactive in all ways of working and also provide better solutions. In the experimentalist and pragmatic form, iterate occurs between problem and solution of design thinker. Design thinker using the experimentalist nature to determine the right direction for better solution. The problem is questioned, or the solution is adapted with new prototype when the direction is misleading.

Tolerate feature means that the design thinker must have the ability to face all types of results according to his expectation or the results may move in the opposite direction. All the participants in the thinking process must be respectable, and all opinions must be determined according to the requirement of the solution and maintain the results in better way. This is also important to give great attention to the roots of problem because the details knowledge and understanding are very important to obtain best solution for any problem. The historic view needs view of all direction according to new and innovative techniques and also recognize all the dependencies according to actual requirement. Design thinker has to use the T shaped skillsets. These show strengths in two different dimensions as vertical axis and horizontal axis. Expertise and broad knowledge help to explain the knowledge of the design thinkers ineffective way (McClelland, 1987).

Observational people give more attention to the people, and they actively observe and monitor the environment according to develop better solution. They actively participate in all types of environments and also discuss what people feel, face and what are their problems in that environment and also implement curious situations as new strategies must be implemented. Design thinkers also act as curious people who reject old methods and also implement new and innovative techniques for developing better solutions. Empathic people are very sensitive, and they feel all the situations and issues with great depth. They feel themselves as affected people and then find most effective solution to generate better way of solution for the people. Design thinker empathically carries different attributes like intuiting, sensing, feeling and thinking of people.

3.      Discuss at least three of the most important challenges entrepreneurs face in their journey to grow new ventures.

Answer: In the new journey of entrepreneurship, the different entrepreneurs have to face many different challenges according to different situations. They try to develop a brand, meet the requirement of competitors, and try to maintain profitable business by handling all types of challenges. But when the new entrepreneurs come in the market then they also face new and innovative challenges that enhance their skills and experience in effective way and also they get experience to handle these challenges ineffective way and generate better results. Some of challenges are financing, team building and dealing with unknown teams (Mordi, Simpson, & Okafor, 2010).

Financing means that entrepreneur has to face a different financial issue when they start their business because investment is not easy and many investors are not easily willing to invest in new business when the owner itself has lack of finance. The investor needs proper documentations, and they need some satisfaction and guarantee related to their investment amount. Strong connections in the market also required to maintain investment and get maximum investment opportunities.

Team building is not an easy task for new entrepreneurs because they have no experience about the people and they also don’t know who to develop a good team, so they need proper time and effort related to their task and business, and they also set proper rules and regulations for its team and support their efforts and teamwork in effective way. When new business is started then the entrepreneur doesn’t know who is working in the market, who are main competitors? What are the methods and techniques used in the market? But the main target of new ones to deal with all unknown and important factors and also understand that how to deal with then ineffective way and try to overcome these issues as soon as possible (Kuratko, 2005).

Conclusion of the design thinking process and the phases of this process

I have concluded that the design thinking process creates innovations solutions to prototype and test, redefine problems, challenge assumptions and understand the users in a nonlinear and iterative process. Different evaluators or designers test the complete product and identify the best solution on the prototype phase. Diverse features of designer thinker as entrepreneur is determined as optimistic, pragmatic and experimentalist, tolerant, holistic and integrative thinking, knowledgeable, empathic, and observational and curious. Some of challenges are financing, team building and dealing with the unknown term. In the last, the whole study is also providing you a brief knowledge about the mentioned above topic as well as some questions are also discussed in this report that can provide you a better understanding of the best technique and what methods in the market.

References of the design thinking process and the phases of this process

Beckman, S. L., & Barry, &. M. (2007). Innovation as a learning process: Embedding design thinking. California management review, 50(1), 25-56.

Djankov, S., Qian, Y., & Zhuravskaya, G. R. (2007). What makes a successful entrepreneur? Evidence from Brazil. Center for Economic and Financial Research: Moscow, CEFIR.

Kuratko, D. F. (2005). The emergence of entrepreneurship education: Development, trends, and challenges. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 29(5), 577-597.

McClelland, D. C. (1987). Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. The journal of creative behavior,, 219-233.

Mordi, C., Simpson, R., & Okafor, S. S. (2010). The role of cultural values in understanding the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 25(1), 5-21.

Müller, K. T. (2011). Understanding design thinking: A process model based on method engineering. In DS 69: Proceedings of E&PDE 2011, the 13th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, London, UK, 493-498.

Tschimmel, K. (2012). Design Thinking as an effective Toolkit for Innovation. In ISPIM Conference Proceedings. The International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM), 1.