Design Thinking and Communications

What is Design Thinking?

IDEO defines design thinking as “a deeply human process that taps into abilities we all have but that get overlooked by more conventional problem-solving practices.” Instead of a sequence of analytical steps, the design thinking approach focuses on observing, listening, thinking, and learning, before defining a problem and refining prototypes.

How would you design a better form of public transportation? Go ride buses, subways and trains. Talk to the drivers, the users, and anyone in the industry. Learn about what they perceive as problems, what are their frustrations, and what are their wants and needs. Visit other cities and experience their transportation systems.

Bring observations back to your team, start comparing notes to better define what the problem is and produce a people-centered problem statement. Using the information and experiences you collected, leaving your bias aside, ask yourself whether you fully understand the problem and its magnitude.

Discuss divergent and convergent solutions, then build prototypes. Test them, try them, modify them. Once a prototype is developed, bring it back to the people it is designed for and let them try it. Observe what happens and gather feedback. Be prepared to make a new iteration or even to start the process over from the beginning.

Throughout the entire process, feedback is extremely valuable because the problem is viewed from the users’ prospective. The intent is to leave subjective assumptions aside and design people-centered solutions to people’s problems.

Marketers need design thinking too

The design thinking approach isn’t just for companies that design products or services, everyone can use it to redefine problems and create solutions. This is particularly true for people that work in communication.

Professional marketers know that there are a variety of frameworks and methodologies to improve communication. They are meant to streamline workflows and produce standardized deliverables within a given timeframe. But they can also stifle creativity and even fail to generate solutions that address the right questions.

Design thinking offers a less linear approach to solve complicated problems, but more of a mindset to do so. This approach encourages communicators and marketers to be more empathetic when communicating to customers to better understand their needs, wants, and problems.

Using design thinking, marketers can collect qualitative data and understand the “why” behind customer behavior to draft messages and marketing campaigns that are centered around human needs. Successful marketing campaigns connect with the audience and appeal to their hearts and souls, empathy is a necessary component to any of them. -Fc