The second lap was a mixture of excitement and eagerness. The design thinking approach was growing on us. And we were raring to go.
Second Pit Stop – Define
This phase was another curve ball. The word DEFINE sounds deceptively easy. It is anything but. With proper guidance, it is simple (but still not easy). A key skillset at this stage is to reduce user stories and pain points to succinct statements.
As Fehintolu, CredPal’s Founder said "It takes longer to write less".
It took a bit of iteration to condense all the insights into sentences that would spark explosion of ideas, possibilities and discussions.
However, the definition phase rarely occurs in and of itself. It often goes hand in hand with the Empathy phase or with the Ideation phase. A prime example: the multiple changes to our perspective of the problem during the Point of View stage.
Third Pit Stop – Ideate
Ideate, ideate again, ideate one more time, then Ideate for a final time. Well, not finally, more like go ahead and prototype. If it doesn’t work out as expected, come back and ideate some more.
The ideation phase is where we let our imagination run amok. Divergent thinking is key here. IFA’s key values include Collaboration and being Innovative. It is here that we push ourselves to next level critical thinking. And during this phase, we used tools that allowed us work together despite our distance. We made use of StormBoard. Each member of the team up with ideas on how to get achieve our goals. No holds bar thinking.
Pit Stop Check 1: Divergent Thinking
In the first break out room, we listed our ideas – the crazy, the reasonable and the exciting and the obvious. More ideas flowed as we applied the constraints such as if we had
unlimited budget
a $50 budget
To build off something that already exists
The ideas came spilling out. Real goofy ones
Pit Stop Check 2:Convergent Thinking
However, there were similar threads linking the ideas. We converged these in 3 phases
Cluster the ideas by similarity
Categorize the clusters into products, services or digital products
Old fashioned voting, based on these criteria – which were practical, delightful (whimsical, exciting or just fun), darling (ideas we liked best) or the long shots (hard to execute but exciting)
Pit Stop Check 3: Zoning In
We had narrowed down the ideas to the 3 we considered top notch. In this last break out, we zoned in on the one idea to move to the Prototype stage. And democracy won the day. Voting was more analytical this time around
What is the market size for this idea?
Is there competition?
Is it a viable business model etc.
And there, was our best idea - well for now, till feedback validates or invalidates it
There’s a meme that pops in my head every time I think on the growth I’ve experienced with IFA.
It cracks me up every single time but it is the closest approximation to the truth. And that growth is largely down to Design Thinking. Appropriately named, it does force you to think. Think Wide, Think Deep. Up, Down, Front Back, Right, Left and Center. Whew! See you at the next one!