Design thinking is an iterative approach that focusses on human-centred design.

This means that

not just design but also intuitive usability should be at the core of developing your products. The
impact of design thinking relies on the influence of two other major principles. These are discussed
below.

Product thinking is the mindset of creating a product that ties together the problem space of
customers (where they face challenges, which need to be addressed) and the solution space of
businesses.

Product Thinking Helps With:

● Focussing more on a product than its features,

● Remembering the core reasons for customers to use your products and

● Not getting lost in creating good designs alone.

The image below shows the three fundamental steps to utilising product thinking.

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Innovation is often expected to be out of the box and unforeseen, although in terms of product
management, it denotes anything that helps users progress towards their goals. Innovation is
the solution, while product thinking is the mindset that drives the solution.

It is equally important that users find your innovation desirable in their daily lives. Innovation =
Invention + Adoption.

Design thinking is a human-centred approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s
toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology and the requirements for
business success.

It is an iterative process that focusses on the steps shown in this image.

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These steps are represented through the five major steps of the design thinking process, which
are shown in this image.

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At this stage, PMs try to understand users’ problems from their perspective and do not let their
preconceived biases come in the way. This stage embodies the principle of a human-centred
design.

At this stage, there are two key methods to work on in order to understand your customers’ needs
clearly. These are shown below.

You should conduct interviews after making your observations and be clear about whom to
interview, and should always have a script ready with questions and observations to ask users.

At this stage, you assimilate your insights and define the problem statements on which you and
your team are going to work on. This helps you get clarity on the issues that need to be addressed.

The image below shows some ways in which you can clearly define your findings and unearth
problem statements.

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The format of an HMW statement is shown here.

In this format:
● The intended experience is the problem that you have identified, or the customers’ need,
● The primary user is the user segment for which you are solving this and

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 ● The desired effect is the benefit that the user segment derives from using the solution to
the problem. It reflects the insights that you have derived during your empathy exercise.

Another important point to remember while framing HMW statements is to ensure that they are
neither too broad nor too narrow. The reasons for this are shown below.

Ideate is the stage at which insights are converted into opportunities. After defining your
problem statements, you look to find ideas and innovative solutions for them.

An important case here is how you go about forming your ideas. There are two ways in which
one can form and use ideas. These are shown below.

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When you think of generating more and more ideas, an important technique in this regard is
brainstorming. It promotes collaborative thinking and helps unearth more and better ideas.
There are some basic rules to conduct a brainstorming session. These are shown below.

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Another technique that can be used to generate more ideas is through generating mini-HMW
statements. This technique helps find granular ideas and also makes your ideas more diverse
and much more user centric.

The aim of the prototyping stage is to provide a rough, inexpensive representation of a product.
It is an experimental stage, in which you simply create prototypes to investigate your ideas.

There are two types of prototypes:

● Interactive prototypes offer simulation. This means customers can interact with the
product as if they are using it in real life.
● Non-interactive prototypes do not offer simulation, and, therefore, they require the
underlying idea to be explained. While users can view your prototype, they cannot use it.

The image below shows some of the common interactive prototypes.

This image shows some of the major non-interactive prototypes.

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The final stage is where you put your prototype to test. At this stage, the focus is only on getting
customer feedback and utilising it to improve the product further.

The concept of testing your prototype:

● Helps you get customer feedback, which can be utilised to iterate further and improve
your product,
● Allows you to remain flexible about your product,
● Allows you to redefine your problems based on feedback, and
● Helps you test ideas that are performing well and the outliers.

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