• Define stage

• Practice
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What is the define stage?
• Dedicated to defining the problem

o What difficulties and barriers are your users coming up against?

o What patterns do you observe?

o What is the big user problem that your team needs to solve?

• Identify your Problem statement

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Why is the define stage important?
• Ensure you fully understand the goal of your design project

• Help you articulate your design problem

• Provide a clear-cut objective to work towards

• Steer you in the right direction

What is a problem statement?

• It is so called a point of view (POV) statement.

• “It identifies the gap between the current state (i.e. the problem)

and the desired state (i.e. the goal) of a process or product.”

• It frames this problem in a way that is actionable for designers.

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What makes a good problem statement?

• Human centered: frame your problem statement according to specific

users, their needs and the insights that you has gained in the first stage
• Broad enough for creative freedom: it should not focus too narrowly on
a specific method regarding the implementation of the solution nor the
technical requirements.
• Narrow enough to make it manageable: it should have sufficient
constraints to make the project manageable. “Improve the human
condition” is too broad.
 Approach to obtain user’s point of view

1. Analyze information
▪ Collect, interpret, and analyze all information
▪ Summarize and consolidate the key findings
into insights
2. Infer insights
▪ Summarize the 10 most important insights
▪ Infer the design principles or problem
clusters from it
Approach to obtain user’s point of view

3. Formulate possible questions

▪ Mark possible key themes or questions
▪ Choose three related areas and
formulate the question
4. Specify questions
▪ Present, discuss, and select a question.
▪ Refine and improve the question.
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to investigate further to understand potential causes or paths forward.
 References
Lewrick, M., Link, P., & Leifer, L. (2018a). The Design Thinking Playbook:

Mindful Digital Transformation of Teams, Products, Services, Businesses

and Ecosystems (1st ed.). Wiley.

Stevens, E. (2021, August 5). What Is Design Thinking? A Comprehensive

Beginner’s Guide. CareerFoundry. https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-

design/what-is-design-thinking-everything-you-need-to-know-to-get-

started/#what-is-the-purpose-of-design-thinking