Design Thinking:

Needfinding and
Empathy
D r. S h a i m a A l H a r m o o d i
How to innovate?
 Design Thinking Process

DEFINE

EMPATHY

Source: Hasso Plattner Institute of Design

Case Study: Embrace
130 million babies are born each year;
4 million die in the first 28 days.
 1 out of 3 babies born in India is
low-birthweight or premature.
India has the largest number of neonatal
deaths in the world.

Constituting 30% of the global figure.

 Create a less expensive
Design solution.
Challenge: $300 vs. $20,000
© Banny Banerjee. Creating Innovation Leaders: A Global
Perspective.
Source: facebook.com/embrace Source: gsb.stanford.edu
© Banny Banerjee. Creating Innovation Leaders: A Global
Perspective.
Embrace Today

© Banny Banerjee. Creating Innovation Leaders: A Global

Perspective.
Discussion

Why is the role of empathy in the design thinking

process so important?
 Design
Thinking
Process
Innovation is not an event Innovation is a (design) process.
 Design Thinking Process

DEFINE

EMPATHY

Source: Hasso Plattner Institute of Design

20
21
Empathy to
Insight
 Design Thinking Process

DEFINE

EMPATHY

Source: Hasso Plattner Institute of Design

Empathy

The identification of and

experiencing the feelings,
thoughts, or attitudes of
another.
you can think through the
experience of another by
understanding it completely

you can feel what another is feeling Empathy

by immersing yourself completely in
an experience

or simply, getting to WHY

 The act of reasoning
from evidence or
factual knowledge.
(“Why?”)

Observation + Inference = INSIGHT

An act or instance of
noticing or perceiving
a need.
(“What?”)
IMMERSE. OBSERVE. ENGAGE.
Connect with people (in person).

Seek stories, feelings, and beliefs.

Source: Hasso Plattner Institute of Design
Understand someone who is very unlike yourself.

See the world with someone else’s eyes.

 Taking on a (beginner’s) mindset
Questioning
Not judging everything Truly curious

Great listener Finding patterns

IMMERSE. OBSERVE. ENGAGE.
Be
a fly
on the wall.
 What are needs?

 A physical, psychological or cultural requirement

of an individual or group that is missing or not
met through existing solutions.

 Verbs and activities (not nouns or solutions) that

capture the motivations and emotions of people.
Exercise

For each image consider …

• What do you see?
• What is going on?
• What is the need?
Source: counterculturewaitress.wordpress.com
Source: @Saigon/flickr.com
Immerse. Observe. Engage.
Have
a conversation.
Interview Demonstration
Interview 101: Rules
Ask for examples.

Open ended questions: ‘Tell me about the

last time you ___’.

If someone says “I think” or states a belief,

or seems to prefer one thing over another,
then the conversation is NOT over. Ask why
that’s important.

Only 10 words per question. (You speak

25% of the time.)

No binary questions, no leading questions.

Capture the interview!

Dr. Shaima AlHarmoodi ©️

 Exercise

• Find out about your partner’s experience getting to school

• Ask them not just about their experience, but everything
related to it.
• What does s/he do? How does s/he feel about it? What
needs aren’t being met?
What surprised you?
 Assignment: Due next class

 Watch the video on creating journey maps, conduct a 30-minute

interview with another student on their experience of getting to school.
Take plenty of notes. After the interview, think about their “getting to
school” experience and create a journey map. Bring your journey map
to the next class.
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