IDEATION WITHIN THE DESIGN THINKING PROCESS. IDEATE STAGE

Accelerate your company with these tips "Ideation within the Design Thinking process. Analyse and discover this TIP!

Ideation in design tinking is the third step of the process (Ideate stage).

This stage consists of bringing together a group of people with different tastes, professions, lifestyles, in order to create a group brainstorming session to generate the so-called "strategy of open innovation".

The differences between the people involved will contribute to enriching the innovative solution we are looking for. This objective of openness should not be limited. As many ideas as possible should be put on the table without prejudging their feasibility. Indeed, during the ideation in Design Thinking, as in general, in the whole process, it is advisable to maintain an uncritical and open attitude as much as possible.

In addition, when we talk about ideation in Design Thinking, it is essential to not to lose nuances and to be aware that the use of a term can give rise to different questions. and, therefore, to different responses and these in turn may lead to different strategies.

This is where the concept of the creative challenge comes in, which consists of coming up with ideas without distorting the insights detected:

• Returning to the restaurant example, the creative challenge is: 

• • What can we do to ensure that customers in this restaurant can order without fear of allergic reactions?"

• If we rephrase the question, we could put it this way: 

• • What do we do to make the restaurant's customers feel at ease and enjoy their meal?

The question is to come up with solutions that are more inspiring and add more value.

How to create solutions to a problem identified in my clients?

TO CREATE SOLUTIONS TO AN IDENTIFIED PROBLEM FOR YOUR CLIENTS, YOU CAN FOLLOW THE STEPS BELOW:

• Clearly define the problem: Before creating solutions, it is important to have a clear understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. Do your research, ask your customers questions, observe their behaviour and try to understand the problem in depth.
• Generate ideas: Once you have defined the problem, it is time to start thinking about possible solutions. Organise a brainstorming session with your team or people you trust, and write down all the ideas you come up with, even those that seem far-fetched.
• Evaluate ideas: Once you have generated a list of ideas, it is time to evaluate them to determine which ones have the most potential. Use criteria such as feasibility, scalability, potential impact and ease of implementation to rank your ideas.
• Prototype and test: Once you have selected one or more ideas to move forward, create prototypes to test and validate your solutions with your customers. Be sure to involve your customers in this process and use their feedback to refine your solutions.
• Implement and improve: Once you have validated your solutions and are confident that they can solve your customers' problem, it is time to implement them. Make sure you keep collecting data and feedback from your customers to keep improving your solutions and make them even more effective.

Remember that this process is iterative and may require several cycles of prototyping and testing to arrive at the final solution. It is important to be patient and be willing to adapt and change course based on feedback from your customers.

What steps need to be taken to create solutions to an identified problem in a customer segment?

TO CREATE SOLUTIONS TO AN IDENTIFIED PROBLEM IN A CUSTOMER SEGMENT, THE FOLLOWING STEPS CAN BE TAKEN:

• Clearly define the problem: It is important to understand and precisely define the problem to be solved. This can be done by conducting a detailed analysis of the information collected during the problem discovery process.
• Conduct a market analysis: Once the problem has been defined, a market analysis can be carried out to find out what solutions currently exist and their level of acceptance in the market. This can help to determine what aspects need to be improved or what alternative solutions can be offered.
• Brainstorming: It is important to generate a large number of ideas about possible solutions to the problem. Creativity techniques such as brainstorming, lateral thinking or the SWOT matrix can be used to generate a large number of ideas.
• Evaluate the ideas generated: Once ideas have been generated, they should be evaluated to determine which are feasible, viable and effectively solve the problem. Criteria such as cost-benefit, technical feasibility and market acceptance can be used to evaluate the ideas generated.
• Prototyping and testing: Once the most viable ideas have been selected, prototypes should be created and tested with customers to assess their acceptance and effectiveness. This allows for fine-tuning and improving solutions before launching them on the market.
• Launch and follow-up: Finally, the solution must be launched on the market and monitored to assess its acceptance and improve it if necessary.

It is important to note that the process of creating solutions can be iterative, i.e. several of these steps can be repeated until the optimal solution to the identified problem is found.

What tools are good for creating solutions to the problem/need of the customer segment?

There are a number of tools that can be used to create solutions to problems identified in a customer segment.

SOME OF THEM ARE:

• Brainstorming (+): a group brainstorming technique that allows for a large number of options in a short time.
• Design thinking (+): methodology that allows problems to be tackled from a user-centred perspective, with the aim of creating innovative and effective solutions.
• Lean startup (+): approach that seeks to develop products and services quickly and cost-effectively, in order to validate assumptions about the market and customer segment.
• Empathy maps (+): a tool to better understand the needs, desires and behaviours of customers, in order to create solutions that are more in line with their demands.
• Prototyping (+): a technique that consists of creating models or simulations of the proposed solution in order to validate its effectiveness prior to implementation.
• Trend analysis: process of researching current market, technology and societal trends in order to identify opportunities to create innovative solutions.

These tools can be combined and adapted according to the needs and characteristics of your project.