Design Thinking For A Better Life

Design
Thinking is a problem-solving approach that uses a combination of empathy, creativity, and analysis
to tackle unique problems. At a macro level, the approach can be used by
governments and organizations. An emerging economy launching a hundred smart
cities project or an organization looking for the next big business idea can
both use design thinking.
Design
Thinking can be applied equally well at a personal level.
Bill
Burnett is an adjunct professor at Stanford and leads the Design Thinking program. In a distinguished
career spanning decades, Bill has used the principles to generate dramatic new
designs in a variety of domains. In the last decade, he has also pioneered the “Design Your Life” course at Stanford.
The course, among the most popular at Stanford, is now offered at the freshman,
graduate, and doctoral levels. Bill is the co-author (with Dave Evans) of the book “Designing
Your Life: How to Build a Well-lived,
Joyful Life.” (Knopf, 2016).
Most of us
have faced the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” multiple
times over our lives.
Bill Burnett argues that this is a wrong question to ask.
Suppose we
reframe the question:
“What can I do to keep exploring throughout
life?”
In other
words, how to we nurture the curiosity
of a five-year-old over a lifetime?
Psychologists
and behavioral scientists (and employers) try to find out what our passion is.
Bill and
Dave propose this is the wrong approach. It
appears that only 20% of any population
can identify a single passion. For the overwhelming majority (80%), there
simply is no single passion. Most of us
are passionate about many different things, and these may vary from the time of
day to particular days of the week all the way to different stages of life.
The
challenge is to apply the principles of Design Thinking to the “wicked problem” of life – be it managing one’s career, pursuing one’s
heart, or realize one’s true potential.
A “wicked
problem” is a large, ambiguous problem that is poorly defined, and even more
poorly bounded. You will agree that life fits this definition.
First, the principles of Design Thinking:
1.
Empathize:
Design Thinking places people and their needs at the center. What does the end
user want? What is the “job to be done”? This step requires observation, engagement, and conversation.
Most market research studies fail this first step. It should not come as a
surprise that most products and services fail.
2.
Define:
Once we identify the real “job to be done” from the perspective of the end
user, we need to define the “problem” or “challenge” in a meaningful way. Defining
the problem right is half the solution.
3.
Ideate: Use
your creative mind to generate as many “solutions” as possible. Never mind
whether the solutions make sense. Don’t try to figure out the “right” answer.
Just allow your mind to come up with solutions that do not exist at present. Brainswarming (not brainstorming), mind mapping, and doodling are some of the useful tools for this stage.
4.
Prototype:
Design Thinking is all about “learning
by doing.” Convert as many solutions as you can into working prototypes. The essence of this step is speed. Don’t
aim for the perfect solution. Look for a tangible solution that the end user is
likely to be pleased with. Remember: it is better to fail and cheaply
at this stage than to fail spectacularly later.
5.
Test: Go
into the real world and test your solution/s. Don’t expect the smell of sweet
success. Expect end users to trash your
solution. Learn from their feedback. Iteration is at the heart of Design Thinking. Don’t ever think that
your first solution is indeed the best. More often than not, your first solution
is likely to be your worst – from the end user’s perspective.
Applying
Design Thinking to Your Life
Use the core principles of
Design Thinking. Find out what is
working and what is not. Experiment. Dare
to challenge the status quo. Applying Design Thinking to life involves “improvisation”
and “wayfinding.”
1.
Maintain
a “Good Time” Journal.
Assumption
one: We find something missing in life. How do we improve this situation?
Start
with a “Good Time” Journal. Keep a record (hour to hour) of all of your daily
activities for a week.
Check
the activities that you find most fulfilling.
When
are you completely immersed in what you do? Why?
Which
activities make you happy? Which ones make you unhappy?
Which
activities help you to be calm and poised? Which ones create anxiety, fear, and
anger?
When
do you feel that life is a smooth flow? When do you find it turbulent?
What
are you doing when you are most alive, present, and animated?
This is the critical step. The more insights you
gather in this step, the better off you will be. Use the Design Thinking
process to reinforce the activities that make you happy, and relegate or do away with activities that are not fulfilling.
Iterate.
For
the rest of your life.
2.
Track
Your Energy.
You
will find from the Journal that some activities energize you. And some
activities just drain you. Maintain the Journal for a few weeks. You will have
a clear idea of activities that energize you and activities that drain you.
Merely knowing how each activity affects you propels you to do more of what
energizes you and less of what drains you.
3.
Create
Three Odyssey Plans.
Think
of the next five years. Identify three paths or scenarios which you can pursue
realistically.
The
first scenario is a continuation of your current state. Status-quo.
The
second scenario is what you would do if your current situation suddenly changes.
What if you lose your job? What if you have a quarrel with your boss? What if
there is a natural disaster in your area?
The
third scenario is a hypothetical “wish list” of all that you might want to do
over a life time. Sell off everything and
walk or bike across the world? Become a chef? Go para-gliding or bungee-jumping? Go ahead. Create the most
preposterous list that you can imagine. The point of the third scenario is to
explore many different paths – most of which you might not have thought of
consciously till now. Remember it is never too late to learn. Ten hours a day
for three years can get you to the magical 10,000 hours to master anything.
4.
Define
Your Problem.
Use
the first three steps to generate a template.
What
makes me happy and how can I do more of it?
What
makes me unhappy and how can I do less of it?
What
do I want to do next?
What
skills do I need to move in a different direction?
Honestly,
how much room do I have to maneuver?
Now
that I have examined my situation, how can I make it better?
How
do I create the next version of myself?
What
do I need to change the most?
How
do I reinvent myself?
5.
Ideate.
Please
understand the difference between navigating and wayfinding.
You
can navigate when you know exactly where you want to go.
Life
does not afford the simplicity.
We
know we want to go somewhere, but we are not sure exactly where.
Wayfinding
is the answer.
Wayfinding
is the method hunters use to identify their target.
Look
for clues. Come up with alternatives. Brainswarm. Doodle. Draw mental maps.
Once you have what you think will make you happy, start prototyping and testing your ideas.
6.
Prototype
and Test.
When
it comes to life, a prototype is a quick and inexpensive way to determine
whether a certain idea will make you happy or not.
As an
example, let us say you want to run a marathon in three years.
Ask a
runner what it takes to do a marathon.
Start
running short distances.
Increase
the distance gradually.
Do
you feel energized?
If
yes, continue.
Taken
to its logical conclusion, one day you might indeed run a marathon.
Or at
some point, you may realize that running
itself is more beneficial than running a marathon.
You
may find that running two miles every day makes you healthier and more full of
energy.
Make
these course corrections and iterations again and again.
Do you want to learn a language? There are many portals that
allow you to learn languages for free. Try one for a week. Feel excited?
Continue. Feel drained? Think of another language, or music, or an MOOC.
Experiment.
Don’t be afraid of failing.
Failures
are the stepping stones to success.
What are you waiting for?
Use
Design Thinking to create a new future – and a new YOU.

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