THE FIVE STAGES OF DESIGN THINKING

How to Apply Design Thinking in Developing your Business Idea

Disclaimer: You can do the activity below by yourself or with a team

Empathize Ideate Define Test Prototype

Step 1: Empathize Activity 1

Start by answering these questions: Who do you want to serve? Who are your users? How old are they? Where do they live? What are their hobbies? What do they like to buy? Think about an experience where you had a problem and didn’t find a solution, and suddenly you thought “If only this existed.” Would you like to solve that problem for others?

Once you’ve identified your users, let’s just call them YOUR SQUAD, it is important to empathize with their problems by doing research, creating a questionnaire to understand their wants and needs, and arranging interviews with your users (online or in-person).

Interviewing your squad will help you find real insights and test your assumptions. What do you want to learn from them? Listen carefully.

Create an Empathy Map Canvas to get familiar with your squad, it will guide you to learn more about what your squad is hearing, seeing, feeling, thinking, saying, and doing. See canvas below and sketch out your customer empathy map.

WHO are we empathizing with?

What do they HEAR?

Whatdothey THINKandFEEL?

GAINS PAINS

What do they need to DO?

What do they SEE?

What do they DO?

What do they SAY?