Humanity is constantly on the cusp of the next great invention. With this, a wide perspective of multidisciplinary learning has become extremely imperative. There has emerged a need to possess an evolved skill set to be able to live and work in the future world. In this fast-paced world, design thinking creates room for individuals to tap into their creativity and come up with innovative solutions for real-life problems.
In an interview with Dr. Vinay Dabholkar, innovation expert and the president at Catalign Innovation Consulting, he stated that design thinking is an iterative process where one learns from doing things over and over again.
When looking at design thinking, one must know that it’s a creative, problem-solving approach that is human-centered and aimed at solving daily life problems. This approach takes up to 5 steps to design ideas aimed at problem-solving.
Learn to EMPATHIZE
The first step- empathizing, makes individuals use this process to put themselves in the shoes of those who are facing the problem. It’s a means to identify the problem through a third person’s perspective and understand it better. The key is to make oneself invisible and make them comfortable enough to share their problems.
DEFINE your problem.
After creating a space to analyze, it’s time to recreate spaces of affirmation to acknowledge the problem. The multiple perspectives received in the previous stage need a proper term or clarification. Hence in the second stage, it becomes essential to DEFINE by building on the observations noted through empathizing. This helps in designing the challenge in order to look at the most suitable take on it.
IDEATE towards solutions
A proper definition and characterization of these problems lead to the third step- IDEATING. Brainstorming on a finite impression of the problem helps in coming up with multiple actionable ideas to solve it. This thinking process helps in channeling a meaningful idea which Is also the ultimate goal of the third step.
Form a PROTOTYPE
Then comes the formation of a feasible PROTOTYPE where the participants challenge the ideas. This helps one understand whether the solution found would be successful or not. The aim of this stage is to make cognizant decisions and keep in mind the whole purpose, integrity, and consequences.
TEST your product
The last stage is to TEST the prototype by giving it to the users. This also demands proper feedback from the users to enhance and improve either the experience or the product before promotion.
According to Dr. Dabholkar, design thinking is a loop of finding and losing, unlike a linear problem-solving approach. It teaches a person to fail fast to learn faster as it’s a journey of failures and it’s impracticable to get everything right the very first time. It makes you more empathetic, and innovative as you proceed with your solution-finding journey.
Agastya International Foundation started design thinking programs under the guidance of, Professor of Organizational Behavior at Standford University- Prof. Hayagreeva Rao. It has become a major part of Agatsya’s pedagogy, with several innovation-based programs, like Mobile innovation buses and innovation hubs and others, taking children through the process.
