One of the areas of project management that may receive increased attention in a modern online project management course is the idea of ‘design thinking’. This is a solution-focused methodology, in which project teams attempt to ‘think like designers’, in order to come up with new, alternative or innovative solutions to problems.
Generally, the design thinking approach is broken down into five phases, which are as follows: empathising with users; defining the problem or user needs; generating ideas for potential solutions; creating prototype solutions; and then testing those solutions to assess their effectiveness, or to monitor user response.
This approach is especially popular when human-centric solutions are required. In this article, we take a closer look at design thinking, and the various ways it can be of benefit to project managers and their teams.
Improved Understanding
Through design thinking training, project leaders learn to approach problems in a different way, and one of the biggest differences is greater immersion. As an article for the Harvard Business Review points out, this forms part of the ’empathise’ and ‘define’ phases, where project teams work to identify the job that needs to be done.
Often, traditional approaches to customer research rely on impersonal data. However, through design thinking, project teams are encouraged to actually immerse themselves in the intended users’ experience, in order to better understand their needs, and also to identify some of the hidden needs, which may not usually be presented.
Armed with this kind of insight into the precise needs of the intended end users, project teams can design projects that are more relevant, more beneficial and higher in quality than they would be through more traditional approaches. As a result, the completed project has the potential to deliver improved levels of customer satisfaction.
Greater Innovation
During the ‘ideation’ phase of the design thinking process, project participants are encouraged to generate ideas freely. This is often achieved through brainstorming sessions, and this free flow of ideas can be essential for developing new or truly original ideas, which are essential for solving problems that are yet to be solved.
For this to work optimally, however, it is imperative that all of the project team members feel empowered and able to propose ideas, without negative judgement – even if they are ‘outside of the box’ ideas, or represent a significant departure from the way things are usually done on the project team, or by the organisation as a whole.
“Design-thinking firms stand apart in their willingness to engage in the task of continuously redesigning their business,” explains Roger Martin, the author behind the Design of Business. “To create advances in both innovation and efficiency [is] the combination that produces the most powerful competitive edge.”
The design thinking approach also encourages cross-functional collaboration and teams made up of people from multiple disciplines, as this can help to generate a broader range of ideas. Ultimately, this is all intended to increase the flow of truly innovative ideas, concepts and solutions to problems.
A Non-Linear Process
Another advantage that is often highlighted in design thinking training programmes is the non-linear approach that can be taken to developing a solution. While design thinking tends to consist of the five steps that were outlined earlier, it is important to understand that these do not need to be completed in a linear sequence.
As is pointed out in an article for the Interaction Design Foundation website, a project team may reach the fourth stage of the design thinking process (prototype) and then learn things which can spark new ideas, taking them back to the third stage (ideation). Similarly, the final phase (testing) may reveal things that allow the team to redefine the problem, sending them all the way back to the second stage (define).
While this can make the timescale of a project less predictable than a more straight-forward, sequential approach, it can also improve the quality of the entire design process. This is because it allows initial assumptions to be challenged, enables early definitions of a problem to be improved, and facilitates the formulation of alternative ideas.
The Final Word
Within project management circles, the concept of design thinking is often highlighted as a way to take a human-centric approach to problem solving. Generally, an online project management course will teach that the approach has five distinct phases: empathise, define, ideate, prototype, and test, and this creates a solid framework.
Because the stages are non-liner, however, each phase has the potential to reveal new insights, which better inform previous phases. This can help to ensure that continuous improvement underpins the entire project.
Moreover, by using these phases, project teams have the potential to gain a much clearer insight into the needs and experiences of end users, and also to create much more innovative or unique solutions to problems. These are potentially major advantages when it comes to the overall quality and success of projects.
Author Bio –
Nadine is a marketing director at Strategy Execution, a leading PM Training provider that also specialises in agile project management, business analysis and adaptive leadership programmes.
An experienced marketing strategist and technologist, Nadine is also passionate about project management, business analysis and agile PM, managing and contributing to the company PM blog servicing 40,000 monthly users.
