Elements of Design Thinking process and a case of deployment ..

Design Thinking basically focuses on people. The people focus of the Design Thinking process makes it very practical and relevant in common daily situations.

Click here to read an article, a blog from www.accenture.com, on Why people are at the centre of the Design Thinking process. 

We know the Design Thinking Process has mainly 5 processes or steps and they are Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

Design Thinking Process has mainly 5 elements, these elements exhibit the different features of the process as also its importance. 

They are -

1. Human centered -the DT process is very focused on empathy, people centred and understands the needs and desires of humans and suitably designs the product or process

2. Creative and playful - the DT process is carried out as an interesting creative playful activity that fosters creativity of the participants. The playful creative environment ensures the outcomes are equally creative and enjoyable for the end customers

3. Iterative - DT process does not stop after one iteration, the solution is challenged again and again until we are able to come up with an improved value added solution to the problem.

4. Collaborative - people with diverse perspectives work multi disciplinary teams that look at problems from different directions, helping understand it better,  together creating a superior solution

5. Prototype driven - collecting feedback is a great tool to help improve the process or to improve the prototype. The term prototype signifies that the process iterates to come up wit improved value added solutions

Click here to know about Design Thinking in more depth from Career Foundry ..

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Defining a practical example of Design Thinking exercise in www.amazon.in

The great E-retailing company Amazon is known for it's extreme attention to customer service. Here we are carrying out a Design Thinking exercise trying to find out why Amazon customers experience delay in getting their shipments across the country. Sometimes the delay extends to weeks altogether in the city, not to forget about the towns and villages. 

First let us prepare a brief initial execution plan which lists the issues, challenges, constraints etc in the DT exercise.

1. Empathise

Some of the problems faced by Amazon pantry customers

• delay, often running to weeks ..
• some Amazon deliveries take longer delivery time
• broken / multiple deliveries for a single order
• delivery people disturbing office / class attendees by calling at delivery time
• lot of Amazon related packaging material at home every month
  

2. Define

A better understanding of the customer problem

• how can we deliver products quickly 
• how can we deliver products for a customer in a single delivery without delivery splitting
• how can we reduce packing size and still ensure safety of product
  

3. Ideate

 Collect as many practical ideas to find a solution to the problem defined above (in red)

• have supply coordinators across various important cities and towns of India to coordinate supplies from suppliers and ensure single, faster delivery
• have Amazon local dealer network to coordinate deliveries to customers in their network area. These dealers to improve their profitability are free to deal with Amazon products and other products too
• Amazon could move from a pure click model to a click and brick model where customers could place orders via the website and collect goods at their nearest Amazon physical store at the customer's convenience.
• Amazon could coordinate with the India Post network across the country, almost 1,55,015 post offices (90% in rural areas), offering good commission to the Postal dept (60%) and postmen (40%). This is an opportunity for extra income for the postal dept and postmen too. The postal dept should be ready to change with the times.
• have a reliable network of volunteers / assistants across the country (preference to mom and pop store owners), improving the employment scenario across the country to coordinate deliveries to end customers.
• have a logistics network collaboration with the state transport departments in each state to ensure goods are transported across the state fast, cheap and reliably
• 
  

4. Prototype 

Deploy the plans or actions fast and watch results, get feedback and improve

• Employ more people to coordinate and move items from Amazon warehouse to customer premises in the shortest time by providing logistics, fast, safe, cheap transportation 
• build warehouses and Customer Service centres across the country
• ensure safe and fast return logistics
  

5. Test

 See the success or failure of actions to assess future developments and/or deployments

• Test the idea in the field and get customer feedback
• are customers excited and happy ?
• enquire whether any more problems exist
• are the proposed solutions cost effective or expensive 
• are proposed solutions customer focused (highest priority) or employee focused ?
  

George..