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title: Design Thinking 101
tags: [reading]

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# Design Thinking 101
## History of design thinking
Despite some early examples of human-centric products, design has historically been an afterthought in the business world, applied only to touch up a product’s aesthetics. However, as this kind of design process failed to meet customers' real needs, the designers were moved from the end of product-development process to the beginning. And human-centric design proved to be much more benificial. With this approach being adopted on a larger scale, there emerged the standardized framework applying the creative design process to traditioanl business problems, as known as design thinking.


afterward design for aesthetics --> human-centric design from the begining --> formalized design thinking

## What - Definition
The **design thinking ideology** asserts that a hands-on, usercentric approach to problem solving can lead to innovation, and innovation can lead to differentiation and a competitive advantage

## How - Process
The design-thinking framework follows an overall flow of 1) understand, 2) explore, and 3) materialize. Within these larger buckets fall the 6 phases: empathize, define,ideate, prototype, test, and implement.
![](https://i.imgur.com/d1BuXVb.png)

Note in prototyping phase, you get feedback internally, based on that you make the prototype again and share it to another group of people. In test phase, you return to your users for feedback.

## Why - The advantage
1. It addresses real and not imaginary user needs.
2. It leverages collective expertise and establishes a shared language and buy-in amongst your team.
3. It encourages innovation by exploring multiple avenues for the same problem.

## Flexibility - adapt to fit your needs
The phases above are not a prescribed step-by-step recipe, they are a framework and tweak as needed. Each phase is meant to be iteraive, cyclical, and repeated.

![](https://i.imgur.com/zSe5Uhd.png)

## Scalability - think bigger
The packaged and accessible nature of design thinking makes it scalable. Design thinking can be applied both to improve small functions like search and give disruptive solutions, such as restructuring the career ladder for teachers in order to retain more
talent. 
