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Harness the art of design thinking

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Ensure your solutions are usable and feasible. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH

Being able to solve problems is one of the most sought after skills in the job market today. Even if you are not looking for employment, it is an important life skill that could give you an edge anywhere you apply it. So, just how do you acquire it? One of the most effective strategies to solve problems is known as design thinking. Idris Mootee describes it as the search for a magical balance between business and art; structure and chaos; intuition and logic; concept and execution; playfulness and formality; and control and empowerment. It helps you stimulate your thinking and find a permanent solution for your problem.

Design thinking has five Stages:

1.Empathise

This stage involves observation, engaging and immersing into your users; it is the foundation of human-centric design. Forget your expertise, experience and understanding and think like the user.

For example, let us assume that there is unbearable traffic congestion in Nairobi and you have been tasked with solving it. First you define who is affected by the congestion (the users) and in this case, users are commuters. Observe them, talk to them and always ask why on everything you observe. Record what they say, what they do, how they feel and imagine what they think.

2.Define

Next, unpack your empathy findings into compelling insights and needs. The goal here is to develop a deep understanding of the users, the problem and its scope. This is where you should spend most of your energy so that you really understand the problem. To return to the earlier example, from your observation, you could form the following insights:

I. Traffic congestion in Nairobi is periodic; occurs in the morning and evening.

ii. There is less congestion when school children are on holidays.

iii. There are more private vehicles than PSVs in traffic congestions.

iv. Most private vehicles have occupancy of one or two.

V .Most commuters board more than one PSV from their place of work to home.

vi. Traffic congestion is high during rainy seasons and fares are raised more often.

3.Ideate

Now, focus on idea generation where you look for a wide range of solutions. First, you frame your opportunities, which should start with the phrase “How might we?” (HMW). For instance, “HMW reduce the periodic traffic congestions?” or “HMW provide an effective transport system for commuters?” Secondly, brainstorm. Be creative as you answer the HMW questions. As you brainstorm, defer judgement, encourage wild ideas, build on the ideas of others, stay focused on the topic, have one conversation at a time, be visual and always go for quantity. Here are some suggestions you could come up with after brainstorming:

i. A 24/7 economy to reduce the periodic traffic. ii.Have a light rail system to move commuters around major outskirts fast.

A carpooling platform and policies.

ii.dedicated lanes for high capacity vehicles.

4.Prototype

A prototype is a physical representation of your ideas. It could be a storyboard, an object, post it notes or role playing. Since you cannot solve all the problems in the world, ensure that your solutions are desirable (usable and supported by human values), feasible (technology and tools are available) and viable (make business sense). A carpooling app meets these three criteria, and you can easily make a prototype.

5.Test

Testing helps you to make your solutions better. It is an opportunity to build more empathy and gather more insights. The solution is tested, tweaked and enhanced as per the feedback. Through observation, you can learn more about the users and enhance the solution further.In conclusion, we live in very dynamic times. To survive, you must adopt a culture of innovation. Design thinking can help you become an innovative problem solver.

KELVIN MIHINGO, Cytonn Technologies.