Overview

In 1996 Béla H. Bánáthy proposed the divergence-convergence model in his book “Designing Social Systems in a Changing World”.

• Divergent thinking refers to exploring and building up a deeper understanding: create options / choices.
• Convergent thinking refers to having fully understood the options and hence, to be able to make a choice.

This design process model became popular when it was enhanced and published by the British Design Council as Double Diamond model in 2005 which follows the following phases:

• Discover: This phase involves activities aimed at gaining a deep understanding of the problem. Methods include observing and talking to users, conducting desk research, running surveys, and checking quantitative data. The key takeaway is to achieve a shared understanding of the problem space.
• Define: In this phase, the team analyzes their findings to create personas, understand user tasks using frameworks like jobs-to-be-done, and map out user journeys. The goal is to come up with a single, well-articulated problem statement that is specific, broad enough to avoid predefining solutions, and inspiring.
• Develop: This phase focuses on exploring potential solutions through ideation, creating storyboards, and rapid prototyping. Rapid prototypes are quick, low-fidelity drafts that help gather fast feedback. The key takeaway is to expand problem understanding through iterative and validated ideas.
• Deliver: The final phase involves evaluating different solution assumptions. Activities include defining criteria for option selection, checking impact objectives, conducting final validations, and creating action plans. The takeaway is to arrive at a concrete solution assumption, ready for the next best test (MVP).

Discover

Discover refers to all activities to get a deep understanding of the problem.

In this first phase you might together

• observe and
• talk to users,
• execute desk research to understand how this problems are approached in other contexts,
• you will run surveys and
• check quantitative data,
• map different context situations over time,
• etc.

As of research triangulation is key: that means you will combine different research methods such as interviews, observations and quantitative data to get a fuller picture.

Define

Define refers to all activities to come up with a first problem statement.

You will analyse your findings together

• and create personas to get a better understanding of user segmentations,
• use frameworks such as jobs-to-be-done to understand the tasks
• use mapping techniques such as User / Customer Journey Mapping for the different user groups (personas),
• create a service blueprint in case you want to analyse the User Journey together with internal processes,
• etc.

The goal is that you come up with a single problem statement:

GIVEN THAT (context, situation)
HOW MIGHT WE (question)
SO THAT (goal, objective)
BECAUSE (need)

A good problem statement is

• specific enough to address the problem it wants to tackle,
• broad enough that it doesn’t specify the solution upfront,
• has a multifunctional perspective and
• inspiring to the participants that they want to solve it.

Develop

Develop (design) refers to exploring potential solutions.

In this phase you will ideate together and

• phrase refined hypotheses,
• create storyboards and
• rapid prototypes
• to validate your ideas.

Rapid prototyping refers to shitty first drafts that you can you to extend your learning about possible solutions. You don’t create high fidelity prototypes but rather quick prototypes to get fast feedback. A rapid paper prototype will also give you more insights as long as you are exploring, as first test users will more easily tell you what is still missing or what can be changed.

Don’t focus on specific ideas but rather go for different ideas. Think holistic and run rather full service concept pilots instead of very specific solution assumptions.

Deliver

Deliver refers to all activities where you evaluate different solution assumptions.

You will together

• define criteria
• to select options,
• check impact objectives
• do final validations,
• come up with action plans,
• and a concrete solution assumption
• etc.

Iterate!

Most important, Design Thinking is not a one-way-street but rather an iterative process where continuous touch points with the users are key. It is not enough just to create some output. Instead you focus on outcomes for the users that will use your product or service. The process requires a constant reality check and continuous learning.

You just deliver the smallest output that is needed to test your assumption with a large enough sample to gather enough confidence for next steps. With new learnings you will either move on or iterate each of the four phases.

It can also happen that the outcome of one loop is a readjustment of the initial problem assumption. In this situation you iterate the full loop once more.