How I work
I am a design thinker. This means I use a best-practice innovation framework known as Design Thinking to solve problems. Thought to have been coined by Tim Brown, the chairman and co-CEO of IDEO, Design Thinking is embedded in the behaviours and practices of some of the most successful and profitable companies in the world including Apple, Nike, Uber, Airbnb and Google. Having seen the real-world business benefits of a customer-centric approach to problem-solving, more and more global businesses are adapting Design Thinking into their practices.
Design thinking was introduced to me many years ago at a Lean Startup & Designing Thinking boot camp run by Will Evans from the NYU Stern School of Management. After attending this intensive two-day boot camp I adopted many tools and processes from this training into my UX practice at eBay. By doing this I was able to make big strides in changing the perception and therefore the understanding and value of design at eBay. Using a best-practise innovation framework like Design Thinking gave my team and I a framework with which we could solve business problems.
What is Design Thinking
Design thinking is a process of creative problem-solving with the customer (people) at the centre of your decision-making process. It is an insights-driven innovation process to ensure you create successful products or services. Key to the practice of Design Thinking is the Identification and creation of customer value & desirability in a product or service. It is a cyclical process of user testing (feedback) and iteration (continuous improvement). Finally, it is a highly collaborative process.
How does it work
Design thinking ensures we always start with the customer to understand their goals, frustrations, motivations, pain points and therefore the problem we are trying to solve for them. Once we know the problem we are trying to solve we can explore ways to solve this problem through ideation and prototyping. Finally, we materialise our best ideas to test and implement them.
Implementing Design Thinking at eBay
For me, Design Thinking was not only an evolved way of working that strongly aligned with my interest in design. Design Thinking would be the platform that enabled me to change the perception of design at eBay, an objective that has always been close to my heart. The Design Thinking workshops achieved this objective by taking participants through the same processes of thinking as us designers. This collaboration with the wider business coupled with a hands-on approach proved invaluable and led initiative owners to a deeper appreciation and future engagement with our team.