(Above) The design thinking process, according to this article by Interaction Design Foundation.
As young and aspiring entrepreneurs, you may have heard the term ‘design thinking’ brought up.
Design thinking refers to a structured framework used by designers to solve complex issues and find solutions.
The term is not exclusively reserved for designers but the process itself is applicable to start-ups and innovators.
Adopting the right mindset for design thinking might not be easy if you are new to it, but if you already possess some of the right qualities as listed below, it may not be that difficult as you might think.
Always curious
To ensure your product or service appears attractive and relevant to customers, you need to be curious about why things are the way they are, and why things don’t work.
Once you nurture the mindset of being curious, you will want to understand more and connect with your customers and start looking at problems from a different perspective.
Having empathy
For business owners, the ability to know what your customers want and need is the best tool to make your business successful.
When designing a product for your customers, being empathetic is a wonderful skill for understanding your customers better and it can also help you solve problems by looking at things from their perspective.
Being open-minded
To adopt design thinking, you must be willing to be open-minded. Do not be afraid to embrace wild and unconventional ideas.
By being open-minded, you can discuss ideas without showing judgement towards the idea or people.
Learning from failure
This is probably the toughest mindset to get into, as nobody really feels good from experiencing failure.
But to solve problems in a creative manner, you have to accept failure as part of learning and the key is to think like a designer in the way you explore, create, and innovate. Through that, you need to remind yourself constantly that you can use failure as a tool to improve.
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This article first appeared on The Borneo Post, visit this link: http://bit.ly/2OnzLSW
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