Oh, boy, I hope you like post-it notes because if someone says let’s do some design thinking, what they probably want to do is brainstorm using copious amounts of these little notes. Although you don’t have to use post-its to engage in a design thinking exercise, the idea involves capturing customer pain points and possible solutions floated around in such a meeting.
For example…
Airbnb hosted a design thinking exercise titled “WhyHostsReject” to understand the reason why some hosts didn’t want to accept a guest’s request for accommodation on their property. The exercise involved analysing foundational research, one-on-one interviews with hosts and other insights to discover possible ways to resolve issues. The user experience teams discovered problems such as insufficient guest information preventing acceptance through a visual map of the problems. One of the suggested solutions was to provide custom-tailored guest information to these concerned hosts. As you can see, a successful design thinking exercise can result in improved outcomes for all.
