Design Thinking - A Primer - English

INDEX
S.No. Topic Page No.

WEEK- 1
1 The Start Part 1 1

4 Intro to Design Thinking – Part 01 18
5 Intro to Design Thinking – Part 02 20
22
Intro to Design Thinking Course Preview and History of
6
Design Thinking
WEEK- 2
26
Introduction to the workshop team and the Demo
7
Problem
8 Design Thinking Empathize 37
9 Empathize Workshop 45
12 Empathize – User Research 54
WEEK- 3
13 Analyze – Part 01 Multi-Whys 59

14 Part 1 64
15 Conflict of Interest 69
16 Analyze Workshop – Part 01 74
17 Part 02 79
18 Solve Tea Cup Story 82
WEEK- 4
19 Solve - Lecture 01 87
20 Solve Workshop 92
21 Elephant and Blind Men 99
22 Part - 02 103
23 Workshop - 01 110
24 Test Prototype Validation 118
25 The End Part 01 124
26 The End Part 2 130
27 Finale & Appeal for Proposals 135
Design Thinking
Prof: Dr. Bala Ramadurai
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
The Start Part 1
Prof Bala: Hey, hi.
Prof Ashwin: Bala what you are doing? You are supposed to be teaching this course now.
Prof Bala: Course! Duh duh de Design Thinking!
Prof Ashwin: Yeah, of course. That is why we are here, to teach this course on design thinking,
what exactly are you doing?
Prof Bala: You know this game I am playing, so that I can empathise with kids who play on
this, these kids these days are playing for our devices on a long-time, I am trying to empathise
with them.
(Refer Slide Time: 1:09)

Prof Ashwin: Ahaa! so you are trying to design a game for little kids using a design thinking
philosophy, that is good Bala, the first thing you should do is Empathize with the potential
users of your game and is really nice that you are sitting here and playing this game and seeing
what it would be like, but that’s just the first stage of the empathising phase.
Prof Bala: Ohh.
Prof Ashwin: Right, what you should also do in addition to playing the game and seeing how
users feel is actually go out and observe some of these kids, talked to some of them, right, get
to know them better, step into the shoes, so you can actually complete the first phase of design
thinking, which is to empathize right, how does that sound.
Prof Bala: Shoes. Okays I will do that, so what? That is the second phase, first phase was
empathize which I lovely and I did it very well. Second is go talk to them.
Prof Ashwin: Absolutely, now the thing is, this is actually a lot of fun. I am sure it looks like
you are having.
Prof Bala: Oh, yes. This is lot of fun
Prof Ashwin: Too much of fun.
Prof Bala: actually, what you are saying is also a lot of fun.
Prof Ashwin: Yeah, so let me sort of move that away from you for a second, so that you don’t
have a too much fun, but the thing is, if you, it is, you do not want to caught in having too much
fun and just continue to play this game right, at some point after you understood what the games
are like and after you go and talk to people, you really need to move on to the next phase, do
you know what the next phase design thinking is.
Prof Bala: Looks like analysing something.
Prof Ashwin: Absolutely, so you need to observe and you got to take your observations and
got to analyse them to really understand things like what makes these kids stick? What makes
them play these kind of games for long hours? What are they really like? You know, what
really turns them on? What would give them the maximum enjoyment? Right, so you really
need to think about, what you are seeing? Right, so you should not get caught too much in
playing the game which I can see you are getting quite good at judging by the score that you
have on that screen there.
Alright, that is a bit higher than my highest score on that game, so I am going to have to beat
you on that right, so the second phase is to analyse alright, what you think you do after you
finish analysing.
Prof Bala: I am sure we will run into some problem, my kid who won’t allow me to play.
Prof Ashwin: Exactly, right, and therefore right, do you have approval to plays these games.
Prof Bala: No, please don’t tell my kid that I played his game.
Prof Ashwin: Think you are going to get into a lot of troubles.
Prof Bala: Yes, yes.

Prof Ashwin: But anyway after you sort of analyse right, you’ve got to get into a creative phase,
we have to actually then start developing something, you have seen what happens, you have
stepped into their shoes a little bit, you have thought through things you have analyse and then
you have to come up with something, it can be tangible, physical, it can be something in the
digital world, but you got to come up with in some ways solution which you think might fit the
problem right, what do you think you do after that? Right, are you going to sort of give them
the solution and say pamm pram paaam I am done and what then you walk away!
Prof Bala: Humm! that does not sound right, maybe I have to do something to test whether they
like it.

Prof Ashwin: Absolutely right, so you have to go back to these kids that you are designing the
game for and you actually have to then start giving them the game and see even if they actually
play with it and see what their reactions are right, you might be lucky, you might have designed
a wonderful game and they might play it for hours and they might beat your high scores and
all of that, but it also very likely that you know, you will get some very good feedback on the
fact that maybe the graphics are not quite the way they wanted it to be, maybe it is a little bit
too fast for them and so essentially what you will have to do is come back to the drawing board
again with this new information.
Prof Bala: And I play that one more time.
Prof Ashwin: No, not yet right, you design it one more time right, this is again you have re-
empathise, you analyse what you have heard, you go back, you iterate, you modify that initial
prototype of the game you created, you go back.
Prof Bala: So it just not one-time but many times.
Prof Ashwin: Many times, that the more times you do it, that the faster you do it, and the more
likely you are.
Prof Bala: Sounds to be like a game, do it many, many times over.
Prof Ashwin: Exactly, so design thinking if you do it right can be like a game, it can be a lot of
fun, but essentially, it goes through 4 phases.
Prof Ashwin: There is the empathising phase, there is analysing phase.
Prof Bala: Analyze
Prof Ashwin: That is the solving phase.
Prof Bala: Solve.
Prof Ashwin: And then there is a testing phase.
Prof Bala: Test.
Prof Ashwin: And you go through this a few times until you get something that the people who
are going to use your product or your game in this case, really like and really want and at that
point you might actually be able to sell your game to millions of people and become a
billionaire and you know buy all of those wonderful things that you want it.
Prof Bala: And play games.
Prof Ashwin: And play games, so you can have your cake and eat it too, right! Now Bala, it is
bit late I have to go to catch a flight because I have to go and meet the Prime Minister.
Prof Bala: Wow,
Prof Ashwin: I will be back shortly in a few weeks an 8 weeks to be precise and by that time,
I expect that you will have all of the lessons of this design thinking course record, right! So
remember, I am giving you an 8 week deadline and it better be done, by the time I get back.
Prof Bala: 8 weeks, no Ashwin, yes, ohh, ya, ya, I will record it, do not worry.
Prof Ashwin: All right. Remember 8 weeks.
Prof Bala: Okay.

Design Thinking
Professor Bala Ramadurai
Part 02
Empathize Workshop
Professor:
Hello and welcome back to this module on empathize. We were doing customer journey
mapping or the first persona in our previous video. In this video we will going to do another
persona of the same case study that we have been working on. Now why are we doing it another
time is one it will probably give you a different flavors of how customer journey map is build?
As well as we are looking at examining another person who could probably using this or going
through this journey.
So that is the main intent, usually typically I would say about 3 to 4 persona is very likely that
you will be looking at and not only one as I have suggested, that is the minimum bare minimum
which is what I have suggested, but in typical practice it is about 3 or 4 that you will end up
doing your caricature of in verbally or some people even people who are you know usually
incline or can we make physical caricature or drawing of somebody with that persona, you can
try that out and if you are not adept a drawing you can just draw stick figure which is I would
highly encourage that to complete the customer journey map.
So my colleagues here who will take it up from here to build the second customer journey map,
ok over to you guys.
Siddharth Maturi:
Yeah, so guys for the second persona what we thought is, since in the first video we have
considered us school going student, now we will looking at a college going student say a post
graduate student may be of the age 24 to 25, so let us fix a name to this person first.
Nithin Kurian:
Ok, let us name him Prince.
Professor:
First one was Sam and now Prince, ok.

Nithin:
So prince is of 24.
Siddharth:
24 age year old and.
Nithin:
He is studying at a university in Delhi, India.
Siddharth:
Delhi, India is his geography, so that is the basic persona of our second profile, and is pasted
here.
Nithin:
So what activity are we mapping for Prince?
Siddharth:
Since we have already considered the fact that how a school student is going to take down
notes, now let us get into the next activity of a student life which is preparing or going back to
he is notes at home or studying at home, right. So the activity would be studying at home, right
guys.
Nithin:
Ok, so again we will have to look at what are the activities preceding, during and after this
particular activity, ok. So before student goes or starts studying what are some of the activities
that he could probably be doing.
Siddharth:
Probably fix up right, fix the right place for himself and organize himself with the books and
all the required material for him.
Nithin:
Right, so getting all the relevant study materials ready for learning.
Siddharth:
Right, getting all the study material.
Nithin:
So this could include all he is notes and that textbooks for that relevant topic of study.
Siddharth:
Right, notes and textbooks. So that would be activity 1, as in step 1 for the activity ‘before’,
right we can have this here.
Nithin:
Ok, next would be probably placing himself in a position where he can seat in or seat and study
which could be he is bed or study table.
Siddharth:
Right, arranging himself at the study place, so this would be 2. Then he probably would be
going to the specific chapter.
Nithin:
Relevant chapter or topic, right.
Siddharth:
So he opening his notes and textbooks with respect to the relevant chapter. I think this would
be the basic activity that would be preceeding the study and activity.
Nithin:
The study and activity, right.
Siddharth:
Anything else?
Suprativ:
No, these are the basic things somebody would like to
Siddharth:
Both, then we can move on to, anything else sir?
Professor:
I am fine, the things are going, ok.
Nithin:
So during the activity.
Siddharth:
Yeah, during the activity.
Student 2:
So the first thing you would probably do is either read the text or the relevant notes that he had
prepared for that particular chapter.
Siddharth:
Right, read the notes and chapter for the topic, right.
Nithin:
Yeah, that will be activity 1.

Siddharth:
So this is when he actually starts studying.
Nithin:
This is when he actually starts studying.
Siddharth:
That is D1 activity timeline.
Nithin:
Right, second he would probably start writing or drawing or.
Siddharth:
Taking down his running notes.
Nithin:
Running notes, so that the learning activity will happen.
Suprativ:
Writing for practice.
Nithin:
Writing for practice.
Siddharth:
Writing for practice/running notes.
Nithin:
Yeah, and.
Suprativ:
Do you think that during running, in the reference materials he may need to look into some
other reference materials, so that can be.
Nithin:
So, some feedback that I have received in terms of students learning is that they often especially
today these days often go online or check a YouTube video to understand the concept better or
is there a some topic that is little ambiguous in what they are learning, they would probably be
doing that so some that might be something that could fit into this learning activity.
Siddharth:
Perfect, so that would be a referring online content for doubtful topics.
Nithin:
Doubtful topics, yes.
Shyam:
Referring online as well as offline books like book a reference book.
Nithin:
Could alternate reference book, right.
Siddharth:
Online, offline reference materials.
Suprativ:
Reference materials.
Nithin:
Offline reference materials for further learning, yeah right.
Siddharth:
Reference materials for further learning, ok. So that is 3, third step of the activity, anything
more a student would be carrying out while studying at home.
Nithin:
Again if this what he is learning right now is related to some topic that he had learned earlier
then probably he might again do a retrieval of the notes or chapters that he had revised or
learned earlier into this that might also be something that could be done.
Siddharth:
Add more of adding his previous knowledge to this.
Nithin:
To this and creating a kind of relationship with what he has already learned what he is presently
learning.
Siddharth:
Right, creating a bridge between his past knowledge and present learnings, yeah! Then so now
if we considered these are the activities during the studying activity what Prince would be
carrying out, so now we can move on to the after this studying activity is done. So once he is
done with preparing everything what do you guys think he would be doing first after.
Nithin:
Right, probably he want to he would want to check whether he is learning or understanding is

correct.
Siddharth:
Cross check himself or revision, test himself with the newly learnt topic, test himself on newly
learnt topic, right. Which would be 1 for the after. Then if the test comes out positive then it is
a situation for him where he can move on to a next chapter or in another situation where the
test is negative.
Nithin:
He is not satisfied with the amount of understanding.
Siddharth:
Right, so then we can probably diverge into two different case and what so this would be 2(i)
then it is a positive situation he would move on to next topic and in a negative situation in case
he fails his own test he would probably.
Nithin:
Then probably he would come back to the learning activity during activity.
Siddharth:
Probably D1 will.
Nithin:
D1 the first activity in during learning, yeah.
Siddharth:
Going back to
Nithin:
Reading and understanding the concept again.
Siddharth:
On the same topic.
Professor:
Here my suggestion would be to add saying that from here we move to step here say could say
as D1, so that is oh that is what said, ok. Loops are not uncommon but it tells you that there is
something going on, so this is a representation tool, so and visually laid out, so it is ok to have
arrows and all that, so the more complex in a activity is, the more loops you may have it is not
also common to have them but is usually a linear sort of structure, but I have also seen
somewhere they connect back, so it is perfectly ok, you are alright. You do have to be alarmed
about that.
Siddharth:
So this would be 2 cases after the test.
Professor:
So positive, negative, negative goes back to D 1, so like a flow chart, ok fine.
Siddharth:
After testing himself probably if he is, let us consider a situation where he is successfully tested
himself and he is happy with his result and is moving on to the next topic, so that would be the
next step according to.
Nithin:
Right, move on to next topic.
Siddharth:
Moving onto the next topics, right this is the step 3 for the after. Again for this situation we can
go back to D1.
Professor:
Of course.
Nithin:
Because by moving on to next topic is again going through the starting, restarting the activity
that we have already mapped.
Professor:
Right.
Siddharth:
Right, so like we think this would be.
Nithin:
One cycle of learning.
Siddharth:
Studying activity what Prince could be doing after going home
Professor:
Fine, Like I noticed is that of course better handwriting this time and I can see the logical flow
he can one can actually follow and follow the journey in Prince’s eyes. We are seeing where
he’s going through that and now of course the, it is complete as is, I like the way you have done
it, of course the next step would be emotional mapping.
Siddharth:
Going back to B1 that would be getting all the study material, notes and textbooks considering
an ideal situation where Prince wants to study, so it is a happy Prince here.
Suprativ:
How looking so available.
Siddharth:
Yeah, then arranging himself at the study table is something, a no-brainer.
Suprativ:
No emotions associated.
Nithin:
And this could be a hassle because he has to you know open to that particular chapter in the
textbook there might be some keywords that he could be searching for within the textbook that
is not aware of especially if he using a textbook for the first time, so yeah I think it might be a
hassle for him.
Shyam:
He might be confused.
Nithin:
Yeah, confused again so a sad emotion.
Siddharth:
Confused and sad, that is the emotion for as before steps. Now coming to D1 that is during the
activity reading the notes and chapters for that particular purpose, so that is happy for this
persona, that is a happy Prince here. Then writing for practice or running notes is also happy it
is part of his learning activity.
Nithin:
Yeah he is learning activity.
Siddharth:
So that is again a happy. Referring online, offline reference materials for further learning.
Nithin:
This could again be a problem because he has to go to some other kind of a resource may be if
he is checking online he has to use a laptop, if he has to go offline he again has to refer another
textbook, so it amounts too lot of space being consumed, a lot of time being consumed for it is
learning activity to take place.
Siddharth:
Right, it is a punch on his focus as well.
Nithin:
Yes, exactly.
Siddharth:
So that is a sad. Then creating the bridge between his past knowledge and he is present learning.
Nithin:
So that is a positive aspect because he understanding and connecting what he is already learned
with what is learning right now, so.
Shyam:
So that will be fine.
Siddharth:
Those are the emotions during this studying activity. So moving on to the after the activity part,
testing himself on the newly learnt topic, probably again curious.
Nithin:
Yeah, curious.
Shyam:
Curious know how much he learnt.
Nithin:
Yeah, curious to know.
Siddharth: Still not happy not sad.
Suprativ:
Because he is in dilemma.
Siddharth:
His in a dilemma so straight and curious, then moving on to the next topic is a positive result.
Nithin:
Positive result for him
Suprativ:
Prince will definitely be happy with this.
Shyam:
And this is again definitely sad because he is failed his test.
Nithin:
So he has not understood his topic completely.
Siddharth:
So he will have to he will have to go back to D1 that is a sad thing for him. Now moving 3
would be a situation where we are going ahead with 2(i) so this is a continuation of 2(i) that is
moving on to the next topic, so it would be a happy
Professor:
Ok, so far so good I again I like the fact that you comprehensively finished the activity, and
all the basic checkmarks of what a customer journey map should have is complete. So I think
we have done successfully finished of 2 personas, I am very happy with the results that these
guys have delivered on the second persona of this particular activity that we did of the
customer journey map.
I think the major points again is I will reiterate is the first part which is the demography of the
customer, the age, the geography and for fun you can even give a the person a name and that
sort of rounds up the personality. Then the activity is clearly marked as to what the person is
going to do before, during and after and at least 3 steps, so this guys followed that. Few tips
that introduced to us the loops present of loops, multiple personas we did couple of them and
of the last part was the emotional mapping which is sad, happy or in fact we have some
confused as well as surprised were some emotions that are covered.
And now we have a special bonus for you which we’ll show it you in the next video, so stay
tuned for the next bonus video.
Design Thinking
Part 03
Empathize Workshop
Student 1:
Hi guys welcome back, so in our previous video what we’ve learned is how to develop a
persona? And identify an activity for that persona, create a timeline before that activity, during
the activity and also after the activity. In these activities what we‘ve done is we have gone
through a set of task flows which might which that customer might be going through in his
routine activity.
So in this situation what we are going to show you as a scene where this is Sam, a 14 year old
school going student, he studies in an international school in Pune, India and let us see what
happens in a classroom.
All students:
Good morning sir.
Professor:
Good morning, good morning, good morning Sam, ok children. So last class we learnt about!
Anybody knows? Did you write your notes in a bus ticket, what did we learn Sam?
Student (Sam) is answering:
Sir we learned linear equations in two variables.
Professor:
Linear equation in two variables that is correct, that’s correct. Today we are going to learn
linear equation in three variables, ok all right. Ok that was linear equation in three variables
when two variables you had two variables one variable, one variable. Now we have three
variables two here and one more here, you understood better prepare next time, okay better
notes next time not like this on pieces of paper, hmm, hmm, good, ok. So see you next class,
bye.
All students:
Thank you, sir.
Student 1:
Sam! Sam! Can you share your notes, I didn’t listen to Bala sir’s class today, please.
Student 1:
Thank you, Sam.

Design Thinking
Prof. Dr. Bala Ramadurai
Empathize – User Research
Interviewer: Hi. Your name?
Interviewee: Devdat Das.
Interviewer: Devdat Das!
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: Devdat, can you just give me a brief intro about yourself.
Interviewee: I am from Calcutta, so I am perceiving MBA Innovation and Entrepreneurship from

Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune. So it has been three months here and I am
really enjoying this course. And it is helping me with many aspects to know about businesses and
how to deal with real-life problems and solve them.
Interviewer: Can I have your age?
Interviewee: Yeah, I am 26 years old.
Interviewer: 26.
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: Devdat, basically we are working on solution towards IT and looking at how, where
people write, what activities go in and around writing, basically. So few questions to you.
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: So how frequently do you think you write?
Interviewee: So I write not that often, like nowadays mostly typing in the laptop. But I do prefer
to write my some, but my thoughts and emotions I do not find everytime, proper device to write
it. So I think pen and paper is the best to write those things now.
Interviewer: So you are saying you do not write very often, but when you have some kind of
thoughts.
Interviewee: I do carry my diary with me most of the time and so I jot things down in points.
Interviewer: So diary is where you mostly write.
Interviewee: Yeah. But in some areas I cannot take my bags, so there I write in my mobile phone.
So that is very convenient that time but laptop is not that convenient for writing everyday thing.
But mobile phone, in message I type those things.
Interviewer: So in mobile phone do you use any applications?
Interviewee: I used to use one application Note.
Interviewer: Note.
Interviewee: Then after that, like I have changed few mobiles that and then after that I did not
install any apps. I just write it in the message; I put a number, random number and save it in that
draft box.
Interviewer: So do you carry a notebook or a diary like you mentioned?
Interviewee: Yeah, in class I always do.

Interviewer: In the class?
Interviewee: Yeah, I always do. But most of my friends, they do carry copies and all.
Interviewer: Records?
Interviewee: Yeah. They mostly type in the laptops and things are good for them. But I personally
still like to write things on paper.
Interviewer: So do you feel like…You said you carry a diary with you, do you, how often do you
use that inputs basically?
Interviewee: Yeah, in every class I use it. Like even something I write it down. But sometimes like
in nowadays, but in earlier days I used to write in mobile phones. But nowadays I prefer using it
because I change my mobile so often, so I think that sometimes data gets lost and all. So I keep
the copy so that, yeah, and then I, even if, sometimes I click picture of those pages and put it in
the drive.
Interviewer: Okay.
Interviewee: …so that it always be there.
Interviewer: So you are saying you basically click photos of content that you write on your diary?
Interviewee: Right, because in diary I can draw sometimes. Sometimes when I write, what happens
when I write messages, then I do not have time to write all the things in short time, then I draw a
picture and connect it with something table and all so that it can be easily accessible. So I write
that thing.
Interviewer: Next, could you just take us through how your process would be when you are
preparing for an exam? Imagine you have an examination the next day and just previous night you
are starting your preparation. Can you just take us through that?
Interviewee: Yeah, firstly I would, first important is that I know, I should know what is the
important like syllabus, a kind of like what is, what has been like the syllabus, what they are going
to ask, from which category of questions.
Interviewer: So basically you want to know what you are going to do?
Interviewee: Yeah. First, identifying all those things and then after that thing, I will search on
Internet like what is the most common question that they ask, so that I have a very short time, I
cannot read the whole concept in one time.
Interviewer: Right.
Interviewee: Then you know all the important concepts I just check it from the YouTube, like
videos, because I have a tendency of learning things on video rather than reading it a lot. And yeah,
people go through the last thing here and all. I really do not go through the last thing is, but videos
and all and my many other sources, I look for the sources. Like people who say this kind of thing
can be important, this kind of like from videos and all, they have an idea of the things like what
are the important things which will help you to at least get good marks, score extraordinarily good.
But at least they will help you pass the exams, so you can have that idea of that.
So in one night, we can, I can do that thing. And what is the main important questions from each
chapter, 1 or 2, just go through that.
Interviewer: So your important material for preparation is basically Internet and…
Interviewee: Internet, yeah.
Interviewer: YouTube videos.
Interviewee: Yeah, YouTube videos, Internet yeah, mostly them.
Interviewer: Do you refer any kind of notes prepared that you have prepared or your friend has
passed?
Interviewee: Yeah, like now as I am going, I have been preparing notes every day like in here. But
my strategy changes sometimes. Like sometimes I do not prepare notes. I have good books and
all; I just go through them like important points. When I am in the class 11th -12th, we had a good
set of books there.
Interviewer: Basically you can share your experience not only from SIBM, your entirely, from
your entire learning experience you can tell us how you probably approach examinations.
Interviewee: As I grew up, like in this, like as we do an MBA, there is set of books, there are lots
of books. So that is why notes and teacher’s PPTs are very important this time. So like in 11th, 12th
we have NCERT few books, and we know that these things are going to be important thing and
we have to note these things whatever it is. But in here I think since so vast…
Interviewer: Right, topics are there.
Interviewee: We have to go through some teacher's notes and those are the primary source and
after that if you have time and if you are very much interested, you can go to the library and get
these books.
Interviewer: So how do have access to these teacher’s notes basically from…?
Interviewee: I click pictures of the PPT and yeah…
Interviewer: Click pictures of the…
Interviewee: PPTs.
Interviewer: Lecturer shares with us.
Interviewee: Yeah, and then sometimes I ask for the PPTs but what happens that teachers take a
bit little time to forward those PPTs. So for that time I just click those pictures and I also write
everything down. So this is how I get those things. And I upload it in the drive, common drive for
all the class members so that everybody could see it.
Interviewer: So there is a common drive available for everyone?
Interviewee: Yeah, everywhere. Since I am the CR, so I am doing that thing so that everybody
could benefit. That is the thing. Because I think that it is important to get a track of things like
what has been taught in the class. That is how I am doing.
Interviewer: I think that is it for you. Thank you so much.

Interviewee: Thank you so much.
Interviewee: My name is Heet Thakkar. I am from Mumbai and I am 21 years old. And I am doing
my MBA in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management.
Interviewer: So I would like to ask a few questions related to learning and writing. Just how
frequently do you write?
Interviewee: Not that frequently, not that regularly. But when something is important, I do make
it a point of noting it down.
Interviewer: So important, you are saying this environment would probably be in the class, in the
classroom, right?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: So in classroom do you carry any kind of material to write?
Interviewee: Yes, I do carry a notebook which is where I write my stuff which is important and
relevant to me.
Interviewer: Okay. So you carry a notebook and if you feel there is something that is important,
you note it down.
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Great. Do you feel, are there scenarios where you feel it is more necessary to write
than, say for example, a certain subject, a certain kind of learning where you feel you need to write
more, where you feel you generally write more?
Interviewee: It depends on your subject interest. For example, if there is fundamental of

entrepreneurship as a subject, like if you like, I personally like that subject. So it might be, I might
be noting few more questions and answers than say example there is a subject probably I might
not take interest to. So it depends on the subject which…
Interviewer: Subject and your interest.
Interviewee: Interest.
Interviewer: Okay, great. So can you just take us through your, how your process would be when
you are preparing for an exam? Imagine you have an exam the next day, the previous night you
are starting your preparation, what all kind of activities that you do?
Interviewee: So yeah, again I like to watch more videos than reading books. So I would be
watching relevant videos to the subject and then noting it down and preparing notes and then
learning the material.
Interviewer: So there is an activity where you watch videos?
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: What are your, where do you search for videos?
Interviewee: YouTube and there are different sites where you get access to.
Interviewer: Do you think that comes to…
Interviewee: So while I was preparing for my SNAP exam, so I had prepared through the site
known as the ‘Hitbullseye’.
Interviewer: Hitbullseye.
Interviewee: Yeah…so which had relevant material to offer to.
Interviewer: And you are also saying that along with the video you also had a notepad or notebook
where you…
Interviewee: Yeah. So whatever the insights from the video, I used to note it down and then refer
it later.
Interviewer: Okay, great. So other than videos, do you use any other material in your learning
activity? Imagine for the time being that you are actually seating and preparing, you have your
laptop open and you are watching videos. Anything else that you are using while learning other
than your laptop?
Interviewee: I have a small notebook with me which again I write a few important insights from
the video and I keep stick notes where I can pick for that important notes.
Interviewer: And no other material, right?
Interviewee: No.
Interviewer: I think that is it. Thank you.
Interviewee: Thanks.
Interviewee: So my name is Kunal. I am in first year of I&E course.
Interviewer: And your college?
Interviewee: SIBM, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management.
Interviewer: Can you just give us your age?
Interviewee: I am 22.
Interviewer: Okay. Kunal, just a few questions on your writing and learning activity. How
frequently do you think you write?
Interviewee: On notebooks?
Interviewer: Yeah, it could be anywhere.
Interviewee: Every day.
Interviewer: Every day?
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: Very good. When do you generally write and what do you write?
Interviewee: So when lectures, I do carry my laptop with me. So I make notes on my laptop itself
or if I have any ideas which come any times, so I you a short notepad with me which I carry in my
bag, so I do write those things. Or any important key points which I think are important and could
be referred in future, I write those points with the notebook which I have.
Interviewer: So your basic material for writing is either your notepad…
Interviewee: Or my laptop.
Interviewer: Your laptop?
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: Other than the classroom environment, do you write anywhere else?
Interviewee: Yeah, on the notebook which I said which I just mentioned.
Interviewer: Not and in the sense other than in the classroom, any other place where you do not
write?
Interviewee: So I am active on Quora, so sometimes I do write on Quora. It is very less but yes, I
do sometimes.
Interviewer: Can you just take us through what process you follow when you are preparing for an
exam? Imagine you have your exam on the next day, so previous night just ready to prepare for
the exam, just take us through the process?
Interviewee: For exams, I try to be, I try to go systematically. So for any question, first I try to
analyze what the solution to give for that, solution for it. Then I try to note it down point-wise and
then explain all those points, each and every point in detail.
Interviewer: So what kind of study material do you use? What kind of materials do you have
around you when…?
Interviewee: So for the competitive exams?
Interviewer: It could be for any exam.

Interviewee: So reference books, websites which could give me some more insights about, or
detailed view about that thing, or some portals which are the education portals which helps in
gaining more knowledge or shortcut tricks for those particular things.
Interviewer: Okay. So these are like the most common materials that you use? You said you write
notes regularly, so do you refer those notes while you prepare for the exam?
Interviewee: Sometimes, yes I do. Yeah.
Interviewer: Does that depend on anything, you referring your notes?
Interviewee: So suppose the paper which I have to give tomorrow was something which I find
difficult, so surely I do refer to all those notes from the day one which I am preparing. Or for
something which is very practical, I prefer going on websites and getting different knowledge from
it so that I could give some examples which I have learned from those websites and then put it on
my exam the next day.
Interviewer: So imagine you are referring in your case websites, online content, at that time do you
feel the need to comprehend and write it down in the notes, activity like that?
Interviewee: So again I write the keywords of those examples to see, suppose I get an example of
case study about TATA, so there is one paragraph which is important for me for tomorrow in my
exam next day. So I just write about that short para, very short one line or two lines, which will
recollect me the entire example the next day and which will help me to write down that example
in the exam.
Interviewer: In the exam?
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewee: Okay, my name is Amruta and I am an engineer and now I am here in SIBM to do
my MBA.
Interviewer: Can you tell us your age?
Interviewee: Yeah, I am 23 years.
Interviewer: Amruta, just a few questions on writing and how you learn. And how frequently do
you think you write?
Interviewee: Maybe a year back, till I did my engineering it used to be almost every day and now
maybe it is once every two to three days.
Interviewer: Okay, once every two to three days.
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: So when do you feel the necessity to write?
Interviewee: Usually in class or if I am in a hurry to just write some notes and I do not want to take
my phone or the any electronic device.
Interviewer: Okay. So you are saying you write in multiple materials like notebook and notepad.
Where all do you write those mostly?
Interviewee: Mostly my notebook. Mostly, that is predominant thing.
Interviewer: Then anywhere else? Even if it is not predominant, anywhere else?
Interviewee: Maybe lists, to-do lists, then in my diary probably, since I maintain one
Interviewer: Diary is also physical.
Interviewee: Yeah, it is a physical diary.
Interviewer: So you have notebooks that you use in class and you have a diary that you use.
Interviewee: Correct, yeah.
Interviewer: Can you just take us through the process of your preparation for exam? Imagine you
have an exam the next day and you are going to prepare this night, so what will you be exactly
doing?
Interviewee: Yeah. Now in I&E course, there are no exam as such, but initially like the
conventional exam mode, I would usually read once and then if I feel something important or if I
need to practice any diagrams, I always had a, made it a point to like write and practice.
Interviewer: Writing.
Interviewee: So writing was always part of my preparation process.
Interviewer: So this reading used to happen, what kind of material it used to be?
Interviewee: Either hard copy preferably, I used to prefer hard copy. Otherwise, like on the laptop
like soft copy of the textbook.
Interviewer: Any reason why you prefer hard copy over soft copy?
Interviewee: For me personally my eyesight, I mean I would find it more convenient to use the
hard copy to read.
Interviewer: Hard copy.
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: And anything else that you take while you are preparing other than just reading and
writing notes?
Interviewee: Also sometimes maybe like competitive exams, I used to listen to the audio tapes
maybe. And yeah, so that is one thing.
Interviewer: So while you were listening to these tapes, would you again like to write?
Interviewee: Important points, yes, I would like to write. So only to refer back to it, I would prefer
my notes rather than going through the tapes.
Interviewer: So you prefer to use your personal notes.
Interviewee: Yeah, my notes, yeah I use it.
Interviewer: Do you think you share you’re, because you said you write a lot of notes and refer
your notes, do you share these notes with anyone?
Interviewee: Yeah, like my friends, they were like close friends of mine, I used to share it and in
fact now I’ve shared it with my juniors since, they asked me for it, so I have given it to them.
Interviewer: So you used to give your hard copy, notebooks itself or how did you share it?
Interviewee: I used to give it after a year, like I used to not pass it on immediately because I thought
I would read it for my reference. But maybe like after a year or couple of years, then I would. I
wouldn’t mind sharing it.
Interviewer: Okay, you wouldn’t mind sharing it. And did you ever feel the need to, if I had those
notebooks and that notes right now, it would have helped me out?
Interviewee: Maybe but it is not always possible for me to physically have all my material in hand.
So I feel like at least if somebody else is benefitting from it, that is okay.
Interviewer: Great. Thank you.
Interviewee: Thank you very much.

Interviewee: Hi, I am Shubam Kaushal. I am a mechanical engineer. Now I am here pursuing MBA
in IT in SIBM.
Interviewer: SIBM, okay. Can I ask your age?
Interviewee: 22.
Interviewer: 22, great. Shubam, just a few questions on writing and how you learn and everything.
How frequently do you think you write?
Interviewee: Actually I will tell you, I used to write daily.
Interviewer: Daily, okay. When do you think you write the most?
Interviewee: Actually the thing is like whenever I have something in my mind, I used to write it.
Interviewer: Did you write in classrooms when you were learning?
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: And what materials or mediums did you use to generally write? Whatever it is that
you own?
Interviewee: Whatever is coming, like if your teacher is speaking something…

Interviewer: No, I am asking, where do you write?
Interviewee: Notebook.
Interviewer: Notebook?
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: Any other medium that you used to write or?
Interviewee: Notebook, notepad.
Interviewer: That is fine. Can you just take us through how your preparation would be for an exam?
Imagine you have an exam coming up the next day, but what would be your preparation for it?
Interviewee: I will try completing the course, if I have two chapters to do, I will try…
Interviewee: Okay, fine. So if I have two chapters to do, I will go thoroughly to first chapter
complete and second. I will not write it, I used to learn like by repeating the whole thing I will
learn it. And that is what it is.
Interviewer: So basically you are saying that you used to read?
Interviewee: Yeah, I used to read. Understanding the things like not writing but understanding.
Interviewer: Understanding. So there was no writing involved but you were reading?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: So where would you be basically reading from?
Interviewee: Books and Internet.
Interviewer: So you used to use both hard copy books and…
Interviewee: And soft copy.
Interviewer: Internet also?

Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Anything else other than books and the Internet to help you learn?
Interviewee: PPTs and all, not from Internet but even that PPTs from the teachers as well. So I use
that.
Interviewer: Okay. And do you have the habit of writing while you are preparing for exam?
Interviewee: No.
Interviewer: So you are basically reading and understanding. I think that is it with you.
Interviewee: Alright. Thank you.
Interviewee: My name is Nikhil, I’ve done my B. Tech from BIT University in Electronics and
Communication. And I am pursuing my MBA from SIBM, Pune. I am 25 years old.
Interviewer: Thanks Nikhil. Just a few questions on writing and learning generally. How frequently
do you think you write?
Interviewee: Right now in college like we have a lot of assignments in the course and…
Interviewer: Generally over your learning experience?

Interviewee: Apart from this I do not write that much.
Interviewer: You do not write much. If at all you write, in what environment or when do you think
you probably write?
Interviewee: Very rarely. Actually in studying I do not really write, I do not. That is something but
apart from that maybe if there is something sort of, if you are learning everything, some sort of
formula, then you, just might because it is a big formula, then you might have to write it again and
again. Otherwise, it is fine.
Interviewer: So you generally carry some kind of copy to your class?
Interviewee: I have one but I do not really make notes. I prefer listening.
Interviewer: Can you just take us through how your process of learning for an examination would
be?
Interviewee: Okay. For examination, I generally do not, I watch videos maybe, like if online videos
you find. Like in school there is always books, you have a particular book that is different scenario.
But in college we have a lot of options, in that presentations which professor shares, that is
something which you refer. Otherwise, you go, I preferably go for Internet videos. This NPTEL,
that is something, they have a lot of good videos on every topic I wanted. So I just go through
them, but I do not really write.
Interviewer: You do not really write.
Interviewee: Even after watching a video or presentation, I have, I think I have that sort of memory
like even if I read something, I can retain 80 to 90 percent of it. So I just need a recap later on like
maybe just before the exam half an hour. That is it.
Interviewer: So videos, the Internet generally, content that your teachers or prof have shared with
you?
Interviewee: No, it is not something like that. They generally share big presentations; they have
their own PPT, so that is something which I refer to. But apart from that, if I want to understand,
have a better understanding of a topic, it is more theoretical. But I find myself videos, like NPTEL
is the national platform. You can search videos on any, specifically for technical it is there. So I
search technical videos over there. I go through that, they are IIT professors that teach on that. So
they just give a glimpse of it. It is an half an hour video but explains a lot about the topic. So that
is what I do.
Interviewer: I think that is it.
Interviewee: Thank you.

Design Thinking
Prof. Dr. Bala Ramadurai
Analyze – Part 01 Multi-Whys
Welcome back to the session on design thinking. This particular topic we are starting now is
called Multi-Why, also popularly known as 5 Whys. This was coined by Toyota in the 70s
and became very popular in the shop floor. It’s a very kid like method, we looked at it in the
past as well. We showed you an example. We are going to deal with this method in a little
more detail as to what these 5 Whys actually means. So it could be a series of Whys, one
after the other.
The question why this happens? Why this happens? And it keeps drilling down. Now there is
a chain of Whys that you can construct, build so that it all forms a logical, a connected logical
Reasoning to that. So you have to assume certain things initially and you can get it correlated
when you talk to a customer, you talk to some experts, whether this actually makes sense. Or
you can even go back to the field and get some data to correlate that.
So I’ll give you a very very simple way to test this, also graphically you can represent this.
It is much easier to understand that way. So like I said this is based on Toyota’s 5 Whys
approach, we will use it for our own convenience.
So we go back to this illustration of my favourite student who used to come very late to class
and very regularly at that. He was a regular at coming late to class. Now let us wonder why
he was able to do this. So I just wanted to get to the bottom of it. Yes, I wanted to give the
student a hard time. As you heard me say earlier, so that is what we will look at as an
illustration just to begin with so that anybody with any context can understand this example
as to how these 5 Whys work.
To look at it first at level 1, the basic premise, the first Why, the answer of why does the
student come so late to class so regularly is because they woke up late. Let’s look at this in a
graphical format. Here is the time he wakes up. So it’s very late that he wakes up and hence
actually comes to class late. So this is late also. So he comes to class late because he woke up
late. So that’s the relationship between what you see on the x-axis, x-axis here at the bottom
and at your left is the y-axis where you are tracking on-time performance of the student.
Now he has come late to class because he is late to wake up, as simple as that. Now again,
this as I have marked at the bottom here is an assumption. I wonder if that is the truth but
that’s what he told me, so I will take it at face value. Now if I were analytical about this, very
methodic about this, I would track him on a day-to-day basis on whether he actually shows
up at what time does he show up, you know you can put plots here and see it actually marks
at what time does he go to sleep and what time does he wake up.
So you can be analytical about this and actually do a plot and see if it actually matches up. So
this is one way of doing it. So, but still the assumption is that if they woke up early, they
would be on time to the class. So that’s the assumption I have, okay. So with this when we
carry forward, now why, it brings the next question, why do they wake up late like this? You
know If you want to come on time in class, they should wake up early as simple as that but
apparently not.
So it brings us to the next level of why reasoning? So they woke up late because they slept
late, okay. So he woke up at say 8 am for 8.30 am class that’s too late. Why? Because he has
slept at 4 am in the morning. So that’s too late, he is not getting enough sleep, that’s why. So
here if you look at my x-axis again, here the late hour of sleeping, of going to sleep actually
impacts his performance to class, he is late.
Now if we were, if the other side of the spectrum is that if he wakes up early, he will be on
time to class and keep me happy in the process. So this is the level 2 where he is late to go to
sleep and he is late to class. If he is early to go to sleep, he will be on time. And again here
the assumption now added to the first level of reasoning, they slept early, they would wake up
early and hence would be on time to class, so as simple as that. So this is our assumption.
Again to be tested, you can be analytical about it, you can take data points and verify if this is
really the truth or is there some kind of dependency. You can be analytical about this.
Okay, now to take this rationale the next level, so this is the level 3 where well, I asked him
and he said well, I know I have lots of courses, your course is not the only one I take, I have
management, I have this, I have that. So he enumerated about 10 courses. Oh boy! So 10
courses means 10 deadlines. So he has way too many deadlines and hence he is late to class.
You can see the rationale lead me to belief that since he has signed up for too many classes,
courses and hence he has too many deadlines and hence he is late to bed and hence late to
wake up and hence he is also late to my class.
So the simplest solution for him is to enrol for very few classes and he would actually show
up on time. Again, in the past if you have some data, you can track his on-time performance
to see if he is on time, if he has taken fewer courses, if he is late in his average number of
courses and he is very late because he has too many courses. So this could be the level of
reasoning, and so on and so forth you can keep going down.
So actually solution here is no big deal, you can actually boil it down to how might we reduce
the number of courses that he enrols, so that he shows up on time in class? So the
performance that I am monitoring in this case of the student is his on-time performance and
the variable that we have will let him enrol for many courses or enrol for very few courses.
So as I said, this relies on the assumption that if they had less deadlines, they would sleep
early and if they slept early, they would wake up early and if they wake up early, they are on
time for the class. There is a huge line of reasoning which is built on top of that. So all this
has to be true for our on-time performance to be on.
So I will take another problem, this time a more serious problem to illustrate how these 5
Whys work. In another example, I had a client who had primary revenue coming from
automobile servicing. So he used to do his servicing overhaul of vehicles and that’s where his
revenue came from, he was running a dealership not too far from here. And all his revenue
actually came from the servicing of two-wheelers. Now I one day noticed that he was not too
happy with the way his business was being run. He looked sad and I said, so what’s up? Why
are you sad? Can you explain?
And he told me well, my direct revenue, he was looking at a big spreadsheet in front of him
and he said look at this, the revenue seems to be dwindling. I said, Whoa! Yeah, it is a serious
problem, I can understand. Now can you explain to me what’s happening? Why is your direct
revenue from automobile servicing which I knew he was doing is so low? So upon grilling,
he told me well, if I think about it, it’s I noticed that after say the 2nd or 3rd year of owning of
a vehicle, these customers start dropping off coming to my work shop and they go elsewhere,
say find a local mechanic and get their servicing done.
So I said, wait wait wait wait wait a minute, let’s analyse it one by one. So I had 5 Whys in
mind, the multi-Whys in mind, so I took him down slowly and I asked him, so let’s face a
question. Why is your direct revenue from automobile servicing so low? Now give me a
single line answer. And his answer was customer visits are few, are fewer than they used to
be. Fine, so I put it on the plot as you can see. This is the similar plot that you saw with my
student case. On the bottom axis or the x-axis, you find that the customer visits, these are
customer visits, when they are few, you have low revenue.
That’s what my friend told me, my client who is also my friend, good friend. So he told me
that when we have fewer customer visits, the revenue is low. So the opposite is also true. So
when we have many customer visits, if they keep coming, and there are many of them, many
of the customers who are coming in regularly, then my revenue is very high. So that’s linear
relationship as we have plotted it. The reality may not be as simple as this, as straightforward
as this, as linear as this. But it’s something for you to start working on. This is easy to
understand.
So you can actually plot, say a histogram plot of you know so many visits and so much is my
revenue. You can actually do that, you can even put a revenue something like that and
actually track it much more in detail and see the correlation for yourself. So this is easy. How
do you do this histogram plot? Well, take a piece of paper, every time a customer visits, note
it down and see how much revenue you get out of this. That’s what I told my friend. And we
actually found out that this was related. So this our first level of reasoning was true.
So I said okay, one way is to just stop here and say how might we increase the customer visits
to the workshop. Well, he said I could run promotions, I could run free labour week so that
anybody who walks in with their vehicle, old vehicles in particular, gets the labour for free.
That means there are lots of people would show up and actually my revenue would go up. So
that is one straightaway solution that he was thinking of. Or he could say this is his other
long-term vision. This is a short-term which works. Every time a promotion runs, he has
revenue and it just dwindles out because they go back to their local mechanic. As long as the
promotion runs, they are fine.
So the question to ask right now would be, why don’t many customers show up, thus which
will result in my high revenue? So the answer from him, his own mouth: this is my customer,
so I am doing, tracking the customer. He told me well, some of them live very far away from
where I have my workshop and I noticed that only people who live close by, they visit me
often. So that was his reasoning. So I said okay, let’s, that brings me to the second plot which
is the distance from the customer location. If it’s far away, my revenue is actually low.
And hence the opposite of that, my corollary to that would be if they are nearby, then my
revenue is high. So this is the direct correlation of what I heard from him as the reasoning to
low revenue is related to far distance from the customer location. So that was my second
level of reasoning. Now you could go three levels, four levels and get more out of this case.
So here again you could stop and say can I, how might we actually decrease the customer
location distance from where his workshop was?
The answer was already on top of his mind saying well, I could have many more workshops
in different parts of the city and here we get into a problem. Okay, so that could be one
solution if he can afford that. That is, or if he could tie up with somebody who has, or with
even these local mechanics, I mean why treat them as competitors. You could treat them as
your collaborators and say hey, if these guys show up, I am ready to give you certain
percentage, I am ready to give you my portion of the revenue if you can also direct them to
me. So we could actually have an arrangement.
So here the stress is not on the idea or the cleverness of the idea but the approach in moving
this far distance from customer location to near distance from customer location. So your
ideas have to be in this so that you can increase your revenue. So, on the x-axis if you notice,
we are looking at it from the customer point of view. And here I am looking at from the
company perspective, the other side of the parties. So these two guys are at conflict. If you
look at it from one point of view, they are actually competing and hence you would have to
look at it from both sides and see to that, that both of them, both of these guys are satisfied.
So in this we are not looking at what is absolutely clear even in this case or in my student’s
case, is that we are not looking at an optimal solution. For example, we could settle at, well,
if they are just halfway mark, and if I can get portion of the revenue, it’s okay with me, then
that would be a compromise. If it works for you, fine, good. If the problem conditions allow
you to go for a compromise solution, so be it. But here as innovators, as design thinkers, we
are sort of want to have the cake and eat it too.
Like, you heard Ashwin comment at some point of time, the same applies here, is we want
both high direct revenue from servicing as well as distance from customer location to be far.
So they can be where they are and still I should be able to get revenue. Now, I have seen a
few automobile, particularly in the four-wheeler segment adopt this as a pick up and drop. So
the customer could be wherever they are and their vehicle could be better, we do not need the
customer to come all the way to the workshop which is the root of the problem really, and
that it is not the distance from customer location but distance that the customer travels.
So the wording can actually change. And if you change that, you can actually get a solution
in the form of, well he doesn’t or she doesn’t have to travel, they do not have to travel all the
way to the workshop. But you, the servicing people can actually go to the location, pick up
the vehicle and drop it off at the end. Ok, and now that leads us to the next level of conflict
also saying now how am I going to get enough people, if there are too many people asking
for the service, how might I, how might we enable the fact that we have so many service
people going all over the city, wherever the customers are, picking them up and then
dropping off at the end of the day. Ok!
So that would be another, the next problem statement. So we traverse these level by level
using these charts as well as using the levels of Whys, different Whys and figuring this out
for yourself. So in the next segment we will actually be looking at conflicts arising because of
solutions that you have introduced. That, you know even at the earlier level we introduced a
concept, a solution of brand promotion and that led to labour cost, revenue loss for you. If
you remember my solution, just to have free labour week and that week I actually lost
revenue from labour.
Now how might we retain this labour cost and yet have my high revenue, yet bring the
customer more often in this case? So that’s a conflict to be addressed which is what our next
would be.
Thank you.
Design Thinking
Analyze
Part 1
Do you know where we are folks? We are in one of Asia’s finest track and field
training places that is not why we are here. We are here to discuss an analysis tool that will
help you figure out a root cause quite easily. So, I want to illustrate that through a story, one
of my students was very regular in coming late to classes. So, I used my usual methods -
sarcasm, making him a butt of all jokes, threatening him not that I won’t give him attendance
all that. None of them worked. So I said come on I am a systematic guy I need to figure this
out, what’s really happening here?
That’s when I thought I will use a tool called multi-why analysis or 5 whys analysis. The tool
works quite simply, like a 5 year old ask ‘Whys’ multiple times, that’s the essence of the tool.
This is popularised by Toyota in the 70s almost and it’s quite effective because it’s so simple
to use, so I’ll demonstrate this particular story. So why was this guy/student late to all my
classes? Turns out he was sleeping late that was the main reason he was late to class, so that
begs the questions why was he sleeping late? Well he had tons and tons of assignments to
finish and that’s why he slept late and now that begs a question - Why did he have tons and
tons of assignments to finish?
Well he was a procrastinator, he really didn’t have the time or discipline to do all the
assignments on time. So he procrastinated and everything piled to the deadline and that’s why
he came late to class because he woke up late. Now why was he a procrastinator? Well he
was habituated into such procrastination because of his course load and that’s what his habits
were. So we started way back there with why was he late to classes simple thing and we
come down to his personal habits, so that’s a simple illustration of how these 5 whys really
work and you can try that as well to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Thank you.
Design Thinking
Dr. Bala Ramadurai
Analyse – Part 02
Conflict of Interest
Hello and welcome back. This module is a interesting module, it’s a continuation after to
answer the question what after 5 whys. I have done my multi-why analysis, it is reasonable I
have checked it with customers, I have checked it with data, I have checked it and I think the
chain of reasoning is valid from one why to the other, it works. So, now what, is a big
question, should I straightaway jump into a solution saying I will solve it right now with any
solution.
The answer is yes and no. So I have heard of this ad age, this saying, this maxim. So to speak
is that a story without a conflict is a boring thing. Right. So if there is no conflict, there is no
bad guy or bad situation, the story is pretty boring.
I woke up in the morning, I brush my teeth, I had my breakfast, I went to work, I came back
from work and I had lunch in between, I had dinner after I came back from work and I went
to bed. This is a straightforward story with no conflict, nothing going on. So conflict is
essential to a story as much as it is to our design thinking module that we are looking at, the
analysis of the Analyse module. So the first one is we reasoned out why a certain thing
happening? Why we ran 4 or 5 times? You can go as many as you want, but we can stop at a
level where we are comfortable, we have a skill set, that you can use to solve the problem
there.
Usually what happens like I am using a ‘but’, so that’s what comes in the way, it gets in the
way and that could be the challenge that you have to overcome. So no solution is perfect. So
any solution that you think of implement or even are prototyping to put together will have
some kind of flaw, some kind of challenge and that is the conflict even if you don’t have a
solution. The situation per se is also subjected to such a conflict. We are calling it the conflict
of interest. I have heard of the creators of South Park, the animated series an adult animated
series, the creators came up with a very very easy simple concept is can I replace all the
“and” that they use in their story in their structure with a “but” and it made it pretty
interesting. The whole read up, so this is the yes-but stage as also used in I have heard it
being used in the Disney creative methodology, they use a yes-but to create a conflict, create
doubt, create challenges so that you can solve it, the protagonist in stories can solve it and
become the eventual victors over the bad guys or eventually they overcome the obstacles
which is the challenge, the conflict and are happy or whatever.
So that’s something that are true with stories, is true with our design thinking module as well.
So I am calling it the conflict of interest because lots of times the conflict that we see is
between 2 humans, human actors or between a human and a thing, an object, an animal, I
don’t know. So it’s usually it’s one of these 2. The conflict lies between. So that’s why party
A wants something party B want something else, then we have a conflict, if they want the
same thing there is no conflict there and they are happy okay but if they want different things
then it’s a conflict. Like we saw in the earlier case when I was explaining the 5 whys concept
is the customer, person was getting his vehicle serviced wanted the service centre to be close
to his home whereas the person who was servicing the vehicle, the company they wouldn’t
have that. That would mean spending a lot of money and putting it all over the city, and that’s
not going to be possible.
So now we are looking at a conflict. If he had the resources and he built lots of service centre
there is no conflict it’s an easy solution for him. Spend the money, put up the service centres,
so that would be. But again there is a catch there, now I will have to staff them and I will
have to train them so these are challenges for this entrepreneurs. So, no solution is actually
perfect that’s what we find out. So our job as design thinkers is to unearth these conflicts of
interest and that’s where the interesting stuff is. You can solve them and you can give the
world your beautiful solutions and of course you will find more flaws with that and provide
more beautiful solution this is a cycle, the karmic cycle so to speak it keeps going.

So we will start with very very simple example, an interesting one, an example from
Alexandra Dumas book called ‘Three Musketeers’ which is so many times they’ve taken
movies. If you look at the screen right now you can see 3 figures, these are Lego figures of
these 3 people from the Three Musketeers. The one on your left is my main character well not
in the story but in my story he is the main character called Porthos, the other 2 guys are Athos
and Aramis totally they make the Three Musketeers. So, Porthos your bearded guy he was a
great swordsman, he was fiercely dedicated to the Three Musketeers, a very loyal guy, often
seen as the comic relief among these 3, the other 2 were probably serious Although the Lego
block actually shows him to be the most serious but actually he is the funniest guy. I love
him.
He was also a quirky guy he had funny characteristics about him, one of the most funny ones
that is important for our story that I am going to describe is that he didn’t like to be touched,
physically touched. If somebody touched him, off came his sword and off came that person’s
head.That’s not an interesting proposition for the person who is touching him, a conflict of
interest if you will.Ok. So imagine, take a moment and imagine if you are his tailor and by
the way another characteristic that Porthos had was that he loved fashionable clothes.
So if you are his tailor and you have to get his clothes stitched for him, you cannot touch
him and if you go by how tailors actually measure for a person like Porthos who’s well-built
and burly you are going to need a measuring tape and you are going to have to touch him to
measure his dimensions, so that you can get his fashionable clothes ready. Okay. So in this if
you are the tailor I only pity you, if you are the tailor, I really pity you because you are going
to have a very uncomfortable situation in your hands. So let’s frame it as a conflict of interest
between these 2 parties. Party 1 Porthos who wants fashionable clothes stitched. Party 2 is
you, the tailor who has to stitch his clothes and has to get him measured without touching
him. Okay.
Let’s look at how the conflict looks like in graphical format. Okay.
You are Porthos’s tailor and you have a measuring tape at your disposal. Okay. So this is
your main instrument of choice, so to speak your measuring tape. So you have 2 choices you
can either use your measuring tape and take your measurements or don’t use your measuring
tape and take your measurements.
How you can eye ball the guy? Oh! You are an experienced tailor I know, I know. You have
years of experience measuring you know people up. So you can size him up just by looking at
this burly Swash buckling swordsman. You can probably eyeball and write down his
measurements. Okay. Now what happens is the following - if you don’t use the measuring
tape, let’s take that case for arguments sake. Let’s say you don’t use a measuring tape, use
your vast experience and the good part that you can see in green is that there is no touching.
Great! That satisfies one condition that Porthos has, is there is no touching going on whereas
what happens is that you with your eyeballing, with your vast experience still have poorly fit
clothes, bad fitting clothes and that doesn’t go very well with our Mr. Porthos. He is not
going to like you because you have stitched bad fitting clothes for him. So what does he do?
He takes his sword out, off goes your head. Not a good proposition.
Let’s consider the other scenario, where you do use a measuring tape and you go and take all
the measurements from Mr Porthos and as a result - this represented by the green box, the
measurements are perfect, absolutely perfect, they run very well, Mr. Porthos is happy
because the clothes fit well. But in the process of measuring you touched him and off went
your head. You probably never find out if his clothes have stitched well or not. Okay. So as
designers, as design thinkers, we are in a manner of speaking greedy people, we want no
touching and we want measurements to be perfect.
These are from 2 perspectives. So to speak, for good fitting clothes your measurements have
to be perfect and to keep Porthos happy, you cannot touch him. So, these are 2 criteria that
will give you the desired result that you are seeking in this problem. This is the conflict that
you have to resolve. But as you can see, use the measuring tape off goes your head and you
don’t use measuring tape off goes your head, you have to solve this scenario. Thankfully we
are just simulating. We are not actually doing this, so your heads still remains in place.
So, some of the solutions that you can probably think of at this moment is that well if he has
old clothes, I would just get that and give it to him and that will probably solve the problem.
Great! That’s great! So we can actually solve this by giving him old clothes, giving the tailor,
giving you the old clothes and that will probably solve it for you.
However, I wonder who stitched those previous old clothes of Porthos? Hmmm! Question to
be answered. That’s, that’s a conflict again. So, you’ve got one and you’ve got the other. So,
you keep going. So, next solution say I give you one more quirk that he has is, he loved food.
He appreciated wine. So, my solution would be you know feed him wine, till he is absolutely
stoned, he is flat and he can’t move anymore. So, he can’t even detect whether you are
touching him or not, he would never remember and then you can go and take your
measurements that would be another solution there.
You do use the measuring tape, your measurements are perfect and you have touched him.
But he doesn’t know that you have touched him. So, that way you are satisfying the customer
that he thinks you have not touched him but you’ve still got your measurements. Okay. So
another quirk of Porthos’s character. So, more you know about Porthos you can actually get
more solution.
So, another quirk of his character was that he’d loved his ladies. He had many relationships
going on at the same time. So, you could actually train one of his mistresses to do the
measurement. So he would allow his women to touch him and you could actually get the
measurements done. So, that way you are not touching him, so there is touching going on but
tailor touching Porthos doesn’t happen. So, that way no touching is satisfied whereas still the
measurements are perfect because you’ve trained one of the ladies to actually do the
measurements for you. So, this is how we think that this 2 criteria are absolutely
uncompromisable that you should get criteria one R1 plus has to be satisfied and R2 plus also
has to be satisfied.

So the solution that the tailor adopted in this case is to use the mirror reflection. This way
there is no touching and you just have to ask Porthos to move around and he would make the
measurements quite accurately. Yeah, he could argue but this was the tailor’s solution that
worked very well. This is an example described in and suddenly the inventor appeared a book
by Generic Altshuler. This is a fun problem that was there I thought I could bring this to your
attention and actually highlight the conflict of interest for you.

I have another example that we’ve already looked at and I am going to look at it from, this
time from a conflict of interest perspective, because we have already applied 5 whys to this
problem and we are actually going to see what is the conflict in this case. Okay. So in this
case, if you remember this case,, we had this student who showed up late every time and I
asked him why and we drill down to 3 levels but we are picking up on level 2 where he is late
because he went to bed late that’s why he showed up late. If he had woken up early, he would
be on time. So this is as simple as that, so there is no conflict in this he just has to wake up
early to be on time that is as simple as that. However we realize that he has been going to
sleep late because he had too many deadlines. So, this is actually the conflict that he has too
many deadlines and that way he would never be able to actually go to bed early.
So the conflict in the way I have defined in my graphical format that you saw with Porthos’s
tailor. Here is the student and what we have in our control is the hour of going to sleep. So,
he goes to sleep late, the positive is that his course deadlines are satisfied. So, that’s one thing
that he does not have to worry but he has to deal with me because he comes late to class
every time, because all these course deadline piling on his neck. Okay. So that’s scenario 1
.
If we change the hour of sleep, he wakes up early. Great! I am a happy Professor that he
comes to class on time. However, he goes on missing other courses deadlines and the other
professors will not like that and probably his graduation will be on the line, so his neck is on
the line so to speak. So, the conflict as we have defined it is that he has to satisfy both these
criteria of coming to class on time. I don’t want to see him late because he may be missing
something important at the start of the class. At the same time he should not miss out on his
course deadlines being satisfied.
So the design thinking solution should address this and this is what we are seeking. Any
solution that you suggest to solve this problem has to satisfy both these criteria. The R1 plus
of all the course deadlines satisfied and R2 plus of him coming to my class on time. Okay.
So, this is the conflict as we have highlighted, so this is a visual way to convey this conflict.
It is easier to demonstrate it to anybody, so whenever you are figuring out what is the
conflict? It is easier to draw it in this manner and to explain it to somebody is also quite easy
and also they can see it in colours. Yes, green is the stuff I want and red is the stuff I don’t
want.
So he has to go to sleep early to do this and he has to go to sleep late. So, you can actually do
this, work on this. So, this model is called Element Name Value – ENV, Element Name
Value. So all the elements are described, the values here are described and the names are
given as well. So, this is what we mean by Element Name Value method of describing a
conflict. So, this is a great model to understand a conflict. So, you can do some exercises that
you can do on your own to see how to figure this out.
I will post the answers the next week, next time we meet we will actually discuss the
answers. We have these exercises. I am going to give you 3 problems, you can pick one, pick
2 for practice. If you are very confident you can even go to the 3 rd one and do it. So, these are
3 problems that I’ll describe and you can first do a multi-why analysis of the problem and
then do a conflict of interest analysis of the problem. So, that you figure out what is the exact
problem that needs to be solved or you can figure out all problems and do all multi-why in
different directions and you can make your life complicated and see how to solve them all.
This is also possible once you get mastery over how to think in terms of whys and conflicts.
So the exercises that I am going to give are 3 problems. The 1 st one is interesting. This is a
classroom setup probably in rural India and the teacher is busy teaching to all the children.
Now look at the kid here who is clearly distracted. I guess he doesn’t have an iPad or a tablet
or a mobile phone but I don’t know what he is up. But he is not focused on the class. So, he is
distracted child. So this problem is about teachers and children, so these are the 2 conflicting
parties if you can think of that. So, here the teacher is trying to teach and the child here is not
paying attention, may be the other children are looking at what the teacher is teaching but
probably are not following.
So this is a typical classroom scenario where all children probably don’t follow at the same
pace and some of them are going fast, they are able to follow the teacher on the other hand
maybe there are some of them are lagging behind. So, here the scenario is that the teacher
wants to finish their syllabus on-time which means she has to keep the pace up, she has to
keep going and this is not a recorded session like what we are doing with you but this is a live
session where she has to change pace according to how people understand and if I have a
large class like what you see in the picture it is going to be a challenge for the teacher to keep
every child on-board, so this is a challenge that teachers often face.
So you have to highlight why is this happening? And what is the exact conflict between the
children and the teacher. The requirement being she has to finish, I am going to give you
some clues here. She has to finish her syllabus on-time. She can go fast or slow. The children
have to keep up with her and also keep track of their learning.
So you will have to do the reasoning on why these things are happening up to any level you
want and see if it matches up to what I have done in my reasoning and we will see this next
class. So this is the problem number 1, like I said earlier you can do one of the 3 problems.
So we’ll go to the next problem. This is a space shuttle, a reusable space vehicle. This was
originally launched in the 60s-70s and has been on tested and launched in the 60s-70s. This is
been on for a while, many many space shuttles have been launched and they have safely
landed back. So, I am going to describe to you not only about space shuttle but also about any
aeroplane that you probably have seen landing on a runway like what you see in your picture.
What I would like to demonstrate to you is the fact that there is a lot of smoke when the
airplane touches, in this case the space shuttle touches the tarmac or the runway.
So the reason I am going to give you one of the whys is the reason there is lot of smoke as
you can imagine. I will give you some time you want to think about it, okay you can pause
the video and think about it. Okay, so some spoilers for you, you can still pause. The reason
there is a lot of smoke, puff of smoke coming at the back of the wheel is that there is a lot of
friction between the wheel and the runway. So, the plane is very, very fast when it lands.
Obviously the ground is not moving, it’s at 0 speed so that’s going to lead to a lot of friction
and hence leads to a lot of smoke and not only smoke, the smoke is because of all the tyre
wear, okay.
So you can do this say I don’t know I am not an aerospace engineer but probably I am
guessing probably few times before the tyre wears out and this could be a problem of the tyre
wearing out, okay. So now you will have to think about how do I do the 5 whys on this
particular problem! I will give you a hint again like I did for the earlier problem is that the
speed of the air craft cannot be slowed down, why? Because it might stall as I read in some
magazines - aerospace magazines is that the airplane actually stalls if you slow down too
much. So there is a certain prescribed speed that you cannot go below. Okay. So that is what
you have to look at. So you have to think about what are the 5 whys, few whys at least 1 or 2
or 3 as much as you can find out and now do a conflict analysis of the parties at conflict,
possibly… hint hint
possibly the tyre and the runway okay. So you can look at it and see what the conflict are, we
will cover this in the next time.

The 3rd problem that I am going to cover is a sweet problem as I call it, it’s a very sweet
problem.
One of my favourite problems because I love to solve this problem. This is the company
Hersheys. They posted a problem on an open innovation platform and they wanted to solve
this
problem, okay. So what the problem was simply that they wanted to transport say a container
of Hershey’s chocolates like this, I love chocolates by the way. They wanted to transport this
chocolates from one geography to another. The only problem is that the other geography is
very
hot and so what happens when chocolates actually are taken to hot conditions? Simple. Have
you guessed it? Yes, it melts, it can actually melt.
The chocolates are not very good at high temperatures, so I would guess about 25 degree
centigrade ought to do right for these chocolates. So if their ambient temperature is very very
high, say in the order of 30-35 degrees or 40 degrees it’s going to be very difficult
transporting
these chocolates.
So the condition from Hershey’s is that - Yes, you can design packaging which they already
have to transport, but it needs to be able to withstand this change in temperature but at the
same time it has to be very cheap, okay, very, very inexpensive, if possible do without costly
material or tough to assemble material then you are okay, that’s the problem that was posted.
Again we will analyse this next time using 5 whys and the conflict of interest. Again a hint in
this case would be that the parties in conflict is the chocolate itself and the ambient air
around the chocolate.

So you can take a stab at these 3 problems, in one you can analyse on your own. If you are
confident go to the next one and I will be very happy if you can attempt all 3. So, that’s it for
today. We will see you next time with the analysis of these 3 problem. Okay. Take care. Bye.
Design Thinking A Primer
Professor Dr. Bala Ramadurai
Analyze Workshop – Part 01
Hello and welcome back to design thinking. This module is on analyse, so we already saw what
theory behind analyse was with lots of examples, stories and so here we are with the practical
demonstration of how it is applied in a real world problem. So here I am with my students, my
TA - my teaching assistant to see how to apply this so that you can get a good idea on how to
apply it on a real world problem. As always we have our trusted sticky notes to help us with
that.
So we will show you using these and the techniques that I described earlier which were “5
whys” or” multiple whys”, multi “why” analysis and the conflict of interest analysis. So we’re
going to apply it to the writing experience problem. So over to these people I am going to start
off with a couple of questions. I am very curious on what they really found out in the empathize
phase which is our first phase. We got into the shoes of the customer, we even did a skit for
your role play for you to see what is going on. They went on field and actually interviewed a
lot lot number of people compared to the ones that you probably saw on the snippet that we
had.
So, here we are I am going to sort of do interview to find out what went on. Guys, so nice show
last week, it was good talking to all these people and flesh and blood so they are your potential
customers. Yes, so question to you, so first of all was it useful you know, eye opening for you,
how was this? How was the experience in all for you?
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Firstly, Sir it was definitely useful I’d say not just
because it’s not what we get to learn from them in the process what we are looking to build a
business model on, it’s also a new kind of insights these guys bring out or when we actually
observe them what they are doing for a specific task when asked to do. We’ve actually come
out with great insights in fact, so we are looking forward to bring them on to the table now.
Professor: Okay.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So, one thing that was definitely to add on to what
Siddharth was saying. One thing that definitely came out is how technology has influenced the
way students are learning and sharing versus how we used to learn when we were in school.
Especially few of our interviews with customers, the way people are sharing these days, no one
is no longer sharing their hardcopy books with anyone anymore. They are all capturing it
digitally on photograph, another applications and sharing.
So, a lot of difference between the way we thought learning was going on when we actually
went and talked to all our customers.
Professor: So, any other Aha! moment that you said, Oh! wait a second I didn’t think of these
and you got that out of the interviews? So one is the sharing part I totally agree, I have seen in
my own experience that the students actually report their phones and take a picture of the slide
and usually ask me to get out of the way so that they can get a view and then I always heard
that they share it with their own groups.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: One major difference in the way students are learning
these days again coming back to how digital students are digitally savvy students are and how
they are accommodating that into their learning process because YouTube, other learning
enablers like NPTEL they are all huge influencers on how students are learning these days.
Any concept that he wants to learn or he is not understood, student goes online and he is
learning through videos which was a big insight. We knew that was happening but the extent
to which almost all of our interviewees were of the opinion, they were hugely dependent on
videos as a medium for learning.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: And again adding on to this point, not just videos
there are lot of digitally available educational content available for learning. Now what they
come up in the interviews is they might not be accessible to all the content at all times especially
when they are sitting inside a classroom. So, they want to refer a specific word or a topic what
is going on white board in the classroom that they cannot do in certain classes basically because
of the obvious reason that they cannot use a smart phone inside a classroom and coming to the
sharing part as well.
So there are instances where students are supposed to wait till the end of that class, where they
again go back, play the entire power point presentation slide by slide or whatever is important
to them just click those images and share it within their peer groups, or if it is a content written
on the white board it’s another problem there would be that students cannot wait till the end of
the class the board would be wiped out N number of times in this due course of time. So again
getting a phone out in between get clicking a picture is a huge problem for them and as we see
taking down each and every note for them is also not an option is what they feel according to
them.
Professor: Great! So, that’s one thing that I wanted to find out is how different is your customer
journey map from what you had envisaged by yourself to what the on field survey actually not
survey on field interviews actually helped you is something that is definitely worth while doing
so that’s why we go and talk to them. So now coming to real things, so what do we work on
what are those starting points for us say 2 or 3 problem statements that you have that you think
have to be addressed as part of our exercise.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: One would basically be the sharing of the content
Sir.
Professor: Okay.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: From one student to other students in different
mediums one would be clicking pictures and all or the conventional way which we were
thinking to be happening is giving the hardcopy to their peers and getting it Xeroxed or a copy
of that thing. That is a problem statement definitely we feel today that not having easily having
that easily accessibility to smart phones to do something like this or actually take down the
entire notes and give a hard copy to the classmate is one of the huge problem statement.
Then another problem statement would be the number of subjects they’ll have to operate with
as in each subject would have individual notebook and textbook for that thing.
Professor: Right.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: So again in our interviews we found out that not
every student has individual notebooks for individual subjects, there are students who maintain
a bulky register for all the subjects, the partition that bulky register into 3 or 4 divisions and
each division is an individual subject for them.
Professor: And do they actually have some kind of tagging or bookmarking kind of thing.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Yes, Yes, Yes.
Professor: Okay.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: So that is how they differentiate between subjects.
Professor: Subjects, okay.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: And in this situation if we talk of a user who is
having a bulky register and taking down 2, 3 subject notes in one register. The problem with
him or her would be getting easily retrieving the content which he specifically wants at that
moment of time. He has to go through a lot of pages for the page he is actually looking for.
Professor: How many subjects do typically they I mean you’ve talked to postgraduates, I know
you’ve talked to school going kids, so what is the typical number of subjects that they have?
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: A school going student has on an average around
10 to 13 subjects.
Professor: Wow, Okay!
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: And PG student has around 6 to 8, 9 subjects.
Professor: Postgraduates has 6 to 8, 9 subjects. Okay.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: And every day probably 60% to 70% of those
subjects would be covered.
Professor: Right, school kid probably has 6 subjects in a day.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yes, 6 to 8 subjects in a day.
Professor: Probably the college going student probably lesser.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yes.
Professor: But to somewhere in that order, okay got it, so ya, go ahead, please.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Then, coming to the other side of the story is
having different notebooks and textbooks for different subjects where that’s very easily seen
in school going students even today.
Professor: Okay.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Right! So, the students have to carry a set weight
which is not really a recommended situation for school going students now with the advent of
technological advancements we are making. So we feel that is a huge problem there for a
student who is carrying like 6 to 7 text books plus 6 to 7 notebooks in one bag that’s another
problem we have identified. And thirdly, we would say another problem is the access to digital
learning content itself.
Professor: Okay.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah. So, in terms of access to digital content. One
is the fact that students are not able to access content in class or at any point of time they want
to access because of the kind of tools that enable you to access these contents. The problem
with these tools, your tablets or your laptops is that you have all kinds of access to all kinds of
content not just educational or learning, you have all kinds of content.
Professor: Yes! Distractions.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah, distractions. So it is difficult for the student
and for parents and teachers to you know trust the student and make his learning available on
such medias. But there is a lot of content available like he mentioned for learning so that that
is a problem or a gap that we want to look at.
Professor: Okay, so great, so we have three problems. I am thinking let’s apply the analyse
framework so the two tools that we talked about on this. So let’s start with say we’ll go one by
one, so that people who are viewing this will get a fair bit of idea as to how to apply this in any
problem that they are working on and get real feel for after all design thinking is about practical
experience so that’s why demonstrating to them how it’s done. So let’s start with the first
problem. The question to ask is put a “why” in front of it and say why is this happening?
So I will leave it to you guys. You can use the means in front of us and get cracking. I’ll be an
observer, bug on the wall as usual and I will observe and I’ll probably drop in a few hints if I
think you are going somewhere.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Right, so we’ll start with the number of subjects
and the books - textbooks and notebooks associated with all the subjects.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Right.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: We’ll start with that as the problem. Why do
students need to carry so many notebooks and textbooks?
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Why are students using lot of notebooks and
textbooks in school?
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah!
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Different or lot of notebooks and textbooks.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Will this be the first “why” Sir?
Professor: Yeah!
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Why do students use several notebooks and
textbooks at school?
Professor: I will just set it here, place it here, first “why”.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Now we apply another “why” to this.
Professor: Yes, so what’s the answer?
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: What’s the answer to this question?
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: One is that teachers there are individual teachers
for individual subjects.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Right.

Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Starting from the root, and each teacher would
like to have to maintain their own subject notes and not mix it with other subject notes. For the
very obvious reason that they would like to verify the notes what student,
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Let’s put that as our first statement as yeah so
different subjects. So let’s take it as a fact that there are several subjects for students to learn.
So different subjects are taught by different teachers that would be the answer to why students
are carrying several notebooks for learning in school.
Professor: Yeah! Yeah! Just put it down here.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Different subjects are taught by different teachers.
Professor: Just put it under this, we see it as a second “why”. Why are there different subjects
taught by different teachers? So that’s the next level.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Well then to answer that why teachers would like
to again like I said teachers would like to have their specific subject notes in their special book
and not mix with other subjects so that it’s easy for them to organize in 60-70 student’s
notebooks for one subject rather than looking 60-70 student’s notebook which has 2 or 3 other
subjects as well.
Shyam Paul M: That will be difficult for the teacher.
Professor: Yes, that will definitely be difficult.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: So it would be for verification of notes so that
teacher can verify student notes.
Professor: I think that there you are answering the question why are different subject notebooks
being asked by different teachers.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Yes.
Professor: So it’s not about different subjects being taught by different teacher but they just
want it that way, it should be separate. Reason for that is what you are saying is that I want to
be able to verify it individually, so that’s the,
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Okay, so we probably have to.

Professor: But now you’ve to keep examining whether all this chain makes a logical sense. So
is this the answer yes I think so, why do students carry several notebooks and textbooks to
school? Because different teachers want it to be maintained as different notebooks. If I have a
single register it is going to be tough. Maths teacher wants this, but the science, now you can’t
get it because it’s in maths.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So rather than different subjects being taught by
different teachers it would be that different teachers would want their notes..
Professor: Absolutely, you can scrap this and write it if you want.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Different teachers
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Teachers would want their subjects written in
different notebooks which is essentially why students are carrying different notebooks for
different subjects.
So why do teachers mandate that their subject should be written in a separate notebook rather
than in one particular notebook. So then it would be for verification. Is there anything else why
student why teacher would mandate?
Professor: Correction.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah! Verification and correction.
Professor: But do teachers actually do that? Do they sit and verify class notes? I don’t do that
as a but as a, I am a college professor.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Yes, as a college.
Professor: School teacher probably they do, school teachers they do. So this is probably true
for a school case.
Shyam: As there will be like homeworks as well.
Professor: Right, Right. So they’ll have to check that as well and that has to be in different
notebook as well. Perfect! Makes sense, this is for school teachers.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: This is for verification of.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: notes and assignments. Or here.
Professor: Yes, this goes like this you can keep it one level after the other so I am just doing it
this way.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Okay. So, why do teachers want to verify the notes
or assignments that they have asked the students to do? To ensure that the students’ learning is
happening.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: How effectively to ensure how effectively?
Professor: The assumption is that the notes that they have written has gone through their mind
and it’s coming is on there. So whatever they have learnt or heard or what is being transferred
to the notebook. That’s the assumption.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Yes, and to understand the learning process.

Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: To ensure that the learning has happened. Effective
learning has happened for the student which is why they want to see whether the notes have
been taken and the assignments have been complete.
Professor: Okay, why would a teacher be interested in effective learning?
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: That’s the job.

Professor: That’s the job. That’s why they are paid for, right. Okay, so that would be the, so
when you reach a natural limit or you know reach something very fundamental you can stop.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Would it be possible to have multiple answers to the
same question?
Professor: Oh! Yes. I have seen or seen students do it. I have done it myself is to have branched
“why” as well. So you’ll have a line coming here as well I have seen that as well.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So, I think in this case probably, yeah. So one reason
why students need to share notes is probably because I am a slow writer or my understanding
or it takes time for me to comprehend and put it down to words, so that might be one reason.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Pace of understanding and jotting down is slow.

Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah, that could be one reason, slow writing, slow
learning and understanding.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Another reason could be that I was absent on a
particular day.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: So that we have a branch
Professor: Oh, yeah that’s a branch okay, I’m sorry.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Another reason could be that I was absent on a certain
day.
Professor: Right.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah, lack of attendance.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Lack of attendance. Another reason could be that I
want a better learning experience from someone who has written notes better than me.
Professor: Right, there always these good notes takers.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So even if I have written my notes I would probably
want someone who has written notes better, I am sure he has written notes.
Shyam: Maybe their handwriting will be better.

Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah, they do all like this.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: So looking for better note taking students.
Professor: Right, better notes.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Better notes, better notes, better notes. Looking for
better notes. Yeah, seeking for better notes.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Yes.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So now we have to apply “why” on each of this.
Professor: Yes, now you got your job got triply cumbersome yes.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: So pace of understanding writing is slow, why
would be the pace of understanding and writing be slow for a student?
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: That would be.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: The obvious reason that every one’s
understanding is not build the same.
Professor: We could say that’s a natural limit.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Natural limit, yeah. So I think yeah.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Then this.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So I think we can put that down or should we be
putting that down.
Professor: Up to you I mean if it makes the problem richer in understanding you can put it
down; I don’t mind it.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: I think we can put it down Sir.
Professor: Okay, put it down.

Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Natural limitation for an individual student.
Professor: Again some of these are some assumptions that we have, so let it be that way. It’s
your own understanding of the situation. It’s not reality itself represented, and it’s to your
understanding.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Why would there be lack of attendance to.
Professor: That particular class.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: So, that’s subjective so.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: It could be because he was sick.

Professor: Good movies playing.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: It could be because he was sick.
Professor: Yes, sickness is a common reason.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah, illness, yeah illness could be a common
reason.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Engaged in some other activity.
Shyam: Co-curricular activities in school.
Professor: Yeah, in school they pull you out for some other activities.
Shyam: Annual day and all.
Professor: Yeah, like gathering, annual day, school day.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Engaged in other school activity or absent for
personal reason.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah, I think let us keep it to this one.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: And looking for better notes from classmates would
be because they want to score better marks for their exams or because they want.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Probably missed out a couple of lines in between
when teacher was teaching or while they were taking down or.
Shyam: All the important points these guys.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: And see and try to understand how a studious
student is preparing his notes.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Looking for better notes from classmates, why would
because I think that point would come here. If he’s missed a few lines then it will again come
to the his writing becoming slow.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: So I think this will be.

Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: When I am looking for better notes, I am expecting
that my learning outcome from those notes would be better than my learning from my own
notes. Yes. So, we are looking at better learning outcome, so can we put that down as better
learning outcome?
Shyam: Yeah, for better understanding.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So why are we looking for better notes from
classmates because our learning outcomes are going to be better.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Fine, okay.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So I think this one is done. Why would student be
engaged in other school activities?
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Class CR’s or house captains they have other
duties as well to conduct in the school, so that could be one of the reason.
Professor: So if they are monitors of the class or class leaders or representative’s classes yes
they can have other jobs to do, other responsibilities, okay.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: For better learning outcome why would someone.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Why would someone want better learning outcome?
They can score better marks that could be one reason.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: But understanding it better.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Better learning experience, but it becomes same.
Shyam: To do good in academics.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah that is what so to do good in academics would
essentially translate.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Academics is not the entire concept of learning.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yeah, so that’s what. Either you can have a better
learning or you can translate that better learning into your academic performance which is
basically scoring better in your exams. So you can put down one reason as,
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Having a clear idea on the topic on the subject.
Clearly understanding on the subject.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: On the subject, fine.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Academics and all come automatically if the
student has the clear understanding of what he is.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Why does he want a clear understanding because
that’s why he is there in the school and other responsibilities that is again coming back to school
being holistic and that being a natural part of his activity in school I think that’s it.
Professor: So what’s the third I mean third problem statement that you are working on?
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Access to digital content.
Professor: Access to digital content, okay.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Okay, so why do students have the necessity to
access digital content?
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So one reason could be that the learning that
happened inside the classroom was incomplete which is why they would be looking at
something like digital content.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Incomplete learning.

Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Incomplete learning in classroom, another reason
could be that such content are more engaging than, I think we can put those two reasons down.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Digital content are more engaging and also that
they have lot of options in digital content not just class textbooks, so that is also.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Already learnt, yeah. So let’s put all that down into
the word of engaging meaning your options something that is coming as new so let’s put it all
down into the fact that digital learning is more engaging.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: So we can just bring around. Yeah.

Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So why is learning incomplete in classroom?
Because probably the teacher would only explain it once for the entire class and no individual
attention is given for one particular student.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Right, no individual attention.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: And why would digital content be more engaging
than monologue from a teacher in class.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Digital content is again an online kind of a service,
so it has n number of options where students can go and pick up from.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Also the probably the tools that digital content allows
you to use would be much more greater than what teacher can do in a classroom, he can use
animations, he can use all kinds of digital tools, so that might could also be one reason
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: So access to fancy tools, trendy tools, trendy
learning tools.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Yes.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Trendy learning tools and animations.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So why is individual attention not given to a
particular student? Because if a teacher would start giving individual attention to each and
every student he or she would not be able to complete, so it would be.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: To complete the syllabus.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: To complete the sub portions, yeah syllabus. I think
why is there access to more learning because that is the way it is.
Professor: Okay, again natural limit. That’s how world seems to be working this way.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: To complete why does the teacher want to complete
the syllabus? Because she is being monitored and the curriculum demands or the school
demands that, the teacher completes it. In fact in our customer and stake holder interviews,we
have also come to identify that teachers have a weekly review wherein they are expected to see
that certain amount of portions are completed in that particular week.
Professor: Okay, it’s a difficult situation that a teacher is when they do not cover what they are
supposed to in a week, resolution of a week, okay I get it.
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]: Why do schools demand teachers to complete the
syllabus? Again it’s.
Professor: The function of the school itself, this is why they exist in the first place to complete
courses, okay I think you have done a comprehensive analysis of the three questions that you
started off with. So one thing I would like to tell you is that this branching is common it’s done
and sometimes you reach levels deeper in one line of thinking and not in another problem.
One could be potentially you do not have enough information, do not have enough experience,
other is you may have more information and you know understands it may get deeper, so that
is probably even deeper in some and not somewhere else. So you can also augment this with
field studies, you can go to customers observe them and actually see if any of this is valid, this
is based on your own experiences or some of the interviews that you had in the past can also
go particularly check for these as well that is also accepted.
Okay, so good so now the logical next step is to identify a particular level at which you have
to operate, okay so you can pick saying one or two things is that you see that according to your
own subjective judgment that yes this is a very important problem a level at which we have to
work and so you can pick one level like that or you have seen students come often to you and
or you have observed students in a state where oh yeah this is a problem somebody has voiced
it to you or you have heard it in the past.
So these two you can use to fix at what level you are going to work, okay so that’s the once
you fix the level then we will go onto the conflict of interest analysis, we will pick one in any
of these and just pick one and we will work with that on the conflict of interest to show how
it’s done to the audience. So your subjective judgment and where you saw that students were
in your own interviews you said wait a minute, this is really interesting ones for them.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Can we use sharing as our?
Professor: Your baby, you decide.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: Because students are doing a lot of sharing and they
are using existing technology to somehow meet their necessity is not done in a proper way. So
we would like to explore.
Professor: Okay, so now can you fix the level or the particular “why” which is your focus.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: So probably this one better learning outcome.
Professor: Better learning outcomes.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: That is the level we would want to reach.
Professor: Okay, so we will fix it at that one, so we are going to do work here yeah we can do
that.
Design Thinking
Analyze Workshop
Part 02
Prof Bala: Okay, Welcome back! The second part of this module starts, which is on conflict
of interest analysis. So we did the five whys, we saw new things that we did with the whys
the n compared to what I had demonstrated, that was the multi-forked whys that you saw, that
is often used also, so you could try that as well. It sort of becomes very complex, so laying it
out on a chart like how we did it makes complete sense. Now for illustration purposes, we
have picked one flow of that Y and we are going to work with that and then build up our
conflict of interest from there. So that’s going to be the demo part of what we are doing for
the conflict of analysis for this. It’s by no means complete, it’s just one part that we are
showing for to keep you interested as well as to keep give you a flavour of what it is to do a
conflict of interest analysis. Okay, so what have we?

So we have started with why do students need to share notes. So, that was the first why that
you brought in which is a serious problem to tackle and you said the answer was, looking for
better notes from students, other classmates or people who have paid attention to various
aspects, not like I haven’t paid attention, but there are other aspects that other people are
given The why, for that is, well you want better learning out comes, so that I can piggyback
off other classmates who take good notes in my class, and that’s the level that we are
interested in solving and that is why do they want learning outcomes is well you understand
the topic better the entire course its comprehensive understanding out the course better.
So we are going to start here, I am going to hand it off to you, you will have to first of all,
build a Y to X plot, which is, if I change a parameter on the X, which is how a Y to X is
defined, some performance parameter changes on its own and that’s we need to figure out for
your particular level. That’s what you are going to do. So, over to you guys.

Nithin: So I guess, the parameter would be the amount of notes that are being shared, the
quantity of notes, so sir should we make a plot or?
Prof Bala: No, you can use this as if it’s a sample plot, so it’s just a visual representation, it’s
not a scientific data based plot, so this is just.
Siddharth: Yeah, so like an x-axis.
Nithin: So this is the variable that can change, right, and now we want a quantifiable
parameter that will change based on the amount of notes that is being changed.
Prof Bala: What is the performance that you are measuring it up against?
Nithin: So performance of learning outcome would essentially be your scoring in your

assessment, right!
Prof Bala: Your assessment scores. Ok.
Nithin: Yeah.
Prof Bala: So, it’s a good tip to have a measurable parameter, so that we can track what is
going on. Sometimes you will find that there are high and low which is fine. We just want to
have understanding of how the whole thing works.

Nithin: So here our assumption would be that with more notes being shared, students would
probably score better. Yes. Now what is the next activity sir?
Prof Bala: Next activity is boiling down to the particular why that you are interested in. I
mean the level that you are interested in, which in this case is for better learning outcomes.
Nithin: Right.
Prof Bala: So you will have to replace the X that you have, with the particular level that you
are interested in, which is the learning outcomes itself.
Nithin: Okay.
Prof Bala: Right, so.
Siddharth: I think that would be this. Outcome is the assessment score.
Prof Bala: Assessment score, that’s what we are performing, I mean assessing the
performance, so.
Nithin: Quantity of notes share and this is the X, Y plot right.
Prof Bala: Right.
Prof Bala: So we can start with this. So now to find out just plot the data. So, like a
quantitative data, sorry, quantitative data is what is the high side? What is the low side? And
what is high side and what is low side here? And how are they related, so you can draw a line
like that.
Nithin: Ok, so in terms of you saying that in a class if there are N number of notes being
shared on a day or on a timescale.
Prof Bala: So, if you have a high number of notes.

Nithin: Then correspondingly,
Prof Bala: What happens to the score?
Nithin: Okay.
Prof Bala: And if there’s a lower number of notes shared, then what happens to the score.
Nithin: Right.
Prof Bala: That would be the direct correlation.
Students: Correlation, fine, so what is it?
Prof Bala: Now you can just draw a plot there.
Siddharth: Okay. Like,
Prof Bala: No this, draw a line like that. Yeah. So, what is the, when you have a high number
of notes shared, what is the assessment score look like?
Nithin: Okay, it is high, so I’d think it’ll probably be the other way around.
Prof Bala: Yeah, Ok, ok, ok. Normally what we do is, we flip it in such a way that if you have
the good thing should always be on the right.
Nithin: Okay.
Prof Bala: And the bad thing is, should be on the left.
Nithin: Okay.
Prof Bala: Okay, so good thing is, if high scores, if you have low number of notes shared.
You can put it as ‘low’ there on the left side, so flip plot .Okay, so low number of notes
shared then you get low scores.
Nithin: Right.
Prof Bala: So that’s how this works.
Nithin: Okay.
Prof Bala: I’ll tell you the reason why we are doing this. So, here the Y is low number of -
low scores. Okay, low scores and when we increase,
Nithin: Keep increasing the number of
Prof Bala: the shared notes, there is an increase in this assessment score.
Nithin: So here high number of notes shared.
Prof Bala: High number of notes shared.

Nithin: This will be settled in high score.
Prof Bala: High scores. Okay.
Nithin: So now you get this graph.
Prof Bala: Right you get this graph.
Nithin: This plot.
Prof Bala: Why we are doing this is that the ideal scores, I mean the ideal situation that you
want to be in is that you want the high scores and lowest number of notes shared because.
Nithin: That is the optimum that you are looking for.
Prof Bala: Optimum, so let’s find out why, okay.
Nithin: Okay.
Prof Bala: So in doing this notes share and if you share a high number of notes what is the
flip side of this? What is the negative of sharing too many notes around? And I say. Suppose
you are the student Siddharth and you get, you look at all these notes, you have some, you
copied or photographed eight notes, eight bunch of notes, so what’s the flip side of that?
Siddharth: It means that I am getting access to more number of notes that is, I am investing
more amount of time.
Prof Bala: Time.
Nithin: In preparing.
Prof Bala: So the amount of time for preparation or going through each of these notes
actually spikes up, which student usually doesn’t have. Okay, so that’s why ideal would be to
be at low number of notes. I get one good notes or two number of notes and I am done right.
B ut, by doing that I am actually only looking at one or two which may not be good,
sometimes they are good, sometimes they are not, and may have missed a few notes as well,
so this is the rationale in this. Okay, so now you can take another note and put a time on that
side. Okay, so time for preparation I guess. Okay, so that goes on the left-hand side, so that’s
what you are conflict is between, so it is a time versus the number of notes shared problem.
Okay, which is what we are going to solve, so that’s how we look at. Okay.
Now a better way of representing which you have seen me show in the classes is the conflict
model. Okay, so are called the element name value ENV model as well. So, we will remove
this for a second and okay, we will start with the element. Okay, which is in your case, so we
have assessment score. So the variable goes there, the number of notes shared
Students: The number of notes shared.

Prof Bala: Right, so it’s the student’s number of notes shared and then there is a high and
there is a low, and then you can do the rest. Okay, so that’s where we start, so this student just
to give us, who is whom, whose variable are we looking at, so that could go here.
Siddharth: So we are looking at our students.
Prof Bala: And this guy goes here.
Nithin: Notes shared, number of notes shared.
Prof Bala: So this one, so then you can vary the parameter two ways, right that’s what we did
low number of notes and high number of notes shared, so low and high. Very good. Okay.
So, now you have to tell me what happens when the student shares, I mean number of notes
shared are low, number of notes shared is low.
Nithin: One thing is the time that he takes to prepare obviously becomes low because.
Prof Bala: Which is a good thing.
Nithin: Which is a good thing.
Prof Bala: Because that way, he can just prepare one-time and I am done. Okay, so that is a
good thing.
Siddharth: Less time for preparation.
Prof Bala: Less time for preparation and that’s a good thing, so you can mark it with a plus,
because that is a positive. Right, and even colour code it if you have the pens. Okay.
Nithin: So understanding will obviously be low because he is only looking at his notes.
Prof Bala: Only at one or two notes.
Siddharth: Less understanding.
Prof Bala: Less understanding of the topic, which related to what you had here, the last note
is class understanding of the subject to the topic it’s related to that.
Nithin: So that is the negative.
Prof Bala: So that’s the negative, now what’s the positive of going with high number of
notes?
Siddharth: That more content he gets to read and more understanding he has, better
understanding of topic.
Prof Bala: Okay, so positive. Okay, and now the flip side of having high number of notes
shared.
Nithin: Taking more time for preparation.
Prof Bala: Lot of time to prep. Now he has to go through not his notes alone, but all his
classmates’ notes as well. So, now our desired result or stuff that we are aiming for as design
thinkers is we are greedy people - design thinkers. So we need both the pluses alone. Okay,
so we want better understanding of the topic and less time for preparation, so this is what we
are aiming for. That’s the objective of this analysis, I usually have a desired result and I put
there and I pointed arrow, you can just paste on these two. So any solution, you may come up
with in the later stages, you have to come back and see, has it reduced the time of
preparation, has it increased the understanding of the topic for the student, so that would be
your desired result, that’s where you are working for that’s all the solution, any solution you
come up with, you have to go back and refer to this.
Okay, so that was conflict of interest analysis. We saw a few points - one of them was that we
flipped the side in which you can probably cannot see this, we will share of graph of this is
we flipped the sides of logic, so to speak, so that we have a sloping line. The reason we did
that was that we wanted an optimum that is the desired results that we saw in the plus in both
cases have to be on top and so that we can mentally visualise that less time of preparation.
High scores is what we would desire and we wanted with less sharing of notes as the, so we
want both of this, we want high scores with less sharing of notes and the reason we did that
was so that we can reduce the time of preparation for our students.
So this is how we can deal with the five whys, multi-why analysis combining it with the
conflict of interest analysis, now with this you can go onto the solve stage, which is a next
module. In that after you done with solve, you always come back and check here and check if
the conflict is addressed or not and that ends the analyse stage for us.
Thank you.
Solve Tea Cup Story
Hello folks!! It’s story time again. This time it’s one of my favourite stories. I must have said
this a million times. I don’t know where I heard it but it’s a beautiful story. The story about a
scholar and a tea cup like the one you see in front of me. So this particular scholar’s main job
was to learn new things, new skills, new languages. Oh! But he had one problem, he just
couldn’t learn anything new. Given that his profession is to learn new stuff, this was a big
obstacle for him. It’s an annoyance that he can’t learn new things, new skills, new languages.
So his friends counselled him and said why don’t you visit this Zen Master who seems to know
it all, why don’t you approach him? So he approached, the scholar approached the Zen Master
and there was a lovely tea cup on a beautiful table and a lovely carpet right underneath that and
right next to it was a tea pot much bigger than my little tea pot here but it was a bigger tea pot.
So the Zen Master asked the scholar to start pouring tea and with the only condition that you
should stop pouring only when I ask you to, till then don’t stop pouring. So he took the tea pot
and started pouring tea I have milk here but in my story there was tea and he started filling it
up with tea. The tea cup was slowly filling up little by little and it reached the end and the
scholar thought that the Zen Master would ask him to stop but he didn’t. He let him pour even
more than my level, I don’t want to ruin my tea but you get the idea.
So he kept pouring in, kept pouring in, and guess what happened to that tea that he was pouring
after it was full? All the tea started spilling all around on the table, started messing up the table.
Scholar started getting nervous and jittery and he was not comfortable with that idea and the
tea started pouring on the lovely carpet and that got ruined also. Scholar was all upset. Zen
Master finally took pity on scholar and said now you may stop. Scholar was all festered and
said, Oh my God!! I spoilt your carpet, I spoilt your table. It’s bad, so what do we do now?
So Zen Master said it’s okay, I will get one of my students to fix the carpet and the table. Don’t
worry about it. I want you to tell me what happened to the new tea that you were pouring once
the cup was full. The scholar thought about it and said well the all the tea spilled out, it is all
around. So tell me one thing if you want tea, fresh tea to be filled one even after the tea cup is
full, what do you do?
And the scholar answered well empty the tea cup, transfer it somewhere or just throw it out
and start pouring it again that’s how you get new tea into the tea cup. Zen Master said exactly
what is happening with you, you are already full up to the brim with knowledge and there’s no
way on earth you are going to get new information, new skills, new language. What do you
have to do then? You have to throw away empty your tea pot your tea cup sorry tea cup and
that is the way you can get new knowledge, get rid of your old habits, get rid of your whatever
you are clinging onto and that is how you learn new skills.
That folks is why I made you empty your head. Do you get it? Thank you.
Solve - Lecture 01
Hello and welcome back to the design thinking course that we have. It’s been a fantastic last
few weeks with you. Now we are going into a very, very important part of design thinking. A
very exciting portion of design thinking. We have looked at two stages so far, first was we got
into the shoes of the customer or the user who are you are trying to help that was the empathize,
you got to know them personally, you got to interview them, you got to know what they were
going through that you can help out with.
The second was analysis, analyze where we found out with two techniques that we went
through with 5 why’s - the multi why or the why, why technique you keep asking series of
why’s and we found out what’s going on at a root cause level, at different levels what’s going
on with the customer, why is it that they are going through such a problem, why is it they are
in that state where they need help from people like us?
So the next was to see okay now that I have found out what is it that is causing that, how can I
think about it as a conflict between two parties, two things, a thing a human and a thing or a
between two humans. So what is that person A wants something and person B wants something
else, how do we look at this it from this perspective from this stand points from how do we
understand both these stand points?

Still we are helping out one person but we need to understand the other person’s perspective
also. So this was what we did so far, so great we found out what’s going on, but we need to
solve it. So this is the third phase of design thinking and we are going to embark on a solution
and this has to address the conflict so whenever you come up with an idea, you generate an
idea, discussing with your friends, discussing it with your colleagues, looking at reading up
some material or you sitting under a tree and waiting for the apple to fall and an idea pops into
your head, so be it grab that idea, the best piece of advice I have for you at this stage is to write
it out, to externalize too.
So that the part of the brain that’s working on the idea is a super-fast genius who takes things
so quickly and rapidly and can help you out with that, that’s the guy inside your visual part of
the brain and for that person to get triggered you need to write things down, write it on a piece
of paper, you don’t have to be high-tech, you don’t have to take the latest gadget and write it
on, you can write it on a piece of paper even that’s great. Ok! So write it down, write down the
ideas that’s the main take away from this method this stage in design thinking.

So solve is where we are at, so I’m going to take you to a place far away in time and far away
you probably are living there, I don’t know where you are viewing this video from, but the
place that we are going to talk about a story is set in this place on your screen right now, can
you take a guess where this could be? Quite easy actually given the way the people are dressed
in the photo and the way the snow is all around them, there are forests, there are all sorts of like
a thick dense forest, yeah that’s right you guessed it right, it’s Siberia in Russia.
So, and the time period around which this photograph was taken was in the 40’s so that’s where
my story begins and I would like you to take another guess, now that you have come with me
so far you guessed so well where this place is, I would like you to guess one more thing. What
kind of a place are we looking at? Is this a bus stop? Is this a railway station? Is this a port? Is
this a frozen lake? What is this?
Take a moment to think about what kind of place are we looking at? Ok! Any guesses? No, not
quite. This is a prison! This is a prison! It doesn’t look like it. No high walls, no you know
machine gun bearing down people, soldiers around, nope, none of them. This is a very
unconventional or let me say this was a very unconventional kind of prison. This was the Gulag
prison very infamous in the good old days for the fact that it was extremely torturous place to
be in.
In fact the fact that you don’t see walls, my guess is that there’s nothing for hundreds and
hundreds of miles around this place so even if someone would were to escape probably the
warmest place that is there for 100’s of miles is the prison. So you are better off in the prison
than out there somewhere trying to just survive in this bitter cold, I don’t know -40/-50°C is
not a pleasant condition. So, you better off back in the prison.
So my story starts here 40’s, 1940’s a young inventor by name Altshuller was imprisoned in
this prison. Ok! So let’s go to sober times I mean better times this is a sombre place. So about
roll the clock few years and young Altshuller was known to be a great inventor. He had filed
his first invention way back when he was in his teens, so any problem anything that he saw, he
felt the need to go and invent something and that’s how prolific he was and particularly when
there were resource constraints and things could not be solved, so he is always a very different
kind of person.
So he started working at a patent office. Patent is a government protection of an idea similar to

a real estate where you can draw an outline and say this belongs to me or a group of people,
same way this is for the intellectual property, intellectual estate. So to speak, you can actually
say this is my idea and the government says yes, yes he told me first, he told us first so this
guy gets the patent of that particular ideas.
So our inventor actually started working in the patent office. He was very excited at this
proposition because he was surrounded by people’s inventions, people's greatest ideas
presented in all its detail. So he actually went through thousands and thousands of paper
documents. Paper documents were the patents to written as, so he would go through them page
by page as if you are reading a fiction novel, he would read through patents and he would really
love the whole idea of being there.
So he was totally excited by this proposition and slowly and steadily he started realizing that
there was something strange going on that he actually found out certain patterns across this
patents. So this was crazy because the patents that he was looking at reading were from
different domains - aerospace and electronics or whatever was invoke at that time. I do not
know if electronics is around in the 40’s. But whatever was invoked at the time he saw they
were all commonalities between all these. He noted that there was certain types of problems
that were fixed or solved in a certain type of in a certain way, he noticed these patents all along.
And now he was also bothered by the fact prior to this is that all the other sciences seem to
have a certain formula, a certain way to do it except, when it came to problem solving people
relied on intuition and a background and experience and people who they hung out with
whatever or their own persona, etc etc. So nothing about a formula that anybody could learn
up and actually solve like you have in mathematics or chemistry for example these two are rely
on formulae to get you going. Right!
The same way if I knew a formula to invent, to solve a particular problem I could actually teach
anybody and they could actually get faster with this get better at problem solving as well. So
he was really enamoured by it. So that suddenly popped up and I said, Hey! Wait a second.
This sounds like a formula. This sounds like a way to solve it, a very systematic way to solve
it and he slowly started categorizing the problems and the solutions accordingly.
So he did that very methodically with thousands and thousands of these patents and finally
figured out that a way an algorithm or a formula to actually solve the problem and he was
happy about it and he said this is great this is extremely excited about this idea and he said the
whole nation has to know about this, all the schools have to know about this they have to start
doing this, they have to start embarking on this method.
And what he did was he wrote a big long letter to the then President of or the story goes from
the internet. I am borrowing this from a story on the internet that he actually wrote a letter to
Joseph Stalin the President or the head of state for the USSR at that time and he said this is
what we can do to you know take our motherland to greater heights so he wrote all that and he
did not hear back from Joseph Stalin of course he is the head of the state, he is a busy guy, he
does not reply to every mail that comes to him.
So a year later he did Altshuller did get his reply and I am guessing it was in the middle of the
night somebody knocking at the door. Is this Altshuller? And this guy sleepily opening the door
and Altshuller said, Yes! this is me and they say you are under arrest. What? Why am I under
arrest? And they say well you wrote this long letter? Yes! Then you are under arrest. So it turns
out that he not only wrote about how to transform the motherland into greater heights by using
this method but in the way he had also sort of put down the way things were run in the state at
that time and that probably didn’t go very well with Joseph Stalin and that’s why he ended up
in the place that you see on the screen, Siberia Gulag prison.
So Altshuller should have been totally crestfallen. His mom didn’t think he would come back
at all because people who went there never returned. So this was pretty sad state at that time
but Altshuller was extremely motivated, he said wow this is a great place for me to think about
this you know there is hard days labour and he has to do all that those things that they do in the
prison but he still had time to think, his brain was free to think about stuff, about invention,
about problem solving.
And then he felt the need for going and checking with people as to how to how does this fair
in other domains like mathematics and biology and chemistry and all this he wanted to check
with other people and this is a prison I mean how could he find such people, but he was wrong,
there were other people who were biologist, chemist, physicist. All these guys were there in
prison because of some political something that they had done, so they were all there and he
would go and check with them that is this really working out very well, is this theory does this
make sense for your domain? And he got a few suggestions, he perfected the theory.
So he worked on this in the spare time in the prison and 5 years later, the prison’s period was
5 years about 5 years and at the end of 5 years, Joseph Stalin passed away and they started
releasing political prisoners from the Joseph Stalin regime and Altshuller was one of them. So
he was released, he was happy to come be out in the free world. So now he was totally
motivated to go and check out how his theory will stand, so he started running case study after
case study.

So this is his picture this is Genrich Altshuller, he came up with this idea that problem solving
can actually be a formula and he applied it and started applying for different case studies in
real life. He developed an algorithm of problem solving, he called it ARIZ is the Russian
acronym for algorithm of inventive problem solving and he slowly started releasing version
after version he tried it several case studies, he would take painstakingly take so many years to
make small changes to his algorithm.
So he in his own words he says that this algorithm is great on its own, it works on its own
because he tried it on so many case studies but he said this can be a great aid to invent us, it
can be like a ladder guiding them okay if you should not go too far away from this but you can
actually go towards certain path. So that was what he set out to do.

So this is in Russian, the Russian pronunciation if I get it right it is (теория решения
изобретательских задач) Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch and the acronym for
that is TRIZ is this is the theory that he pulled out of the algorithm after trying it so many times.
He actually generated I mean he build the whole theory around this and even sort to find out
how the human mind works, how the whole creative skill works? And it’s now popularly
known as TRIZ, T-R-I-Z. The Russian acronym still stays in between some people did try to
call it tips as theory of inventive problem solving TIPS, but for a powerful method like for
inventive problem solving, TIPS sound it more like pocket change than a powerful theory.
So TRIZ still sticks you can find lots of literature in this method, in this theory all across the
internet. I have given you a few references as well in the reference list. So this is the theory
that Altshuller came and this generated and now lots of people across the globe including
Altshuller’s students have taken the message all across and have really made a difference in
many many industries, made inventors jobs a little easier and generated a lot of ideas using
TRIZ as a method.
So why am I telling you this? Because this is an efficient way of solving a problem, you don’t
have to try out all sorts of variants before generating the method that works. So this is why I
am introducing you to this method, to continue and finish up the story Altshuller wrote many,
many books in Russian Few of them were translated to English. One of my favourite is this
book called Innovation Algorithm and theory gives a lot of examples on how to innovate,
invent particularly doing it systematically and this is in technical field because Altshuller
himself was a mechanical engineer. The terms that were used were all to do with mechanical
engineering but this applies after so many years we found that this applies all across disciplines.
Ok!
One of the methods that he suggested and a very powerful one at that is one of the components
is after you do your conflict analysis which we did last time, you can actually use one of the
methods called inventive principles. What it says is like I was talking to you about certain
methods, certain types of solutions, these where crystallized these were put into heuristics of
saying I will give you some examples of how these things are worded and you can actually
apply it back to your problem and generate ideas so that your conflict is resolved, so that you
know between two humans or between a human and a thing you can actually resolve the
conflict, so this is what Altshuller had said.
One of the algorithm looks like this, so many steps and you know it asks you certain questions.
It’s almost like a form filled out but you need to keep doing the thinking. The thinking is not
replaced by the method. The thinking is still done by the human. So often times I get this
question from students. So, should I tone down my thinking and just follow this and I should
be okay? No, you shall have to do the thinking, you still have to do the finding, it still the
inventor’s job to solve the problem, this guides you in your thinking.
So worry not, I am not straight jacketing you and saying this is the only way to think, this is
the only way to go if you are stuck, if you cannot move. What is equivalent of a writer’s block
for an author, for a writer is an inventor’s block if you have reached that then this method will
help you. That’s what I’m telling you.
So this is a snapshot from the book. I promised to give you examples of inventive principles
this is one of the inventive principles called preliminary action. So what it says is that perform
before it is needed, the required change of an object either fully or partially. An example is
given for you, it is to sterilize all instruments needed for a surgical procedure on a sealed tray.
So before the surgery is performed all of this, the instruments needed are all sterilized and kept
on a sealed tray so that it’s ready when the surgery has to be performed in the state that the
surgeon wants it to be. So the another example or another way to do preliminary action is pre-
arrange objects such that they can come into action from the most convenient place and without
losing time for their delivery. This is popularly known as just in time in some factories have
this implemented, so there is no need for a warehouse. The components come on time, just in
time and get delivered when it is needed, not before, not after but just in time. So this is one of
the manifestations of preliminary action.
So this is the number 10 in this signifies that this is the number 10 principle. There are 40
principles that Altshuller thought about saw this in the patents. He also generated 76 standard
solutions that also became popular but 40 is easier to work with, easier to imagine, 76 requires
a little bit of training for you to think about it, how do you apply it and if you have it nailed
down the problem nailed down then 76 standard solutions help you. In this course we are not
going to go deeper into this I am going to give you two more examples and then we will move
on to the solve part of it.
So in here the next principle is beforehand cushioning the example is a backup parachute, so
you need something to compensate for the relatively low reliability of an object then you do
this.
So this one is my favourite, one of my favourites of the principle - principle number 13, the
other way round and here we do the opposite to solve a problem. So if you have a stuck part
rather than cooling the inner part we heap the outer part to loosen it out. So this is an other way
round A treadmill is an excellent example of making movable parts fixed and fixed part
movable. So the jogger is in place while the path is moving, typically a jogger moves and the
path remains stationary. In a treadmill it is the opposite so these are several ways to do this.
So other way round is a principle name of a principle, now that they have identified the conflict,
can I flip the actors around, can I flip whatever is moving stationary and can I change the other
one around? So these are questions you should be asking to generate ideas, okay.
So let’s look at some of the examples we looked at last time. This is my first problem that I
proposed to you. I said you should be thinking about this. So if you remember I will reiterate
the problem right here. We are looking at, is this distracted child I mean he is not just one of
them, there are probably many of them but this guy clearly is distracted. He is looking at
something else and he is not paying attention to what the teacher is saying but I am sure the
class is filled with people who have different learning rates. So that’s the problem that I posed
to you.
So now what you had to do was to analyze using 5 why’s and the conflict of interest, once you
have that then we can jump into the solved stage.

So I’m going to help you out with that. I’m going to give out some of the answers here. Let’s
go to the blackboard. So, the teacher is teaching and this guy is not paying attention. So, let’s
say why is he distracted? So why is he distracted? Well he is learning at a slow pace that the
teacher has already gone past. He is not able to keep in pace with what the teacher is saying.
So this is the reason is, she is teaching very fast. The teacher in our picture is teaching very
fast, we had a fast teacher fast teaching teacher. Why is she going fast? Why is the teacher in
our picture going very fast?
Well she has lot of syllabus to cover, lot of syllabus to cover. Ok! So let’s say a large portion
of syllabus still remains and she is not able to cover that’s why she is going fast and since the
kid cannot keep up the kid is distracted. Why does she have a lot of syllabus to cover? Well
she is being assigned that this is what the TAT of the government is. So let’s say she is
following a government syllabus so that’s fixed.
So we have reached the place where unless you work for the government and you can make a
difference you should probably look at this level for simplicity sake I am going to look at this
level which is distracted versus fast teacher and why does the teacher teach very fast? It’s a lot
of things to cover. I am saying lot of syllabus but it’s lot of portion to cover in the syllabus.
So if we look at it one more time in terms of a plot if you remember from my last time we had
plots for plotting the 5 why analysis. So how do we track the performance of the child? Let’s
call it learning retention learning retention. So how much does the child actually retain. Ok! So
high point and the low point. So, the high point is high learning retention. So if the child is able
to recall or able to retain a lot of information in a lot of what the teacher is saying in this class
say it is a beginner class we will keep that as high and low is the opposite which is the kid is
not able to catch up with class, what’s going on. And the variable that we have with us is the
pace of teaching, pace of teaching (sorry this is pace). Ok!
So now if we look at this plot we have a high learning retention and the pace of teaching is
what we are tracking. So we have a low pace of teaching which means she is going very slow.
Let’s say slow and she is going very fast. So that’s the variable the teacher has from a teacher’s
point of view it was one thing that she can vary to keep the child interested and keep motivated
and make him or her retain in our case it’s him I guess the student. We will make him retain,
we need to track that so that’s our variable that we are tracking.
If you remember from last class we actually had a plot like this a straight line just to keep things
simple. If I go fast, if I am the teacher and I go very fast I sort of miss out on the retention. This
kid is probably not retaining a whole lot and hence he is distracted. But if I choose to go slow,
I will have a high retention. However what I am losing out on is here’s the conflict is that I
will not be able to cover my syllabus if I am the teacher. Ok!
So this is what the teacher can control whether I can go fast, or whether I can go slow, what’s
the parameter that we are losing out on if we go very slow is the extent of syllabus. Let’s say
the extent of syllabus coverage. Ok! So the extent of syllabus is what we will miss out on. So
if we actually go slow in teaching we are going to miss out on the extent of syllabus. It’s going
to be remain uncovered. If we go fast syllabus is covered. Great! but I lose out on my primary
customer who is my student.
Now that I have presented in this way it started to sound like a conflict, right so remember the
conflict of interest. Now the conflict is between the teacher and the student so that’s what we
are looking at from on this x and y.
So now we will look at the conflict itself so here’s the teacher and the syllabus. Let’s put it that
way and sorry about the bad handwriting here I drew a small box and that was the problem.
Here we have is what can I vary, it’s the pace of teaching. Ok! So it’s pace of teaching. I can
chose to go fast. I can chose to go very fast or fast and I can chose to go slow. Ok! So these are
the two states so to speak between slow and fast and then what happens as a result of going
slow and fast.
So represented like what we had last time is when I go fast I lose out on retention from the
students. So student retention is low. Let me abbreviate it. Retention is low. So I put a down
arrow so that I indicates it’s slow whereas what I am gaining out of going very fast is covered
syllabus. I have actually done a good job in the administration’s eyes. I have actually covered
it on time.
If I go slow, yeah for the student, student actually loves me because I am matching pace with
his learning speed so student retention is definitely there it’s a high and what I am losing out
on is uncovered syllabus I have not finished what I have signed up for so, I have a lot of stuff
that I have not covered. So as design thinkers what we generally need are these two which is
the covered syllabus and student retention to be very high, so this is my desired result. Ok!
So I’ll post it in a better way. This is how I am writing on my blackboard here. So this is what
is going on with respect to the analysis of the teacher student problem. Ok! So this is the conflict
of interest between the student and the teacher. Now how do I solve this problem? I want to be
fast so that I can cover my syllabus but I have to be slow so that the student retains it and if
you remember one of the principles I said was going the other way round. I will give you a
moment to think about what can you do other way round opposite of, of course you can come
out with your own ideas but I am just trying to help you over here. We are using what we just
learnt a few minutes ago is how do I help my student retain and how do I help my teacher teach
at a fast rate or teach so that she covers her syllabus?
So this is the conflict of interest we had and I am asking you to apply the other way round idea
to see how you can solve this? A moment here you can pause the video if you want. Any ideas?
Ok! Yeah! So the most common idea that normally I hear from my students is let’s make the
student a teacher and the teacher reverses the role. So she cuts up the portion of the syllabus
and gives it to the students this is a common practice in some subjects some brave teachers do
this and says you guys prepare and tell me what you have learnt and you will have to present
and teach the other people in the class.
So this way there is a role reversal and actually the students end up retaining a lot lot more then
what the teacher could have possibly imagined and you can be selective saying this guy can do
this job and that guy can do that job, so you can actually do that. So this is the reversal idea. Of
course there are several other ideas that can keep coming up. Like for example, the preparative
at least or prior action you can actually ask them to prepare in advance and come here to clear
their doubts in hand or you could do a video recording and make them play it at home like you
see in popular platforms like, even like this you can actually slow down go reverse and see
what I have spoken few minutes ago, this is also an example of reversal.
I come to your home through a medium rather than you coming to my class and listening to me
at whatever pace I have to teach. So this is the reversal as well. So several ways to solve this
problem. This is just to trigger to get you thinking about how to apply these methods that I
talked about.
The same way you can do the analysis of this aircraft landing a lot of smoke so the conflict
really is between the tyre and the runway and there is lot of puff of smoke that you can see and
that is because there is a tyre ware at the moment the tyre actually hits the surface and you can
actually solve this by applying a reverse once you have figured out what the problem is. The
problem is that it is too fast at that particular time. That is the conflict. You want the wheels to
be slow so that it does not wear the tyres and it has to be fast so that can land you know there
is a case of aerodynamics stalls if it goes too slow these conventional aircrafts including this
spaceshuttle.
So you need to be fast so that it can land. You need to be slow, so that there is tyre ware and
the way to reverse you can reverse it. Some of my students think of ideas like oh well I will
make a conveyer belt that is at the same speed as the aircraft. I will dump a lot of tyres spent
tyres already at the place where the runways or rubberize the place where the runway is. One
often time I have read this solution that I have seen for this is the other way round solution is
to rotate the tyre at the same speed as the aircraft so the relative speed between the ground and
the wheels are zero, so is as if it’s landing stationary. So it does not actually start from 0 to 200
kilometre or whatever speed it is going at, at that moment but it is already at a rotating speed
so the tyre ware is minimal. So this is one solution from the other way round principle.
The third problem that we looked at last time again you can do the analysis similar to that is
the chocolates are melting when you take it to a hot place and that was the main problem. So,
you need the chocolates to be in solid shape with the customer with somebody is opening it
and you want it to be transported in hot places. So the conflict is between the environment and
the chocolate.
So the other way round solution can be applied here and can I instead of heating the
environment which is what the air-conditioning will do, can you think of lower cost ways to
do it? Well we will cool the chocolate before it’s shipped to ultra-low temperatures and then
ship it with vacuum around it that you can probably pull out the air and send it across so set a
cooler environment all through its shipping and at the end you get is the cool chocolates. So,
you have done the other way round not allowing it to heat up but to cool it so this is a prior
action sorry previously you do this and so you solve the problem.
There are many ways to solve this of course we have not submitted these ideas to Hershey’s if
you want to. Probably Hershey’s is already figured out how to do this. So again like I said last
time this was an open innovation problem that we found.
So you can take up more problems that you see all around you, apply the multi why, apply
conflict of interest and take one of these principles and see if how it works just to get practice
on that before you can embark on serious problems. So that’s it for now this module of solve.
So, I would like you to go out in the world and try these methods with the examples that we
have suggested in this part of this course so that you can actually get more practice. This is
about just like driving, swimming or new skills that you have learnt. This is about trying at
many many times and then you get a become you attain mastery with these methods. Ok! So,
happy luck you know good luck trying these methods, bye bye.
Design Thinking
A Primer
The Start Part 2
Prof Bala: What am I going to do now? Ashwin has given me 8 weeks to record this course
and what is it about, something about shoes, somebody shoes, shoes, woman, man, child,
different sizes, that mirror that you use in a shoe shop, I need ideas. I do not have any ideas,
wait a second, I have an idea I call my friend, my student Curio, let us see he is always
brimming with ideas, let me call him first, come on Curio, Curio pickup pickup pickup, ha,
hey, yes Curio, hey how are you man? How everything at with your internship at inter-reputed
ink is, how is it? All well! Good good good.
Hey, I need a favour, dude, there is this course called design thinking, you know of that! What?
Really! You are doing a project! Hey, I need videos for that course, can you help me with that.
Okay, when to start with your story on what the project is about, oh excellent wait wait wait a
minute, wait a minute, FLASHBACK.
Design Thinking
Prof. Dr. Bala Ramadurai and the Knoin Electronics team
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune
Indian Institute of Madras
Solve Workshop
Professor: Hello and welcome back to the next stage of design thinking. This is the demo version
of the solve stage. Solve is a very interesting stage because this is where you unleash your
creativity. This is sometimes called the divergent part of thinking. Divergent is when you open up
and dedicate your energies into generating a lot of solutions for the problem that you’ve been
analyzing so far. So there are two phases in design thinking. One is the convergent phase where
we go deeper into a problem and see what it is that your user needs and in the next phase we do
the divergent thinking where we generate a lot of ideas to see what fits the bill.
So, always bear in mind that whenever you generate a solution, you don’t have to judge on it but
always check back whether it solves the problem for them, whether it be through interactions with
your audience or asking your colleagues to check whether it actually makes sense for the particular
problem, has it solved the conflict, is it addressing both sides of the conflict. So that is very
important for this stage. So solve it is, so as always we have our team here, we are going to do the
brainstorming live for you and we have our sticky notes as always.
There are two sticky notes that you can see, those have the conditions of the problem that we are
going to solve today. I let the rest of the show being handled by my team here. Okay, over to you
guys then.
Siddharth Maturi: Thank you sir. So in our last video, we’ve come up with a desired result for the
conflict or the problem we were talking about, that is the number of notes shared. So the two
desired results are the parameters we are looking at is less time to prepare and better understanding
of the topic. So how can we apply this solve to come up with solutions to bring out this desired
result out as what we are going to discuss now.
So firstly we would like to start with the less time to prepare part where all the students required
or students who would be willing to ask the notes from his peers, should require less time to prepare
basically. So how can it be done?
Nithin Kurian: Obviously if there is less time involved in preparation, then it means that the
number of notes that need to be shared should be less. So who would be the right person from
which you can get your notes? I think we should think in those directions. Instead of you getting
notes from all of your peers, you should rather focus on getting a note from one or a couple of
people which would give you desired result, right. So, one would be teacher.
Siddharth Maturi: Perfect, so that would be the most genuine source of all that information. So
teacher sharing the notes with the peers would usually take less time in case everyone is taking the
notes while teacher is teaching in class. And it happening in simultaneously. So if teacher, so we
will take that down sir.
Professor: Yeah. So one idea per note you can probably write it down and just place it there the
way you wanted.
Siddharth Maturi: So teacher sharing notes, so this would be teacher sharing his or her notes
directly with the students. Now, what kind of a medium or how do teachers usually share these
notes with students?
Nithin Kurian: So the common practice would be that she would have her notes prepared, give the
notes to one particular student in the class, probably the prefect of the class. And then he would
have to take Photostat, photocopy of the notes and share it with all the students. And I think that
would be a pretty cumbersome process.
Siddharth Maturi: Right, definitely.
Nithin Kurian: So how can we, what about using technology to solve this kind of or provide a
solution to this problem?
Siddharth Maturi: So then if we are talking of incorporating technology into the solution, we should
also understand how tech-savvy or what kind of a infrastructure that we possess to incorporate
such a kind of solution.
Nithin Kurian: So then we would have to classify schools into two categories, one where the
infrastructure allows some kind of technology for sharing of notes.
Siddharth Maturi: School with infrastructure and school without the said infrastructure. Now if a
school has, let’s consider a situation where school has infrastructure being shared through
technology, use technology to do something like this. So probably we can use a online repository
where our learning management system or content management system is incorporated into it.
Teacher can upload her notes or preparatory…
Nithin Kurian: Material.
Siddharth Maturi: Material into the repository where students can directly access that repository
on their own instead of bringing the class representative in between which is less of a hassle for
each and every student where they can get their information. So having a repository where students
and teachers can...
Nithin Kurian: Teachers both have access to this repository.
Siddharth Maturi: So having a common repository for students and teachers for schools with
infrastructure.
Nithin Kurian: Infrastructure, right.

Siddharth Maturi: Then for the school without the infrastructure. So this would be a situation where
you have already mentioned.
Nithin Kurian: Right, where students will have to have physically medium of sharing.
Siddharth Maturi: So then it is like from teacher to a representative, class CR to the rest of the
class.
Professor: And CR is class representative. Okay.
Siddharth Maturi: So this is in terms of consuming less time to prepare. So these are some viable
solutions we can think of right now. So another one, another part of the desired result is better
understanding of the topic. So imagine students have, are sharing their notes within themselves
and also teacher. So what could be a ideal situation for them to have this better understanding of
the topic?
Nithin Kurian: Better understanding of the topic. So better understanding should come when they
are learning, whatever they are learning in class is synchronized with whatever notes they are being
shared from the teachers.
Siddharth Maturi: So as learning says it is a repetitive. More you practice, more you get the…
Nithin Kurian: Better understanding. Right.
Siddharth Maturi: So I think yeah, what’s happening in the class and the notes they have shared
from their classmates should basically…
Nithin Kurian: Match, yes.
Siddharth Maturi: So I think that should be the first step. As in all the students or students who are
willing to share their notes should have the same understanding of the topic.
Nithin Kurian: Similar understanding of the topic at least, otherwise it will create more confusion
rather than better understanding.
Siddharth Maturi: Similar understanding of the topic amongst the peers.

Nithin Kurian: So how can this be validated or how can the similar understanding of topic come
to pool and create a common note where student can just refer that and his understanding of the
topic is in sync with what he has learnt and almost complete.
Siddharth Maturi: Right. Again going back to this if best option to any student is to go, take the
notes from the teacher.
Nithin Kurian: Teacher, right.
Siddharth Maturi: …so that it is direct that what she is teaching is already there in our preparatory
material.
Nithin Kurian: Right. So what if we are able to incorporate the teacher’s notes and then
understanding that is coming from the students from her class basically and compile that all into
the that common repository wherein a finalized editable version of the note is present for each and
every student to learn.
Professor: What I would like to add as part of my own experience is that these books where
students or somebody has annotated it, like say sometimes we call it their own used textbooks.
People actually highlight it and write their own notes. I find it to be much more useful than just
the raw textbook alone. So that is what you probably hinting at in a physical form that should be.
In repository it would be easier I guess, the annotation can be captured and all that.
Siddharth Maturi: And can we mention that so and so paragraph, so and so line?
Professor: Right. Yeah. That is a great idea.
Siddharth Maturi: Yes, annotations between in the books?
Professor: Yeah. So he also talked about editable, being editable, yeah.
Nithin Kurian: So basically you will have an initial content that is being uploaded into this
repository which can be edited by all the students participating in the class. So this gets keeps on
getting iterated until it becomes a refined note, refined content. And it will always be in line with
what the teacher has taught in class because the students who have attended her class are basically
the people who go on and edit at this content.
Shyam Paul M: Yeah, so do not you think there will be a problem if every student can access the
repository because like they can make changes and?
Nithin Kurian: Yes. So again there should be some kind of administrator that should be in place
who should have super access, who should…
Shyam Paul M: Find.
Nithin Kurian: …periodically go through the content and make sure that unnecessary or such
content are not available.
Siddharth Maturi: So administrator should have a content review team who keeps on verifying.
Shyam Paul M: Verifying for everything.
Siddharth Maturi: Right.
Professor: Also I think it also addresses the fact that sometimes when school teachers or teachers
in general write their notes, they write it from their own perspective, their own understanding. And
they do not understand the what they call the curse of knowledge, I have read somewhere, is that
they do not know what it is to be a learner at the first level. So they can probably get down to some
level but they probably are not really getting there. So actually students pitching in and making it
richer, actually helps the other students also sort of get up to speed with the teacher’s notes. So I
like the direction in which you are going.
Siddharth Maturi: Perfect Sir. Perfect. So admin to a content review team where they will review
all the content, like Sir said, where the students are coming, editing the content, where they will
review all the content like Sir says, that where the students are coming, editing the content. Then
finally it comes to one refined content which is what teacher has taught in the class. So this is again
linked directly to the repository we are using.
Nithin Kurian: So I think we should probably come back and see if our parameters are being met.
Professor: Yes. So keep checking back whether it all makes sense with the desired result, is it
reducing the time to prepare as well as is it yielding a better understanding of the topic. And also
if I remember the variable that you had in your conflict of interest towards that, it should move
towards low number of notes being shared because that sort of reduces the time that person devotes
in reading through so many notes. I think it is going in that direction, so usually that is the things
that you have to keep in mind.
Siddharth Maturi: Right.
Professor: Fine.
Siddharth Maturi: So we are also in ideal situation where it would be one content that teacher has
uploaded, all the students would go through that content whoever who wants to add, edit, do the
modification, do that and come back. So that is the same content that is being modified again and
again.
Nithin Kurian: Again and again. So you have just one single content wherein the student does not
have to go to n number of places or go through n number of content. He has just one content that
he needs to go through and I think his understanding will also improve because the base is the
teacher's content and students are building upon that content.
Siddharth Maturi: Adding their point of view.
Nithin Kurian: Point of view to that content.Yeah.
Siddharth Maturi: Can we come up with the solution statement?
Professor: Yeah, sure. Why not? Just sum it up and see if you are leading to some such solution or
something.
Siddharth Maturi: So, in this case we can consider a situation where school has an infrastructure
for sharing this content through an Intranet, then where teach can upload her preparatory notes into
that, into an Internet repository and students after class can go home access that repository, add,
edit, prepare or draw our content, download content from that repository. I think we are all in the
same circle.
Professor: Yes.
Nithin Kurian: And to add on, you will have a administrative team.
Professor: Yeah, of course.
Nithin Kurian: That will be constantly monitoring this repository.
Professor: It sounds to me like I do not put the word in your heads but it sounds to me like this is
a wiki.
Nithin Kurian: It would be like a Wiki for notes.
Professor: Wiki for notes.
Nithin Kurian: Wiki for learning.
Professor: So Wiki for that particular subject, for that notes. It could be made linkable and also
good things can happen. And it needs an admin for sure, review team which makes sure that,
people are not deleting content or leaving it in there, putting in content that does not belong there.
Yeah, good. This is going somewhere. So any other ideas that you can think of. This is one concept
looks like or you can even…so there are two ways you can go. Sorry, you have something to…
Professor: There are two ways you can go about. One is to build on the same idea and see if you
can think of your own experience. Another way is to already envision what could be some
problems downstream that you will face, that you can probably address and see if it all fits it. Like
I like what he said, that I do not want people to keep writing some kind of content and does not
belong here. So we have that, so can you think of that to make this solution richer? Any which
way, I leave it open to you guys.
Siddharth Maturi: So one would be incorporating a learning management system inside the school
where the infrastructure enables this kind of a system to happen. Then we already have few existing
products like a Google Classroom or a Wiki which can do this kind of, which have similar kind of
functionality as well.
Professor: Yeah, that is good. So we are getting to known package as we can go up there.
Siddharth Maturi: So as we see a problem in this whole process would be that school having that
basic infrastructure to incorporate something like this. So that is the…
Nithin Kurian: That is a bottleneck here.
Siddharth Maturi: Yeah, bottleneck here.
Nithin Kurian: Probably we might have to think of a solution where the infrastructure, the
necessary infrastructure is not there as well.
Siddharth Maturi: Yes.
Professor: Sure. Go ahead. So we are going to start on that topic. So this guy is the one, similar
and no, I am sorry, school without the infrastructure, so that is one condition that you can talk
about. So in case somebody pulls the plug on the Internet, also there is things that you can still do
offline.
Nithin Kurian: I think essentially we would have to build a similar kind of repository but it should
be offline.
Siddharth Maturi: Offline, yeah. And probably if the school does not have infrastructure, the
students and teacher should have a common ground or a common repository like a system outside
school at least where they can like what WhatsApp is partially trying to do in terms of sharing
notes nowadays. Like they collect pictures and put it up in their WhatsApp group. So like a similar
kind of WhatsApp group if teachers and students can come up with a common system outside the
school, just in case if school does not have infrastructure which is required, so then also it leads us
to a similar kind of a solution where teacher can put up her content and students can go online,
access.
Nithin Kurian: I think there are some already existing applications, be it on the Android platform
or on the Internet where students and teachers can come in and like you mentioned Google and so
on, where students can use that existing infrastructure and then put it in the content. So now it is
no longer dependent on the school infrastructure, it is only dependent on whether students have
the required infrastructure at home to access this particular application. So if a laptop or such
devices are not available, at least a smartphone should be available with the student so that these
kind of applications can be made use of.
Professor: Okay, good one. What I am hearing is that schools do not have the infrastructure, but
students do have some kind of infrastructure and we will use that.
Nithin Kurian: Really.
Professor: Perfect. Okay. So that is the basic assumption here.
Nithin Kurian: yes.
Professor: Okay. So students (smart), okay I will let you write it.
Siddharth Maturi: In a situation it is not necessary that students should have a smartphone, like my
brother is in his 11th standard right now. He uses my mom’s phone where they have a common
place where teachers come, put up their notes, they share notes with their classmates. So this is
already a process which is happening today. In case school does not have a repository or
infrastructure like what we would ideally require.
Nithin Kurian: I think even during our customer journey mapping we’ve got several insights
regarding sharing, and one of the key platforms students were using across the board was
WhatsApp. So that is a very rudimentary way. Now we are taking WhatsApp one step further and
incorporating a repository like this into some that kind of an application so that sharing can happen
through that application and you have a proper repository existing in that kind of an application.
Professor: Okay. So is it possible to actually make this specifically for note taking? That is what
you are saying. So that is where you are going with this that this app will be specifically, I am
saying the word app but for a lack of better terms, is it will primarily be for note taking and sharing.
So it will keep going into that repository. So it will solve sort…
Nithin Kurian: And all the features of the existing repository would be part of this application as
well. Students can keep uploading their notes, the common repository can be edited from
individual note content, there will be an administrative team who will be adding members, who
can take out members, who can keep a track on the content.
Professor: Okay. And I did not see that as a note but the LMS, Learning Management System also
coming into play. So we are not just talking one course but actually bouquet of courses. So total
package of courses. So all the teachers can also sort of plug into the ecosystem. Maybe there is
two courses per teacher, so that could also be part of your system. Interesting, okay. What else?
So any problems downstream with this that you have not covered, by installing are you introducing
more problems for the school? What are those? If you can catch them here, we can even address
them right here.
Siddharth Maturi: One thing would be if we are talking of a situation where schools do not have
the infrastructure that is the basic problem where they are asking their students to probably partially
encouraging the students to do something like this outside their school which schools should be
doing right now. So I think
Nithin Kurian: that would be one problem. Then what about motivation from individual students
towards adding this content? So my understanding is that students are already packed, students are
already pretty much engaged with what they already have to learn. So this is an additional activity
that they have to do and does not have any kind of reward that is coming to the student for doing
this activity. Imagine I am the best student in class in terms of taking notes and learning. So what
motivation do I have as a student to go in and upload my particular content and ensure that my
peers are learning, especially in this competitive environment that is one thing we have to look at.
Professor: And motivation for the share up.
Nithin Kurian: Yes. Sharing of the content.
Professor: So that is one problem downstream. Another thing that you are saying is offline, I mean
off the school hours, school is supposed to be to have all this when they are in school but now we
are encouraging them to do it off the school hours. Is that debatable? Whether it is for the right
thing to do or not?
Siddharth Maturi: So it is also demanding students not to engage in other co-curricular activities,
spend time outside school time to do what school is supposed to be doing.
Professor: Right.
Nithin Kurian: Supposed to be doing, exactly. So yeah, it somehow ties in with the problem that I
mentioned in terms of allotting separate time to do this particular activity and the motivation
associated with it.
Professor: But in this again since we are talking about problems, in this I am not seeing how these
pictures of my notes will actually act, I mean as another is it that your original problem that if I
add too many versions of the notes, it is actually leading to Oh God, my time of preparation that I
have to look through all these notes before I can figure out what is going on in the class. So is it
aren’t you compounding the problem then?
Nithin Kurian: No, repository should have only that one content. The repository irrespective of its,
whether it is that kind of repository or on the app, it should, it will only be editing on that one basic
content.
Professor: So you are making sure of that.
Nithin Kurian: Yeah.
Siddharth Maturi: In this situation we have an administrator who would be running, managing a
content review team. In this situation we can have a class representative who is taking the lead and
making sure…
Nithin Kurian: Basically an administrator again who would be ensuring that there is that one
content and students are contributing to that one content. And that one content makes sense for all
of the students to learn.
Professor: Okay, interesting question would be, how will they do that?
Nithin Kurian: So that is where I will come to that point of the individuals contributing and also
for one dedicated or a dedicated team.
Professor: No, my question is more technical in nature. Like I take a picture, how may I edit that?
So you want that to be the only content and but you want also students to sort of, let be editor, is
not that what your original idea was?
Siddharth Maturi: The upload need not necessarily be in terms of a image for outside. So it can be
a word document or a PDF or, so it could be any kind of a media file.
Professor: They are not doing it on school infrastructure but they are using their own infrastructure
to do this and it is probably on cloud space.
Nithin Kurian: Yeah.
Siddharth Maturi: On a shared space, yeah.
Professor: So one thing is also I am noticing that they both are tech related ideas.
Nithin Kurian: Yes.
Siddharth Maturi: Exactly.
Professor: So that is one thing for sure, that is the common thing. So students have to be well
versed with tech or the teacher or both, so that would be a basic requirement for you guys.
Siddharth Maturi: Yes, right.
Professor: Okay. So does that mean that the teacher is not going to share their note with, or whose
the picture of the document that is contributed is from the student, from A student, the star student?
Siddharth Maturi: It can be both ways sir. If teacher is also interested in this kind of a system so
that it helps her students, then teacher can also pitch in with her content which would be the base
content again. If teacher is not interested in something like this, then we will have to come up with
the class CR or the best student in the class or students can come up with a choice who has the best
content of the all. And they can, remaining students can keep adding on to that.
Nithin Kurian: Basically it would be the administration team for both irrespective of how it is, who
would decide that base content, that core content. So if the teacher, like he mentioned, if the teacher
has the note, then that would become the base content, that would be uploaded and students would
have the ability to edit that content. If that is not available, then it would be based on the decision
that team is taking as to whose content would be the best to be the base content and then the similar
activity will happen on that.
Professor: This is also another one, right, so they have textbooks already in lots of places, books,
not textbook, it is books which are prescribed as textbooks for the course. So is that not a good
starting point for whatever you are talking about? It just randomly occurred to me that, that is
something that they always carry around and all that.
Nithin Kurian: Right. So are you saying we add that also into.
Professor: I am asking you, this is your idea, you have to do it. My job is to ask the right questions.
Siddharth Maturi: I think if the infrastructure in both the cases allows students to have the textbook
also in this repository, be it a school repository or their own private one, then I think it is more
easy for the students as well to refer their textbook and the shared content at the same place.
Professor: That will be interesting.
Siddharth Maturi: That would be one. Another thing I was thinking about the editing part Sir is
not every student would want to write their personalized note on what they are reading like you
said about annotations in the book. I go through a paragraph and I would want to make my point
of view on top of that page. But every student need not necessarily be thinking the same thing
about that paragraph.
So I think if a repository has a system where textbook and notebook can be put in at the same
place, and on the textbook I write my thing and notebook is where the base note is shared and
people keep editing or keep adding value to that base note which is shared commonly to everyone,
is the situation where the sharing is happening. In the other cases, where textbook is there I write
my own understanding of that topic in my textbook in the same system.
Nithin Kurian: So the textbook will be personalized.
Professor: Right, that is what I was thinking.

Nithin Kurian: They both would be general.
Professor: So there is a generic equation where this is the best available content.
Nithin Kurian: Content for that.
Professor: And then you can personalize on top of it and not, if you, you can probably have one
option of not sharing it also.
Nithin Kurian: Yeah, absolutely.
Professor: That is the user, the student per se. Very interesting direction this is going. So any other
problems, yeah, so that is around that path. Can you envision anything else that may, this may lead
to which you think is a problem?
Siddharth Maturi: This again sir, students maintaining their infrastructure is not in line with less
time to prepare again because they will have to spend time outside the school time again.
Professor: Right, that is a good point, very good point.
Siddharth Maturi: So I think time factor is a question here again.
Professor: So if it is provided to them, it is far better than, so they have to contribute to this and
make it richer and better.
Nithin Kurian: I feel the contribution per se might not take a lot of time but the editing, the actual
editing of the base content to get that final note, that would be the one that would take maximum
amount of time and effort. So if you ask me as a student to upload all my notes into a repository,
then that might not take a lot of time. But to sit and see what content should go into that the final
note, that could take some time.
Siddharth Maturi: That’s what again depends on this administrator. If the school provides the
administrator, it is less time consuming for the students. If the student is a administrator in the
system like if they are maintaining their own infra, the student or the teacher who is part of that
private system should be an administrator, so which is demanding them to have, invest more time
into this process. So I think that part is editing, doing the editing part, review part.
Nithin Kurian: Review part and all that would take lot of time, yes.
Professor: Okay, fine. So, great. So, it looks to me like you want a repository, could be on a system
that the school has or it is an adhoc system that the students get together and contribute towards a
build or read it could be but this is the starting point. So at this point I would like you to write
down what are features that are coming out of this. How would you qualify? How would you
describe this repository saying these are the things that we absolutely want, these are the things
that we should, we can have sort of a feature?
Say, suppose you are looking for a repository, what all features should it absolutely have? If you
can write that down, sum it up from what that, so that way it is easier for you to look or build. If it
is not there, you can build. If it is there, you can look for something in that. So that would be our
next step to end this whole process.
Siddharth Maturi: So one would be, Basic cloud infra.
Nithin Kurian: Basic cloud infra, yeah.

Siddharth Maturi: One would be the basic cloud.
Nithin Kurian: Cloud or some kind of server infrastructure.
Siddharth Maturi: Server, yeah, where upload and download is.
Shyam Paul M: So they can upload pictures, PDFs, PPTs everything.
Siddharth Maturi: And in terms of upload, it should have a functionality where it can accept
textbooks in terms of PDFs and notebooks in terms of a proper note taking application.
Nithin Kurian: Right. So it could be in doc format or it could even be in image format.
Siddharth Maturi: Right, option to access textbooks in doc or PDF, image. Then note taking
application.
Nithin Kurian: Within this repository.
Siddharth Maturi: Within this repository where that can take their personalized notes on top of this
or access the base content and start writing. So basic note taking.
Nithin Kurian: Application.

Siddharth Maturi: Feature, yeah, note taking feature, so this in terms of upload. So someone can
upload their documents or their notes onto it. And download would be with respect to the
requirement of a student, what kind of a document or a image or a note they want to download.
Nithin Kurian: So the feature would be download basically. Next would be editing.
Siddharth Maturi: Share basically, to upload the.
Nithin Kurian: But uploading and downloading would essentially take care of sharing, right.
Shyam Paul M: Students can share with other students like specific student. If I want to share notes
with you, so to not all, I just want to share with you.
Nithin Kurian: But then again we would be deviating from our original.
Shyam Paul M: No, I am saying like Google drive. So I have a content and I want to share, so I
will just add your...
Siddharth Maturi: So the situation we want to deal here is that low number of notes shared.
Nithin Kurian: Essentially we do not want to.
Siddharth Maturi: We do not want to share.
Nithin Kurian: Yeah, we do not want to encourage individual sharing but we want all the sharing
to happen so that it can contribute to that one master note.
Siddharth Maturi: So edit would be then save as anyway the saving of that edited content. I think
these are the basic requirements for this repository.
Professor: And did you have the admin?
Nithin Kurian: I think we should also, because of the way the admin would be handling this
content, we should always have like parallel content being saved all the time because if I have to
go to some point in the past and see what the structure of the note was at that point of time, so that
I can come and edit or remove whatever it was, then the past content should always be available
with the admin to ensure that the content is.
Shyam Paul: Content is missed.
Nithin Kurian: Missed, yeah.
Siddharth Maturi: So the entire log has to be present in the repository.
Nithin Kurian: Yeah. So the log could either be in terms of a certain period of time after which
previous content is removed or we should find or figure out some way of how the log should be
maintained for the system. So log feature would be essentially the feature that we are talking about.
Professor: You mean like a versioning, some of their versions maintained.
Nithin Kurian: Yeah, basically a version. Yes, then admin general admin features of adding users
to the group, removing users from the group.
Siddharth Maturi: This would be add user and remove user and the content review team is also
under the admin.
Professor: We still have not addressed the motivation of the sharer. So how do we keep the
motivation up there?
Nithin Kurian: One thing I was thinking is some kind of rewarding should take place because
essentially this is an activity that is conducted within the classroom itself. If we can provide some
kind of a reward system to the best content that is again, since there is an administrative team who
is looking at, who is bringing in the content and they are the ones who are editing and building that
final content. You can easily understand who is bringing in the best content who is providing
maximum contribution to this. We can probably provide a reward system.
I have seen a badge system, a badge given to the top contributor, people who answer questions. In
forums they have this badge, also in learning management system also I have seen badges being
rewarded. You can have colored badges for this and for that, so that is possible.
Siddharth Maturi: Yeah. Thess can also linked to some sort of assessment within the school.
Professor: Sure, yeah.

Nithin Kurian: Or continuous evaluation system, you can bring this into the continuous evaluation
system, so the best contributor are based on what how much you are contributing to this because
you are essentially ensuring that everyone in class is learning out of this content. So the best
contributor can get positive in terms of assessment also.
Professor: What else? I think all the basic features are covered here. So if you are to look for such
a repository, you know what to take and see, compare whether they have all that.
Siddharth Maturi: Base features.
Professor: From the admin perspective, and the badges, motivation we covered. I am just trying to
see if you have anything uncovered. Books upload was done over there, upload is there, they will
be able to annotate as well. Yes, that is also there I guess. Yes, edit and saving.
Siddharth Maturi: Note taking feature too, like their personalized notes.
Professor: Right. So all this should work irrespective whether the school has the infrastructure or
not, so this covers both of them. So if you are going to build a system or by a system, I mean…
Nithin Kurian: User and exit system.
Professor: User and exit system, this is what we need. I think that is pretty much it. So again going
back, do you see that this is reducing their time for preparation? Is it leading to better understanding
the topic? So that is one last cover and we are done with this exercise.
Nithin Kurian: I think the better understanding part is pretty much covered if there is a master copy
of all the notes that is being prepared. In terms of time to prepare as long as it is an administrative
team that the teacher is assigning or the school as such is assigning to take care of this activity,
and they are fine with it, or probably it ties back to their evaluation or assessment and how they
are graded and.
Professor: I would write that down. That is important. So you are linking it back to the evaluation.
I got it. So this is there, this is what you are saying.
Nithin Kurian: Yeah. So that is, this activity is positively affecting them in terms of the marks that
they are scoring. So the motivation is being covered. And because it is only a couple of students
or people who are looking into this activity, the time, the overall time taken by students to prepare
is definitely there.
Professor: I have seen some platforms with self-evaluation tests and all that. So would that be,
would that, I mean we do not have to throw a feature in there because it is there but is it addressing
your basic conflict? Will be my question. Will that evaluation tests, self-evaluation that you can
have online?
Siddharth Maturi: Right. Again problem here would be sir, it might be accepted by the teacher or
might not be accepted by the teacher. Teacher would want to evaluate her or his students.
Professor: Yeah, in addition to that I am saying, you already have that here. Continuous evaluation
is there, grading system is already there. So the official external
Nithin Kurian: The self-evaluation would be in terms of having a list of questions that the student
need to answer.
Professor: Possibly, yeah.
Nithin Kurian: So who would be, the administration team itself would be uploading that or creating
that content.
Professor: Yeah, like this course for example, for our students here they have a sort of mechanism
that they are making sure that yes, I have learnt this topic well. So that could be one way or in
between the video it is paused, there is a quick test that they score, it is totally, I mean nobody is
grading them, nobody is figuring out to keeping track of how much score they have. There are
some things like that. But I agree with you that it may lead to increase in preparation time. That is
one thing for sure. But it may lead to better understanding of the topic for sure because they are
doing it at your own pace, and doing that. I mean I leave it to you guys. If you think it is helping
you, you can add it, otherwise leave that.
Nithin Kurian: I think we can add that personal evaluation. Probably we can have this also tried to
the way this entire system is working sir.
Professor: Very nice.
Nithin Kurian: In terms of you read a certain topic and I come up with a question from that topic
and Sam comes up with another question from that same topic, so the more kind of questions that
you are seeing, the better your understanding of the topic, obviously keeping in mind the fact that
the time would be a constraint. So probably again the administrative team will come into place and
select the best set of questions that are tied to that particular master note. So you go through the
note and you go through these best set of questions that are prepared by students and I think the
learning would be pretty much complete there.
Siddharth Maturi: This would also become like a second textbook for that topic.
Nithin Kurian: Particular content.
Siddharth Maturi: Like a textbook has a chapter, then questions with respect to that chapter.
Similarly a base content and students come up with their questions or doubts or whatsoever. It also
becomes like a second version of the textbook.
Nithin Kurian: And that is much more in alignment with the learning that has happened out of the
textbook content.
Professor: And probably at a later stage, the teacher can go and check it out saying this is what I
wanted to teach but what have students taken from this. So this could be a comparison, okay so
this.
Nithin Kurian: It is a form evaluation for the teacher also, self-evaluation for the teacher, like you
perfectly said.
Professor: For the teacher you are looking at the content and saying what I wanted to convey is
this and what they got is this. Is there a mismatch or is that the same? Very nice, I liked the direction
that this is going. Okay, next step after this, so we are done. So first step, let me revise what you
guys did. So we started with the basic results that we wanted, desired results that we wanted and
then the team started brainstorming on what all possible ideas there could be. A little detail that
came in between was that what about schools with infrastructure and without infrastructure.
So they thought of this classification and then started clustering their ideas around these two topics,
sub-topics so to speak. And eventually all this boiled down to a repository, master idea and of
which the lot of branching going on. Then at the end the last step was to paraphrase in terms of
requirements or features if you will saying that these are absolutely what we are looking for in a
system whether it be a repository. But my basic, we kept checking back whether my basic desired
results is being met or not and now we have a tons of features there at the bottom of the table where
we have some features that are basic to the system, some which are on the periphery, like the
grading system is in the periphery, continuous evaluation system is in the periphery.
But it sort of ties back in to the whole system and then again it flows back into whether the desired
results are met or not. So this is how sort of a broad structure of how solve works. They did it with
some of my questions I asked in between, so that helped them structure their thinking as well. So
if you have some facilitator, a teacher guiding the process, it really helps the brainstorming session
to go towards the goal, is our recommendation from the system.
So hopefully this was useful for your own solve stage. I urge you to work on a real problem that
you are working on and apply this as the team here did, so good luck with trying out solve stage.
We will see you in the next stage which is test or prototyping, putting all this in action, in real-life
action, seeing it for yourself in front of your eyes and then of course the last sub-step would be to
take it to the customers and see how they react to this which is their eventual goal. Okay, thank
you. See you in the next module then.
Elephant and Blind Men
Time for another story. This time it’s a story of 5 blind men and the elephant. So these blind
men, this is from an old Indian folklore so to speak, 5 men blind men were moved on to an
elephant. They went close to an elephant like the one you see behind me and they touched
different parts of the elephant and tried to figure out what it was. One of them went and touched
the trunk and said, Woah! This looks like a fat thick snake.
The other one went on to the foot and said, Oh! This looks like a pillar. The other one went
behind the elephant and pulled on the tail said, Wow! This looks like a rope. The last one went
on top of the elephant and said, and touched its ears and said, Wow! This looks like a fan. They
all came together later and started quarrelling amongst each other saying no this is a fan, this
is a rope, this is a pillar, this is a snake, none of them really agreed upon this. What then came
along a wise man put them altogether and said, Look! I know you guys have been touching
different parts of this elephant but it’s actually an elephant, it’s an big animal called an elephant.
So lots of times we look at smaller portions, smaller solutions, smaller ideas and we think this
is what will solve it, whereas something put together unity actually would do the trick. So that’s
why we need to sort of put all these ideas together and get a concept out of it and that’s why
this story. Thank you.
Test
Part - 02
Hello and welcome back to this phase of design thinking. This is called the test phase. But
before we begin on the test phase, I would like to recap what we have covered so far. So as we
saw in the very first stages have been for a long time now we have been seeing that design
thinking in this course has four stages.
The first stage is people. Human centered design is an alternate name for design thinking.
People have a lot of places where you can help them out, you can find out what is going on
with them, who are you want to try and help. So how do you really find out what people are
going through? This is a method called empathise. Empathise, you get into their shoes, you get
into what is really bothering them and how we can help them.
So first we find out. You can either do it through interviews, through observations, observations
are much better way. So once you get to know the people who are going through, whatever
they are going through, don’t take them as the ultimate word and that’s where you start but you
can apply as design thinkers, we need to apply our own mind on what is going on.
So analyze is the next phase to find out what is the problem? What exactly are people going
through? Can you actually figure out what is underneath, whatever experiences they are going
through? Ok! So we employed couple of methods one was the multi why approach. Asking
why multiple times to get to the bottom of it and a conflict of interest. Usually the problem
arises because of the conflict between your person of interest, your user, your customer and
something else, it could be another human being, set of human beings or a thing, an object.
So, this is now your new area of interest. So you are going to look at this and see how might
we actually solve this, which leads us to the third stage which is solution. You do this via
solving the conflict that you identified earlier stages. You come up with a lot of ideas which a
but again always checking back whether you are solving the problem that you started out to
solve. So, that is why we have done it prior to this. Ok! You come up with a lot of ideas, the
more diverse your team is the better the richness of your ideas, the solution, concepts and quick
tip is to write it all down, so its externalised so that other people can see and contribute to your
idea or concept.
So after we have done with solution now is the time to go and test it out. So that is, you develop
a concept in this phase, in this stage and that is what we are going to see now. Ok!
So this is the stage called Test. Ok! Let me start out with a story. What you see on the screen
is Captain Belcher. So he was a captain and later became an admiral with the Royal British
Navy. He was around for a quite a while. He was a hydrographe - the guy who is to map the
seas, so his job was primary job was that. So Captain Belcher was given a command of a ship
called Samarang, this is a Javanese city in Indonesia.
I will give you a minute to guess where the ship that you see on the screen was made. Ok! You
can pause the video if you want to google and find out where Samarang was made. Ok! Yes
some of you got it. The answer is Cochin, India. It was not the UK where Captain Belcher was
from or Canada where he was born or Indonesia where the ship was taken. Ok!
So, the reason I brought this story up was that this ship had a first to its name. It was the first
ever ship to have what is called Cathodic Protection. Now it is a complicated name for a simple
concept. All ships during this time had a copper sheet, sheet underneath the ship. Now if we
put copper in seawater it becomes corroded. What you see in iron when you leave iron out, it
develops a red powdery substance that is called rust. It’s the same phenomena called corrosion
that happens even in copper.
So copper in seawater becomes corroded. Ok! Now you might ask let us see if you have got
my course very well. First question you would ask is why did the copper was there in the first
place? I mean just remove that and you would’ve been fine. While the copper was in place for
a reason because the underneath the ship was exposed to marine creatures, marine life, so a lot
of creatures use to grow on the bottom of the hull.
So it was a pain for the captain, captain like Belcher and that was not so good for the ship so
they put up a copper sheet underneath so that it is protected from the ship worms as they were
called or weeds which grew underneath and affected the performance of the ship. So that is
why they had a copper sheet but problem was that it led to corrosion.
So at that time now introduce our hero the story, Sir Humphry Davy was experimenting how
to protect copper from corrosion. So he actually had a very interesting technique called cathodic
protection. It was not called that back then but that was the phenomena that he was
experimenting with. What all he did was he took a cheaper substance and copper, iron or zinc
and he connected it through wires I guess, to or just put place it on top of the copper and it took
care of this corrosion problem. It would not corrode but all the corrosion would happen with
iron, sounds like magic that something else takes the corrosion away and that gets corroded
once that and it is easier and cheaper to replace that material compared to copper which is more
expensive.
So he was ready and he demonstrated this effect. He wrote a bunch of scientific papers and
everybody was happy with this. Word got around to Royal Navy, British Navy and they said,
Sir Humphry Davy, I guess he was not Sir back then, Humphry Davy, doctor please help us
with this, a lots and lots of ships are going through this and we would like to get it fixed and
sounds like you have a solution. So he said, yes! I can certainly test this with some of your
ships. He took it to the icy waters of North Sea and applied this technique of using cast-iron
which is very cheap, much cheaper than the elemental form of iron and attached it to the hulls
of the ship, the copper sheet of the ships and it worked like a charm. It nothing corroded. It was
perfect system. It really worked very, very well.Ok!
So, Humphry Davy was very thorough with this experiments and in practice it worked very
well as well. Ok! So, Samarang coming back to this picture on your screen. Samarang was
chosen as the first vessel where he would apply this technique and put it in service. So, Captain
Belcher was in command and he started sailing in the warmer waters of Indonesia, tropical
waters of Indonesia. So, after a while he noticed that his ship got slower and much tougher to
handle inspite of the fact that his copper was protected very well. He just did not understand
what is going on.
So he said, I have to find out and he took it to the nearest shipyard I guess at the time and found
out that marine life was back in full flow. It was all around the ships hull and it was slowing
down the ship really badly, that he could just I mean it was a slow tug boat after that. It was
not a royal ship as it should be. So, he was perplexed and he took the problem back to the Royal
British Navy and they examined it and probably took it back to Sir Humphry Davy himself and
Humphry said, oops! I guess this is what is happening is that when you have copper say
unprotected by our friend the cast-iron it was giving of copper iron, copper ions are a water
form.
For simplicity sake let’s assume that these are copper particles which are let off into the
seawater. Ok! Now marine life does not like copper. It just used to avoid it. So, that is why
they never got copper at the bottom of the hull when they had just copper. Ok! And now with
the iron there, the copper ions were gone and they got the marine life back. So, now Royal
British Navy had a tough proposition in their hand. Do I want my ship to go very fast and never
mind the corrosion of copper or Do I go with Humphry Davy solution and have beautiful copper
but a slow ship. So does not this sound like a conflict of interest this is what I wanted to bring
up.
So I have done the hard work. I have put it in place. This is the conflict of interest for you as
you see it on the screen. The ships copper hull as the variable, do I use iron with copper, so this
is the conflict is going on in the Royal British Navy’s mind,? Do I use iron with copper or do I
not? If I use iron than what is happening is there is no copper corrosion. Yeah, for that but there
is marine life growth which affects my ships performance, it’s going slower. If I don’t use it
now I don’t have marine life under the ship but copper is corroding like crazy.
So they had to pick instead of solving this. If you were given this problem and you would have
said I want no copper corrosion and I do not want marine life on this ship. This is what you
would have said I am sure after my course. So this is what was missing for a 100 years. This
problem was unsolved for 100 years but somebody else also tried to solve this problem.
Mr. Edison from the general electric actually gave it a shot. Why? Because somebody said
while it has something to do with electricity and he brought his electric solution to this problem
and tried his best to solve this problem because there were lot of ships that needed this fix and
so Mr. Edison was interested in solving this problem which meant a lot of profit or his
company, if he did manage to solve this problem. But unfortunately neither could Sir Humphry
Davy solve this problem and neither could Mr. Edison.
So this remained unsolved for a 100 years till this whole copper thing vanished from the ship
industry and suddenly there were pipelines and those are all made of cast iron or iron rather
iron. So then steel rather, so the pipelines were made of steel, the underneath, the hull of the
ship was made of steel, so now the problem had shifted completely. We did not need copper
protection any more but marine life was still there and there were still ruining the ships hull.
So, what actually happened was various parts of solutions were derived from different types of
industries. So, one you saw Mr. Edison’s electricity was definitely needed but in a large ship
and in away from all its generators which were land-based we needed a solution and still we
needed Sir Humphry Davy’s solution of cathodic protection. That is using a sacrificial material
which would take on the brunt of all the corrosion and still protect the material from marine
life So we needed that desired result for these two.
So what really happened is the picture that you see right now. This is the modern solution to
that problem. So as I have saying a 100 years later this problem was solved with pipelines. It
was introduced in pipelines and probably branded as cathodic protection. So they introduced
all sorts of fancy gear and control the power supply much better because that industry had
matured and now they could apply this solution back on to a ship.
So, this is what you would probably find in a modern ship, a cathodic protection unit with anti-
fouling as it is called where a little bit of copper ions never did anything bad to the ship but
marine life it definitely got rid of or put permanent end to that. So you would not find marine
life under the hull of a modern ship and you would still find that the bottom hull is not corroding
because something else is corroding instead. So we are sacrificing that material to protect our
hull of the ship.
So the point of this story is to convey that testing, first of all if we go back to my story about
Sir Humphry Davy. He tested it probably in the icy waters of North Sea. To me in hindsight
looks like he should have gone to Borneo or some tropical place and tested his idea and on a
real ship. So all this is hindsight, hindsight is 20 20. I am not Humphry Davy and Humphry
Davy is not here anymore right. So we could have done that is why the ships were and that is
why the problem was pronounced and captain, poor captain Belcher had to report it back.
To end the story Royal British Navy decided that they are going to take away Sir Humphry
Davy’s solution and they continued for 100 years with copper being corroded and they would
replace the expensive copper every time it was too much. So they would do that. They rather
have the ship’s performance because in what times that will more critical than their maul of
copper. So that would go down, probably written down as expenditure for the ship.
So that is what happened with that. So we as design thinkers need to think about testing it in
real customer conditions where it really matters. That is where you need to be going and testing
your solutions. Not in a very safe setup in and which does not represent what your customer is,
so that is the whole point of this long story.
I would like to point you out to the quote that I have on the screen by Matt, Prof Matt Ridley.
He says human prosperity depends upon ideas having sex combining together. The internet by
connecting human minds all over the world, can only accelerate innovation. So we need ideas
from different disciplines from diversity inside your team and you combine all these ideas to
get a very rich idea and then take it to your actual customer place and test it out with real
customers who probably uses, who are probably going to use it and then you note down saying
okay this is not working, this is working.
So these are things that you need to be looking for when you go to your customer place or users
place where your user is okay.
So I want to have a short puzzle for you, you have to guess what this is? This is a kid’s puzzle
if you will but has been a tremendous hit in my class. So, I am bringing this to you who are
viewing this video. What is this? And you will have to guess it as I go along. So the first clue
that I am going to give you is, so let’s say a customer survey group went and found out that
hey it is white, so what are your ideas for? Okay now we know that something that we are
looking for in terms of a solution is white in color.
Well, yeah some of the ideas are, yes correct some of you guessed milk yeah, chalk, sure walls,
white walls yeah, clouds yeah that’s a good one, okay yeah so many of those. So this could be
infinite I mean there are so many things that are white still not enough right, so with one
customer insight you cannot go along, so let us get another customer insight.
What is that? This is the second customer insight oh wow it has wheels too okay, so what is
white and has wheels? Let me guess ambulance yeah that’s a good one, ambulance it is white
and has wheels yes, a cab, a taxi, a white taxi I suppose yeah that is a good one okay, so many
more ideas like that good.
So let us go on to the third insight, it has more than 20 wheels oops, so we started with cloud
and teeth maybe and all that in the first insight, then we came to ambulance now the customer
himself says it has more than 20 wheels. Oh my God! What is white and has 20 wheels? A
massive truck, which is white in color, maybe a metro train yeah, maybe a train itself, a white
train yeah, that’s the good one, so now we are down to 3 or 4 possibilities that’s it, from the
infinite that we had with just one insight.
It travels fast incredibly fast, I might add, oh yes you have got it, some of you. Right, yes that
is high-speed train yeah, high-speed white train travel very fast obviously more than 20 wheels.
The fifth insight that I have for you is it runs on electricity, oh yeah definitely a high-speed
train, we do not know for sure which country it is probably, so we need probably to run more
insights and more tests to see what kind of insights can we get.
The sixth one it carries people yes train for sure, it is not freight train because it carries people,
this is the sixth insight. It is a fast train, high-speed train.
And it runs in Japan. Oh! Come on it is a Shinkansen train. Yes, that is so obvious, blindingly
obvious now. So with 7 insights we started with clouds, walls, teeth, milk then we came down
to ambulance oh those were all wrong ones right, we were actually shooting in the dark, we
were so far away from the actual answer right, so finally it says, it runs in Japan, its Shinkansen
train is the solution we were looking for.
It runs on tracks yes and this is the picture of an oldish Shinkansen train. It is much sleeker
now with better designs by the Japanese engineers. So this is the answer we were looking for.
Again the moral of the story here is don’t jump to solutions at the first insight itself. You need
many, many more features or insights before you jump to solutions, before you arrive at a
solution which is closer to what your user probably wants and asking the user, It may help if
they are already know or they are part of your team also it may help. But trying to figure it out
yourself is part of the fun and yes it is also part of a job as a design thinker.
So now what do we need to test our ideas? What are some of the things that we definitely need
before we can even start testing our ideas? Let’s start with number 1 which is list of features.
So what all the features like what we saw in my puzzle, you have to define, you are describing
a solution more than the solution itself. What features does the solution definitely have? So you
need to list them. So that will be your item number 1 which is listing of features, all the features
that you can think of just list them.
Next is also key is list of assumptions, what have you assumed about your customer? You think
they are very text savvy, you think they have access to road network around them, you think
they have icy weather year round or you think they have tropical conditions year round. These
are some of your assumptions not saying they are true or false but they are assumptions. You
need to check each one of them to see if they are right or wrong. So that makes it the basis on
which you can test your ideas, so that is list of assumptions for you.
The third one is that you actually perform these trials or test in the actual environment in which
your user or customer lives or uses your idea or needs help and that is where you are going to
take your idea. You can do your test in lab conditions, in controlled environment but it has
limited success or limited applicability. The actual proof of the pudding is when you actually
go to their environment and do your testing there, that gives you far more insights and far more
richer insights compared to what you would do when you are doing it in your own best
conditions. So these are some of the conditions that you need, things that you need before you
can set out to test.
Next what we need are prototypes. What are prototypes? They are things that you make with
your own hand or represent on a piece of paper or make it using some building blocks like
make it cheap with a pen and paper, with stuff that is lying around junk, that is lying around
like used plates what you can see on the screen are some examples of prototypes. In this
software world it could be wireframe drawings as they call it just representative sketches of
what possibly could your user be looking at, your person who is going to use this look at, if it
is a sort of service thing, it is a bank that you are designing it for a school.
What would your interested person go through? What would their life look like when your, you
know idea is implemented, there is something for you to help imagine as well as take it to your
user and show them this is how it is going to be and if you can make it large scale and they can
actually traverse through this nothing like that, chalk drawings on the ground, helping them,
guide through your concept that also helps. All sorts of mocks things that are cheap and easy
to make will be handy here.
I have seen people use aluminum foils. I have seen them use food wraps, boxes that are lying
around just trinkets that are lying around and you can pull rubber bands for tying them
altogether, whatever you can find just to get what the idea represent. Its actually also useful to
represent your idea within your own team or you want to show it to another team who is also
designing a similar concept.
So that they can understand and then come and say, oh yeah we would have done this and you
can change that too. So prototypes are useful for many things - one is to showcase your own
idea and showcase it to somebody else or show it your own user and see how they are doing it,
so this is prototyping, There are courses out there on the Internet about prototyping itself. So
we are not going to do that here but I would say start simple with a pen and paper or if you are
used to say on a PowerPoint or some any of your favorite software, you can use that just to
represent your idea and it could be for anything.
So the next is the field work that you need to be doing. So this slide has a list that you can look
at in terms of field work. So the first step in that is to make a quick prototype of your idea and
test it with your customers or your users, you can achieve that by sketching, paper models,
wireframes, role plays in front of the customer. So this is what I was talking about earlier. Now
you need to take your prototype to the customer and observe how they react to it. So that is
important to your observation, the customer actually interacting with the prototype.
If you just show them the prototype and say hey hey how does this look, they are probably not
to offend you, they probably say yeah this is a good job go on, you know make your product,
spend a lot of money on that, that is probably not proof enough. If they would interact with that
and then you observe and find out and preferably if you can even videograph or photograph
their reactions how they do it with their permission of course and you come back home and
analyze what you have seen, what you have observed and then take your call on what do we
change in this, what work and what did not work with your prototype
That is probably better ideal to in terms of prototyping and your field work. So this takes a lot
of planning, effort and you know interacting with your customers, probably with sometimes
even with strangers but it is worth it is while, its definitely worth it. We will show that you in
our demo section as well which you have been following so keenly. So that will tell you how
people have done it and you can probably take tips from there as to how you can do this
prototyping or the field work part of it, prototyping stage.
It is not a one short process but it is an iterative process and happens many times over. So if
you are interested you can keep going back and forth and observe and you can also go back to
whatever is describing as the 4 stages, you can actually go back, interview them, get some
insights, you are empathizing with the customer, with this new customer journey and actually
you can ask so why did the customer do with this, why did the user do this, why have they done
this, you can do multi-why analysis, get a conflict of interest with this your prototype, your
new way of doing things and your user and find out what is actual cause which is causing them.
So this is a multi-step process then solve that problem and modify that in your prototype. You
can have multiple prototypes as well I am not stopping you from making multiple ideas into
prototypes. It just takes a little more effort and little more planning to do all this. So to begin if
you are doing this for the first time I would urge you to make one prototype take it to a few
customers just to get your hands on with this process and try it a few times with your friends,
with people you know then go on to people you do not know and get on started with it. So that
is I went through it and I found it to be very useful, you can do it the same way as well.
Just to conclude this whole thing I am showing you interesting picture of a fractal, this is called
a fractal. Its an iteration, its multi-multi cycle iteration and in the end you will get a beautiful
image like this, just made of iterations something that you do over and over and over again and
you get this kind of a pattern. So good luck with testing, it is an exciting portion of design
thinking and of course the last one but it need not be the last one, it could be a great beginning
for you, you can go back and make your next product or next exciting product or next exciting
service and help somebody who needs the help okay, so good luck and see you next time bye.
Test
Workshop - 01
Professor Bala: Hello and welcome back to the test phase of design thinking. No we are not
learning music here, we are not here for music lessons. We are going to do the testing phase of
the design problem that my team took up in the last phase, which was related to education about
note taking and we arrived at a solution some, not solution in its entirety, they still in its raw
form. We arrived at the features that their solution should have, so they have sort of what I
describe in my elephant and the blind men story.
So they have pieces of the puzzle, they are trying to piece it altogether and like a good music
ensemble it all comes together. So this is what we are going to try to do in the testing phase,
trying to get different ideas, merge them together and see how it all looks like because when
you externalise what you are thinking, your thought process it starts forming much more
concrete idea. Of course it does not stop there, you need to take it to the users whom eventually
you’re trying to help and see what their reactions are and let the rock ‘n’ roll begin after that.
So that is what we are going to do. So over to you guys for the two steps - for the first step we
are going to do, is to see if we can actually build a prototype before that I will ask them to state
their assumptions, that is important because we need to find out what it is that we are going to
test with our users. We may have some ideas preconceived notions and that is something that
they will have to test out. So here is my team again, you met them before many, many times.
So you will meet them again and we will see what they do with their idea, their solution. Over
to you guys.
Student Siddharth: So since we already discussed about the solution and what the solution,
what the features in the solution has to be, we have come up with some basic assumptions what
we are thinking or still happening in the current situation in a classroom. So I will start with
stating the assumptions. First one would be teachers who is actually preparing her notes to
teach in the class has a master copy of that notes in a soft copy, which she can be sharing it to
her students later, that would be assumption one.
Two will be students have some sort of access to an electronic gadget or a smart device where
they can access this solution what we are trying to develop and eventually edit, save and keep
writing, adding to the repository that would be assumption two. Then three is, assumption three
is that there is an admin in the school who will be monitoring all the activities that would be
happening inside this repository what we are going to develop right now.
Then assumption four would be all the textbooks or subject textbooks basically are available
as soft copies, so that they can be uploaded into the system. So these are the basic assumptions
we’ve come up with. Now we are going to start with discussing, in fact brainstorming how this
prototype should be, what? How these features we have discussed previously can be
incorporated into this prototype.
Student Nithin: So let us start with a basic design of what the solution could actually be.
Essentially what we have in the solution would broadly be classified into two, one is the
textbook and 1, the other would be the notes, so let us start with a basic homepage where we
have these 2 aspects in the application or the system right.
Student Siddharth: So since we are developing a repository and it also has a, we also have an
assumption that there would be an admin who would be monitoring all the activities. So he
would also be adding new students as users into the system, so this would require a login system
and account features basically, so we will start with having
Student Nithin: these three components in the application. So the first component would be
textbooks.
Student Siddharth: Another would be notebooks.
Student Nithin: Fine.
Professor Bala: So what do you have so far?
Student Nithin: We have the application opening with three.
Student Siddharth: Textbooks, notebooks and another thing would be my account basically
where user would usually go login into the system.
Student Nithin: Or should the login page be separate so that based on how the student logs in
the content would be available for him or would it be standard content available for all
irrespective of login.
Student Siddharth: Yeah we can have a login page in the beginning or we can direct this option
where what we are going to have is my account into a login page and outside the login they
can have their.
Student Nithin: Because essentially you do not want any user to come in and you know edit
the system right. You want to ensure that whatever content is available for editing is only
available to the users that have been added into the system, that are part of the system. So I
think we can create a login page. So the login page would essentially have a username and a
password right and then ok button probably. Password. Ok button. So that will be the first page
Student Siddharth: Once the user logs in we have this.
Student Nithin: So then I do not think this is required right, account tab is not required.
Student Siddharth: Or we can let it be for having his Profile related content.
Student Nithin: So textbooks, notebooks and my accounts.
Professor Bala: So what have we so far?
Student Nithin: So we have two pages, the first page would be a login page where the student
would login with a username and password. Once its submitted the relevant content will be
available as two tabs, one will be a textbook tab and one will be a note tab and you will also
have an account tab which has all the details of that particular user. So inside the textbook tab
and the notebook tab you would have all the relevant textbook and the notebook repository
available separately for the users to go and edit.
Professor Bala: And the notebook, sorry the textbook is supplied by the teachers.
Student Nithin: Yes that was part of our one of our assumptions, we had four assumptions. So
the first assumption, one of the fourth assumption was the textbook would be available in soft
copies, so again textbook is not the core part of the problem that we are trying to solve but we
still would want to see if students would have the ability to like you mention write on top or
edit on top of textbooks and that contain also can be available for everyone.
Professor Bala: Hmm, so this you’re primarily thinking in terms of only mobile application or
this could be extended to web or.
Student Nithin: Yeah it could be a web as well as a mobile application.
Professor Bala: Okay.
Student Siddharth: So now we have the login page and the first homepage of the system
basically the repository or the system what we have to develop.
Student Siddharth: Now what we will be doing is since students might be having already notes
which have been shared with them previously or.
Student Nithin: Or the master copy that has been collected by the admin from all the teachers
or all subjects, so that content should already be available on the system when the student
accesses it.
Student Siddharth: So that would be the books there.
Student Nithin: So the tiles that you are creating right now are the books for each subject right,
so the next page sir, in this navigation would be once a user clicks on the notebook tab or the
notebook page then subsequent page would open where you would have notes for each subject
and the master copy whether it is collected from the teacher based on our assumption that
master copy would be available for each subject in each of those tabs.
Professor Bala: Okay, so the teachers job to upload.
Student Nithin: No it’s the admin’s job. The admin is running the system, so the admin would
collect the content from either the teacher based on our assumption or from student, one of the
student to create the first master copy for all the subjects.
Professor Bala: So for your field tests will the subjects be primarily students, teachers or who
will your primary subjects be for them.
Student Nithin: I think our users would be students, so our subjects would also be students but
in order to test our assumption as to whether teachers maintain record of the notes that would
form the base of this system that is something that we need to probably check with our teachers
as well. Okay so he is basically creating for each subject.
Professor Bala: So will you have couple of prototypes for one for college as well as one for.
Student Nithin: Yes we can I think right now we are designing it for schools we can also have
one for college as well.
Student Siddharth: Now we have the page for the notebooks.
Student Nithin: Yes there will be similar architecture for the textbooks as well right.
Student Siddharth: Yes and notebooks we also have need to incorporate a new note right.
Professor Bala: So you may want to check it with the list of features you have also that if all of
it is covered in your prototype, the assumption and the features these are the important parts in
this case, so all of it, I think I can see that it’s been covered one by one, the evaluation bit and
the continuous evaluation is going to be tricky is to how to insert that into this.
Student Nithin: Okay, so do we need to have that as part of the solution or can stand outside of
the solution.
Professor Bala: You have put that as a feature because that you saw as one of the things that
motivate them to share, so and that something that you may want to test also saying is that
really true that they do need to motivate.
Student Nithin: I think we can also add that as part of our assumption, whether continuous
evaluation under what system would motivate students to, that is an assumption that we have
made I guess.
Professor Bala: Absolutely. You can put that down as well. Lots of times student do it for
general good, they do not do it because they need a reward, maybe we’re complicating this
system by introducing the reward system.
Student Siddharth: Now what we’ll have is, new notetaking page, this would be the existing
notes that admin has already put up into the system. Two things we’ll have to create here, one
is the opening each notebook what the admin has already put up into this and two is the new
notetaking what a user would want to do.
Students Nithin: So in the new content that users are going to add, that we have depicted with
this icon. I think in the list of features like sir mentioned they would have the option to upload
any kind of content, it could be JPEG, it could be in any format, so I think we should be able
to accommodate that.
Student Siddharth: Then we also need to have a file manager for all these, management of all
this different formats of documents we will have another option here then.
Student Nithin: Or could it be part of my account, file manager no.
Student Siddharth: File manager is different okay account would be profiling that student.
Student Nithin: Okay but essentially the activity that student would have to do to enter any
kind of content irrespective of its format would be the same right or would it be different.
Student Siddharth: I am sorry.
Student Nithin: Imagine the student wants to type some content, new content versus he would
want to upload a image of note that he has already taken in his notebook, so the process in this
application that we are building be the same to our, essentially he is doing the same activity
which is uploading his content, so would the process be the same.
Student Siddharth: In file manager what happens is you can segregate your entire documents
like image, PDF, Word document then textbook, notebook they have come down as downloads
or uploads basic all the log date of uploads and downloads would be recorded in the file
manager, in sequence of the time period, pertaining to the earlier being on top. Then textbooks
and notebooks would be very particularly what the admin has shared with the students for that
particular class, so file manager can have a lot of personalised content as well.
Student Nithin: Okay that is what you are saying, so if again my question remains as to whether
if a student wants to contribute to a certain subject or certain content and he wants to contribute
through the notes that he has taken on paper and is contributing it in the form of image, would
it remain only the file manager or would it be part of the content that the admin is seeing and
updating the original master content, my question again is like if you are creating a file manager
and we have given the option to the students to upload is image only in the file manager, would
the admin have access to these contents so that he can use that contain to upload the master,
update the master content.
Student Siddhartha: No, then to clear this confusion what we can have is two buttons on every
page.
Student Nithin: Or what I was thinking is you have created that plus icon, so this is basically
the icon for new notes right, so once that icon is clicked, then could you ask the user on what
format the uploaded content is going to be because basically this is going to be an activity on
uploading right.
Student Siddharth: This is more of creating the note on uploading, creating a new note this
would be, uploading what I was thinking which is popped into my head what will have is two
buttons here and here where if I click on the upload button, a page inside the repository should
open, where I can drag my files and drop it into there and it gets uploaded, then similarly I will
have a down arrow which I click on the down arrow, all the downloadable content in the
repository which I am enable to access will be there in that repository, that page in the
repository should open, so that I can choose what I want to download and click on download
in that, in that page.
Student Nithin: So you said in conflict with the content that you are already giving in textbooks
and notebooks because textbook and notebook is essentially the content that you want your
users to see and access, so is there something that is different that is going in your download
tab that is not available in textbook and notebook.
Student Siddharth: We can have students coming from different subjects basically, imagine in
our UG, a mechanical student would have his textbooks fixed in this repository, he would get
downloadable access only to his textbooks from the admin, then electronics engineer would
have, would be using the same repository but different set of text books would be coming in.
Student Nithin: So basically this second page that we have built would be personalised content
right, so based on how the user has logged in it would be personalised list of textbooks that he
has access to and personalised notes that has been maintained for that particular user and the
download and upload tab that you are talking about would provide a old stuff content that from
which he can have access to it, from which he can download, upload content.
Student Siddharth: So that could be working more like a DC++ where the admin puts in.
Professor Bala: What is DC++?
Student Siddhartha: DC++ is a intranet repository where, usually institutes incorporate this
thing and all the students can go online into this DC++ either upload all their content say
movies, documents anything since if we four of us are connected to DC++ and we four are
sharing our files, say I have hundred movies, he has hundred books, he has some other content
and you might be having some other content which you want to share it with all your peers. So
I go put up all that content in DC++ and I can flush out all the temporary or unrequired files
from my system it is already there in the repository, I can download whatever I want from that
part and it not just means we four are connected to that system, anyone can download from that
system, so it is more like a repository kind of thing as well.

Student Nithin: So when you are downloading content probably there should be a navigation
as to once that content is downloaded then into what particular tab, what basically organisation,
see I have, I could have n number of content available for me to download and downloading
that and putting it either into my textbook content or into my personalized note content, so
there should be a flow from where the downloaded content should be routed to the relevant.
Student Siddharth: So that is why we are using a file manager, so I, if I click on download and
open the repository to download any content I will have another folder inside my file manager
which is downloads, all the downloads by default will go into that folder.
Student Nithin: Okay, from their you can.
Student Siddharth: From there I can move that file into the required, into my required, so this
would be upload and this would be download, we also need to create the prototype for our
system like DC++ our repository where the download and uploads of the admin would be.
Professor Bala: The assumptions that you have mentioned if you can validate that, whatever
you need to validate that, so this is going to be barebones skeleton just to validate your
assumptions okay, then the next round you can sort of build, you know give it enough meet to
make it a complete system, here we are not there to make a full-fledged system and see how it
works that is not our aim, our aim is to check with the users this is the first level of testing, you
can do multiple rounds of these but the first level is to just go and see what is it that my users
want, are they comfortable with this idea.
Student Nithin: Yeah so textbooks and notebooks in terms of this would be a copy right. Here
also I would need a new folder, create right because again creating my own personalised
content here, so I can have a different subject and content for that different subject being added
right, okay so the next would be someone clicking on any of this particular icons right.
So imagine I choose a certain subject in notes, so what happens would be that, there would be
an existing repository of notes that is been initially created by the admin and transferred to this
particular folder by me right okay, it will be edit, save and share which is basically uploading
it back into the repository, so what these buttons would do is that if I click on I open an existing
node page, so there is the content that I have added available to me, if I make any addition to
it and I click on save it gets saved into only my personal folder, edit obviously allows me to
edit the content and if I share then this content would be going back into the common server
where the admin would have access to this particular content.
Professor Bala: Okay now where are we at ?
Student Siddhartha: We are creating a new note taking page sir.
Student Nithin: In that essentially you would have three features in that page, so the page would
begin with whatever existing content you have for that particular subject, you would have the
option to edit content on that subject, you would have the option to save, when I say save, you
are saving whatever editing or additions that you have made only for yourself and if at all you
want to share this with the administrator who would be in charge of creating the master copy
you can share it as well, so there would be three options on this page. New page would be
blank.
Student Siddharth: Now we have the login page, homepage, page for the notebooks.
Student Nithin: Page for textbooks, a page for taking new notes, we covered all the features
and there will be the upload and download option where students can see the entire repository,
so far this is essentially a feature that is not available for our users but it is part of the
administrative activity related to the system, so do we have to prototype this as well or.
Professor Bala: So when you going your target audience is admin, say suppose you are taking
it to an administrator then you will need to take them that part of prototype and see what is it
that they are doing and you can interact with that, another question I had in this regard is what
if the admin and the teacher are one and the same because I envisage that could be a possibility,
in my case it would definitely be a possibility.
Student Nithin: I do not think there would be any problem with the admin being the teacher
Professor Bala: or teacher being the admin
Student Siddharth: It is all individualised with respect to their account details, login details, so
even if a particular teacher is assigned as the admin she can login as an admin and she can also
login as a teacher also.
Professor Bala: So there are separate logins okay.
Student Nithin: Or probably the same login would have, that particular login would have admin
plus teacher access.
Professor Bala: That would be convenient because I hate switching login and that is a pain.
Student Nithin: Absolutely.
Student Siddharth: We have five basic pages which will,
Student Nithin: I think the structure is almost set sir.
Student Nithin: So we essentially designed five pages, the first page would be a login page
where the user, student or teachers logs in. Once the login is validated you go to a homepage
where you have, where we have four options basically one would be the textbook and second
would be the notebook, third would be a file manager and fourth would be my accounts, on top
of that you also have an upload and a download tab, so I‘ll just explain what all are the features,
so in the textbook application, on the textbook tab the students will have access to all the list
of textbooks that have essentially been saved as per his content, so he can organise all his
textbook content on in that.
If he clicks on the notebook tab what essentially happens is he will have all his note content
essentially the primary content here would be the master content that the administrator has
created out of the content that is received from either the teacher, we are assuming teacher here
or any of the student, so that master content would essentially be organised into several subjects
by this particular user, so that is what would be available in textbooks and notebooks.
Apart from that we also have two buttons on the homepage, one would be an upload button
and the other would be a download button, in the upload button student can based on whatever
new notes or new content irrespective of what file format it is can be added into this repository
through the upload tab and similarly in the download tab whatever content is available in this
repository irrespective of document format can be downloaded to this application.
Other than that there will also be a my account and a file manager tab which basically keeps
track of all the content that he has uploaded, all the content that he has downloaded and all the
other features that are part of this application.
Professor Bala: Okay so we saw the creation of a prototype right in front of your eyes, I felt
that such a demo will actually help you understand what is the process involved, you are not a
app developer, you have not done this before, you can use paper, you can use something that
is lying around boxes, you can use paper plates, you can use just a sketch with sticky notes on
it to model your concept, to externalize and you can have your team like you saw this team,
interact with each other and correct each other and going and checking back what is it that they
were originally attempting, they is it solving the users situation or not, what are the criteria that
we had in the earlier phase and they brought it to this the form of a prototype.
So prototyping building is to test the assumptions again there was a new assumption that came
up, that was also added to the list, so they are going to go to the field to test these assumptions,
one more point I would like to point out is they had now they have three potential users of the
same system, so you can take a pic on which is your favourite or you think is the most important
stakeholder in this and you can build a prototype for them, as the assumptions for them.
So in their case the admin was sort of a secondary customer, secondary user, so they’re going
to build that later on so that will be part of their other tasks, they do not have a prototyping
experience or an app building experience probably a little bit here and there for a hobby, but
they use their software of choice, you can use physical stuff, you can use software of your
choice does not need to be anything fancy.
The basic premise is to test out the idea on the field with users who potentially may use this in
the future, this is you can end this process is iterative, it goes on I do not know test three rounds,
four rounds, five rounds and till your satisfied that yes it is ready for prime time and then start
giving it more flesh and blood, make it a real product service or in their case may be an app,
that is what is lying in store for them, well till then enjoy, this was a great demo session for us,
we will join you with the user tests so that is what is up next for that, so keep tuned and we will
show you how the user test go and now we will also be showing you the screenshots of the
final product that we have, prototype that we have, thank you so much take care.
Design Thinking
Test Prototype Validation
Professor: So what have we here design thinking prototype?
Student1: Yes sir, what we have built is a basic app as a part of our solution phase in design
thinking. We are trying to test our assumptions through this app basically, so you can just run
through the app and give us a feedback on how it is. What all features can be added to modify
this app?
Professor: Okay, so you have login screen, okay textbook notes. So it sounds to me like it is
very similar to what you had in the presentation software, okay.
Student1: Yes sir.
Professor: Textbook, notebook, file manager, settings, pretty big, download, upload. Notebook
I click I get all the list of notebooks mathematics, chemistry what not. Under the plus for me
to create a new notebook okay to start writing here, to go I go back backward textbook and all
of these again plus and I see…okay this is a downloadable textbook okay and yes it looks good,
great. So here is my suggestion to you, this is great for you to get to know how to interact with
a product, so that way it is nice but what I would like you to also see is that you had a list of
assumptions, assumptions that you had made about you know the teacher has access to a digital
notebook and all that.
So I would say most of those can be asked as questions simple like does your teacher have
access to or has a digital version of a textbook so that is something you can probably ask them,
so those can be just quick questions that you see and make sure that this is right. Also I think
one of them has a question like if I remember right, does the student have motivation to share
their notes, so one way to do this is rather than asking them, so do you have the motivation to
share your notes instead get instances from their past as to how they have shared their notes,
so when was the last time for example a question could be.
So when was the last time you shared your notes with your classmates? And they would say in
my biology class I have shared my notes with guy who was absent, so then you know this guy
is really shared the notes or not, so that way you can get instances from their past and that
would be a great way to do it. Rest of them are I think yes or no questions, I have been looked
at your assumptions, so anyway so then you can make them interact with this also looks quite
good and you did it in very short amount of time. Congratulations.
Student1: Thank you very much Sir.
Professor: Okay good luck with your testing.
Student1: Thank you Sir. Thank you very much that was a great feedback.
Professor: Okay thanks.
Student2: Hello.
Student1: Hi, can you start with you name?
Student2: I am Rajshree.
Student1: How old are you Rajshree?
Student2: I am 18.
Student1: You are studying at IISER?
Student2: Yes I am studying.
Student1: What course?
Student2: It is BSMS dual degree.
Student1: Great, So Rajshree what we have here is a solution as part of our design thinking
course. We would like you to test the solution and get a feedback what can be done with this
application. So you can just run through this application, see, read, save, move to file manager,
download, upload etc, so just run through it. So in this process I have a question for you. So
there might be study material given to you in your class while teacher is teaching, some
purpose. So is there a form of soft copy of this study material that you been given
Student2: It is mostly the presentations which we are taught from the class that is only sent to
us via mail or there send to this app called Moodle.
Student1: Yes.
Student2: So soft copy of these class notes are uploaded there.

Student1: Okay, so do you have access to smart phones in classroom?
Student2: Well in the classrooms if we have to refer to anything, yes of course but mostly
Professors prefer if we do not use smart phones during the class hour, we can use it later.
Student1: In case if the Professor allows you to use a smart phone, so is there any monitoring
happening like this is what we have to check, you can check with them or you should’nt do..
Student2: Not really, there is no such monitoring but we are free to access whatever we want
during class if Professor asks.
Student1: Great, so we also have these textbooks which you can access through a smart phone
to take a picture in that, so is there a provision where these textbooks are available as soft copy
as an as PDF for download and you can write on top of it, is there a provision…?
Student2: We cannot actually edit or write on top of it but we can just download it from sites
like LibGen.
Student1: Oh! LibGen. So how frequently do you share your handwritten class work with your
classmates?
Student2: It is generally a two-way process if I have missed a class or say for example if
Professor speaks too fast then it is difficult for me to take down notes then I generally prefer
taking notes from few of my classmates.
Student1: Like Any instance that you remember, yes this was very important for me, if sharing
of notes didn’t happen which can be…I would have helped by a learned person, so is there any
instance you can think of?
Student2: Well in few of our courses actually it is kind of difficult to understand and interpret
what the Professor is saying because he is saying it way too fast for us to write down, so if I
try to listen to him I miss out the notes and if I try to write I miss out what he is saying, so
generally a collaborative work.
Student1: Okay.
Student3: My name is Aditya First Year BSMS.
Student1: How old are you Aditya?

Student3: I am 19 years old.
Student1: This is a solution for design thinking course we are teaching on NPTEL.
Student3: Yes.
Student1: So this is a note taking application basically than like a basic prototype. If you can
run through the app and give us any feedback in terms of making this even more better.
Student3: So basically while I am taking notes I’m science student I usually need to write in
lot of mathematical equations, so most of the apps which I have used before does not account
for that. Suppose I am writing a differential equation and I need a square sign over the variable
x, so I cannot type it very efficiently, so if I had a simpler method to type equations that would
be great. Also there is this I think this is great app if I can use it efficiently plus I won’t be able
to carry this bag.
Student1: Absolutely that is the whole idea to.
Student3: I was thinking about the same of designing an app like this.
Student1: You develop apps?
Student3: No actually my dad does.
Student1: That’s nice. I have a few assumptions we’ve put in our mind while developing this
application, so we would also like to test these assumptions.
Student3: Yeah
Student1: One of them is when you are in class your teacher might have given you some sort
of study material like handout or something.
Student3: Okay.
Student1: Is there a way where these handout have been shared to you as a soft copy by any
chance?
Student3: Yeah, yeah! Actually there’s a course website, every course, most of the course have
a website and every tutorial side by side, all the lecture notes are given on that, so mostly we
need to copy just the jest of it.
Student1: Do you have any access to a smart phone inside your class like if you want to refer
to some part by yourself.
Student3: We are not allowed to take photographs as such but you can use, I use a laptop to
take notes.
Student1: Okay, so when you are using a system like a laptop or a smart phone to take, is there
anyone monitoring you like what is so and so person doing?
Student3: No. There are people playing games.
Student1: Now since you said you use laptop for taking notes, is there a provision where you
get all your textbook as PDFs like a soft copy so that you have your textbook at the same side
and…
Student3: Actually most of the text books are not available in PDF. Because it is a copyright
issue, so mostly we do not get it but… Yes mostly we do not get it.
Student1: So when you are taking down notes digitally, that would also mean that you have a
provision to share your notes?
Student3: Yes.
Student1: Can you remember of any important situation where you felt sharing of notes would
have been really nice.
Student1: Yeah basically when we have an open textbook exam, it is not available, the book is
not available to everyone or the notes is not available to everyone, so you need a soft copy so
that everybody can basically it’s an open photocopy or book exam so everybody can share their
notes, if it’s a soft copy it is way better because we can access everybody’s notes in a
single…but if we takes Photostats to in the classroom it is very..
Student1: So in this way it will also reduce papers.
Student3: Papers, paper use and also we can access everybody’s notes in a single.
Student1: Yes absolutely.
Student3: Thank you very much.
Student1: Thank you.

Student1: Hi can I have your name first.
Student4: Yes, My name is Sunil.
Student1: How old are you?
Student4: I am 22 years old.
Student1: Are you a student of IISER?
Student4: Yes.
Student1: Okay so this is a basic note taking application we have developed as a part of our
solution in design thinking. We would like you to go through this app and give any feedback
if you can. If I may ask in your class you might be attending classes where teachers might be
giving out study materials, right?
Student4: Yes.
Student1: So is there a provision where all the study materials are available on a softcopy to
you.
Student4: Softcopy at that point?
Student1: As in if a teacher is giving you a study material and it can either be shared via digital
platform or given as a handout. So what is the way that is happening right now?
Student5: We have to go to the website.
Student1: So you also must be having access to some sort of digital gadget inside classroom?
Student4: Yes.
Student1: So when you have a smart phone or a laptop while taking notes or accessing
something, is there anyone monitoring you like this is what has to be done and are you taking
down like this notes. In our 11th ,12th and engineering class there would be a verification of
notebooks something like that, so is there any process where Professors ask you, is everything
right? Have you taken down the notes?
Student5: Many websites open by only IISER email account, not by other email account or
IISER IP address, so outside of the institute they cannot open it.
Student1: Just in case if you have access to these study materials there can be text books also.
So do you have your subject textbooks or your specialisation textbooks as softcopies available
to you?
Student4: In website it is available.
Student1: Sorry.
Student4: In certain websites.
Student1: In certain websites they take care of it.
Student1: So if I may ask was there any situation recently you’ve come across where you felt
sharing of your personal notes was very important as a part of learning for your friends as in
even if you’ve shared notes with your friends or receive notes, is there any situation where you
felt yes this sharing of notes is very important for us and if it can be done digitally.
Student4: Yes.
Student1: Is there a situation that you can tell?
Student4: Obviously
Student1: So can we remember any time where you’ve shared your notes with your friends like
what kind of a note you would be sharing?
Student5: If we are on Whatsapp or.
Student1: Basically you click images and.
Student1: Any other feedbacks in terms of developing this application what feature can be
added or..
Student5: Here we upload notes.
Student1: So, Here this is basically a saved notes, this is practising a note which you have
already written on and this is a sample text what we have put up here as a part of our basic
prototype, so that once you say yes instead of typing say writing is more easy for this, so that
would be a feedback for us to remove the typing part of it and say incorporating a stylus.
Student5: Like we can go on PDF also.

Student1: Yes.
Student5: That’s a good one like many good students have good notes, so they can upload their
notes and university students can download it and read it
Student1: Right.
Student4: That will benefit local students.
Student1: Right, we can also…why I was asking about the monitoring part is, if we want to
incorporate this systems in our college like IISER there would be an admin who will be sharing
the textbooks to you and you can put up your notes into that cloud system as well.
Student4: So that everyone can see.
Student1: Everyone can see, so in the same process we do not want people putting up
unrequired or unmatchable content so there should be a admin. So in this entire process while
you uploading your personal notes into the cloud where your classmates can access it or your
administrator himself or herself putting in the text book or sharing your next week’s timetable
or anything irrespective of class management. So any feedback in terms of managing this
particular aspect.
Student5: Here we upload chapter wise or.
Student1: Up to you, you can create a folder which has only one chapter or one page or one
lesson, entire textbook would be into the textbook section, like I want to write 20 cases first
and that is also possible. As you keep sliding, in this case what we expect is if you can give us
feedback what it should be there it would be more helpful. So, we are in terms of improving
this app so we want to show our viewers how to start a basic prototype of an app and how to
improve the app by taking customer feedback
Student4: The information you get, what do you mean?
Student1: It means you feel you are study material is coming to you
Student4: Yes.
Student1: Great, thank you very much guys.
Student4: You are welcome.

Student1: Thank you for your time.
Student1: Can you guys introduce yourself to start of with?
Student6: I am Muthua I am from Kerala studying 2nd year BSMS.
Student7: I am Mohammed Jibin from Kerala also 2nd year BSMS student.
Student1: We would like to run you through this app and it is a basic note taking application
from textbooks, notebooks together in one platform. We would also like to interact with a
system like this colleges like IISER where your administrator can come up with a content,
textbook content or you can upload your notes content for your classmates, something like that.
I would like to get some feedbacks from your side what more can be done with the application
or any feature you want it to add more than what it has.You can run through it.
Student7: So since this is at initial stages I think I am not able to stores the favourites, so
bookmarking will be very helpful. Normal features in account like highlighting, those things
will be helpful. Then handwriting should be enabled but I think that will be a problem, it is
always a problem while writing in tab, so a stylus should be enabled.
Student6: Need more features.
Student1: While you are in your classroom, your teacher might have saved some study
materials and things like that, so was this study material always in terms of paper format or is
it shared online?
Student7: No, it is usually shared digitally.
Student6: They share it in the website. So this is on web platform right, it can be linked to
google drive.
Student1: Do you guys have any sort of access to smartphones or laptops inside the classroom?
Student6: No it is not allowed, we can bring that but cannot use.
Student1: When you are at hostel or at home while you preparing a subject, is there a provision
for you to have a textbook, soft copy or anything?
Student7: Yes.
Student6: Usually we do that.

Student1: Do you also kind of comments or write your personal notes on top of that PDF like
for your personal understanding.
Student7: No, we do not do that because it is a challenge, typing is a challenge it takes more of
time.
Student6: What is the format of this app like PDF..
Student1: All documents. So even more than we giving you a format it would be nice if you
can tell us, we would like to have this format also.
Student6: Yes.
Student1: So is there a format specifically,
Student6: Yes it is EVGA format.
Student1: Can you elaborate what this format is?
Student6: I do not know actually.
Student7: Some textbooks comes in that format.
Student1: Okay.
Student6: Only computer can open that.
Student1: Okay. Thank you very much.

Professor Dr Bala Ramadurai
The End Part 01
Student: So this is the end of the presentation. Thank you sir.
Professor: Wow! Very impressive Curio. I must say after the first presentation this is a drastic
change we are really impressed with your work and the project that you have done and the
method that you have applied is perfect. It is really impressive, in fact I have some good news
for you after this call is over you can check your email we have sent you an offer letter to join
our company as a full-time employee. Congratulations!
Student: Thank you sir, thank you so much for the offer.
Professor: So see you in my office.
Student: Yeah sir, thank you!
Professor: Bye.
Student: Bye Sir.

The End Part 2
Professor 1: Do I know you? Hi I am Bala.
Professor 2: Hey I am Ashwin.
Professor 1: I did not recognize your man, how was your trip?

Professor 2: Trip was great, it has been exactly 8 weeks since I left. How did the design thinking
course go? Did you my goodness, what have you guys been doing? You guys been travelling
or you guys have been thinking about design thinking? What is going on? So it looks like things
went well.
Professor 1: Yes.
Professor 2: So I have an idea.
Professor 1: Please.
Professor 2: A number of people have been listening to this from all over, right they have
probably learnt a lot, would not it be nice if we actually brought some of them here, did a
workshop face to face and actually had them do something.
Professor 1: That is a cool idea. That is a really cool idea. What do you want them to do?
Professor 2: So if you are interested in trying to put some of these ideas into practice and
attending a face-to-face design thinking workshop then what we should do is first come up with
a 2 page write-up, a 2 page proposal where you think of something that you would like to
design using a design thinking approach. You describe what that is and you describe how you
would use a design thinking approach to design that object or idea that you are thinking about,
right?
So come up with a 2-page proposal on how you might use the concepts that you have listened
to in this course to design something and on top of that add a one-page motivational summary
on why you want to come to a face-to-face workshop. So if you can send us a 2 page proposal
of something that you would like to design and a one page write-up on why you are motivated
to come to a face-to-face workshop then we will invite some of you over to a convenient
location and we will actually have a face-to-face workshop where you can actually turn design
thinking theory into practice.
Professor 1: And is there a deadline for this?
Professor 2: Yeah! I think they should be able to submit something 2 weeks from today?
Professor 1: 2 weeks? What if they are like me?
Professor 2: Alright, 4 weeks from today. So you have a deadline of 4 weeks from today. Please
send us a two-page proposal and a one-page motivational statement and we hope to see some
of you with us so we can do a face-to-face workshop on design thinking.
Professor 1: Thank you, we are waiting.
Professor 2: We are waiting.

Design Thinking
Finale & Appeal for Proposals
This leaf has reached the end of its journey. Believe it or not our journey together is also coming
to an end. It’s been over 4 weeks that you have been listening to these lectures online and
finding out more about design thinking. First of all I would like to thank you for spending your
time on listening to these lectures. I had a lot of fun putting these videos together for you. I
hope you had the same kind of fun also listening to this, watching our workshops watching the
lectures, listening to the stories as well.
I hope you have been applying them on real life as well because these principles are best when
put in action. Our journey does not have to come to an end we can actually try to prolong it.
Yes, you heard me right you can actually come face-to-face we can have a workshop together.
All you need to do is send in an entry with your motivation on why you want to be part of this
workshop and what is it that really want to be solving it.
Put it in about 300 to 350 words and may be add a picture or two and if we like it and if you
are lucky, we will invite you over and we can sit together and actually work on your project
and make it better. Help somebody in the process by applying design thinking, so I hope to see
you through your entries and probably in person as well. Wish you very good luck, okay. Thank
you then, bye.
Design Thinking
A Primer
The Start Part 3
Prof Bala: So Curio.
Curio: Yes, sir.
Prof Bala: It’s been what about a month, since you joined us, you have been an intern here for
a month, I think.
Curio: Yes, sir.
Prof Bala: Okay, I think it is enough learning, in my experience, the best way to learn is to do,
so get on the customers job itself. Okay, so here is what we will do, think about the customer,
our customer.
Curio: Yes, sir, so I am the customer and I am a reputed customer, yes sir. Yes.
Prof Bala: Okay, now think about what problems that they are going through, the customer’s
problems.
Curio: okay, yes sir, I am a customer and I have a good mobile, a reputed mobile and yes sir,
the mobile is running very slow, yes sir, yes.
Prof Bala: Think about a solution or solutions for that, for the problem.
Curio: Yes, sir, mobile running slow, so I can use a processor which will make it run faster,
yes sir.
Prof Bala: Okay, now put it all into a presentation and you will present it to the customer.
Curio: Yes, sir, definitely, sure sir.
Prof Bala: Okay.
Curio: Yes.
Prof Bala: Okay, good luck with the presentation then, in a week’s time.
Curio: Yes, thank you.

Prof Bala: Okay, bye.
Curio: This is slide one: the customer’s problem, that is facing a slower mobile, having a slower
mobile, so slide two: is the solution, so solution would be to add or to use a new or faster
processor, slide three: that is going to give me more profits, well, that was quite simple.
Hello Mr Customer, slide one, we have the problem statement and we understand that the
reputed mobile that you are using is running very slow, slide two, the solution is to use a faster
processor, which will ultimately increase the speed of the mobile and third slide is the profits,
will get profits, thank you.
Customer: What? is that all? Have you interviewed anyone? How do you know for sure? What
you mean slow? Do you know the cost of the replacing a processor? What is the timeframe for
this project? Who will be in the team? What is your past experience in this area that you are
the one who should be solving this problem? Have you done any other homework? Have you
done a market survey?
Curio: No, sir, sorry sir, I will get back to you, sir.
Prof Bala: The test first and the lesson the next, you are presentation wasn’t so bad, my first
presentation was a complete disaster. I couldn’t speak the language, at least you can speak
English.
Curio: I really wanted to help someone sir, I started with me. I wanted to find a problem, I
imagine my own situation. I wanted to propose a solution, but I just wrote down the first thing
that came in my head and I forgot all the other parameters and this resulted my presentation to
get really bad. I really did not think about all the parameters that came into thing.
Prof Bala: There is nothing wrong with your current way, just saying that there is a better way,
why do not you go online on NPTEL and listen to my course, it’s on Design Thinking.
Curio: Okay.
Prof Bala: I think you will find it useful.
Curio: Definitely.
Prof Bala: Okay.

Design Thinking
Intro to Design Thinking – Part 01

Hello and welcome to the design thinking course offered on NPTEL, my name is Bala
Ramadurai and I am a professor and consultant, the other facilitator is Professor Ashwin
Mahalingam, who is also going to be there as part of the teaching duo that we have for this
class.
First of all what is design thinking, so just take a minute to guess who this person on the screen
is, not me. The one on the screen now. Okay, you can even pause the video if you want. This
is a Polish astronomer by the name Nicolas Copernicus, his main contribution as seen in the
European continent was that he proved that the centre of the universe is not Earth as it was
thought at the time in mediaeval Europe, but is actually the Sun, the solar system centre as we
know it, but he proved that it is Earth is not the centre, so, but in design thinking, we do the
opposite of what Copernicus did in his entire life, we are going to put the centre back on us and
that is what is sometimes referred to as human centred design.
So where we start is the human, the human is the first place where we start thinking about how
can we help this person, first the history of design thinking is that it started off as a discipline
may be in the 60s, ideo.com, this IDEO, they were the ones who made it popular and it caught
on to several, so we are going to be using elements of this, I have suggested some references,
also I have given some references, I have also given some videos, you can check them out any
time you want during this course.
So we are going to use the some of the material from IDEO, some materials from other
references that are listed as well. The most important part of this type of thinking is that the
human is right at the centre of whatever we do here.
I have two objectives as part of this course, very basic objectives because this is a beginner
course, we do not expect you to know anything prior to this course, the first one will be that
you are able to recall the faces and the step that are involved in this design thinking process,
yes, it is a process of thinking you setting a stage by stage, step-by-step process of thinking,
second would be if you can, if I scramble all these steps and faces and give it to you and you
should be able to do pick each one and say this one is the first phase, this is the second phase
and so on and so forth and be able to do this, we will be very happy if you can demonstrate to
us through the test and classes that we conduct in this, as part of this course, if you were able
to demonstrate we will be very happy and that is design thinking for you, so the awareness is
built. Okay.
I wish to set some kind of background before I start the course, some basics that I want to cover
is that when ideas are implemented not as a thought, not as a something you just write down,
but something that is implemented, leads to a product or a service, a product which somebody
uses and finds it useful or a service, not a tangible one, but stands for like my course, for
example is considered a service because you do not see a product that you can touch and feel.
Usually the definition of a product is quite loose, but I think of it as something that you can
hold, touch and feel is probably a product and a services is something that is offered to
somebody.
So if your ideas can lead to one of these, then usually this is the process of implementation, in
it becoming a product or a service. Okay, so this is a basics. I am not, this is a platform on
which way we build, so we are not going to cover anything on this.
Now, how I split this design thinking process is into four steps, like I said before, like I
remarked before, we start with the human, so people understanding people is part and parcel
of our first step and how do I find out what is going on in another human being, not in myself,
but in some other human being is through the process of empathy. Okay.
What it is we will cover later in the course as well, once you know what people are going
through, you find out, figure it out, you empathise, you feel it, you understand it then do not
stop there. But go into the depth of it and find out why is it that somebody is going through this
experience, can I find out what is, you know, simmering under that, we use the step of problem
analysis, the stage of problem we and our method is to analyse and figure it out.
So in analysis stage we actually figure out what is going on underneath why is the customer
going through this, then after that we move on to the third stage, which is, now that we figured
out what is the problem we have to solve, we have to fix it, we have to think of ways to mitigate
it, reduce it, whatever could be the situation, so this involves the process of creating something,
it could be creating absolutely new stuff or taking, you know, existing stuff and putting it all
together in a sort of novel combinations, so that the problem that we are addressed is solved.
Okay.
The last and final the most important according to me is to put it all together, make a tight
package of it and call it a concept, make it a concept, now you have, it is not enough if you
think of it, and you keep it in with you, but actually give it to somebody and test it. Hopefully
the one that you started out with empathising and then you take it back and test it with them
and to see if it actually helps them in any way, or is it increasing you know more problems for
them! You’re giving more problems for them! Then you need to go back to the drawing board
and say, hey, you know what! They are actually going through more problems by using my
ideas. Okay.
So this is the basic methodology of using 4 steps, start with people, then the problem, solution
and a concept, how you do is through empathy, analysis, creation and testing, you can make it
and test it, so that is what is the basic of designing thinking.
Design Thinking
Intro to Design Thinking – Part 02
Case Study – Arcturus IV by John E. Arnold
Prof Bala: Okay. Hello and welcome back to our design thinking modules. Today, I am going
to be telling you a bit about the history of design thinking. So, design thinking as we probably
will see is dated way back, so, I did mention about the 60s, but probably the dates even that we
will reserve that for later. But, for now, I will briefly touch up on a creative engineering, as it
was called in the 50s, by a gentleman named John Arnold.
So, he was teaching at Massachusetts Institute of technology in the US. He was the professor
and consultant to companies as well. So, he taught this course called creative engineering,
where he introduced the whole idea of the fact that creativity could actually be a classroom
session. It could be produced in inside a classroom. Inside are-created, the entire process could
be done like that. So, prior to that probably people where under the impression that, it is for
gifted individuals, it is for people who have fuzzy hair and probably in dark corners of a lab.
Those were the kinds of creative. When you say creativity that is what you would associate it
with.
John Arnold sort of side stepped and said hmm, that may not be the case. We can actually
probably recreate the whole thing in a controlled environment, like a classroom. So, he had
engineer’s ways of teaching this and to him the favorite topic of his was science fiction. So,
science fiction is a great topic to be introduced to students because it picks their curiosity and
saying, 1000 years from today, what is going to happen. Nobody knows, but it is a great tool
to get people imagine about all sorts of realities that could be possible.
So, he really used this unknown to his own advantage. If, you ask somebody to think about,
you know somebody in, say, if I am in India and I say, do not think about other people as people
other than, in India, but think about it from their perspective, from say people in Italy, For
example, people find it a bit difficult, they assume things that are valid here are valid even in
Italy and so, they may make some design mistakes, design thinking mistakes. So, his approach,
John Professor Arnold’s approach was to sort of take the students off this whole beaten path of
thinking only about themselves and their own context, but also thinking about somebody who
are far connected.
So, he used what you will see is a very important case study, a very famous case study in that
point of time called Arcturus IV. Now, to give you a brief history of this case study itself, is
that, Arcturus is a star in a constellation called Bootes. I may get the pronunciation wrong, but
it you can look it up. It is a constellation this particular star is 33 light years from Earth.
In light year is the distance light travels in a year. It travels very fast, so, within a year it travels
really long and 33 years like that. So, if you were to send the signal today from Earth, it would
be received 33 years later. So, that is it is that far from Earth.

So, he asked the students to imagine a planet, fourth planet from the Sun, the Arcturus, not the
sun, Arcturus. And he said, imagine, small civilisation over there and say 1000 years in the
future Earth people they go there and start establishing a business out there. So, he called at the
MIT or Massachusetts intergalactic travel company. So, MIT what he is called as fictional
company in 1000 years in the future.
So, he said those aliens are very different from us, from us Earth people. So, they for example,
he said, they have the aliens there have three fingers. So, they are not like us, with five fingers
in each hand. So, each hand is three fingers. They have three eyes. So, one of them can actually
see x-rays. So, the very different. There, the atmosphere that they have is not oxygen rich but
methane rich. So, he called the aliens Methanians or Methaniance.
So, they were very different from Earthlings, also, is their temperature, their average summer
temperature was -50° C and their average winter temperature is -110° C. So, none of what is
valid for Earth is actually valid for Arcturus, IV. Also, another thing to be noticed is that their
gravity is 11 times more than that of Earth. So, if you were to jump, be able to jump, say 11 m
here that person would be able to jump only 1 m there. So, that is kind of difference in gravity
as well.
In terms of industrial evolution as well, they were probably lower in the ranking scale, so, Prof
John Arnold remarks that consultants from here have gone to Arcturus IV and found figure out
that there are probably few people owning what looks like a scooter to us. So, that is all is their
developments scale. So, now what. Prof Arnold did during this case study or why are this case
study is to make students think of not themselves and what is true for them, but in a completely
different environment, in a completely different culture, in a completely different environment
setup.
So this is what design thinking focuses on is to lift you off from where you are comfortable,
where you are assumptions are valid to places where it is not valid to an age group, to a different
culture, different environment setting, everything is different, so this is what Prof Arnold was
hinting at for students to do that, and students took up this challenge, it is widely publicised as
one of the most successfully, you know, carried out endeavour in terms of thinking exercises.
Lots of companies bought this idea and actually brought Prof Arnold to their company and
said, “hey can you do this for us as, well for our employees as well,?” so it was largely.
Some of the successful designs that the students actually did was one of them. I am going to
show you on the screen is called Eggomobile. So, this is a personal transportation for the
Methanians. So, this is what one of the students designed. This is apparently a very popular
when it was publicised in media and press as being a very out-of-the-box set, sort of thinking,.
You can see the Methaniance sitting there in an egg like structure with their long arms, their
physique is different. Everything that we assume of what humans and you can also see a human
being for height comparison. So, this is what that the Terranians had designed. Terranians
meaning people from Earth have designed for the Methanians.
So, this sort of sparked a lot of creativity in the students and widely popular as you can imagine
with the students. And Prof Arnold equally sporting, he went with the flow, are being 3 or 4
times the revised this and came up with the complete case study, is now available on archive
dot org.
I will drop a link in the list, reference list as well. Prof Arnold’s son, I assume, John Arnold Jr.,
he is published it in archive dot org, so that it preserves this case study as one of the stellar
design thinking exercises. That is still available and accessible to all of us.

So, I thought that I will show that to you. One more was like. Prof Arnold has shown us that
communication between Earth and Arcturus IV is on how fruit actually grows in Arcturus IV
and how they are plant. So, you can see here is how plants grow or are planted in Methanians
surface, their fruits grow underground and you can see all that here. how they look like. So, he
went to great detail and detailing what their environment might look like, so, this is a kind of
detail he wanted students also to do in a real life, and this is a great case study for them. Thank
you.
Intro to Design Thinking Course Preview and History of Design Thinking
Hello and welcome back to design thinking course. I have already briefed you about four stages
of design thinking. Empathize, Analyze, Solve and Test. So, these are stages that I sort of
thought of when we were design this course for the first time, I do not know, maybe a few
years ago. One thought kept coming back to me saying, will this stand the test of time? Will
these four stages, does it make any sense? Has anybody done work like this before? So, I was
not quite sure, so, I have this passion for travel, always go on places where I have not been
before, like many other people would love travelling.
So, I planned a trip to one of India’s ancient caves. Right now, we are actually standing in one
of the Buddhist caves which is close to 2200 years old, very very old. Much older than any of
us obviously. Okay, so, I wonder what connection these caves, these set of caves, have, with
design thinking. We will find out.
We are right now in Bhaja Caves. This is about 60, 70 kilometres from Pune, India, and these
are the set of 2200 year old caves, about 20 odd caves mainly for prayer, meditation and served
as living quarters here for the monks. All you see around me are caves, which were used for
living and they would come back and pray. Monks used to live here, sort of like a monastery.
So, I was intrigued when I said okay I need to be finding out more about these caves. And I
found out that the people had devoted a lot of time into praying Buddha, Lord Buddha. So, I
got curious and I said, : can I find out what is it that he is doing? So, it is one of my preparatory
,you know, preparation for travel. So, I normally do that and I said let me find out, go online,
and I found out.
Then, I came to this point where I saw the main teachings of Lord Buddha when he attained
his enlightenment after 49 days of meditation. He went to his first set of students in Sarnath
which is close to the heart of India and there he gave his discourse, first ever discourse to 5 of
his students. So, his 5 students listened to him in rapt attention to what Lord Buddha had to say
after his enlightenment. Those were four noble truths.
So, I am going to be telling you what those noble truths are, and then, I will let you guess what
we are going to talk about next after that, I will let you do the connection.
The first noble truth as specified by Lord Buddha was “Dukkha” or suffering. There is suffering
and in the world. Acknowledge that there is suffering in the world. Now, it may seem like a
depressing place to start but Lord Buddha sighted that suffering could be because of death,
birth, ageing, diseases and your attachment to material possessions of your not meeting your
desires, or losing somebody that you like. These could be your reason for suffering.
Now, he was in hinting on you giving up all of this and being a recluse in the world. He was
merely suggesting you to be aware that suffering is part and parcel and it is two sides of the
same coin; happiness on one side and suffering on the other. So, they are one and the same,
you are looking at the same thing. So, that was his first noble truth “Dukkha”.

The second noble truth that Lord Buddha talked about was “Samudaya” or finding out the root
cause; what is the root cause of suffering? The waterfalls that you saw just now, came from a
source on the top. So, what is the root cause the source of your suffering? You can meditate
about it, you can talk to experts, you can talk to your community, your family support and get
the root cause of what is it that you are going through, what is the root cause of your particular
suffering. This was his second noble truth “Samudaya”.

The third truth is that of “Nirodha” or Cessation; put an end to the suffering. This was Lord
Buddha’s third truth. This is once you find out the root cause of what you are suffering is now
it is upto you to figure out how is it to end the suffering, how do we mitigate it, how do we
reduce it, can you meditate on it, can you ask your friends, your community, your support
community, your family? What is it that you can do? This was Lord Buddha's third teaching
“Nirodha”.
Now, I want you to give. I will show you a cool thing in this. These caves are 2200 years old
at-least as I have already mentioned. Now, we probably have heard of this instrument or some
of you even play this instrument called “Tabla”. I would like you to look at what a “Tabla”
looks like 2200 years ago and here it is. If I can get you to point, there is a lady playing the
“Tabla”, it’s one of the drums and the second drum is here. I guess that is the second drum. So,
she is playing the “Tabla”. This is one of the earliest evidences found of the “Tabla”.
And what you also see is, Lord Indra riding on his “Airavat” or white elephant. This is the
elephant that he rides all across the heavens. He is the Lord of the heavens, Lord of the weather
and that is what he does.
And on my right you can see the Sun God “Surya” on his chariot with the 4 horses, and you
can see part of the wheel, you can see the Sun God, I guess with his consorts riding across the
heavens. This is amazing. For me, this is amazing. Both of these are sculptured so well and it
is to the test of time.
The fourth noble truth is “Marga” or the path; you set yourself a path based on what you have
done so far in the three noble truths. It is to mitigate the suffering, to put an end to the suffering.
You set yourself on a course to end the suffering, to put an end so that is “Marga” .The way
you want to do it the path forward which sets you to liberation or Nirvana. That in all were the
four noble truths.
To re-iterate, it is first one is- “Dukkha”, acknowledgement of suffering. “Samudaya”, where

you find the root cause of suffering. Third is “Nirodha”: put an end to the suffering, and fourth
is “Marga”, set yourself a path to the end of suffering. Now, what has this got to do with design
thinking, if you have not figured it out, I will lay it out for you.

So, what is the connection between design thinking and the four noble truths of Buddha? It is
basically that you have empathised, where you put yourself into the shoes of your customer
and know their suffering to what is it that they are going through, really find out? Go into the
depths of experience what they are experiencing to find out what they are going through. The
second is analyse, where you find the root cause of their suffering, why is it that they are going
through such an experience, is it something that what is the root cause, find out where is it that
you can really help.
Then comes solve, which is, you put an end to their suffering by offering your solutions, your
creativity, your ideas coming and you solve what is it that they are suffering is and how to end
that. Finally, is the testing peace where you set yourself a path saying this is how I am going
to end their suffering. This is the path I am going to embark my suffering. I go back to my
customer, offer them whatever your solution is to make sure that their suffering is ended, their
problems are over, they are much happier than they were before.
So, these are the four stages, and I found out they were correlated and I said, “Wow. This is
amazing. This is great. We have 2200 years ago evidence that somebody else had already come
up with and this actually works. At the same time I was bit crestfallen, I thought I had come
out with the, “ I was the first one to come out with these four stages,” unfortunately I was 2200
years old or rather 2200 years late.
So, it is okay. So, as long as the method works and it is of use to somebody it works. So, these
are the four stages that you will be using as part of the design thinking course. Thank you.
Introduction to the workshop team and the Demo Problem
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knoin Electronics]:
So hi guys, what we are trying to do now is we will be using design thinking concept and try
to build a case study on few problem statements we’ve identified what the school students are
facing today in today’s generation. So what we will be targeting is school students from class
6th to class 12th and studying in Pune basically and few problem statements we have identified
faced by the students are one is the access to digital learning and digital content, how easily
they are accessible to e-learning and all other applications and tools that are available for
students of this age group.
Then is the actual note taking process, how efficiently students are able to take notes and
organize their written content for say it like their school notes or tuition notes preparation for
their examinations, then their video learning content which is digitally available nowadays. So
basically how well this input method of writing or taking down notes is happening and how
efficiently these notes are being organized for future reference.
So these are the problem statements we would want to bring out right now and use design
thinking as a concept to come to a conclusion where we can come up to few desirable
conclusions and make a product or a service for these problems.
Professor:
Okay, I think what you have taken is a very responsible sort of problem, I really like the way
you looked at it and I have seen you Siddharth from the past entire team is that your focus on
these specific target segment of children in the age that you mentioned is good, because I think
what they are currently facing right now is the cusp of where at home they like these gadgets,
particularly city like Pune in India, I think they have access to gadgets at home, they like it,
they know how it is, they are wizard they are in fact better than their moms and dads.
But at school they face that they still have to write and hold their pens like this, they are
penalized if their handwriting is not good, they have to carry a whole bunch of things with them
like textbooks and notebooks. So at the outside, I would really appreciate the entire team of
Knoin for bringing this up for our case study, so I really like it.
So for me the honest question is in design thinking itself if you think about what we have been
talking about in the course itself is that we are going through it in a systematic methodic
approach, right so you have seen it in my class as well when you were in my class. So
empathize, analyze, solve and test so these are the sort of broad categories what we are doing.
In that I would like for the entire team anybody can pitch in is have you actually seen! because
you are obviously not from the target segment and not children anymore, right I would like you
to be but now you are not.
So I am really curious as to where and how is this, shade some light on who did? You come up
with that? Did you come up with that? Did you come up with that? How did you do this? Do
you sit under an apple tree and the apple fell! What is the story about?
Suprativ Das [CTO, Knoin Electronics]:
So to answer to this one, the note taking process I will say what actually the problem is in this
note taking, till now what we have seen in our education system we are all using notebooks
right to carry or to write notes and the problem with notes is it is physical, it takes space and it
has got weight. So it itself becomes a hassle when you are carrying a lot of notes, the reason
being one thing is managing, there are so many topics in a daily life we are in a typical school
a student is faced with so many topics in the class but it is not always easy to remember where
he has exactly written the notes. It might be a very small point but you are getting the small
point might be written anywhere, but to find out to retrieve that thing is again it is a hassle for
the student itself.
And imagine if somebody has to maintain notes over notes, so throughout the day is like from
the months the volume will increase, the management, the overall managing the notes it
becomes a bit of a difficulty, is not a bit of a difficulty, it is actually major concern, too many
notes so searching, retrieval and you want to give your notes to someone else it is again
knowledge sharing the problem would giving these notes is again a knowledge sharing thing.
You do not know which notes where have you kept those notes, you need an answer and you
ask Suprativ do you have these notes? I’ll be like yes, I have but I am not able to recollect, I
am not able to remember where I kept those notes. So if I am given an opportunity where I can
actually find these notes very easily and I can give it to you perhaps this will be a very easy
thing for you and mutually it will be very useful for everyone, right.
Nithin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]:
And also like how Siddharth was mentioning, there is a plethora of digital learning available
right now but the current infrastructure in schools and in a class room per say the pedagogy
does not allow the student to explore this opportunity and that is where we would like to come
and provide a service where the entire activity of learning which includes taking notes having
availability and availability to digital textbooks, digital learning applications everything to
happen within the classroom framework.
Professor:
Was it your own experience in class, I remember asking you know do you guys remember what
I did in last class and everybody is scrambling through their notes and they are not finding it,
they look at their neighbour to see if that guy has written it right, is it this which lead to your
focus on this problem or was it something else?
There is certainly a level of personal experience involved in what we are trying to tackle, but
we have ensured that it is not just our own personal problem but it is a problem that almost
every student faces in terms of not having access to what he has written earlier, and having
access to textbooks only through the physical textbooks, having to go to libraries to get that
particular textbook.
So bringing everything, making the entire experience digital makes a lot of sense not only from
our own experience but also from what we have seen through our learning days.
Professor:
Okay, So Siddharth question to you is, you have mapped your personal experience to this
problem I can see but, now I see that the segment that you have picked is very specific to this
and I can see my own reasons why you went but I really want to know it from you guys is to
why from overall vision perspective, why this segment and why it makes sense for you guys 4
of you?
Siddharth Maturi [CEO, Knion Electronics]:

To answer this question Sir I would like to say this for a school going student writing is the
most important activity which helps them learn in efficiently that is what we have identified,
seeing experience throughout our school days and college days, so more writing enhances our
memory is one what we have been learning through all our school days, then it helps us
understand concepts better and practicing graphical representations and diagrams helps us
remember those diagrams better for a longer time.
So considering all these points and factors, having this product which can help the school going
students basically where they are supposed to maintain different subjects, notes and also have
different textbooks so different subjects which is a kind of a hassle for a young kid who is still
in process of learning life and about subjects, seeing the book itself kind of motivates most of
the students nowadays, seeing how fat a maths textbook is, how fat a science textbook is, that
is basically playing on the mind-set of the student.
So all these factors all pitch into this product and what we are trying to do with this product is
not have so many textbooks and notebooks for each subject where students can actually
maintain all their notes irrespective of school, tuition, home, examination, preparation,
anything they write can be organized in one personal digital space and also helps them actively
write frequently helps them write also which is a good learning process for young kids and
considering the fact that notebooks is majorly and heavily used in schools and paper is a
material which we want to replace from a very long time but not have found a viable
replacement.
We feel this whole concept and this idea could be a right fit in for that gap what we have found
out, where we can actually take down notes like we are taking down notes in our notebooks
and also have access to textbook content like we been having through all the textbook content.
Professor:
Okay, Shyam I have a question for you, you are the marketing guy so what is the market pulse
the whole notion that writing to me is a lost art it is becoming soon a lost art, I write notes here
but I see often that people are in front of device they are writing or the thumbs are into play
and I have not heard of people actually use their handwriting if fact they themselves forget that
this is the thing. So what is the market pulse on this, you are the people guy I know you are
very friendly with people that is what I hear, so this is my question to you.
Shyam Paul M [Marketin g, Knoin Electronics]:

So right now there is a shift from like people are preferring typing more than writing, it has
been observed in few schools or institutions as well but the thing is like even though there is a
shift in you know entry of keyboard and all, writing is being used everywhere even in corporate
offices, institutions, schools, anywhere.
We have seen this digital transformation of entering content digitally through keyboards and
typing basically, the whole activity of writing has been transformed to typing nowadays to have
a digital copy or a digital saved content or something like that. So this basically is when we
talk of typing, we are already in a prefix state of mind what we want to type a particular word,
a particular thought, a particular sentence. But whereas, in writing you just go with the thought
process, we just keep writing what we are thinking in our head.
The way I write personally is I write a word I draw flowcharts to around that word, then try to
make up the whole lecture in flowcharts or couple of words itself and then make up the whole
lecture for myself looking at those words. So in my case writing is a way of learning in
elaborating that concept in my own way which cannot be possible in typing I see, if I am having
a laptop in a classroom and if I am supposed to take notes I will just keep typing what the
professor is dictating or trying to teach whereas, when I have a pen on a paper I will just keep
writing keywords or random concepts or diagrams then I will put my thought process into those
keywords and come up with my own learning article or a blog kind of a thing around that
concept.
So this is where we in the current situation are missing out in terms of having a digital input
system.
And also Sir you have to see how keyboard as a form of entry came into existence. The
invention of keyboards was so as or so that people could digitize what they wanted to write. If
there was a medium where I could write it on it digitize what I wrote and that became the
standard for all the technology that has evolved out of it, be it desktops or laptops the people
would probably still have kept on writing because writing is very natural to all of us and writing
is something that we have learnt as kids and we have been introduced to when we were in
school, but typing is something that everyone is forced to get into once they get into a post-
graduation or when they are getting into a cooperate situation.
So if there was a technology which would have allowed people to you know write and whatever
they have written got digitized easily then probably the way technology has evolved and
keyboards have evolved into desktops and laptops would have been different is why we think
an opportunity for something like this exists.
Professor:
Okay, here is the tech question to you Supra, he is a tech guy I know in this team. I recently
had to sign somewhere okay one of this digital gadgets and I signed after few days I looked
back at my signature and I was like what?? is that is that what I signed, so first of all I did not
enjoy the whole experience of drawing on this particular screen, okay and I do not like it, I like
a pen and paper and I want to sign somewhere if it is a signature it has to be that personal to
me. So what is your take on the current scene that is there and fill some gaps for me.
Like you said writing itself is an experience that you said right?
Professor:
Correct.
Till now whatever digital tablets have been in the market where we write the medium that they
use is specifically not meant for writing and the problem that we have is with notes carrying
papers. so this medium this digital devices whichever whatever you said like your signature
was not being recognised properly is because that is something that is processed, whenever you
make an impression on the paper you will have your own initial signature you will not get it
anywhere changed in the future as well, you see the signature it will be there as it is.
So our product it gives the same experience where you can store the signature, you can see
whatever you write, it will not get changed in the future and on top of that like you said about
the digital product that are already available, you are not getting a satisfactory answer. so the
reason is they are not actually focusing on handwriting, they are focusing on taking notes it is
fine, but imagine you place this device the tablet the existing products in a hand of a student,
after writing a few sentence they will probably not able to write anymore on that.
And there are lot of other reasons why this cannot be considered to be are preferable writing
medium for any student because first of all it does not have a fidelity like a paper, second thing
is that the digital tablets that we see around nowadays so they have many unrestricted contents,
you really cannot restrict a tablet to that level where the user the who is using that will lose the
interest of using that tablet.
If you keep on restricting that tablet to its core functionality what it is meant to be so people
will actually lose out that essence of writing on the tablet. On the other hand if you provide
them a device which is actually meant to serve what it should do. For example for our case it
is serving the purpose of a notebook, it is giving you the exact similar experience of how you
write and you are getting that you can store that thing in a digitised format whichever you right
you know it is in your own handwriting, you do not have to like differ from this product to any
other digital medium, even the best mediums that we see around till today they are still digital,
they do not give you the real time experience after writing.
Professor:
What I understand is that writing has to be writing in its purest form and then maybe digital
and all that can come later, okay I hear you.`
I would like to add one more thing like Nithin said why this keyboard? the keyboard was
invented just because what we had in mind, whatever we had written down at an earlier point
that could be digitised, that was the reason why keyboard came into existence, it was not
because you could draw line with the keyboard, no you cannot draw line with the keyboard, it
is with the mouse that you can draw a line, these are all digital devices through which you have
you do not have to use handwriting, handwriting is the most natural thing that can happen.
So till now the products that are again that are existing in the market they do not serve all these
things.
Professor:
The same note I am thinking, I have read somewhere also that you are efficiency of recording
information okay is extremely high in a keyboard, so I can type so many but actually when I
write the notes it is probably a lot slower than an keyboard. So in that way do you think that
your target audience of you know these kids are they losing out on you know because now they
are talking about information overload and so much of a stuff, should not there be recording
all that and be on top of it all the time because speed is the essence, you cannot be slow when
things are going so fast around you, so what is your take on that?
Like you said keyboard is a fast way of entering input this is completely agreed Sir, in a sense
if we have a set of information or data already existing in another form and we want to take it
into a digital form or a virtual memory form, yes we can do a copied writing kind of an activity
keyboard and fastly get it on the digital space. but when we actually want to think something
new, create something new, put our brain into that thing we cannot use a keyboard to actually
write a new sentence, maybe and you poem, or a new article.
We probably like to prefer work with words around here and there, then try different sentences
if you do not like we are all used to striking off, then again try writing something similar with
diagrams, so all these activities are not supported on a keyboard efficiently. So we are thinking
it in terms of learning as the number 1 tool and trying to enhance the creativity of the student
which is very meagre in terms of using a keyboard.
So in terms of keyboard it is very straight forward it is like you ask a student to by heart so and
so and number for question or chapters for the exam and for the exam end and come and
memorize all those thing back is what we are using a keyboard basically, you have that thing
copy, paste it and type it back there. Whereas in writing you write your own story what that
concept what did you understand using that concept.
So in terms of writing people actually improvise more while writing than on typing or using a
fixed information.
Nitin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]:
I can give you a typical use case in a classroom where the speed that you mentioned in the
keyboard can be a disadvantage. Imagine because you are getting the kind of speed that you
are getting on a keyboard you would probably end up like Siddharth mentioned taking in every
word that the professor says, after a while it becomes an activity that you are not even aware
of, the professor saying something and you are just typing his notes off, whereas because of
the inbuilt slow pace of writing you have to listen to what the professor says, understand what
he is saying and try and capture it in your own words.
So certain level of learning activity has already happened by the process of writing it down,
which is why we are trying to bring this into the educational learning sector.
Professor:
Okay.
So the moment some sort of information is ready to go into the virtual space then this product
makes more sense than a keyboard, but if we are talking about some information already there
and trying to shift that into a cloud space then we can efficiently, definitely use a keyboard to
copy that and take that. So that is the space where creativity learning is more effectively done
is the target we are trying to.
Professor:
What Nithin said reminded me of Mark Twain’s quote, “that a classroom should not be a
transfer of notes from the teacher’s notebook to the student’s notebook without going through
the minds of either”. I am an old school thinker that way that I think notes hand written notes
actually help you and for particularly when you are trying to learn something new it really
enhances your learning speed, learning process, everything is refined internally, it is a hand
talks to the mind kind of thing, so definitely I agree with you on that part.
Is there any study or anything that you guys did systematically so because design thinking is
one part of it is art in the sense that you have to empathize with the audience, you have to really
get to know what you are observing but you are going a level deeper and then you are trying to
solve that issue and then you are finally going back to them this is what I think will solve it for
you.
So in terms of process or in terms of some kinds of systematic way, have you guys attempted
something in the past? I am trying to get wrap my brain around that.
Basically in terms of research towards how something like this would work for the target
market which are students, we have gone ahead and done some focus group research and
interviews basically most of them either just who were passed out from school or currently in
school. So the feedback that we received is that students are certainly interested to bring all
their notes into one location essentially, because they do not have a digital alternative our
feedback from our research what we have identified is that lot of students are using a single
register to capture notes from all the subjects that they are learning from say morning till
evening and they probably use bookmarks or posts it to you know organize their notes within
that single notebook.
And it is again mandatory for all students to carry all their textbooks whatever they have to
learn that day to school and that certainly is a hassle it is adding a lot of weight it is a very
cumbersome and tiresome activity for students.
And also in the past 2.5 and 3 years as we started from the idea stage where Supra has come
up with the idea and till today where we have come up to a level we can probably build a
product and few services and a system around it and organize system around it, we have
changed this concept or the product in atleast 3 to 4 times basing on the interactions we had
with the market, students, teachers, so we have basically started with a simple board a writing
slate where we can just write and erase like in our pre-primary school slate.
Then we tried with another prototype where we can actually connect this slate to a smart device
through Bluetooth and actually record that notes in a smart device, then write now we are in a
process where we can actually write these notes, retrieve these notes in the same device and
organize them in the same device and directly sync to the cloud within the same device.
So even there is a lot of talking that has been done with the market, parents market as in the
school students, then the parents, teachers, then the school admin staff in numerous occasions
where we have come with different types of insights from different regions students from
different regions have different types of insights. So considering all these insights we have
come to this product where we can actually write, organize and save virtually all the content.
Professor:
Here is a generic question, if somebody were to start out on a path like what you have said so
you are here on this path for 3 years now where you have been doing this sort of design
thinking-ish process of going to the market, finding out what they want, then fixing your
product for that, then going back again and seeing how they react. So very classic design
thinking sort of approach in this and I know you are also doing it professionally now.
So my question to you is suppose somebody starting out completely from clean slate not to pun
on your product but clean slate, what would your you know experience say hey guys do not go
that path, go this path this is what we have learned that is full of you know difficulties, this is
something that we recommend you should be on, something like that for them, so this is from
a practitioner point of view.
First thing I would personally like them to start off with validating their problems, go talk to
their customers, empathize well enough with them, walk in their shoes, see what their lifestyle
is, then make a task flow of what their daily activities are, daily routines are, make a systematic
understanding of their routines, then try to draw out few conclusions where we can work out
which might be a problem statement to them and they have not identified and try to point out
those problem statements, iterate on them.
I think identification of the right problem is the key for the entire process what we will be going
through.
To add onto that the problem might not be what it seems from the outside initially at the onset,
you might have a product or an idea in mind and you might think you are solving certain
problem but when you interact with your customer long enough and when you dig deeper into
why that problem exists then you get to understand like he said what the core problem is and.
Professor:
Can you maybe perhaps given an example of this can you give?
Right, in our situation also what happened is we set out with this plan that students would want
to digitize their notes, so then we ask the question that why would students want to digitize
their notes. So then what we understood is students want to organize all their notes in one place,
then the question would be why, why would they want to organize it in one place instead of
having it in several places?
So then one would be it would make it easier for them to learn, it would make it easier for the
teacher to probably understand where it is, it would make the organization part of it very easy
for students, so we push deeper what the problem is and then probably come to identify okay
this would be one reason why students would want to switch to our product instead of
continuing to write on paper.
Professor:
So as far as I understand it is not enough if you have a good writing experience alone. So
writing experience is the start of all of this, right. So then there are several levels, layers around
which a student is grappling with on a daily basis and this you could not have been in your
ivory tower of you know product design and all that or if you let Supra be, you would have just
been a great, I am positive, but with you guys supplying the insights is constantly being
challenged to say okay writing experience alone is not enough, but actually there is far more to
this, I get I mean not to keep punning on him but that is one way to do it, okay nice I am
learning as well in this process, okay.
Any other startling mistakes that you made and you want somebody who is listening to all this
say oh thank god! I am not going down that path.
Validating these problems is a very important aspect in this very initial stage of our atleast our
situation I can consider and say Sir, because in our early days like every other start-up we were
also a little eager of generating revenue, starting to make some money so that we can attract
few investors and market as well. So our idea was to bring out this basic product where we can
actually write and erase only for a pre-primary students where learning is a very initial at a very
initial stage basically, they still learning to write and all.
Then we have actually identified that what they are going what learning they are doing is not
as efficiently on the just write and erase (wala) board, then we have validated and our whatever
validation we have gone through says that just writing and erasing is not doing any good to the
student just because.
He is getting the experience of writing on paper, so it again comes back to your statement that
writing experience is not the only thing that is probably something that we learnt not soon
enough in our journey with this product.
Professor:
Okay.
Nitin Kurian [COO, Knoin Electronics]: It could that learning could have come way earlier and
the product would have evolved and transitioned much sooner to what it would have been right
now.
Professor:
So interesting, I will hold on to that word saying the product evolved, it did not just appear and
said oh this is a great product let us start selling it, it actually evolved, I really like what you
said because often times as inventors as problems solvers we get hung up on that first idea and
we think this is it, this is going to change the market, you know this is going to revolutionize
everything that is out there, but it is usually not the case, it actually it slowly goes through a
transformation first in your head then you know with able team members like yours and then
slowly it starts transitioning into better and brighter prospects then it is and you do not like it
but it still continuously evolves also, he may not like it but still has to go on, okay nice.
So now we have learnt a whole bunch of what you’re thinking process earlier was and what
you moved on to becoming with all these thinking and doing and going back and forth in this
with the market, with yourselves all this goes on. So now my question will be to look ahead
and say now we are going to apply design thinking as such on this product which we will show
to the audience of course and how do we take this forward and how do we use this four steps
of empathize, analyze, solve and test again one more time and see how to move it forward that
is going to be our focus the 5 of us are going to focus on this for this course.
So my question to you again is that how shall we move forward in that and what is stopping us
from taking this product out there into the market, what are your primary challenges that you
want to address out of our course here, so that we can show them that this is what we are going
to do in design thinking.
To start off with what I would like to say is because it is a product a hardcore electronic product,
one shortcoming that we face is we do not have even a concept or a working prototype to take
to our customers unlike a software product where in you could easily build a minimum viable
concept and take it into your market and see how probably your target customers would react
to it, but because we have a product the concept is there, we as entrepreneurs and creators of
this product are very clear atleast right now what the core functionalities of the product would
be, but we do not have a hardcore physical device as such to take and probably empathize and
learn from our customers so that could be somewhere where design thinking could help us out.
Professor:
Okay, that is one. Any other is that you can think off that we can use this as a platform?
Yes Sir, going back to the evolution of this product part, like we have said before, we have
come up with a model which was denied by a market through our validation, then we will come
up with something else then the market needed, even more than that, again now we are trying
to come up with a POC or proof of concept which we again want to go to the market and test.
So this again it is like the same process of design thinking applying itself into this evolution of
the product concept within itself. So we again go back to the market and if market says yes this
is what we asked for, now we are going to actually analyse and we are going to make a proper
design or an outline around it and make it a solution to their problem. If they say this is partially
what we were expecting then we again go back to design thinking, study their problem
statement well, go deep into the core again, again come up with a better solution, again analyse
the solution, test and this is another process of in terms of evolving this product into a next
version we would like design thinking to help us out as well in.
Professor:
Okay, what is next in terms of, so now I know how it looks like I know what sort of have a
pulse on what the product is like what they like, what they do not like, what they have and what
they do not have, I sort of have an idea but I do not know how it will go forward. So if design
thinking can shed light on this is going to be how we are going to proceed then it will probably
help you.
And to para phrase what Nitin said how do you communicate the concept because you have a
product I mean you do have I know what do you mean by I do not have a product it is a conflict,
so on the one hand you have something like a prototype it is not a full fledge product like you
would see in the market, you pick it up of the shelf it is not that, but neither is it an idea that in
one of our heads or in shared concept, we can see it in the front, so how do I really convince
somebody that this is the exact concept I have in my mind, this is just a sort of reflection of
that.
And me as an entrepreneur when I show him the proof of concept the end market product is
there in my mind, but the judgements and the insight that the user might be giving is solely
based on the concept that I am showing him, so is there going to be a certain level of biasing
am I going to get misguided information these are all some concerns that we would like to take
care with design thinking.
Professor:
Very interesting, okay anything else all four of you? You have something? Technologically do
you find any, so I heard an interesting I am pulling words out of your mouth I do not know
why I do that always as always even in class I used to that? So is the space weight conflict that
you talked about I think that is the key conflict in your product, not product itself, your target
audience is that they have a certain space in their backpacks, they have tender backs let us say
we do not want to overburden them, they do not want the, in fact lots of governments are
already talking about having weight restrictions on what the weights of the bag should be, okay.
So with that that is an interesting conflict also, so I have pulled that as a something that our
method can handle, is there anything you would like to add in from the technical aspect, Supra?
Sir, technically wise I can only say that whether this product when we make a finished
showable product to someone the technology can only be determined once the person actually
likes that or if there is any kind of risk or if it needs any kind of improvement or any kind of
changes, in that case we can actually use design thinking to come up with a solution which
might actually suit (someone) a user’s particular need because right now what we are doing is
a general thing like people writes like you said pages and notebooks they consume space and
they have weight, so regarding this technology if the thing that we have done till now is just
coming to a consensus that people yeah they will love to have something like this which they
can save.
But again in the later stages once this thing happens throughout the process if something needs
to be changed or something needs to be modified then obviously this design thinking is going
to help us because it technology.
Even in terms of the technology that is be used in the product.
So because it concerns the four aspects that is there, the emotional aspect, the analysis, the
solution and again the testing, the technology actually follows a similar pattern. So design
thinking will help us.
Professor:
Okay, thanks for the confidence in the method, any other open thoughts that you have.
Another thing would be Sir is the infrastructure what we are trying to create with this product,
since this product is inclined towards writing as the process as a soul process and this product
is completely around writing, there are lot of day to day activities probably maybe every job
profile would be having where they are supposed to do some sort of writing in a day, like a
distributor how a distributed information system works or maybe how a school in a layman’s
example how a school administration works taking down from a director of the school till the
peon.
Imagine a set of instructions are being passed to a set of people to perform a set of job and they
complete that task and again submit it to that higher admin and that admin completes the entire
project and submits to the super admin, so all these activities can be handled and probably
managed to a device like this basically. So what we are trying to do is not just build a device
which helps writing and organization of notes but also creates an ecosystem, probably an
infrastructure where all these activities associated with writing and also daily activities which
include writing can be done through this device.
We would also like design thinking to help us in building a proper ecosystem for this product,
where we can actually after the product is sold to a user, then how the infrastructure is given to
them, how it is serving them, how it is maintained for them I think design thinking can help us
in solving all these issues as well.
Professor:
Okay, I have written down 4 problems that we could possibly take up, so we’ve given an overall
view of what the problem is that children are school going children are the main target segment
for us, particularly I think I am feeling that you are probably in the high school category, the
list of problem that I have written down is that I want a full fledge product to convince
somebody to even take a stab at it and see how it works, but I do not really have a full fledge
product, really have a prototype, okay is that good enough for that, is the insight that I draw
good enough for that, so I get it.
Then what is next coming up next, is it so now we have all seen revolution in terms of display
devices is getting smaller, is getting bigger, it is going through lots of, it is getting 3D, it is
going through all sorts of transformation, but in terms of the act of writing what is next? So
that is something that we want, in terms of technology is this the ultimate technology that is
going to be inside it or is there something else, is the product done can we say it is done, is it
going to be something else which is going to be the backend of it, or is it going to fit into it, is
it going to be something that the users are going to be satisfied saying yes with this technology
I am happy with that kind of a feeling people get.
And lastly the overall view of where this writing fits in because after all we are looking at
writing as a central piece where it is satisfying so many things, it is meant for so many things,
it could be like you said, it could be for an admin in a school, it could be an aircraft you know
checklist system also they also do a checklist, right. So it could be anyway but still what people
say to write is a verb and where what else nouns can be used around it is what we are concerned.
So let us see, we will see how to use design thinking and I am going to be your let us say official
guide, or consultant, okay professor, whatever mentor maybe and we will see how to evolve
this in the design thinking perspective one in making your product better and two to see how
to demonstrate to people how they can learn from the exercise that we are doing practically
and get some lessons out of it, okay so thank you so much, thank you.
Shyam Paul M [Head, Marketing, Knoin Electronics]:
Can I add one more Problem!

Professor:
Yes, please.
Shyam Paul M [Head, Marketing, Knoin Electronics]:
Yes, so Sir now considering like most of the schools are starting online learning, online
education like they are providing online education in the schools, but there is a thing like why
most schools are not able to provide good infrastructure or the basic tablet kind of learning
because there are few things. So we are like we can try to get those answers with design
thinking like why schools are not implementing online education or why they are not allowing
tablets or laptops in the schools, so there are few things which we can try to solve with design
thinking.
Professor:
Excellent, great I have added that as in what is stopping us in going digital in the schools,
because they are ready most of them are already been talking about smart classrooms and
having online e-portal and digital portals and all that in fact fee payment has become digital,
so many things have become digital, how come still we are in some ways we are still stone age,
in some ways we are space age. So what is going on here and will this actually help them with
that? Excellent that is a brilliant design thinking question to ask. Okay, so thank you so we will
see how it goes, thank you so much.
Design Thinking Empathize
Hello and welcome back to design thinking. Today, I am very excited to present to you the first
module of design thinking. This is a very, very important module. This pretty much is the
central piece of design thinking. You get this right, rest will flow or so we believe is what the
heart of design thinking is called empathize, empathy or empathize is the key idea here. So, in
empathy it is about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes figuratively. You get into
somebody else’s psyche and think about what is it that they are going through.
So, one way of empathy could be you yourself going through that experience and figuring out,
oh! Yeah! This is what they are going through and write down and note down as if you are that
external. So, you will have to do two roles. It is best done with another person also as a team
so that that person does the observation you go through the experience or the other way round.
So, it is easier to sort of do these two roles. If you do not have another person you can do it
yourself but it will be double work for you.
So, empathy is about going through somebody else's experience as if it were your own. So, for
example, I will give you two examples from this company called ideo.com. Ideo is the design
thinking firm. They said one of the cases I remember having read in a website or in one of their
videos is they were trying to figure out, ‘How can we help emergency room patients?’. So,
emergency room is the trauma care, you know the ambulance comes in and the patient is
wheeled in on a stretcher and they need immediate attention.
So, how can we help these guys these people who are going through this experience. So, the
first step as you can imagine is to see, ‘Can we go through this experience ourselves?’ of course
without having to go through the trauma part of it but at least what is it that they are
experiencing feeling as much as possible. Easiest way is to go and interview them and see if
you can find out, unearth some truths about what is their experience like and you can note that
down. That is of course there, that is one way.
But ideo’s team said, “no, we will do it more touchy feely”. So, what one of the person from
the ideo team did was strap on a video camera a camera right next to their temple here and
recorded the whole thing as if this person is going through. So, what this person told the rest
of the hospital team is to pretend that he is one of the patients and just pretend the whole thing
you know fake the whole thing as if he were one of the patient.
So, he was wheeled in from an ambulance and the whole thing was being recorded as I told
you earlier. So, he was wheeled in from the ambulance into the emergency room and he was
transferred from the stretcher, the bed on to their main bed where the doctors and the attendants
would come and take care of the patient. So, they pretended the whole time about I think I do
not know how long it took but how look it took he recorded the whole thing.
And interestingly he said ‘Okay. Now that I have gone through this experience, I want to see
what the camera saw’ and they saw the whole video, they played the whole video and found
that most of the time the video had recorded the roof of the emergency room, okay? So, this is
what a patient does and what they hear is that somebody operating on them or doing their
operation, they are performing whatever the medication, what injections all that is being
performed.
But all the patient sees during the entire process most of the time is the roof. Probably a very,
very traumatic experience but what do they see to get it down is the roof. So, this was a key
insight for them through this whole experience. It is to see how can we make it better when all
they are seeing is the roof. That could be a problem statement. You can come up with
interesting solutions for making this person’s life better, to reduce the whole trauma experience.
So, but to me it is key to figure out that this is what we need to be working on. So, empathy
formed a key bit in that. The second story that Ideo shared also on either their blog or their
video is a case of again a health care case. They wanted to help senior citizen, a senior citizen
meaning more than I guess 60 years of age. An elderly person to see if they can see, ‘How can
I help their life in their day to day life?’ not an emergency case but a day to day life sort of
case.
So, they called up a lady in her 60’s, mid 60’s maybe and they said, ‘Ma’am, can we do
something to help you? We are from this design team, we are trying to make people like your
lives better. So, is there something that you are facing that we can probably help you with?’
So, the first thing that the lady said was, ‘Oh! My life is perfectly fine. I am doing well. I do
not really have anything that you can probably help me with’.
So, these guys, yes, heard the answer but they are not convinced that was really the case. So,
this person asked mam can we come and visit you, maybe observe you in your environment.
You go through life as if there is nobody around, we are just bugs on the wall. We will just
observe as you go on with your life. So, they went and the lady said yes of course, come on
anytime I have some free time you can walk in and observe me. I will be more than happy to
help you. So, the entire team went with their paraphernalia, you know notes, camera and all
that.
So, they went to this lady’s home and said the same thing they said over phone saying that we
are from this team and we would like to help you. Just get on with life as if we are not there.
So, she goes on with her life whatever she did during the day and at a point came when she had
to take her medication. So, this lady as described in their report, was, not did not have, let us
say straight figures like I do here, what I guess an arthritic patient, so her fingers were crooked
and she could not hold on to objects very well. Such was her health condition.
So, she took the bottle of medicine and this bottle of medicine is child proof. In some countries,
they have it as child proof which means that just a normal rotating and opening will not work.
You have to press on it from the top and then rotate it. Okay? So, it takes a bit of skill. The
assumption is the children are not able to figure this out. The kids do not figure this out, I doubt
that but anyway the assumption is that and they are able to open by only adults who figure this
out is pressing on top and opening it.
So, obviously with her condition she could not do that, either “okay pressing” it on, opening
and holding it on like that. So she actually took a hacksaw, mild small hacksaw like this and
cut the neck of the bottle to open the medicine bottle to get her medicines out. So, the team
observed that if this is not a problem worth solving then what else is? So, they took that upon
themselves to solve it and to help the lady.
So, the point being that it is through observation that they figured out that this lady helps even
she could not articulate that she needed help here. Maybe, she did not, but, it is an area for us
design thinkers to think about saying how we might help with opening her medicine bottle but
keeping in mind that it should still be child proof. So, it should be easy enough to open it, even
people with such a condition should be able to open it but still kids should not figure this out
and open it and get into trouble. Okay?
So, this was the case that also was published on ideo and this demonstrates empathy through
observation. One was to go through yourself, the second was through observation.
So, to start off with what is it this whole empathy involves is to really find out, understand what
is it that people are really going through and this requires empathy. So, this really is the first
step and the most important step in our journey here.
So, asking like ideou team did with the lady is, what they want really does not enlighten us to
that extent because, sometimes people are able to articulate it well and good for you. You can
note that down, but most times we find that customers or people who really need help are not
able to express it in those terms. So, this is something that is a gap that we will observe.
So, really quick and easy to learn visual method to unearth needs that have not been expressed
is really the need of the hour we want something that you and I can quickly pickup. And it
should be visual, so that it does not require a lot of language to express what it is, is something
that is the need of the hour.
And is something called customer journey mapping. It is a very simple technique, and interview
based sticky note technique that you can use to map the entire journey that any of your customer
is going through. So, it is sticky note based, meaning those notes that stick temporarily and you
can remove, move it around so that as in when new information your team figures out, you can
actually add a sticky note, move things around as your understanding becomes better.
So this way you are actually tracking somebody who needs help. Since it is a sticky note you
can also draw little visuals even a stick figure would do fine. You do not have to be an
accomplished artist to get this going. So, I will give you a simple example of case study that I
worked on myself is that in the city that I live in a lots of people who ride 2 wheelers powered.
2 wheelers, particularly, they go through a lot of steps trying to cover their head from dust,
from heat, from pollution, from inhaling smoke, but they do not wear a head protection device-
a helmet.
So, to me that was bugging that you take all these steps to prevent your exposure to sunlight,
to pollution, to dust and what not but you do not take the basic 5 seconds it takes to wear a
helmet. So, this was something that was really irking me, whoever I could approach I could tell
them you know guys wear a helmet and go on. This it is not safe, you are assuming that
everybody else rides safely, so you should wear a helmet is what I used to tell people.
I mean that was just external empathy, yes I did ride a 2 wheeler. I use to wear a helmet, but
what is it that people are going through I wanted to look at it from this perspective and I use
this customer journey mapping to map that journey that somebody is going through.
So, here is an example of a customer journey map of fictional personality called Mrs Avni,
okay. Here, if you see the first question to answer is, who are you trying to help really in this
case? Give them a fictional name. I have not met any Mrs Avni. I do not know them this was
a fictional name, I wrote down what kind of personality she could be based on the interactions
that I had in my interviews probably shows up as a 35 year old mom, her role and particular
geography. This is important for you to visualize what kind of journey is this person going
through.
And what is the activity that they are going through, is a simple mom riding to work. So, this
is the simple activity that they are going through. So, I am going to examine three phases of
mom riding to work one is before, during and after. So, we will see. The first step to see is
before their journey. So here, mom and dad actually pack lunch for kids and themselves. So,
this is the first step that they do. This is what came up in my observation.
The second step that, she did was to get her kids ready for school as well. So, once they pack
lunch, they have to get them ready to for school and then send them across. Then, comes the
stage for us. The crucial stage here is to put on a scarf, something that protects them from
sunlight and pollution and then wear a helmet. I am assuming a case where they do wear a
helmet. If you notice we have looked at a few elements now, so this is the first one which is
setting a base for who is this person and what are they doing?
Here is this time status before the activity. You can have 1, 2 and 3 to begin with but you can
have many more than that. This is the bare minimum that one could start with. Another element
to notice is their emotional status. People have done the same method with multiple emotional
states. I would, say, start with, are they happy? Are they sad? Or they do not feel anything, like
in this case mom getting ready for school she does not probably feel anything as she is happy
or not.
Here she is very happy. On the left hand side is packing lunch for her kids and for herself which
is good, okay.
So, the next stage is during this activity so this is the second stage of what the mom does is first
she gets the vehicle out of the garage, no emotions associated with that. The second step during
the phase is she rides in traffic exposed to sunlight, heat and dust. Okay. So, I did not fully
empathize with this mom earlier on before I interviewed them and observed them on the field,
I knew about the sunlight. I knew about the dust, but the heat of wearing the helmet for a long
time during traffic actually leads to a lot of sweating. Apparently, also, there is a perception
that if you wear a helmet it leads to hair loss. One of my students did do the ground work on
figuring this out that there is a personal perception associated with the fact that if you sweat
and that leads to hair loss.
I had no clue about this part till my student did interview based perception analysis and she
found out that yes, this is true. A lot of people who have this myth going around whereas, a
myth or not is not part of my study but the perception is true. Okay. So, here again mom stops
at several places because now she is concerned whether she is probably her hair does not fit in
correctly as she wants it to be. Maybe her costume has moved around in the traffic, she has to
stop at several places to make sure she is okay because she is riding to work. She wants to look
her best. Okay. So, in this case this is what our analysis of the situation was.
Then we go onto the third step which is now Mrs Avni looks like she has to park the bike in
the parking spot. This is not well received by our intended audience as well, because the bike
is usually a bit heavy or the scooter is a bit heavy. If you are going to use the main stand again
this is something that is not aware of till I observed them on the field. Again, the next step is
now she has to take off her helmet and scarf and probably pack it inside the trunk of the vehicle.
Then the last phase is she walks to work, now she is all done with her ride. The vehicle is out
of the way and now she is happy to go to work. And so, you can see that in my map as well.
So, this is what we traced as a journey that my intended audience. Mrs Avni, 35 year old mom
in Delhi works during the day and in the part where I am interested in to solve a problem to
help her out in mom driving to work.
So, now we have unearthed few things during her journey. We can pull out all the sad faces
that we put on steps. First of all, she finds it hard to wear a scarf and a strap a helmet on top of
it. This is something that we observed you can write that down. The sunlight tans her skin in
this particular geography in India. This is a social stigma, heat causes perspiration. Again, I
was remarking about this as perception of hair loss and dust. Possibly dust can also cause
illness, bronchial diseases or some sort of defects. Parking a heavy bike with the helmet on is
also a tricky affair again noted down.
So, I noted all these problems down, pulled out these sticker from our customer journey map
and now you can use this as insights that you want to work on. Here, my tip is that, one is, you
should be skilful enough to take that problem up and see if you can solve that. Is it broad
enough that you can get many solutions? Is it narrow enough that you are not overwhelmed by
the magnitude of the problem? Okay.
So, these are some tips that can help you in figuring out which of these problems should I work
on. Should I work on all 3, should I work on only 1, should I work on 2 some things that to
help o. Is it something that you are skilled at you can make something? You can help them with
your skill? Is it narrow enough for you to make an impact for your intended user? Is it broad
enough that you can generate a lot of solutions, so these are some things that you can ask
yourself and see if it fits this particular problem set and you can pick a problem. Okay?
So, I have done this in a field in a class in Italy. On the right hand side is me working hard,
while my team was having a good time in Italy. You can see the customer journey map. That
is the reason why I had put up this. So, you can see a lot of sticky notes with all our observation
from the customers. There are still a few more that we were thinking on putting it there. I was
digitizing the whole thing. I mean, they were also working of course. But, you can see that this
is where our observations were going in. We were sort of grouping some of the common
observations and you can be very detailed with this as you can see here.
Here we went ahead and actually categorized a lot of users, as you can see here. Lots of users
we detailed out. We were working on a particular company’s product of an app and seeing
where they use this app all our customers insights we had digitized and mapped it based on
this. You can do such a detailing exercise but I would still insist on having the basic journey
map like we saw in Mrs Avni’s case, okay?.

So, I am going to illustrate another example of persona that one of my students had covered of
somebody with a child actually looking for a toilet or a bathroom in a city. So, this is her
persona of a middle age mother with her 5 year child and the geography is given and all the
detailing is done. So, you can do this as detailed as this or as generic as this you can see it here.
She did detailing of what all does the customer go through six steps. You can see it clearly
what people are going through again. You can read the text, you can pause the video right here
and see what details are in this, okay.

Now this is during the journey that the mother is going through with a child, so this we are
open to seeing what all can probably go on your customer’s journey and this is after what is
the emotional state. So, this is another example of customer journey map that one of my
students had detailed out.
So, there are a few generic steps that you can follow in constructing a customer journey map .
The first and foremost important one is to have an age. Having a large age group actually does
not focus your efforts on finding out what the experience that your customer your typical
customer is going through. So, going with a very specific age really helps in figuring out. A
geography very specific geography can also help you with tracking down or shadowing your
typical customer, these two are something that I found to be very useful in constructing a
customer journey map.
These are the six steps of detailing out a customer journey map. At first glance it may sound
very complicated. It may look very complicated but it is actually not. It is very simple. The
first, is use your own experience, your own vision of what your customer is going through and
ask your team mates, also, to come up with their own insights and stack them all together
chronologically in time saying they did this first then they did this first, next and then next and
you can put detail all this out.
So, this is what I mean by steps of the as-is customer experience. As they are, as you imagine
them to be and one tip here is to use one sticky note per step so that you are not crowding out
a lot of steps and you can move things around as you can have your discussion with your team
and you can move things around and see if it makes logical sense. If this what your team is
going your customer is going through. Okay, so, that is the third step you are arranging them
in chronological order, this then next this, then next this so this is what you are doing in the
first phase.
Then you go out into the field and interview real customers. So, that will be step 4. Like how I
arrived at Mrs Avni,, you can arrive at your own persona by interviewing more and more people
and seeing if they sort of fit into our age category and the geography category. Now, go back
to your customer journey map and see if you have unearth something new some new insight
that you think, “wow I did not think about this, I had assumed a certain persona of a customer.
This is how I thought they should be but they are actually turning out to be this way. So, you
can actually make some corrections.”
And importantly, see where they are emotionally high. Meaning, they are very happy.
Emotionally low meaning they are very sad or they are feeling a bit low. So, you can mark
them out to begin with just a simple smiley and a sad face. Just make them in your sticky note
and you should be fine. You will have a complete customer journey map. Okay, Thank you.
Design Thinking
Part 01
Empathize Workshop
Professor:
Hello and welcome back to design thinking, the online course. Design thinking is about
application; you have heard me talk about theory, about stories on design thinking, it’s
application as you have seen it or I have described to you and you visualized it in your head;
but here I would like to demonstrate how it can be done, what better way to actually get the
flavour of design thinking like seeing it in video here.
So here with me I have people who have experienced applying design thinking and practice in
real life problems, real life situations, real life customers, real life people whom they have tried
to help and they are still in that process of helping them. So we today will look at how to apply
design thinking and in particular we look at the first stage of design thinking called empathize.
Empathize is the first and foremost and possibly the most important step in this entire journey
that we have with you, so there I have four of my friends, colleagues, ex-students and people
we bounce off ideas, I bounce of ideas with; they will sort of demonstrate to you how this part
of Design Thinking is done. The customer journey mapping that I was talking to earlier about,
customer journey mapping just to recap is as if you are going through the entire experience
from the eyes of somebody that you are trying to help, don’t let the word customer mislead
you, they don’t have to pay you; It’s just somebody that you want to help in some way.
So we are going to demonstrate that with a case that my buddies here are going to work on. So
over to these people and for before we start that I will tell you the major steps, just again recap;
is the first step that we normally involve in customer journey mapping is to know who this
person is: persona.
So the persona is in three parts one is the age of the person, second is the geography and third
just for fun we will even name this person, ok. If this person is a male or female is important
for your case go ahead and do that, but I do not insist, so if it is important for you definitely by
all means you should call him or her and give it a particular sex and you can go with that
otherwise it is not mandatory.
So that is the first and foremost that you have to be doing which is to identify the persona. Now
again a tip here which I found it particularly useful is to have multiple personas who will be
interacting with or whom you are going to track, whom you’re going to shadow. So one could
be a sixty year old gentleman the other could be a forty year old lady, so you could have these
two types of personas and you could be shadowing them as well.
So that is as far as the persona is concerned, the second that we saw the last time was the phases
that we tracked them.
So just to be very simple write down the activity that they are trying to map, so what happens
before and after is also equally interesting because you want to find out how this person got
around to doing this activity and what happens after the activity is done. So to simply put it, it
is before the activity, during the activity and after the activity, so these are three distinct phases
and you can be, you can even expand on it and give it more phases if you like but this is the
bare minimum.
So another tip here; For each step before say for example it is good to have at least three steps
in that just to get a full idea of what is going on; and same with after and same with during;
again more the merrier, if you have seven different steps, eight different steps it is ok that is
what your tracking, that is what your customer does, so be it. So bare minimum is 3, 3 and 3
so you will have a total of 9 steps in all, minimum number of 9 steps, so that is what we are
going to do.
Now we use sticky notes as I am going to show you here, these are sticky notes that are very
useful you will find; one of my friends was joking that Design Thinking is probably the single
most reason why these sticky notes sell so much, so I am not here to advertise for sticky notes
but they are pretty useful because you tear them off and you can put them back in and you can
place them in one place, write whatever you have to write or do even draw stuff and move it
around; it is very easy and with a table like what we have I am going to show you it is easy to
move things around and the team can participate they can look at what is going on.
So it is pretty useful for that purpose; otherwise, yeah,good thing for me will be to invest in
companies which are making this but for now we will stick to the uses of design thinking for
this purpose of customer journey mapping, ok. So over to the team, the gentlemen here are who
have discussed with me and have explained to me what is it that they are working on, we will
do a customer journey map so you heard me talk about the steps and that is what we are going
to do.
So I will be sort of a bug on the wall for most of the time I will just be observing what you
guys are doing, in case there are things that you need help with I think that I can probably butt
in and probably help, I will do that otherwise mostly you are sort of auto director, ok over see
you guys. So here are my post it notes for you.
Siddharth Maturi (CEO, Knoin Electronics):
So guys, what we are going to do now is we are going to consider school going student’s life
and we are going to create a persona around a student and try and see what activities he is going
through in a school, probably find out any problems in his activities like sir said we are going
to jot them down as before, during and after; and see how we can map them with respect to the
customer. So we will start off by creating the persona for the student.
Nithin Kurian (COO, Knoin Electronics):
Right,let us give the name for a student first, yeah can we name him Sam?

Siddharth Maturi (CEO, Knoin Electronics:
Yeah, let us name him Sam.
And he is definitely a school going student, so probably his age would be somewhere around
14, 15.
Right
So let us have Sam with age 14 years, let them be studying in an international school in Pune,
India. So we have I think our first persona, so in school what would be the core activity that
Sam would be doing?
Before getting into the activities we will just make a different post of this persona, ok so we
can do everything we need him, ok right.
That is our first persona, ok.
So that is our first persona, now let us get into some activities.
Activities that he is doing, ok.
Probably most important thing in a school for a student is taking down notes, right.

Notes, right.
So let us consider the activity of a student taking down notes while a teacher is teaching in a
class.
Ok. So the activity first activity that we are mapping with Sam would be taking notes in class,
yeah. So let us keep that activity just underneath.
Yes.
Sam. So now like sir mentioned we have to have three different scenarios related to that
activity.
Right.
What Sam does before that activity takes place, during that activity takes place and after that
activity. So what would be some of the activities that Sam does before he actually takes notes
while he is in class?
Shyam Paul M:
So in class like is first Sam will be opening his bag, taking his notes out.
Ok. Some of the activities that happened before this actual process of taking notes in class is
that a teacher would enter the class that would be something that happens before; Then teacher
would either ask the students to take out their notebooks and textbooks or they themselves
would have the notes and texts ready; that would be activity number 2, teacher instruction and
notes, right? And what else? After that probably the teacher would start instructions, right start
teaching then.
And eventually Sam tries to get what the teacher is teaching and tries to jot down some notes
in his note book, right.
In his note book.
Suprativ Das (CTO, Knoin Electronics):
Is the profile of the teacher, like which subject the teacher might be teaching, is that important?
In this case, in this activity, before the activity starts. Imagine a teacher who comes inside the
classroom, he might be a science teacher or a maths teacher, say will that matter in this case?
Matter in the way he is doing his particular activity, yeah I think that might be something.
What topics.
That will affect the way he takes notes in class, right.
Yes
Probably for a language class he would be more into text books, poetry textbooks and such the
kind of books and where it when it comes back to mathematics it is more of writing down
practices, rough work.
Yeah, so in our class what I have seen some of the students in class writing in a certain way for
languages and for actual notes. Imagine I am, I have seen my peers writing on the textbook
when it is a language class; for example if it is, if the teacher is teaching a poem then probably
the notes would be jotted down on top of the actual prose or the content whereas if it is a maths
class he will probably have it is notes right written on a notebook, so he has brought out a good
point.
So, yeah the Subject; and how the note-taking activity will take this.
Depending on a subject.
Depending on a subject.
I think this we can keep it as before the activity would happen
So that would be the list of activities that would happen, probably. Right?
Probably the list of tasks that would happens before the activity, right.
So now we can move on to what would happen while the activity is taking place.
Professor:
One tip, let me but in here; One tip I can offer here is that if you can write down one activity
per note, that; I mean here you have written down four activities, so you can have four notes
with each activity there; It sort of lays out what the sequence of events is, ok like a story, so
this scene happens then this happens then this happen. so that really helps; In case you get an
insight later or you go to the field and you observe that hey, he actually, there is a subject
teacher walks in and he does something different, then I can actually swap the notes, your post-
it notes and then then that makes sense in there from the view.
So yes we will again.
Professor:
Yeah, good idea to tag it as ‘Before’. Yeah that is a good idea.
So we will remove this one off
Professor:
Yeah, but as starting point I think it is good so that you have written it down but I would
recommend you taking one per, yeah.
So then.
Teacher enters the class then there is a teacher instruction or students take out their notebooks
and relevant textbooks from their bag would be the second activity that we identified.
Teacher instruction or books off the bag.
Books off the bag, yes. Then the next step would be the teacher starts instruction or teaching
and.
Then student taking down notes.
Or student comprehending what needs to be; because the activity is before taking the notes,
right. So the student comprehending and coming to an understanding of what needs to be
written.
Right, so we have come up with four steps what Sam would be doing before the activity of
taking notes in class, so now.
Great! Sir are we on the right track till now?
Professor:
Thumb is up.
Perfect.
So then we can move on to the ‘During’ timeline of the activity. So what would be the first
step Sam would be doing while taking down notes, probably take out his pen?
Yes, I think the tool would be really important
Open the notebook and the pen.
Student 4:
Take the note.
I think there is one more point, like, the first thing might be selecting the book or the pen that
you might have, for example, if you might carry, Sam might carry a lot of notebooks, right?
and all the notebooks might be in a different sequence or it might be a topic in a different
manner, so imagine it is a maths class and the teacher does not want, the teacher will never
want Sam to take out his science notebook, so selecting the notebook also becomes an activity.
Shyam Paul M:
And I think there will be different notebooks for each subject.
Agree, but that would be pretty much covered in.
Teacher instruction or books off the bag, that would be a activity before taking down the notes
Before taking down the notes, him selecting which particular notebook need to be in this
particular classes.
Professor:
If you consider that to be a serious problem you can note that down saying during this step he
is not so happy because he has to go through five different notebooks or seven different
textbooks before he can land up on the right book, so that could be a problem that you can
write, note down somewhere.
Ok.
Professor:
That’s actually you are doing fact finding as well, right one is the fact that you are shadowing
this person but your ulterior motive is to see you know where can we help this the Sam in his
life, so that could be one place.
Absolutely.
So yes we will take that other point.
Professor:
Yeah put it as sub, yeah perfect.
First activity would probably be him having to take out his pen.
Writing tool and writing a pen and open his book, this would be first step of ‘During’, now
next would be.
Next would probably be either him continuing with what is already writing or him having to
look back or check as to what he had written earlier relevant to that particular topic that was
taught in class.
Right, so teacher might ask where did we end up in our last class and maybe Sam might come
up with, he might go back to his previous pages, verify his previous chapter notes and come
back.
Come back to write down his new notes.

I think verification of previous class’s notes.
Notes might be an activity that he might do in this particular.
Recap of the classes.
Recap would be a teacher’s choice again, yeah it is not an activity under Sam taking down
notes in classes. So verification of previous notes.
Next thing would be him having to have a fresh page once his current page is done, he would
probably choose to start off with a fresh page.
So selecting the page to start is current notes.
Next yeah, next line, next set of notes.
Selecting a page to write his next notes.
I think this would pretty must be an activity that he keeps going back and forth a new page and
going back to his old page.

Probably depending on the chapter what teacher teaches, he might be taking down a written
content or a diagram, so that is.
Right.
Graphical illustration.
Graphical illustration or a written content, so it would be like depending on the chapter or the
teachers. So noting down either written content or graphical representations, representations
like diagrams.
Professor:
Yeah I was going to say if you have a simpler word for that.
It came to me later so I had to add that. So I think we have got four activities during the taking
down of notes any suggestions with respect to that.
Professor:
You are ok, you are cool.
Cool, so then we can move on to the ‘After’ timeline of taking down notes. So what would be
Sam doing after he completes taking down his notes, probably.
Typically I guess there would be an end of instruction from the teacher is when Sam would
probably think that now it’s time up for me to stop my taking down of notes; So teacher would
end his or her instruction would be one step.
So following teacher’s instruction to stop
Again I think it would be like the one that we have mapped, like, either it could be a teacher
instruction saying that I have stopped my class for today or it could be an automatic
understanding from the student’s side that today’s instruction is complete.
Then probably might verify what he’s written.
Verify what he’s written, that might be something that he does.
He might want to.
Goes through his handwriting whether he has written neatly, his diagrams ended up neatly or
not maybe he needs to give it to someone else to do it properly.
Probably someone else.
Professor:
Personal experience.
More like it.

So that is a possibility we can keep that as an activity, we’ll see.
Professor:
I think you need to check this point with market, with real customers, this is checked. So this
is from your own experience, good let us document that because this first step is about
documenting it from your own experience and from what you observed, so that is there. The
next is to actually go into the market with your target segment and see what do they actually
do and then these things may change, you may add a few things also, ok.
Right.
Right sir. Probably verifying his notes with all, cross checking his notes from that particular
class.
Shyam Paul M:
And if he feels like underlining or marking something, important points.
Yeah he might, again all comes under this, yeah right.
So this is step 2.
And then we guess.
I think there’d be two consequences, either he can put the things in his bag or he can share
those notes with someone else. For example imagine I am a slow writer and someone is a fast
writer, he completes the things fast, I might skip out some topics, right, so I might need to write
those things second.
Right, so he might either share what he has written if he is a fast writer with someone who is
not as fast and wanted to check what was taken down by him is that is very well an option.
Either share he is notes.
Or so I think we can put that as the two alternate activities.
Professor:
Why not you can fork it also.
Either share notes or.
Close that particular notebook and keep it back in the bag.
Apart from this, do we, can we think the assessments, the class assessments that the teacher
gives can be a post activity.
Then I think that would change the activity itself right, this would be probably something that
is very personal for him.
Professor:
So suggestion would be to qualify this; taking notes in a non-assessment situation, ok, good
point, because the scenario changes and what the steps are will change based on the activity.
As you observe it, without any solutions we have done that. One last step which is important
is to track the emotional status of your, of the student, of Sam, so there are times when he is
happy, with wow this is great! okay that I could do this and there are times when he is not so
happy, meaning sad and you jot that down and there is a third one where there is no emotion.
For me the example that I probably gave you in class is getting down from a bus, there is no
emotion associated with getting down; you have got down, you have got down, right.
So that is it, so here also you can see from your own observations or your own personal
experience, there are places where you start wow this is great, this is nice, but now, not
something that I am happy about, ok, so that’s something that can you mark with a simple thing
like a smiley or a sad face on the post-it itself.
Teacher entering the class would probably qualify as smiley or.
Professor:
Sorry.
Let us take, consider Sam likes writing.
Likes writing and likes to be in class and learn, yeah.
Yeah so that is the ideal situation.
Ideal situation that we want to map. So let us give a happy smiley when the teacher enters,
right.

That is happy Sam.
That is great.
Then teacher’s instruction for books off the bag, maybe this is not, yeah, he gets to know that
it is not going to be a free class, yeah.
So it could be a sad emoji there.
Shyam Paul M:
He might be taking a lot of notes.
Moderate emoji, right.
And other thing is see he has to go through all his list of textbooks and notebooks; find out
where this particular teacher’s book, notebook is, take that out, come to the relevant page.
No, so Sam cannot be happy like this.
Yeah. Sam cannot be, I do not think he would be very.
Doing all this Sam will not be happy.

And meanwhile the teacher might be saying something that is important and he is not able to
give his complete attention what she is saying, so confuse Sam or not so happy Sam probably.
Ok, or a confused Sam.
Professor:
Ok, so you put an exclamation and a question mark, ok.
Then teacher starts teaching.
I think that would pretty much be a normal thing, yeah straight face.
Professor:
Ok.
Then student comprehending what needs to be noted
This also might be an activity that could be difficult to execute.
Since we have considered Sam, let’s make it a happy face, right.
Right.

Now that is the emotion for the ‘Before’ steps of the activity. Now let us get into the ‘During’
part, set up his pen and open his book to write, I think it is pretty bland, no emotion; Verification
of previous notes, maybe a curious Sam.
Yeah, it might be something that would again be a hassle for him to go to where exactly the
teacher is asked him to go or he wants to go, so yeah.
In that case not so happy.
Selecting a page to write his next notes is.
Pretty straightforward, right.
No Emotion.
Writing content or drawing diagrams; I think this should be the activity he should be happy
with.
Happy with yeah, he likes to take notes.
And that is the whole activity we’ve considered so that is the main part.
And he is persona is that way, right.

So that is the emotion for ‘During’ and in after the activity teacher’s instruction to stop taking
notes.
He will be very happy
No, because he was happy when she enters the class, so.
Maybe he want to draw more diagrams and write more, we are considering an ideal student
who wants to write we are in a
Ok, so he will be happy.
No he will be sad, yeah sad.
Not able to write anymore. Now, cross-checking his notes from the particular.
I think that will be pretty straight forward.
Personal activity, so yeah straight forward.
Then either share notes or close that particular, I think it’s, sharing notes would be a happy
thing

Happy, definitely he would be feeling happy when he is sharing his notes.
So, yeah that is happy Sam again.
Professor:
Ok. Pretty good, it’s turned out to be very nice, so two things from here; Like I said, when you
go to the market you can confirm whether the steps are identical to what you had imagined
from your own experience and from what you have seen. The second thing to do is to confirm
whether the emotional mapping that you did, sometimes called the empathy map and people
do detail the empathy map, we are going to do a very simple one, this is how we do it.
It is to check whether they are really happy, I mean you have taken an ideal student, of course
you can pick those students, those ideal students you can ask your teacher and get those ideal
students and then see if that is really the case, observe them, not ask them, so this is my tip to
you is: observe not ask because they may tell you something which is what you want to hear
but in reality they may be doing the opposite.
So that is something that you will have to do on the field, those are two things that you will
have to note down in your field activity. Great! This is very nice, I am assuming you have also
going to detail one more persona; That was our discussion. We will assemble again for another;
So we are going to clear off the desk we will show you what we have done and then probably
assemble again and we will do the second persona; because for this case it matters because the
journey of writing notes and the dealing with notes does not end here in this scenario, that is
why we are going to do a second one.
In case it is in your scenario it is, this is all you need, only one; Like in mine that I Illustrated
Mrs. Avni’s journey from home to office is what I had to track, then you can stop with just one
but in this case we are also going to do another. so stay tuned, we are going to show you the
next one .

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INDEX

S.No. Topic Page No.

1 The Start Part 1 1

13 Analyze – Part 01 Multi-Whys 59

Prof Bala: Course! Duh duh de Design Thinking!

(Refer Slide Time: 1:09)

Prof Bala: Ohh.

Prof Bala: Oh, yes. This is lot of fun

Prof Ashwin: Too much of fun.

Prof Bala: Looks like analysing something.

(Refer Slide Time: 2:30)

Prof Bala: Yes, yes.

(Refer Slide Time: 4:12)

Prof Bala: And I play that one more time.

(Refer Slide Time: 5:03)

Prof Bala: So it just not one-time but many times.

Prof Bala: Sounds to be like a game, do it many, many times over.

Prof Ashwin: There is the empathising phase, there is analysing phase.

Prof Bala: Analyze

Prof Ashwin: That is the solving phase.

Prof Bala: Solve.

Prof Ashwin: And then there is a testing phase.

Prof Bala: Test.

Prof Bala: And play games.

Prof Bala: Wow,

Prof Ashwin: All right. Remember 8 weeks.

Prof Bala: Okay.

Ok, let us name him Prince.

First one was Sam and now Prince, ok.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:21)

24 age year old and.

He is studying at a university in Delhi, India.

So what activity are we mapping for Prince?

Right, getting all the study material.

Relevant chapter or topic, right.

The study and activity, right.

No, these are the basic things somebody would like to

Both, then we can move on to, anything else sir?

I am fine, the things are going, ok.

So during the activity.

Yeah, during the activity.

Yeah, that will be activity 1.

So this is when he actually starts studying.

This is when he actually starts studying.

That is D1 activity timeline.

Right, second he would probably start writing or drawing or.

Taking down his running notes.

Running notes, so that the learning activity will happen.

Writing for practice.

Writing for practice.

Writing for practice/running notes.

Perfect, so that would be a referring online content for doubtful topics.

Doubtful topics, yes.

Referring online as well as offline books like book a reference book.

Could alternate reference book, right.

Online, offline reference materials.

Offline reference materials for further learning, yeah right.

Add more of adding his previous knowledge to this.

Right, probably he want to he would want to check whether he is learning or understanding is

He is not satisfied with the amount of understanding.

D1 the first activity in during learning, yeah.

Reading and understanding the concept again.

On the same topic.