Introduction to IBM Design Thinking

Speaker:
Adam Cutler
Design Practices Director for IBM Design

Hi, I’m Adam Cutler, Design Practices Director for IBM Design and this is an
introduction to IBM Design Thinking.

Identifying the right problem to solve is the single most important factor for our
success. If we’re solving the wrong problem, we’re not giving our users what they
need to be successful and identifying the right problem to solve for our users is
finding your teams intent. Which is to say, designing for an outcome. An outcome
isn’t the code that ships, it’s what we enable our users to do with our solutions. If
a user can’t be hands on using a design, there is no outcome.

So I’ve talked a bit about design so far and I’d like to define it for you. Design is
the rendering of intent. Design Thinking is how we go about articulating this intent.
And IBM Design Thinking is articulating this intent at the speed and scale the
enterprise requires. There are three main sections to IBM Design Thinking – the
Principles, the Loop, and the Keys. And I’ll go into a little more detail in each of
these sections now.

First are the Principles. Principles frame the way that we see problems.

The first is a focus on user outcomes. Our users determine the value that we
deliver. This is why we make our users the North Star for what we do. They are
the premise for every action we take and we measure our success based on the
value that we bring to them.

Second is multidisciplinary teams. We move faster and work smarter by

collaborating as a whole team. We have empathy first with each other and then
with our users by building a foundation of mutual trust and respect across all
disciplines, we either succeed or fail as a whole team.

Last is restless reinvention. Nothing is invented and perfected at the same time.
Everything is a prototype, everything. Throughout history, our fundamental human
needs haven’t changed much but the ways in which we address these needs
change all the time. Treat everything as a prototype, even in market solutions.
When you treat everything as just another iteration, you’re empowered to rethink
solutions to even the oldest problems.

The next section is the Loop. It’s at the heart of IBM Design Thinking and it’s a
behavioral model for discovering user needs and envisioning a better future.
Increasing our understanding of a problem and its solutions ensures better
outcomes. Therefore the Loop is made for understanding open-ended problems.
The Loop consists of three sections – observe, reflect, and make. Let’s break these
down further.

First is observe. Observing immerses us in our users’ world. It helps us to get to

know our users, uncover their needs, learn the landscape and test our ideas. When
we observe, we make sure to set aside our assumptions and take it in without
judgment. This is about objectively discovering your users’ world instead of
seeking validation for your existing ideas and assumptions.

Next up is reflect. Reflecting helps align our various points of view. If we slow down
just enough to reflect, we move faster when we’re aligned. Reflecting is about
coming together and converging on a point of view. It helps us to find common
ground, uncover insights, align with your team and plan ahead. When you reflect,
make sure to reflect together to stay in sync. Reflecting individually is important
but reflecting as a team is fundamental to great collaboration.

The third aspect of the Loop is make. Making gives form to our ideas. Making is
about getting your hands dirty to communicate concepts, explore ideas, prototype
possibilities and drive to outcomes. We can’t know everything, but we do know
something, so jump right in. The earlier we make, the faster we learn.

Now at this point, many of you may be saying, well, what about my artifacts? Rest
assured the activities and artifacts that we all associate with IBM Design Thinking
are still essential. Empathy map, storyboards, paper prototypes are all part of IBM
Design Thinking, but remember, these are just artifacts and techniques. Use the
artifacts your team needs to succeed, but don’t limit yourselves either. With that
said, the artifacts don’t do the thinking for you. Instead, we ask that you consider
these questions as a team as you move through the Loop. For observe, they’re
simple – who are our users, what are their needs, what ideas do they have for us.
For reflect, do we agree on our intent, did we make the leap to insight, are we
ready to commit? And while making, what’s possible, what’s our concept, what’s
our story? We recommend starting every journey by reflecting first to converge as
a team on what your intent is. After that, go in any order you like. Observe, reflect,
then make. Or make, reflect, and observe. What’s important is that you find your
team’s momentum, do all three and that you keep moving.

The last section of IBM Design Thinking are the Keys. The Keys align us. Great
outcomes don’t happen at random. They’re the result of great leadership and
management. No matter how you work today, use the Keys to keep teams focused
and aligned on outcomes that matter to users. Design Thinking helps us solve our
users open-ended problems. Open-ended problems are questions with no right
answer. Questions that don’t ask what is, but rather what should be? We use the
Loop to drive our answers to open-ended problems, solving complex and multi-
faceted problems call for larger multi-disciplinary teams, so we use different project
management frameworks to make sense of big problems.

One way to manage a project is to split up the team. You might also call these sub-
team squads or work streams. Each team can use the Loop to tackle their part of
the problem. Another way to manage a project is to split it up by time, depending
on how you work, you might call these sprints or phases. You can also use the
loop to tackle these problems one by one. Most often, we use a combination of
splitting up the team and splitting up our time. This helps us turn big problems into
smaller problems that we can solve piece by piece. But when we’re deep in the
work, we can begin to lose sight of the big picture. We see this happen all the time.
You’re on work stream 5 and sprint 15 on a large multi-year project. You’re no
longer sure how the work right in front of you fits in with the meaningful user
outcome your whole team is working on together. How do you stay aligned with
the big picture?

The Keys of IBM Design Thinking are our three most important techniques for
multi-disciplinary teams to reflect together and stay aligned on complex efforts.
Though they’ve been honed through our experience with our largest teams, we’ve
found the Keys to be invaluable for teams of all sizes. Hills align our intent across
teams. Hills are statements of intent written as intended user outcomes. They tell
you where to go, not how to get there. Giving teams the creative space they need
to come to breakthrough ideas. Playbacks align our intent across time. Not
everyone has time to be in every loop. Don’t let your teams fall out of sync.
Playbacks are a time to reflect together. Bring your stakeholders into the Loop in
a safe, inclusive space to give and receive feedback. If hills are the backbone of
alignment, playbacks help you stay aligned. Sponsor Users align your teams’ intent
with our users’ reality.

For instance, if you’re not a pilot, you’ll never know how it feels to land an airliner.
Sponsor Users are real-world users that regularly contribute their domain expertise
to your team. They help you stay in touch with their real-world needs throughout
the project so that you can observe through their eyes, reflect together and meet
collaboratively. It’s like having a pilot on your team. Those are the three sections
of IBM Design Thinking.

To recap, Principles frame the way we see problems. The Loop enables problem
identification and envisioning possible solutions. And the Keys align us on clear
intent and purpose. If you’d like to learn more about IBM Design Thinking, please
visit ibm.com/design/thinking.