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DESIGN THINKING
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By André van der Walt 

Design Thinking
25 January, 2019

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We have explored the basics of what entrepreneurship is. Also, we explored how
creativity and innovation forms an integral part of the entrepreneurial process. Now I
will now turn to design thinking. Let’s take it back one step. You observe someone, or
some group of individuals (a customer segment), experiencing a problem ( we can call
this a customer pain). You have an idea how to go about relieving this customer pain
(let’s call your idea a possible pain reliever). Thus, before you can turn your idea into an
opportunity, you have to clearly understand your potential customer. Furthermore, you
also have to gain insights on how this customer pain effects them in their daily
activities.

To do this, a design thinking mindset is needed. Next, I will highlight some important
guiding principles for design thinking. Then, in my following blogs, I will provide some
tools to help with divergent and convergent thinking; unpack the design thinking
process; and then provide an in-depth discussion on each step in the design thinking
process as shown in the model above.
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SIMPLE GUIDING PRINCIPLES

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THINKING

SHOW DON’T TELL

Communicate your vision in an impactful and meaningful way. Do this by creating
experiences, using illustrative visuals and telling good stories.

FOCUS ON HUMAN VALUES

Develop empathy for the people you are designing for. Establish ways to gain feedback
from these users, its fundamental to good design.

EMBRACE EXPERIMENTATION
Prototyping is not simply a way to validate your idea. It is an integral part of your
innovation process. We build to think and learn.

BIAS TOWARDS ACTION

Bias towards doing, allowing over thinking.

RADICAL COLLABORATION
Bring together innovators with varied backgrounds and viewpoints (in the case of
start-up teams). This can enable breakthrough insights and solutions to emerge from
the diversity.

BE MINDFUL OF PROCESS
Know where you are in the design process, what methods to use in that stage, and
what your goals are.
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CRAFT CLARITY
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Produce a coherent vision out of messy problems. Frame it in a way to inspire others
and to fuel ideation.  info@napstart.co.za    

Design thinking Empathy Ideate Opportunity Prototype Test

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ANDRÉ VAN DER WALT / ABOUT AUTHOR

André is a Human Resource Professional, Part-time Lecturer and
Entrepreneur. He is registered with SABPP as an HRP Practitioner
(58966094) and is a member of ASDSA (VAN 050-19) that centres on Human
Capital Development in practice. He is also involved with Occupation
Directed Education, Training and Development Practices (ETDP SETA - AVA
356549 & MVA 356549) and applies ICF Business Coach standards for
professional development at senior levels.

 More posts by André van der Walt

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