DESIGN THINKING

Submitted to PSGR Krishnammal College for Women,

in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of
BACHELOR OF COMMERCE WITH ACTUARIAL MANAGEMENTs
Submitted by

Anusrii I J – 22BAG008
DESIGN RESEARCH STRATEGY

PSGR Krishnammal College for Women

College of excellence, NIRF 2023 - 4th Rank
(An Autonomous Institution - Affiliated to Bharathiar University)
Reaccredited with 'A++' Grade by NAAC
An ISO 9001:2015 Certified Institution,
Coimbatore 641004
S. No. CONTENT Pg. No.
1 INTRODUCTION 1
2 DESIGN THINKING 1
3 EXAMPLES OF DESIGN THINKING 2
4 DESIGN RESEARCH STRATEGY 3
5 KEY STRATEGIES 4
6 BENEFITS OF DESIGN STRATEGY 8
7 CONCLUSION 10
8 CASE STUDY 11
9 INTRODUCTION 11
10 ANALYSING BY EACH STAGES 13
11 CONCLUSION 16
INTRODUCTION
We observe a growing trend on the products and services market:
focus on customer’s needs. Currently, the customer is the central
character for business, medicine, public administration, etc. The rule is
done not by supply (what is available), but by demand (what the

customer wants or needs).

This forces organisations and companies to adjust their offer and
operating method to the customer. Convincing the customers that they
will achieve actual benefits when using products or services of a given

company has become a vital part.

In such an environment are needed methods and approaches
which allow service providers to look at the world through customer’s
eyes in order to adjust their offer to that customer as best as possible.
Such a method is Design Thinking.

DESIGN THINKING
Design Thinking is an approach that allows to look at the world
through user’s eyes, think about what such a user needs, and to create
such a solution that will satisfy the said needs. Thanks to the application
of this method, customers reach for products and services that suit them
the best. Design thinking is different from other innovation and ideation
processes in that it’s solution-based and user-centric rather than problem-
based. This means it focuses on the solution to a problem instead of the
problem itself.

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EXAMPLES FOR DESIGN THINKING
Story of how a Toothpaste Company boosted it's Sales
The story is of the 1950s when a toothpaste company (name
mentioned below) called for an open competition to suggest ideas that
could boost their sales. For many days they didn't get a proper idea until
a one fine day a man contacted them telling that he has an idea which
would cost them almost nothing to implement but would yield an
immediate 40% increase in business. He quoted $100,000 for the idea.
Though the price was high & the company not getting any other idea,
they decided to take the bait. After all, the legal procedures completed &
the money transferred to the man. He gave them a small slip of paper
written: “Make the hole bigger.”
Previously, the toothpaste tubes had a small opening of about 5 mm for
squeezing out the paste. If you increase the diameter of the hole from
5mm to 6mm, the volume of paste squeezed out is increased by 40%. So,
most users have to consume the tube much faster and hence need to buy
more.

This very simple strategy created history for the company.

The company- Colgate!!!

Moral- If you too have any such simple but spectacular idea that you
believe can create a great impact, never afraid to express it.

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DESIGN RESEARCH STRATEGY
Design thinking is a problem-solving and
innovation methodology that places a strong emphasis on
understanding and addressing the needs of customers. Design thinking is
not just a strategy—it's a mindset. By empathizing, defining problems
creatively, ideating divergently, prototyping, testing, and iterating, design
thinking unlocks innovative solutions.

Strategy plays an important role in the success and outcome of

goals and plans. This is true for business, life and career

For example, A company A's strategy might be to become the

cheapest provider in the smartphone market. Their managers then need
to negotiate with suppliers to reduce the costs of the electronic
components used in production. This is a tactic to achieve the set
strategy. This strategy encourages a human-centered approach,
promoting the creation of solutions that not only meet functional
requirements but also resonate with the users on an emotional level. This
is a very simple example of strategic planning.

Design thinking is the art of problem-solving with a human touch.

It's a methodical yet creative approach that revolves around empathy,
collaboration, and iteration.

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 At its essence, design thinking seeks to understand the user deeply,
define problems precisely, and craft solutions that resonate on a profound
level.
Design thinking is a problem-solving and innovation
approach that emphasizes empathy for the end-users, collaboration, and
iteration.
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to
innovation that starts with what is desirable from a human point of view,
along with what is technologically feasible and economically viable.

KEY STRATEGIES:
o Empathy o Define o
Ideate o Prototype o
Test o Collaboration o
Iterate o Mindset o User
Centric Focus o
Visualization o Story
Telling o Human centred
design

1. Empathy

● Understand the needs and perspectives of the end-users through

observation, interviews, and engagement

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 ● Develop a deep understanding of the user's experiences,
challenges, and aspirations,

2. Define

● Clearly articulate the problem or challenge based on insights

gained from empathy
● Frame the problem in a way that inspires creative solutions

3. Ideate

● Use brainstorming techniques to generate a wide range of

creative solutions
● Combine and build upon ideas to create innovative concepts

4. Prototype:

● Build low-fidelity prototypes to quickly visualize and test ideas

● Iteratively refine prototypes based on feedback and testing
● Prototyping helps to identify potential flaws and improvements
early in the process

5. Test

● Gather feedback on prototypes from end-users and

stakeholders

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 ● Evaluate how well the solutions address the defined problem
● Use testing to refine and iterate on the design

6. Collaboration

● Emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration to bring together

diverse perspectives
● Foster a team culture that values input from all members
● Collaboration enhances the generation of creative and effective
solutions

7. Iterate

● Embrace a cyclical approach to design, where ideas are

continuously refined based on feedback
● Iterate quickly and often to evolve solutions and adapt to
changing circumstance

8. Mindset

● Cultivate a mindset that embraces ambiguity, uncertainty, and

the willingness to take risks
● Encourage a bias towards action, learning
through experimentation and failure

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9. User Centric focus
● Keep the end-user at the center of the design process
● Design solutions that meet the needs and preferences of the
users

10. Visualization
● Use visual tools such as sketches, diagrams, and storyboards to
communicate ideas and concepts effectively
● Visualization helps in sharing ideas with team members and
stakeholders

11. Story telling

● Craft compelling narratives to communicate the value and impact
of the proposed solutions
● Story telling helps build support and understanding among
stakeholders

12. Human centered design

● Prioritize the human experience in all aspects of the design
process
● Design solutions that are not only functional but also resonate
emotionally with users

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 Design strategy is a systematic and intentional approach to
creating solutions that meet specific objectives. It involves analyzing the
goals of a project or organization, understanding the needs of
stakeholders and developing a plan to create solutions that are effective,
efficient and sustainable.

Design strategy can encompass a wide range of areas,

including product design, graphic design, user experience design and
service design.

BENEFITS OF DESIGN STRATEGY:

Applying a strong design strategy does more than just persuasively
engage a user. It creates efficient work processes that are both
goaloriented and cost-effective. Applying a design strategy involves
considering your starting point and your end goal and then plotting
exactly how to get there. Here are some of the most prominent benefits
of design strategy:

i. Enhanced customer focus: Design thinking puts the customer at

the center of the problem-solving process. By empathizing with
users and understanding their needs, businesses can develop
solutions that better cater to their target audience, leading to
increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
ii. Improved innovation: Design thinking encourages creative
problem-solving and experimentation, fostering an environment

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 where new ideas and innovative solutions can flourish. This can
help businesses differentiate themselves from competitors and
gain a competitive advantage in the market.
iii. Faster problem-solving: The iterative nature of design thinking
allows businesses to quickly identify and address issues through
rapid prototyping and testing. This can lead to faster
decisionmaking and problem-solving, reducing time-to-market for
new products and services.
iv. Greater collaboration and cross-functional teamwork: Design
thinking promotes collaboration and open communication among
team members from different disciplines. This can lead to a more
inclusive work environment, better decision-making, and
increased employee engagement.
v. Enhanced adaptability and resilience: Design thinking helps
businesses become more adaptable and resilient by encouraging
them to continually reassess their assumptions, learn from failures
and adjust their strategies based on user feedback and market
changes.
vi. Increased efficiency and cost savings: By focusing on solving
the right problems and creating solutions that genuinely address
user needs, design thinking can help businesses avoid wasted
resources on ineffective products or services, ultimately leading to
cost savings and improved operational efficiency.

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vii. Better risk management: The iterative approach of design
thinking enables businesses to identify and address potential risks
early in the development process.

CONCLUSION:
To make a successful product you need to put user needs at the
center of your efforts focusing on designing usable, delightful, and
efficient experiences. Design thinking helps you to understand real
people’s needs and problems and uncovers ways of improving user
experiences.

So, don’t hesitate to make design thinking a part of your company

culture. It will promote creating products that deeply resonate with your
customers — ultimately driving engagement and growth.

CASE STUDY
REDUCING FOOD WASTE WITH DESIGN THINKING
INTRODUCTION

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 According to Food and Agriculture Organization, 33% of all food
every year in the UK gets wasted throughout the supply chain, from
initial agricultural production through household consumption.

While there are many initiatives tackling this challenge on a

global level, most of them concentrate on the production cycle, leaving
the end-consumer waste untouched and the consumers themselves a bit
unaware of the problem at hand.

To tackle the merging problem of food waste from a different

angle, We may apply the design thinking process to come up with
solutions against food waste in the household and/ or consumer level.

Ratan Tata, an Indian industrialist, philanthropist and former

chairperson of Tata Group, on one of his business trips to Berlin,
Germany, had a meal at a restaurant along with his team.
After the meal, they were about to leave and about
onethird of the food was left unconsumed, the restaurant manager then
questioned them about the food wastage to which one of Mr.Tata’s team
members replied sternly, “We have paid for the food and it does not
matter how much we leave behind”. To which the manager politely
responded, “Money is yours but resources belong to the planet. There
are many others in the world who are facing shortage of food, hence
only order the quantity you can consume” and they were fined for

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wasting food. Mr. Tata has shared this incident on Twitter and
emphasized on the importance of saving resources and termination of
food wastage.
Every year in India more than 70 million tonnes of food is wasted
which is equivalent to Rs. 92,000 crores and could feed more than 40%
of the country’s population. These figures are increasing at an alarming
rate. In the course on Design Thinking-
Design thinking is an iterative process which uses a set
of cognitive, strategic and practical procedures to understand users,
challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative
solutions to prototype and test.
In this case study we used the design thinking process to find
possible solutions to this emerging problem of our times. It involves
some stages:

• Empathize (Why to solve): This stage focuses on user-centric

research to gain an empathic understanding of the customer’s
problem.

• Define (What to solve): The information gathered is organized

and a problem statement is defined.

• Ideate (How to solve): Ideas are generated to create innovative

solutions
• Prototype: In this stage the best possible solution for each of the
problems identified during the first three stages are identified.

• Test: The complete product using the best solutions identified in

the Prototype stage are tested.

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Applying the above framework to the food wastage problem:

ANALYSING BY EACH STAGES:

Collecting data and insights to understand the challenge and
awaken our empathy:

In this stage, I began with analyzing the major sources of food wastage:

• Celebratory events - Weddings, Corporate events etc.

• Restaurants

• Grocery stores

• Households

How consumers:

• perceive food waste,

• how aware they are of the current/ future situation, and
• what would intrigue and/ or restraint them from alternating their
current grocery shopping/ cooking habits in order to try out an
initiative against food waste

How grocery store managers/ decision-makers:

• perceive food waste and the current/ future situation

• what are their greatest challenges against food waste
• how the decisions are made, and

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 • what would intrigue/ restraint the decision-makers in order to
participate in an initiative against food waste

How local restaurant owners/ chefs:

• handle food waste

• what are the greatest challenges against food waste in a restaurant,
• how the decisions are made, and
• what would intrigue/ restraint the decision-makers in order to
participate in an initiative against food waste
From the above sources, I have identified the potential
donors as people responsible for conducting operations at the source of
food wastage and the recipients include:
Homeless people on streets, Orphanages and Old age homes.
Identified the barriers due to which excess food is not being donated and
plainly wasted.

Defining our typical and extreme users/ consumers

Analyzing our data, we merged patterns and started setting up

personas for our typical and extreme users to use throughout this
initiative, ending up with three personas for our typical users and two
personas for our extreme users.
Defined the problem statement based on my findings
from the previous stage i.e “Lack of a smooth enough channel through

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which donors can donate excess food to recipients”. Visualizing
consumers' journeys

Having our personas in place, we moved forward brainstorming

and setting up user journeys and story boards with the aim to
understand more about:

• the culinary choices of our users

• their food & beverage purchasing habits
• their meal preparation habits

Ideating and developing concepts

In the ideation phase, components of the solutions are derived based on

the problem definition.

1. Connect with the donors: Set up a channel to collect

information from donors such as quantity of food, location,
time of collection, menu of food. Advertise to create awareness
of the organization’s existence through various channels like
social media and other platforms.
2. Connect with recipients: Identify stationery recipient groups
within the vicinity of donors. Identify localities with high
concentrations of mobile recipient groups (homeless people).

3. Verify the quality of food to be collected to ensure food safety.

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 4. Setting up logistics for collecting food from donors and
donating it to recipients.

Having a good understanding of the merging challenge of food

waste, and our typical & extreme users, we organized and facilitated a
series of remote brainstorming sessions to collect as many ideas as
possible as well as remote workshops to investigate further the most
prominent ideas and develop concepts.

Prototyping and testing our concept

Rapid prototyping and testing the proposed solutions

accordingly, we were able to collect valuable data about consumers'
perception and create a backlog of future iterations and the next steps for
both concepts.

CONCLUSION:
When the above solution was proposed to a restaurant manager
and an operator at an old age home, they were able to confirm that the
pain points are accurate and the solution will rightly address them. The
solution revolved around both donors and recipients being at the center
of the solution.

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 My major learning from this project is to empathize with the
problems faced by key stakeholders and use human-centered design
which starts with people we are designing solutions for, in the center at
every stage of the problem solving process and ends with tailor-made
solutions to suit the needs of the users.

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