Some of the design thinking tools we use in our day-to-day:
Discovery
Contextual Inquiries (Qualitative)
Contextual inquiry involves observing people in their natural context and asking them questions to fill in the gaps of your observation.
User surveys (Quantitative)
Utilising polls, surveys and other feedback mechanisms to generate insights from a larger data set. These can then help inform future research and development.
Usability testing
Evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users.
Affinity mapping
Organise large sets of research data points and ideas into categories/themes to help generate insights for the wider product team.
Ecosystem/journey mapping
A diagram that explores the multiple (sometimes invisible) steps taken by customers as they engage with services within your ecosystem.
Design
Design sprints
A 5-day ideation sprint to capture current states, pain points, generate ideas and validate.
Prototype testing
Performing user tests with prototypes provides valuable feedback that the product teams can use early in the design process to avoid costly mistakes.
Design system
A single source of truth to group all the elements that will allow the teams to design, realise and develop a unified product, or suite of products.
Personas
A relatable snapshot of the target audience that highlights demographics, behaviours, needs and motivations through the creation of a fictional character.
Task analysis
A breakdown of the actors, required information and actions needed to achieve a task.
Value Proposition
A reductive process in the early stages of product definition that maps out the key aspects of it: what it is, who it is for and when/where it will be used.
Delivery
Continuous delivery
Repeatedly monitor and track items through research, design and delivery to improve and measure success.
Decision-making toolkits
A number of tools, cards or utilities that can be used within the product team to encourage team members to make the right decisions at the right times, for the right reasons.