Digital transformation is reinventing businesses around the world (including design thinking) . In a time when there is constant improvement in technological capabilities, organization leaders need to think of agility and innovation.
They need to integrate the rapidly changing digital technologies into their business practices in order to avoid becoming obsolete. To stay competitive in any market, a digital transformation strategy is no longer an option but a necessity.
The transition to digital first can be challenging in a rapidly changing environment. This is where design thinking can play an important role. Design thinking is a five step methodology that focuses its attention on the user. It does not provide solutions to a problem upfront but examines present and future details while exploring alternate solutions.
Design thinking can guide your organization’s digital transformation journey by providing a fluid, flexible and hands-on approach which includes interacting with customers and coming up with solutions.
Design thinking comprises five steps, including empathize, define the problem, ideate, prototype, and test.
Step One: Empathize through design thinking
One element that is critical to digital transformation is creating an exceptional and optimal experience for the customer. In order to do this effectively, the business must be able to empathize with the customers and understand their motivations, needs, responses and pain points.
Since the problems that we are attempting to solve are not our own, we cannot presume to know or predict their actions. Instead it is important to observe and document the customers interactions with your product or service.
Collect and analyze click-stream data to understand how they are engaging with your app or site. Chat logs are also an excellent source of data to see what they are asking your customer service team. To ensure that you are able to provide an excellent experience for your customers, ask them what they want their digital experience to be like and collect testimonials.
When you are able to get an in-depth understanding of where the customer’s friction points are, you will be equipped to effectively solve their issues.
Step Two : Define The Problem
Now that you have collected data regarding the problems that customers face, it is time to clearly define them with the insight gained to plan how to solve them. This will enable you to decide where to focus your time and energy. During this stage, it is helpful to formulate a problem statement and break it down into steps.
The focus of the problem statement should be a specific issue that is being faced by the customer. This stage can become a little overwhelming especially if more problems turn up than expected. The best way to address problems that need attention is to break them down and prioritize them into individual manageable pieces
Step Three: Ideate better through design thinking
Once you have defined the problems, it’s time to generate ideas on how to solve them. In this phase it is important to bring in a team to brainstorm creative solutions for the various problems. Don’t just use members of your own team, work cross-functionally and collaboratively by including people from other departments. Encourage your team to ideate on multiple solutions that can be used to fix the problem. Keep this phase quick, creative and collaborative.
Step Four: Prototype
Having come up with creative solutions, it is now time for your team to experiment and come up with a variety of simple and inexpensive models. The aim is to quickly test and validate which solution idea is the most viable. The prototypes that are designed as solutions need to be tested on a small set of users.
This can be done with usability testing or on a limited selection of your site visitors. It is important for you to observe and collate data on how people interact with the prototype. Use the feedback collected to adjust and optimize the next model. Keep this phase of improvements quick and efficient. Once this phase is over, you will have the information needed to understand what works best for your customer. You will also have clarity on how they think and feel when interacting with your product.
Step Five: Test
Every time you test your prototype, it gives you an opportunity to improve. Every time you interact with a customer, you are provided with a learning opportunity to enhance the customer experience with your product or service. In the testing phase you can collect information needed to optimize your product.
Design thinking methodology is one of the best ways to transition to and integrate the ever evolving digital transformation process into your business. The user-centric approach will make the transition quicker and easier.
Businesses across all sectors are going digital in order to improve their services and customer experiences. If you are looking for a trusted technological partner, don’t hesitate to contact one of our design experts at Kilowott. Follow this unique business experience blog to learn more about technology.
