Design Thinking and Why Comedians Are Model Design Thinkers

Design Thinking

Design Thinking and Design (in general) are deep passions of mine. I love the process of discovering what is truly needed or important to a customer or situation and then creating something they find valuable. Top designs are all about executing on a vision and providing great value to those experiencing it. Design Thinking helps you achieve this.

 

IDEO has opened our eyes to the human centered design process and since then, many others have created similar frameworks thereafter. Despite the variety, all of these frameworks have one thing in common to begin the design process - start with the customer.

This simple theory is so easy yet we fail so many times to actually go see the problem or observe without judgement. Business/Clients/Bosses, etc. demand that we MUST have THE answer immediately (or you're just not good enough). This heaviness forces us to jump to a conclusion/solution without understanding the real problem. This is when design fails - right from the beginning. Try to avoid this dilemma by doing things differently. 

So what is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking or Human Centered Design, is about nailing a process and mindset. IDEO has a ton of amazing content to get you started. 

There are 5 super important steps to follow when approaching a problem to solve with design thinking frameworks:

Empathize

You have a problem to solve right? So, go get dirty and observe the problem. This is something that few people actually do for a lot of reasons (they think they're above it, they're are scared to talk to people, etc.) but observation and immersion are critical to understanding your customer and their problem. 

You must go and see things for yourself and talk to the impacted party. There is no better way to become a better designer than to talk to the person you're designing for. Strategyzer.com (might have to sign up - free) has a lot of good ways to ask pointed questions to your subject to trigger valuable feedback and response. 

Define

Once you have collected your data, define your customer's perspective. Take all the notes and create a sticky for each note nugget (you should have a lot if you did the empathy step correctly). 

Start categorizing these by themes. You'll begin to see patterns in what different people have said. This begins to refine what the true need is. I like to use Strategyzer's approach to creating a Customer Profile because it focuses on the customer's Pains, Gains and Jobs to be Done. By doing this, you have a great visual of what your problem is and what the true needs are.

Ideate

Ah, the whiteboard...my muse...my beloved. If I could paint all of my walls in whiteboard paint, I would. It's science, whiteboards make you happier and smarter. Take your customer profile and dive in. Create pain relievers for the customer's pains. Develop gain creators for the customer's gain wishes. Redefine the product or service that is needed to deliver the Jobs to be Done. You've now created a new value proposition.

This is so simple once the appropriate data is in front of you. Get creative with your team to ideate on these new value pieces. Brainstorming is not the best - I prefer silent brainstorming or brainswarming as Dr. McCaffery coined it. 

The important part here is to use the limited constraints you found from the customer profile and really think big. I love the crazy ideas because as they may not be feasible, the group can come down from there with more practical ideas that may have never been discovered if the crazy one had not been presented. 

Prototype

Build a mockup, draft, drawing, replica - something. You need something that turns the idea into reality. This helps others conceptualize and identify with the idea. It doesn't have to be a working thing - it has to resemble the vision. I use InVision and PowerPoint to create a fair amount of prototypes and it really helps with socializing and the next step,Testing. 

Testing 

You have an idea, you have a prototype. Now you have to test your assumption. This is critical. You have to be willing to accept defeat and that you'll live to iterate another day. 

Testing is where the magic happens. You get to gauge reaction and find out what works and what doesn't. Then you can go back and tweak the idea to improve it and continue to test the assumption - refine through iterative testing

You'll thank this framework later once you've dazzled and delighted your customer. It's so gratifying to design something correctly for the person or people that was intended (and not intended!) for. The best thing is that if you keep this mindset about the finished design, you can take larger scale feedback from the masses and tweak the design for the new interpretations and use of your product or service. 

Why comedians may be the best design thinkers around

Listening to "The King of All Media", Howard Stern, I've learned a lot about actors, musicians and comedians and their processes. It's fascinating how Stern is able to dig into the meta level of thought for these amazingly talented people. I have heard 100's of his interviews (they are amazing and worth the Sirius subscription) where he has someone like Martin Short, Jason Bateman, Chris Rock or Louis CK describe their art. It's interesting because the great performers follow the design thinking steps listed above. 

Here's what I mean:

empathy: All comedians start with an observation. Whether it is a character in a script or some seemingly innocuous moment on a subway. An observation or immersion into society and the ability to at least mentally track and tally these events makes empathy the first step in delivering an awesome performance. Being able to take a simple insight and create something valuable from it, is very much what human centered design is all about. Steve Martin noticed that in every bathroom there was a sign reading "All employees must wash hands" (more later on this). 

define: Comedians then begin to define the opportunity by noticing the trend and recording it - mentally or physically. They continually collect more data by talking to people and observing the world around them. Comedians also use trends and insights from other comedians that help them pin point an insight or observation that will work on stage. 

ideate: Once they understand the relative commonality with themselves and others, they start to ideate - usually very rapidly. A comedians wit kicks in immediately to begin spinning a tale or situation to exploit the insight. 

prototype: They will spitball ideas, write a 100 different ways to deliver the joke and then eventually build a prototype - a 5 minute set. This prototype set is a culmination of their observations, defined opportunities and ideas around delivery and execution of a good joke. 

test: Comedians love (or hate depending on the person) doing 5 minute sets with small crowds or impromptu visits at comedy shops, etc. This test is where they refine their prototypical 5 minutes. They gauge reaction and response. 

Steve Martin's joke about hand washing: "I’ll be honest with you, right off the top, because I’m a little upset with the Beacon Theatre. I was backstage and I used the restroom. And there was a sign that read, ‘Employees Must Wash hands. [Pause] “And I could not find [pause] one employee [pause] to wash my hands"

They take these "results" and go back and continually refine and test again. A comic will never say that they are finished with their set because they know how important it is to update and evolve their act.

This is exactly how we should view design (and business for that matter) - we're never finished and we need to have the design thinking mindset to continually learn and evolve as people.