Successful Innovation
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
-Henry Ford
EmpathyDesign thinking is sure to create what the consumers really want. Instead of the classic market research technique of putting subjects in a lab where they feel uncomfortable and potentially do not act the way they normally would, Design Thinking utilizes extensive interviews. Because one of the core elements in Design Thinking is empathy, Design Thinkers make sure to understand the consumers motivation completely. Interviews search for stories and lots of detail to determine what the consumer really wants, not just what they think they want.
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CreativityThe second core element of Design Thinking is the creativity. Once you have found a direction to go in based on your empathetic interviews, the next part is creating a unique product for your consumers. To do this, Design Thinkers often go through multiple steps to generate interesting ideas. At this stage, no idea is too crazy- in fact, it’s encouraged. One exercise requires you to create an idea using a “radical” way of thinking, while another tells you that the solution has to use “magic” of some sort. Out of the box thinking helps you to come up with ideas that are original, yet still consumer based.
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RationalityFinally, Design Thinking tones down the creative part by taking rationality into consideration. This is the part where cost factors make themselves apparent, yet the vastness of creativity created in the previous step allows for designers to think of exciting solutions that are still feasible. The rationality is what makes the product come to life.
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Note on Rhetoric: This system is very concerned with the context of your rhetoric. In each situation, the empathetic, creativity and rationality portions will change and you will have to alter the Design Process to fit it. It will be very important for you to understand the context before you begin to analyze the other aspects of the rhetorical situation.
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