Ideate

Design Thinking

• • Emphasize

  • Define

• Ideate

  • Prototype

  • Test

Stage 3: Ideate—Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

Designers are ready to generate ideas as they reach the third stage of design thinking. The solid background of knowledge from the first two phases means you can start to “think outside the box”, look for alternative ways to view the problem and identify innovative solutions to the problem statement you’ve created.

Ideation Will Help You:

• • Ask the right questions and innovate.

  • Step beyond the obvious solutions and therefore increase the innovation potential of your solution.

  • Bring together perspectives and strengths of team members.

  • Uncover unexpected areas of innovation.

  • Create volume and variety in your innovation options.

  • Get obvious solutions out of your heads, and drive your team beyond them.

Ideation Methods to Spark Innovative Ideas

There are hundreds of ideation methods. Some methods are merely renamed or slightly adapted versions of more foundational techniques. Here are three methods to use.

Brainstorm:

• • Start with your problem statements and the “How Might We” (HMW) questions you wrote in the previous stage.

  • Focus on one problem at a time.

  • Write down, draw or act out ideas.

  • Build on other ideas (1+1=3).

  • Brainstorming sessions can be as short as 15 minutes or as long as two hours. Choose a time limit that works best for your organization.

Braindump:

• • Start with your problem statements and the HMW questions you wrote in the previous stage.

  • Ask participants to write their ideas on sticky notes. This should be done individually and silently.

  • Limit writing time to 10-15 minutes.

  • Once completed, have each participant present their ideas to the group and stick them on the wall. Hold any discussion until all participants are done.

  • Group duplicates together.

  • Vote on which ideas to develop further. Use the voting methods below.

Brainwriting:

• • Start with your problem statements and the HMW questions you wrote in the previous stage.

  • Ask participants to jot down their ideas on index cards.

  • Limit writing time to 3-5 minutes.

  • After time is up, have participants pass their cards to the next person and expand upon the idea.

  • Participants should pass ideas 3-10 times. This should be done silently.

  • Once completed, have each participant present their cards.

  • Use the voting methods below to select which ideas to expand upon.

Guidelines for a Successful Ideation Stage

Here are some things you should always keep in mind in order to ace your ideation session(s):

• Always start with a question, a plan or a goal

• Make sure you keep focused on the topic

• Aim for a high quantity

• Put off any kind of judgement

• Encourage weird and crazy ideas

• Be visual: post-its and drawings

• Allow conversations and joint ideas (in group sessions)

• Allow and encourage building on another one’s idea

• Don’t forget to set a time limit and stick to it

• Cluster similar ideas

Voting to Prototype

Once you have arrived at several ideas, it is time to vote. You will have 3 different types of votes to mark.

• • Provide participants with two green dots (“Most likely to delight”), two blue dots (“Rational choice”), and two red dots (“most unexpected”).

  • You may also choose symbols (hearts, starts, and checkmarks)

  • Instruct participants to place their dots on the ideas that best fit the three categories.

  • Once all dots have been placed on ideas, review the ideas that have dots and move forward in further exploration of concepts.

Allow everyone to vote on up to three ideas (i.e., a person has three votes: one for each of the above categories). Once all of the votes are cast, find the 2–3 ideas that have the most votes in each category and explore them more as a group.

Regardless of an idea being considered a long shot, it does not mean that it will not be selected and prototyped. Imagine the person that thought of the hula hoop or airplanes.

Practice: Why do students have a hard time staying engaged

• • Continuing with "Why do students have a hard time staying engaged", we will continue with our findings to complete the Design Thinking Process.

  • We will now use the four charts we created in the Design stage to help come up with ideas to address the needs of students after school.

  • Say/Do and Think/Feel Chart

  • User, Need, and Insight

  • Point of View Statement

  • How Might We

  • Conduct a brainstorming session using chart paper and post-it notes.

  • Vote on the “Most likely to delight”, “Rational choice”, and “most unexpected”

  • Select one idea to create several prototypes for testing

Complete and bring to class on scheduled due dates. You may print your work in our classroom prior to coming to class. Assignments can be submitted early, but late assignments will not be graded. Early or on time submissions may be returned for corrections in order to receive points, meet minimal requirements, or to improve your grade. Late assignments can be submitted for correction and to complete modules. Consideration for grade is given to those who complete all assignments.

All activities can be found above or in the Vocab document in the Resource section.

Where and Why do they Buy

Continuing with "Where and Why do they Buy", we will continue with our findings to complete the Design Thinking Process. We will now use the four charts we created in the Design stage to help come up with ideas to address the needs of students after school.

• • Say/Do and Think/Feel Chart

  • User, Need, and Insight

  • Point of View Statement

  • How Might We

  • Conduct a brainstorming session using chart paper and post-it notes.

  • Vote on the “Most likely to delight”, “Rational choice”, and “most unexpected”

  • Select one idea to create several prototypes for testing

• • https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/design-thinking

  • https://postcron.com/en/blog/10-amazing-marketing-lessons-steve-jobs-taught-us/

  • https://miro.com/blog/introduction-to-empathy-maps/