There are many ways of doing design thinking, called "frameworks". This page is about the Design for Delight (D4D) framework. There is a certification exam associated with this framework. The certification exam objectives are identified on this page in parentheses.
Playbook (pdf) - for a quick, basic run-through of the process
Method Cards - for a more detailed and comprehensive run-through of the process
Courses
D4D Foundations Course - for learning the process through videos, readings, quizzes, etc.
Bunker Labs Course (targeted for veterans but open to anyone)
LearnKey Online Course for Intuit Certifications - Single Title (additional cost, optional)
Mural templates - for documenting the process
Whole process in general
Individual stages in more detail
Life at Intuit blog
Deep Customer Empathy - Building Deep Customer Empathy to Solve Any Problem
Go Broad to Go Narrow - Narrowing on bold solutions to delight customers
Rapid Experimentation - Why rapid experimentation helps you deliver true customer benefits
Video Playlists
Intuit Design for Delight Innovator Certification Information
Intuit Exam Voucher with Retake and CertPREP Practice Tests (RECOMMENDED, additional cost, optional)
Get a coupon code from Canvas
Intuit Exam Voucher with Retake (if you don't want practice tests)
Deep Customer Empathy creates shared understanding, insights, and motivation to improve the lives of our customers. How do we gain this empathy? By observing people, their behaviors, patterns and environment first-hand, with a keen eye to their pain points and barriers to achieving their goal.
We “go broad” by using our creativity to explore a variety of potential solutions.
We “go narrow” by focusing on bold solutions most likely to delight our customers.
Conducting rapid experiments with real customers tests your solutions quickly and leads to better decisions. This is about being systematic on assumptions, prototyping with clear intent, and iterating with your customers. You quickly learn what works and what does not, saving valuable time and resources when making your next decision. The customer’s reaction to your solution to their problem provides the data you need to move forward — or to step back.
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1. Customer Benefit
This metric focuses on the tangible value that customers derive from your product or service. It assesses whether your offering addresses their needs, solves their problems, or fulfills their desires effectively.
Customer Benefit emphasizes the importance of understanding customers' pain points, goals, and preferences to deliver meaningful solutions.
It involves identifying the core benefits that your product or service provides and ensuring that they align closely with what your target customers value most.
2. Ease of Use
Ease of Use refers to the simplicity and intuitiveness of interacting with your product or service. It evaluates how easily customers can navigate, understand, and utilize your offering to accomplish their tasks or goals.
This metric recognizes that a seamless user experience is essential for fostering engagement and satisfaction. It involves removing unnecessary complexity, streamlining processes, and providing clear guidance to users.
By prioritizing Ease of Use, you can minimize friction and frustration, making it effortless for customers to extract value from your offering.
3. Positive Emotion
Positive Emotion measures the emotional response elicited from customers when interacting with your product or service. It encompasses feelings of joy, satisfaction, delight, and even surprise.
This metric acknowledges that emotional engagement plays a significant role in shaping customers' perceptions and loyalty. It involves designing experiences that evoke positive emotions and leave a lasting impression.
By focusing on Positive Emotion, you can create memorable experiences that resonate with customers on a deeper level, fostering emotional connections and building brand affinity.
Within the Design for Delight framework, the role of the customer is central and fundamental. Customers are not just passive recipients of products or services; rather, they are active participants in the design process. In this framework, customers play several crucial roles:
1. Co-Creators
Customers are viewed as co-creators who provide valuable insights, feedback, and ideas throughout the design process.
Their input is sought at various stages, from initial ideation to prototype testing and iteration, ensuring that the final product or service aligns closely with their needs and preferences.
2. Source of Inspiration
Customers serve as a source of inspiration for innovation and creativity. By understanding their challenges, aspirations, and behaviors, designers can identify opportunities to develop novel solutions that address unmet needs or exceed expectations.
3. Validators
Customers act as validators, helping to test and validate design concepts, features, and prototypes.
Their feedback and reactions provide valuable insights into what works well and what needs improvement, guiding iterative refinement and ensuring that the final outcome resonates with the target audience.
4. Drivers of Delight
Ultimately, customers are the drivers of delight. Their satisfaction, happiness, and emotional response to the product or service determine its success.
By prioritizing customer delight and designing experiences that exceed expectations, businesses can foster loyalty, advocacy, and long-term relationships with their customers.
5. Continuous Engagement
The Design for Delight framework emphasizes continuous engagement with customers throughout the product lifecycle.
By maintaining an ongoing dialogue and soliciting feedback even after the product launch, businesses can adapt to evolving customer needs and preferences, ensuring relevance and competitiveness in the market.
In summary, within the Design for Delight framework, the customer is not just a recipient but an active participant and partner in the design process. By integrating customer-centricity into every stage of development, businesses can create products and services that truly delight and resonate with their target audience, driving sustainable growth and success.
1. Customer Problem
At the core of the design process is understanding the customer problem or pain point. This involves empathizing with the customer, identifying their unmet needs, challenges, frustrations, or desires.
Customer problems serve as the starting point for innovation and solution development. By deeply understanding these problems, designers can uncover opportunities for creating value and differentiation.
2. Solution
The solution refers to the product, service, or experience designed to address the identified customer problem effectively. It represents the means by which the customer's needs or pain points are alleviated or resolved.
Solutions can take various forms, including new products, feature enhancements, process improvements, or entirely novel approaches to solving a problem.
In the Design for Delight framework, solutions are not just about meeting basic functional requirements but also about delivering delightful experiences that exceed customer expectations.
3. Customer Benefit
Customer benefit is the positive outcome or value that customers derive from using the solution to address their problem. It represents the tangible and intangible benefits that enhance customers' lives, work, or experiences.
Customer benefit encompasses factors such as convenience, efficiency, effectiveness, enjoyment, satisfaction, and emotional resonance.
The ultimate goal of designing solutions within the Design for Delight framework is to maximize customer benefit, ensuring that the solution not only solves the problem but also delivers meaningful and enduring value to the customer.
In essence, the relationship between the customer problem, the solution, and the customer benefit is iterative and interconnected. Designers start by deeply understanding the customer problem, ideate and develop solutions that effectively address it, and then continually refine and iterate based on feedback to optimize the customer benefit. By focusing on this relationship, businesses can create products and services that truly delight customers and differentiate themselves in the market.
The iterative process of rapidly testing and refining design ideas or concepts based on feedback from customers or users. This iterative loop allows designers to continuously improve and iterate upon their concepts until they achieve a solution that delights customers.
1. Generate Ideas
Designers start by generating a range of ideas or concepts to address a particular problem or opportunity. These ideas can come from brainstorming sessions, user research, market insights, or internal innovation initiatives.
2. Create Prototypes
Once ideas are generated, designers create lightweight prototypes or mock-ups to represent their concepts in a tangible form. These prototypes can vary in fidelity, ranging from rough sketches to interactive mock-ups or even working prototypes.
3. Test with Users
Designers then conduct rapid testing sessions with real users or customers to gather feedback on the prototypes. These testing sessions may involve usability testing, concept validation, or gathering qualitative feedback through interviews or surveys.
4. Iterate and Refine
Based on the feedback received, designers iterate on their prototypes, making adjustments, refinements, or even pivoting to entirely new concepts if necessary. This iterative process allows designers to quickly learn from failures and successes and refine their ideas accordingly.
5. Repeat the Loop
The process of generating ideas, creating prototypes, testing with users, and iterating is repeated multiple times in rapid succession. Each iteration of the loop brings designers closer to a solution that effectively addresses the customer's needs and delights them.
By embracing looping concepts, designers can accelerate the innovation process, reduce the risk of investing resources in ideas that may not resonate with customers, and ultimately deliver products or services that exceed expectations. This iterative approach fosters a culture of experimentation, learning, and continuous improvement, driving success in the Design for Delight framework.
The process of creating tangible representations of design concepts or ideas and testing them in real-world scenarios to gather feedback, validate assumptions, and drive innovation. Prototyping and experimentation are integral components of the iterative design process advocated by the Design for Delight framework, facilitating rapid learning and iteration to ultimately create products or services that delight customers.
1. Prototyping
Prototyping involves creating simplified versions of products, services, or features to simulate how they would look, feel, and function in reality.
Prototypes can take various forms, including low-fidelity sketches, wireframes, mock-ups, or high-fidelity interactive prototypes.
The goal of prototyping is to make ideas tangible and testable, enabling designers to quickly iterate and refine their concepts based on user feedback.
2. Experimentation
Experimentation involves systematically testing hypotheses, ideas, or prototypes to gather data and insights that inform design decisions.
Experiments can range from controlled usability tests to real-world pilot programs or A/B tests conducted on live products or services.
The purpose of experimentation is to validate assumptions, identify opportunities for improvement, and uncover unexpected insights that drive innovation.
3. Iterative Learning
Prototyping and experimentation form a continuous cycle of learning and iteration. Designers create prototypes, test them with users, gather feedback, and then refine their prototypes based on the insights gained.
This iterative process allows designers to rapidly iterate on their ideas, learn from failures and successes, and continuously improve the user experience.
4. Risk Mitigation
Prototyping and experimentation help mitigate the risk associated with developing new products or features by allowing designers to validate assumptions and test ideas before committing significant resources to full-scale development.
By uncovering potential issues early in the design process, designers can make informed decisions and course corrections, reducing the likelihood of costly mistakes later on.
5. Innovation and Creativity
Prototyping and experimentation foster a culture of innovation and creativity by encouraging designers to explore new ideas, take calculated risks, and push the boundaries of what's possible.
By experimenting with different concepts and approaches, designers can uncover novel solutions that address customer needs and differentiate their products or services in the market.
Overall, prototyping and experimentation are essential tools within the Design for Delight framework, enabling designers to iterate quickly, learn from real-world feedback, and ultimately deliver products or services that delight customers.
Follow-Me-Home
Customer Safari
Deep Probing Interviews
Look for surprises. Insights often come from unexpected or unusual behaviors.
Ask why. Ask follow-up questions to dive deeper on behaviors or workarounds that you observe.
Everyone takes notes. Each member of the team should listen, observe, and jot down their observations.
Debrief as a team as soon as possible. Get together with your team, preferably within minutes, and capture the surprises and pain points you observed.
Answering “What is the customer problem?” in detail helps teams align and agree on which problems to solve, and then more effectively communicate with partners and stakeholders.
The Ideal State is a description of a future state where an important customer problem or opportunity has been solved to such an amazing degree that the outcome seems almost impossible.
Follow-Me-Home
A research technique used to gain deeper insights into customer behavior and needs by observing them in their natural environment. It involves following a customer home or to their workplace after they have interacted with a product or service and observing how they use it in their everyday life.
Can be done in person or remotely, such as with Zoom
Identification of Participants
Designers or researchers identify customers or users who have recently interacted with their product or service and are willing to participate in the Follow-Me-Home session.
Permission and Consent
Participants are contacted and informed about the Follow-Me-Home session, and their consent is obtained to observe and interact with them in their environment.
Accompanying the Participant
A member of the design team accompanies the participant to their home or workplace, hence the term "Follow-Me-Home."
The purpose of this accompaniment is to observe the participant's behavior, routines, and interactions with the product or service in their natural environment.
Observation and Inquiry
During the Follow-Me-Home session, the design team member observes how the participant uses the product or service, paying attention to details, pain points, and moments of delight.
They may ask questions, seek clarification, or prompt the participant to provide insights into their experiences and preferences.
Documentation and Reflection
Throughout the Follow-Me-Home session, the design team member documents their observations, insights, and reflections.
This documentation may include notes, photos, videos, or sketches that capture key moments, interactions, and insights.
Insights and Iteration
After the Follow-Me-Home session, the design team analyzes the gathered insights to identify opportunities for improvement, innovation, or refinement.
These insights inform the iterative design process, guiding the development of prototypes, experiments, and iterations aimed at addressing the identified needs and pain points.
The Follow-Me-Home technique is valuable within the Design for Delight framework because it allows designers to observe real-world usage of their products or services and gain firsthand insights into customer behavior, preferences, and needs. By understanding how customers interact with their offerings in their natural environment, designers can identify opportunities for innovation and create solutions that better meet customer expectations and delight them.
Customer Safari
A structured approach for observing and empathizing with customers in their natural environment. It involves immersing oneself in the customer's world to gain a deep understanding of their needs, behaviors, and pain points. The goal of a Customer Safari is to gather insights and inspiration that inform the design process and drive innovation.
1. Preparation
Before embarking on a Customer Safari, designers or product teams identify the target audience or customer segment they want to learn more about.
They define specific objectives or research questions to guide their observations and interactions during the safari.
2. Immersion
During the Customer Safari, participants immerse themselves in the environment where their target customers interact with products or services.
This could involve visiting customers' homes, workplaces, or other relevant settings to observe their daily routines, behaviors, and interactions.
Participants take on the role of curious observers, paying attention to details, asking questions, and seeking to understand the customer's perspective.
3. Observation and Documentation
Throughout the Safari, participants observe and document their observations, capturing insights, anecdotes, pain points, and moments of delight.
They may use various methods to document their findings, such as taking notes, photos, videos, or sketches.
4. Empathy and Understanding
One of the key objectives of a Customer Safari is to develop empathy for the customer's experience and understand their needs and challenges on a deeper level.
By witnessing firsthand how customers interact with products or services in their natural environment, participants can gain a more empathetic understanding of their motivations, frustrations, and aspirations.
5. Insights and Ideation
After completing the Safari, participants analyze their observations and insights to identify patterns, opportunities, and areas for improvement.
These insights serve as valuable inputs for ideation sessions, where participants brainstorm solutions, innovations, or enhancements to address the identified needs and pain points.
6. Iterative Design
The insights gathered from the Customer Safari inform the iterative design process, guiding the development of prototypes, experiments, and iterations aimed at creating products or services that truly resonate with customers.
Overall, a Customer Safari is a powerful tool within the Design for Delight framework for gaining a deep understanding of customers' needs and experiences. By immersing themselves in the customer's world, designers can uncover valuable insights that drive customer-centric innovation and ultimately lead to the creation of products or services that delight customers.
Deep Probing Interviews
1. Decide what behavior you want to learn more about (for example, why are customers canceling their subscriptions).
2. Find a source of people right in the moment or right after the moment of that behavior - ideally within minutes or hours. For example, call phone numbers of customers when they cancel their subscription, or observe in person if possible.
3. Ask deep probing questions about the behaviors, repeating if necessary.
Observe
Ask questions
You can't assume you know what customers need because everyone is different.
Observing and talking to customers gives us insights into problems or "pain points" that we could help them solve.
Seeing other people struggling with problems motivates us to help them with an innovative solution.
"I" problem statement template: (use with the 5 Whys technique so the "because" represents the underlying problem)
I am: [your customer's role or position]
I'm trying to: [your customer's goal or objective]
But: [the problem or obstacle your customer is facing]
Because: [the impact of the problem]
Which makes me feel: [your customer's emotion]
Find the customer’s problem, not your problem. The “I” in ”I am” is the customer, NOT you or your company.
Write specific, tangible, and detailed, using full sentences. Avoid vague catch-all words such as “integration” or “personalization."
Leave solutions out. Avoid suggesting a solution in the problem statement.
Look for the biggest pain. Look for facial or physical reactions indicating pain. Look for ”compensating behaviors” customers do to prevent or deal with pain.
Write more than one problem statement. Try writing many different problem statements based on what you observed.
Template
In a perfect world: [Bold statement of a future state that is borderline unachievable (perfect outcomes, not specific solutions)]
The biggest benefit to me is: [The improvement in the customer’s life once the ideal state is achieved.]
Which makes me feel: [Emotion]
Be bold. This is your opportunity to think big! The Ideal State should be aspirational, and borderline impossible to achieve.
Customer-backed. Ideal States are written from the customer’s perspective.
Focus on the customer benefit. Avoid describing a specific solution. Instead, focus on describing the customer benefit: what is the dramatic improvement in the customer’s life we hope to help them achieve?
Flip a problem. Imagine the complete opposite of the customer problem you identified. What does the world look like when the problem is perfectly solved?
Be specific, tangible, and measurable. An effective Ideal State is clear and measurable: how high is up? How will you know when you have achieved it?
Brainstorming is divergent thinking.
Idea Generation
The primary purpose of brainstorming is to generate a diverse range of ideas and solutions to address a specific problem or opportunity.
By bringing together individuals with different perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise, brainstorming sessions encourage the exploration of novel concepts and approaches.
Encouraging Creativity
Brainstorming sessions create a supportive environment where participants are encouraged to think creatively, challenge assumptions, and explore unconventional ideas.
By fostering a culture of creativity and risk-taking, brainstorming stimulates innovative thinking and helps teams break free from conventional thinking patterns.
Facilitating Collaboration
Brainstorming promotes collaboration and teamwork by providing a platform for participants to share their ideas, build on each other's contributions, and co-create solutions.
Through active listening, constructive feedback, and open dialogue, brainstorming sessions harness the collective intelligence of the team to generate better ideas than any individual could produce alone.
Exploring Diverse Perspectives
Brainstorming sessions bring together individuals with diverse backgrounds, expertise, and viewpoints, allowing for the exploration of a wide range of perspectives and approaches.
By considering different viewpoints and challenging assumptions, teams can uncover innovative insights and solutions that may have been overlooked otherwise.
Stimulating Engagement and Ownership
Brainstorming encourages active participation and engagement from all team members, fostering a sense of ownership and commitment to the design process and outcomes.
By involving team members in the ideation process, brainstorming sessions build buy-in and enthusiasm for the project, leading to greater motivation and dedication to seeing it through to fruition.
Narrowing is convergent thinking.
Refining and selecting the most promising ideas generated during brainstorming sessions.
Involves filtering, prioritizing, and focusing on the ideas that have the greatest potential to address the target problem or opportunity effectively.
Streamline the design process, focus efforts on the most promising ideas, and ultimately deliver innovative solutions that delight customers and drive business success.
7 to get 1 - Generate seven distinct ideas, focusing on creativity and avoiding self-criticism.
Use constraints - Constraints will drive your creativity. Ask “What would we do if we had a million dollars?”, or “What if we only had $5 dollars?” or “What would we do in 24 hours?” or “What idea is most likely to get me fired?”
Analogies - Look for inspiration from unrelated industries. Ask, “What is “Uber” for my business?”, or “What is the “concierge” version of my product or service” or “What would Ferrari do?”.
Atomizing / Zoom In - Break a large idea into very small pieces, then “zoom in” to only one piece of the puzzle. For example, Twitter began by zooming-in on a single 140 character status update.
2×2 Narrowing (such as impact on customer benefit and feasibility, Customer Driven Innovation (CDI))
10-Vote Exercise
100 Point Narrowing
Sorting and Ranking
Choose a topic on which to brainstorm. Refer to your topics as “how might we” statements or Ideal States.
Remind participants of the ground rules — e.g., defer judgment, encourage wild ideas, be visual, go for quantity, etc.
Avoid locking in on the first idea.
Encourage innovative solutions. "No judgement" zone.
Warm up. Start with a quick 1-2-minute practice exercise.
Begin brainstorming! If participants encounter slumps, encourage them to push through by using prompts and constraints such as, “What if we had no money?” or “What if we had to build it in 24 hours,” etc.
Embrace the slump.
The perfect group size is 4-6 people.
Choose an innovative idea
Choose an idea that will provide great customer benefit (delight the customer) and is feasible
You should change your criteria if your first attempt to narrow ideas is not working (see 2X2 NARROWING Method Card)
Create a visual representation of an idea
Develop a proof of concept
Act out the scene
Be the data
The customer experiencing the problem
How the customer discovers your solution
How the solution works
The benefit the customer will experience
Identify a "Leap of Faith" assumption (LOFA) - the behaviors that must be true for your idea to deliver the customer benefit. List all the assumptions you're making for an idea, then narrow on the riskiest assumption using the 2x2 method. Choose minimum success criteria.
Define a hypothesis using the "If we, then, which we will measure by..." before you run your experiment. Choose minimum success criteria.
Run your experiment.
Assess what you learned, and then decide what to do next. This is the most important part of the rapid experimentation loop, where you decide if you should keep going, make changes, or pivot to the next solution. Compare your hypothesis to your actual success metric results, as well as any surprises and qualitative feedback or observations.
Gathering behavioral data to help you learn more about an idea.
Concepts to describe prototyping and experimentation
Don't Get Ready, Get Started
Build to Think Instead of Think to Build
Experiment Types
Fast Cycle Sketch Test: Observe testers “using” a prototype that you've sketched out
Fake-o Test: Part of the front-end experience or back-end technology is fake
If your idea includes an app where customers give their email address, experiment by using Google Docs to have them give their email address to see if they'll actually do it
Concierge Test: Deliver the experience manually, then automate later
If your idea is an app that gives customers reward points every time they answer a quiz question correctly, experiment by handing them paper reward points first to see if they like the idea of getting points
Technical Test: Prove the technology can work
Fully Built A/B Test: Live in production
Reasons to test ideas
learn what your customer will want and use
learn quickly so that you can correct any problems before investing a lot of time and money
The three major assumptions to be considered before conducting Rapid Experiments
Assumptions about customer behavior (Does the customer want it?) - Desirability
Assumptions about the technology proposed (Can we build it?) - Feasibility
Assumptions about the customer's business (Is it beneficial to the customer's business?) - Viability
Define
Should be specific to solution idea
Written as a positive statement
Identify
Most-crucial assumptions
Least-proven assumptions
Leap of Faith assumptions
An assumption that is most crucial for a product, feature, or service to succeed
Has not yet been proven to be true in practice elsewhere
Answer questions so they can use the prototype
Find out if there's anything about your prototype that's confusing
Learn how long it took the customer to implement the prototype
Mostly observe, listen, and help
Don't criticize testers
Don't make them feel like they will hurt your feelings if they don't like the prototype
If we: (How the experiment will work.)
Then: (The response to the experiment.)
Which we will measure by: (How you will know it was successful.)
Success metric(s) will be: (The minimum number or percentage needed for success.)
Use the template
Simulation - digital representation of a physical product to predict performance in the real world
Mockup - visual of a product with no active features
Storyboard - series of descriptions on cards or slides that tell the order information must be presented
Addresses the customer's problem
Includes instrumentation to capture results
Delivers a customer benefit
Analyze whether the test achieved its intended goals and objectives effectively.
Compare results to success metrics from hypothesis statement.
Reflect on the outcomes, understanding any insights gained, and recognizing the implications for future iterations or improvements in the design process.
Detail how to interpret test results effectively, draw meaningful conclusions, and translate these findings into actionable next steps.
Successes (like intuitiveness, ease of use)
Surprises (like difficulties, problems)
Outline strategies for decision-making based on test outcomes to drive further innovation and refinement in the design process.
Customer behavior and insights from the test
Customer problem
Desired customer benefit
Cost of implementation
Use the following prompts in ChatGPT or a similar generative AI.
Research / Follow-me-Home / Interview
Start by deciding what type of situations or behaviors you wish to learn more about, then identify the customers you’ll observe. If you have an existing business or business idea, these could be situations or behaviors of actual customers or employees. If you don't, these could be situations or behaviors related to something you are passionate about.
If you don't have any ideas, you could try a prompt like, "I am starting a design project using the Design for Delight framework and would like some suggestions regarding situations or behaviors to learn more about which will serve as a basis of my project. Some of my passions include _______________."
Next, identify the customers you’ll observe. If you can't think of anyone, try a prompt like, "Who could I observe related to ___________________?" (Fill in the blank with the situations or behaviors you chose.)
Ideally, actually "follow home" such a person by going to where the customer is experiencing the problem and observing them. This could be an in-person or virtual visit to a home, office, or other location. Record observations, surprises, and pain points.
You would not get as much out of it, but you could simulate this with prompts such as:
"Simulate a list of observations that might result from a "follow me home" of ________________ related to _______________."
"Simulate a list of surprises that might result from a "follow me home" of ________________ related to _______________."
"Simulate a list of pain points that might result from a "follow me home" of ________________ related to _______________."
In addition to a "follow me home", you could also develop deep customer empathy through an interview. "Create a persona for a __________ with demographic information, psychographic information, geographic information, and behavioral information including a scenario." Fill in the blank with as much relevant information about someone you would want to "follow home".
"Pretend you are _________________." (Fill in the blank with the name from the persona)
"Tell me a little more about what you do."
"What are some of the challenges you deal with in doing that?" (Ask other questions like in the Example Probing Interview Questions method card)
"Why is that a challenge?" (continue asking why and how questions in an attempt to reveal the root cause / underlying issue)
"Stop pretending to be ________________."
Document
"Create an empathy map for __________ with sections for Thinks, Says, Feels, and Does." Fill in the blank with the name from the persona.
"Create an emotional journey map for __________ related to _________________." Fill in the first blank with the name from the persona and the second blank with the scenario from the persona.
Customer Problem Statement
Define a problem statement for __________ as my customer using the template "I am [your customer's role or position]. I'm trying to [your customer's goal or objective] but [the problem or obstacle your customer is facing] because [the impact of the problem] which makes me feel [your customer's emotion]."
"Thanks. Please make another."
Ideal State
"Create an Ideal State statement for ______________ using the template "In a perfect world: [Bold statement of a future state that is borderline unachievable (perfect outcomes, not specific solutions)]. The biggest benefit to me is: [The improvement in the customer’s life once the ideal state is achieved.] Which makes me feel: [Emotion]""
"Thanks. Please make another."
Go Broad
7 to Get 1
"What is one innovative, entrepreneurial product, service, or app related solution to this problem?"
"Please provide six additional distinctly different solution ideas."
Brainstorm with constraints
"What are some entrepreneurial product or service solutions to this problem that involve ____________?" (fill in the blank with your unique skills, interests, or resources)
"What are some entrepreneurial product solutions to this problem that could be made with a _____________?" (3d printer, Glowforge, CNC, or Cricut)
"What are some entrepreneurial product or service solutions to this problem that involve media production?" (utilizing the media production room in Lucas Hall)
"What are some more weird, wacky and wild ideas to solve this problem?"
Try the Big Idea Prompt
Go Narrow
Narrowing will depend on your own preferences and means.
"Simulate a design team doing Design for Delight 2x2 narrowing based on "impact on customer benefit" (vertical axis) and "requires new capabilities" (horizontal axis) to narrow the list of ideas."
Generative AI will not know the real impact on the customer or how feasible the ideas really are for you.
You can try to have it create an image of the grid but it will probably turn out better if it generates a table and you draw an image.
"Simulate a design team doing a Design for Delight 10-Vote Exercise to narrow the list of ideas."
"Simulate a design team doing a Design for Delight 100 Point Narrowing to narrow the list of ideas."
"Please sort the ideas into a table based on whether they are physical solutions, digital solutions, or experience / service solutions with those categories as column headers."
Solution and Value Proposition
"Elaborate on the _____________________ solution." (fill in the blank with one of the generated ideas that you want to pursue)
"Create a value proposition for this solution that matches this template: "Our <product or service> helps(s) <customer segment> who want to <jobs to be done> by <verb (e.g. reducing, avoiding)> <a customer pain> and <verb (e.g. increasing, enabling)> <a customer gain>. "
"Create a sample list of assumptions associated with the ___________ solution in order for it to be successful." (It will not know all assumptions you are making!)
"Identify a leap of faith assumption that is most crucial and least proven for it to be successful." (This will just be a guess. You need to think!)
"To prepare to test the leap of faith assumption, write a hypothesis statement in the format "If we: (How the experiment will work.) Then: (The response to the experiment.) Which we will measure by: (How you will know it was successful.) Success metric(s) will be: (The minimum number or percentage needed for success.)""
"Thanks. Please make another." (Compare a few and then choose one, recombine them into a new one, or create an original one that is truly useful.)
"How can I test that this idea is feasible?"
"How can I test that this idea is viable?"
"How can I test that this idea is desirable?"