After the first phase, the designteams have a defined problem, based on the cards they have collected, e.g. How can we make classrooms better suited for compulsory schoolkids, who are very tactile oriented? or How can we lower Denmarks energy consumption and ..
To narrow the problem and thus easier to solve, we specify a target group and study the target group.
You can work with targets groups in many ways: Statistics, interviews, questionnaires, observations and more.
One extremely simple way to work with target groups is making a persona. A persona is a stereotypical representation of a relevant member of a target group. You can have multiple personas.
Make one og two personas for your project. Grab a piece of paper, A3 for instance. Name your persona, for instance Bjarne or Lisbeth, or whatever suits you.
Write the name on to and make a drawing of Bjarne on the left side of the poster. On the right side, make notes about Bjarne, for instance age, education, hobbies, preferences, which newspaper does he read, politics, where does he go on holiday. Now you have a story. Use this persona to discuss how would Bjarne be influenced by the problem identified?
E.g. if your problem is how can we make more cheap apartments for students in Copenhagen, and we have a persona who really likes nature and company, then a solution could be to make collective in the countryside and provide cheap busses... (just an example).