What Is Design Thinking? A Practical Guide
6 min 
Design thinking is a way to understand and solve complex problems through careful, empathetic observation of users. It provides a systematic approach to understanding customer needs and creating new value for the people who use your product.
Why use design thinking?
Traditional product development often relies on a small group of experts to identify and design a solution. Design thinking starts with observing users and understanding why they behave as they do. In that respect, it resembles the way anthropologists study a culture. Once the design challenge has been identified and framed, the team can explore possible product solutions. Quantitative market research can complement this approach.
Design thinking puts users and their needs at the centre of product development. It is a valuable approach to building custom products because it brings business objectives and end-user needs together in a solution designed to address the actual problem.
Benefits of design thinking in product development
- Feasibility.
Test the feasibility of a future product or feature early. Keep user needs in view, clarify requirements and translate them into product characteristics. - Fewer surprises.
After testing your MVP and collecting user feedback, your team can move forward with greater confidence. This helps reduce the gap between the agreed concept and the final product. - Transparency.
Give developers a clear understanding of the goals and problems, and a shared view of the solution they need to deliver. - Continuous improvement.
Use feedback after release to refine the product. Understanding which features work for users makes development more flexible and supports ongoing improvement.
“Design thinking is a valuable approach to building custom products.”
Getting started with design thinking
The design thinking process is often described through five phases, each with a specific purpose.
- Empathise: Set aside assumptions and biases about your users. Build a deeper understanding by speaking with them, observing their behaviour, listening to different perspectives and exploring their needs.
- Define: Analyse the information gathered in the first phase and formulate a clear core problem from the user’s perspective.
- Ideate: Generate as many possible solutions as you can. With a shared understanding of the people involved and the problem to solve, explore ideas beyond the obvious.
- Prototype: Create simplified versions or scenarios of your proposed solution. Use these experiments to discover which approach is most promising.
- Test: Test the solution with users. Although this is the final phase in the list, it is rarely the end of the process. Design thinking is iterative, and testing often produces insights that take you back to earlier phases.
Structuring the design process
Design thinking is iterative rather than linear. Solutions improve as the team builds on what it learns. Feedback loops connect the different phases, often with help from the Double Diamond model.
“Design thinking is essential for successful product development.”
Design thinking and the Double Diamond
The Double Diamond model builds on the principles of divergence and convergence. It describes four phases: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver. The two diamonds represent exploring possibilities widely, then narrowing them down and making choices. Exploring different directions and developing the most promising options helps create a well-validated solution.
The four phases of the Double Diamond model
Discover: Build an understanding of the challenge you want to address. Explore different perspectives and listen carefully to users. This usually means spending time with people who use your product or experience the problem.
Define: Use the insights from discovery to define the actual problem you will solve.
Develop: The second diamond begins with another phase of divergence. Explore possible solutions to the design challenge, generate ideas and combine perspectives.
Deliver: Experiment with the solutions developed in the previous phase. Discard options that do not work and refine those that show promise.
Design thinking in practice
- Be empathetic: understand the perspectives of everyone involved.
- Define a clear problem: put the user at the centre of your problem statement.
- Generate ideas: explore a wide range of possible solutions, then select the strongest.
- Prototype: create an initial version of the solution as early as possible.
- Test: gather feedback quickly and use it to improve the solution.
Design thinking in a nutshell
Design thinking is a flexible, iterative and human-centred approach to design, built on collaboration between teams and stakeholders.
Frequently asked questions about design thinking
What is design thinking in one sentence?
Design thinking is a structured approach to solving complex problems by starting with the user’s perspective.
Why use design thinking for my software product?
It helps prevent you from building something that people do not need. You test ideas early, learn quickly and focus development on what works.
How does GlobalOrange apply design thinking?
We often start with a Product Discovery Workshop. We use design thinking methods to clarify customer needs, user flows and possible solutions.
Is design thinking only useful at the start of a project?
No. It is also valuable during ongoing development: for new features, better UX and validating strategic choices. The approach remains the same: test, learn and adapt.
Design thinking and the Double Diamond in developing 100+ successful SaaS products and platforms
