Page 72 - The Design Thinking Playbook

KEY LEARNINGS

Recognizing user needs

• Find the persona in real life and interview them.
• Forget all initial assumptions on ideas for a product or service and focus on the user behavior.
• Observe and listen carefully in conversation with a potential user.
• Document the observations exactly so you will be able to correct assumptions made.
• Walk in the user’s footsteps; accompany him for a day in his daily life.
• Identify extreme users as well; for example, there are seniors who do strenuous sports even at a very old
age.
• Review your experience with other users iteratively and never stop being curious about their real needs.
• Plan and prepare the needfinding interview diligently. Create a question map for an open interview.
• Ask many WH questions and pay attention to contradictions in the answers. Use the 6 WH question
method.
• Pay attention to the end; it might still yield important insights.
• Use lead users to recognize future needs at an earlier stage—selection of the right lead users is crucial
here.
• Take a look behind the scenes; dig deeper and combine various methods, such as participatory observa-
tion and extreme user or expert discussions.

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