Design Thinking Method

Design Thinking is a systematic approach to find solutions to complex problems. It provides six steps to understand the problem properly and develop a user-friendly solution. A key strategy of this approach is to have a look at the problem through the eyes of the users and design innovative solutions to suit their needs.

The six steps of Design Thinking are part of an iterative process:

1. Understand:During the first phase, teams exchange perspectives, questions and different tasks regarding their challenge in order to build a solid foundation for their further work. During that phase every possible angle of their challenge should be considered.
2. Observe: In order to develop a user-friendly solution, as much information as possible is needed. During this phase, founders are encouraged to observe their environment and thus gather information about the challenge, the potential users, their desires and so on.
3. Point of view: At this stage, every knowledge gathered to this day, will be defined precisely. The defining process should always be tackled from the users viewpoint to ensure the most user-friendly solution.
4. Ideate: Now it is important to brainstorm ideas based on the prior defined point of view of the team.
   To encourage your creativity the startup incubator berlin provides all kinds of materials.
5. Prototype: During this phase, the team is developing a prototype based on their idea. At the Startup Incubator Berlin, teams can build prototypes in the Design Thinking Lab as well as in the prototype lab.
6. Test: After developing a prototype, the prototype has to be tested by potential users that provide valuable feedback to the teams. The Startup Incubator Berlin organizes a monthly UX-Testing, where users get a chance to test the newest prototypes while enjoying pizza and drinks.