Design Thinking for Digital Nomads: An Approach to Innovative Problem Solving
If you're a digital nomad, it's likely that your laptop has become your most valuable tool. It allows you to work on the go, connect with clients and colleagues from around the world, and access all of your files whenever you want or need them. But sometimes even the best technology can't solve all of our problems. For example, if you're working from an unfamiliar location with limited resources at hand (like a coffee shop), then trying to get all of your work done in one day could feel like an impossible task! In this case, it might be helpful to think about design thinking as a way of approaching problems in new ways. Design thinking won't necessarily help you solve everything—there will always be situations where pure logic and reasoning are needed—but it can help when we're stuck on something because we've been going at it too linearly or methodically for too long without taking time off between efforts
What is design thinking?
Design thinking is an approach to problem solving, which emphasizes creativity and collaboration. It's used to solve problems in any field--from business and marketing to education and healthcare.
The core of design thinking is the process of empathizing with users, defining their needs, generating ideas for solutions, prototyping those solutions (and testing them), then refining those prototypes until they meet user needs. This approach was first introduced by David Kelley in 1990 when he founded IDEO; it has since been adopted by many other organizations including Stanford University's d School (where I got my Masters in Digital Experience Design).
While there are many tools that can help you implement this process--including mind mapping software like Mindjet MindManager or Lucidchart--you don't need any special software at all! In fact most designers who use these tools do so because they're already familiar with them rather than because they provide any unique value over pen & paper methods like brainstorming lists or mind mapping diagrams drawn directly onto paper (more on these later).
Why Motivation Matters in Design Thinking
Motivation is the fuel that drives innovation. In fact, it's a key factor in the design thinking process--and it can be either internal or external.
What motivates you? Is it personal? Professional? Financial? All three? It's important to figure out what motivates you because this will help you decide which type of problem you want to solve (and who should solve it).
A Practical Approach to the Design Thinking Process
Design thinking is a process, not a single step. It's an iterative approach that involves a series of steps that can be revisited throughout the course of designing or innovating.
The design thinking process has three distinct phases: empathize, define and ideate/prototype. Within these three phases there are multiple steps; however, they're not necessarily linear in their execution. The goal is to keep moving forward through each stage in order to come up with an optimal solution for your problem or opportunity statement (PS). You will likely revisit some steps multiple times before moving onto another phase of your PS - this is normal!
Problem Identification
Problem Identification is an essential step in the design thinking process. Before you can solve a problem, you need to be able to identify it. You also need to be able to define it and make sure that your definition matches up with how others might perceive your definition of the problem.
To help guide you through this step, we've provided some examples of what "problem identification" looks like for different types of projects:
Problem Definition
The first step in any problem-solving process is defining the problem. The best way to do this is by understanding what you want to accomplish, who or what is involved and how they interact with each other. You may be working on a personal project or one that impacts an entire organization, but either way it's important to consider all these things when defining your problem statement.
Understand: Defining a problem means understanding its context - who will use it? How will they use it? Where will they use it? Why are they using it?
Describe: Once you've identified these factors (and any others relevant), describe them clearly in writing so that anyone can understand them without needing additional information from elsewhere in order for them not only grasp what needs doing but also why this particular approach was chosen rather than some other possible solution out there which might have worked just as well (or better).
User Research and Analysis of Data
User research and analysis of data is an essential part of the design thinking process. The goal of this stage is to understand your users' needs, goals, behaviors and motivations so that you can create solutions that meet those needs.
To conduct user research:
Identify your target audience (who are they?)
Define a persona for each segment of your target audience (what do they do?)
Once you have done this, it's time to get out there and talk with them! There are many different ways you can go about doing this including surveys, interviews or observing their behavior in person while they perform tasks related to what your product will be used for (e.g., using Uber). Once all the information has been collected through these methods it needs to be analyzed so that it can be used later on when developing ideas based upon what was learned during this phase of development.
Ideation and Conceptualization
In this phase, you will be asked to think outside the box. You will be given a problem statement and you are expected to come up with as many solutions as possible. The best part is that there are no wrong answers!
This is where you start brainstorming and ideation. You should get your creative juices flowing by thinking about how you can solve this problem, or what kind of new idea might help someone else solve theirs? What do other people do in similar situations? Is there anything that could inspire us? How would we go about doing something differently than anyone else has done before?
Prototyping and Testing
Prototype testing is the process of testing your prototype to see if it works. Your prototype can be a model of your final product, or it can be a mockup of the final product that looks similar but isn't fully functional. The goal of prototype testing is to get feedback on whether or not people like what they see and whether they would use it in their daily lives (if applicable).
To test prototypes with real people, you need participants who represent your target audience--the people who would actually use your product or service if it existed today. If you're creating an app for children ages 3-5 years old, then your test participants should be between 3-5 years old!
Design thinking is a powerful tool to help you solve problems and innovate.
Design thinking is a powerful tool to help you solve problems and innovate. It's a process that allows you to develop solutions with your team, identify opportunities, and find the best way forward for your business or organization.
Design thinking is about developing solutions through an iterative process of idea generation, testing those ideas with real people in their context (the "real world"), analyzing the data from those tests and using it as feedback for further iteration until we have something that works well enough for our purposes--then we look at whether there are ways we could improve upon this solution further down the road.
This approach has been around since 1990 but has gained traction over recent years thanks to its use by companies like IDEO (which coined the term) as well as Google Ventures' Design Sprint process; both of which have become popular among startups looking for ways to innovate faster than ever before possible before technology enabled remote work arrangements like digital nomadism became possible!
Design thinking is a powerful tool to help you solve problems and innovate. It's not just for designers or engineers--it can be used by anyone, in any field. If you're interested in learning more about design thinking or want to try it out for yourself, we encourage you to check out our free Design Thinking Basics course on Udemy!
