Design thinking is a methodology that encourages the use of empathy, creativity, and collaboration in solving problems or generating ideas. Companies like IDEO use design thinking as a foundation for their design consulting services, and these methods have relatively recently made its way into higher education. Stanford University, Northwestern University, and UC Berkeley are just a few of the colleges that have already established design programs.

The design process is a general framework that is used in design thinking. Although it can be represented in many ways, the typical structure might look something like this:

Understand: Conduct some high-level research about the problem/need you are trying to solve/fulfill. This is an important step in understanding the situation and the people you are designing for.

Observe: Understanding the need/problem from the intended audience’s viewpoint can not be done without experiencing it firsthand, whether it be by observing or by participating in some way. This step is often used to actually identify problems/needs, especially in situations where the problem is unclear or unknown.

Define: Once you have enough information on your target user group or on the situation you want to design for, define your problem/need. This is your vision that will guide you throughout the process, although this vision may change as you gain new insights.

Ideate: Begin to brainstorm how you might solve your problem/need. Defer judgement until the end of the brainstorm, so that you can keep your mind open to all kinds of ideas. Select your favorite idea.

Prototype: Make prototypes for what you have come up with, and test to see if it functions, if it is feasible, and if it fulfills the need that you are dealing with.

Implement: Create your final version of your solution.

Evaluate: Document what you have created. Does it work to solve the need? How could it be improved? Learning is an important part of the design process.

These steps do not go linearly in order, and each step can be revisited multiple times if the need arises. For instance, an idea that does not fare well when being prototyped may cause you to go back and conduct some more research.

You can use design thinking to improve personal productivity through innovation of process. By innovating the way that you work you can, as IDEO Chief Executive Officer Tim Brown advocates, “increase the rate at which you generate good ideas.” An example of the successful incorporation of design thinking to improve productivity is in the nurse shift changes at Kaiser Permanente. Using the principles that Brown evangelizes, Kaiser Permanente decreased the time needed for nurses to go from one shift to the next, from 40 minutes to a mere 12. This lessened the amount of time wasted, so that more time could be spent providing quality healthcare.

With the Priority Matrix, you can incorporate this methodology into the way you complete projects or approach problem-solving. Here’s an example of how you might create a structure to model the design process:

This is not the only way you can use the Priority Matrix for Design Thinking. Experiment with it, and let us know how you use it. Be creative!

Learn more about Priority Matrix for Windows, iPhone, iPad, and Mac.