Okay, let’s be honest – most of us founders get a little too caught up in the tech. We fall in love with the elegance of our code, or a breakthrough concept that seems revolutionary…in our own heads. Meanwhile, out in the real world, potential customers are struggling with problems our brilliant invention doesn’t actually solve. Ouch.
That’s where design thinking comes in. It’s been a bit of a buzzword lately, but I’m here to tell you it’s more than just making your product look pretty. Done right, it’s the key to building things people will actually use, love, and tell their friends about.
Design Thinking in a Nutshell
- User Empathy, The Radical Concept: Get out of your own head, and into the messy reality of your customers’ lives. Surveys are a start, but true empathy comes from watching them in the wild, uncovering those unspoken pain points.
- Don’t Be Precious, Prototype Like Crazy: Stop spending months polishing something nobody may want. Crude sketches, role-playing a new process with your team, even a landing page for a product that doesn’t exist yet – these force you to get feedback early and cheaply.
- Embrace the Glorious Mess of Iteration: The first version will likely suck. And the second. Probably even the third. But each one gets you closer to that magical fit between the problem you’re solving and a solution people are excited about.
The Power of Seeing the Obvious (That Everyone Else Ignores)
I recently backed a venture that used design thinking to completely transform the patient experience in their field. Turns out, fancy medical tech is great, but the agonizing scheduling process, confusing paperwork, and depressing waiting rooms were causing just as much pain. Fixing those “unsexy” problems made a massive difference.
“But I’m Not a Designer!”
Good news – you don’t have to be. Here’s a mini-exercise to get you started:
- The Problem Isn’t Always What You Think: Choose a common customer complaint, or a clunky internal process. Dig deeper – what’s the REAL frustration underneath it?
- Channel Your Inner Stalker (In a Non-Creepy Way): Observe how users interact with your product or service. Are there workarounds they’ve invented, revealing what’s missing? Do they curse under their breath at certain points?
- Forget What’s Possible, Brainstorm the Impossible: Now, go wild. If tech, time, or money were NO obstacle, how would you solve this in a way that’d blow their minds? This is where the hidden gems often lie.
- Bring It to Life, Even Badly: Could you build a comically low-tech prototype? Act out the experience? Do whatever it takes to TEST those wild ideas and see what resonates.
True innovation isn’t about the brilliance of what you build. It’s about the depth of your understanding of who you’re building it for.
