How You Can Use Design Thinking to Start Your Own Business

Kreg Bale
Kreg Bale May 11, 2021
Updated 2021/05/11 at 6:47 PM
How You Can Use Design Thinking to Start Your Own Business

Many people dream of creating their own business. Becoming your own boss seems like the dream for many people and it can be the most freeing feeling however, starting something for yourself is a long, tough and expensive project that requires hard work and some helpful tools to succeed.

There will always be the need for some economical assets to finance your startup. This can either come from you, a loan from your friends and family or from investors. Some have jobs on the side to finance the project, maybe you are investing in forex or stocks as a help on the way, whatever it is, you should be sure that this is in order before you start.

Organize your process

After you have your business idea ready, it is important to think about how you are going to organize and prioritize tasks in the process. This will help you stay on top of things and ensure that every needed part of the project is covered to create a successful business. Design Thinking is a helpful framework tool that can set the standard for your process, it includes five phases that should be covered to create a product that is based on user experience, that fills a hole and the market and is valuable for the consumer.

Empathize

The first phase of the process is called Empathize and is where you gain knowledge about the target groups, their needs and what their problems are. You need to empathize with your wanted customers and put yourself in their shoes to locate some issues and rooms where your product comes in handy. You can do this by holding interviews, handing out surveys, observing them and holding focus groups. This information is in many ways the most important part of the process, because it lets you know if the three is a problem to solve.

Define and ideate

The two second phases are “define and ideate”. In the first phase you need to gather the information you have gathered about the target group and define the issue by creating a problem statement. Move on to the second phase and start ideating, this is where you come up with the idea based on research and your definition of the problem. Try to brainstorm, sketch out and discuss your idea to come up with some possible solutions for the target groups problems.

Prototype and test

Now that you have your idea ready, it is time for the fourth phase, prototype. This is where you visualize your product or service one way or another. This should be a low fidelity prototype, meaning it should not be advanced or a finished product. Move on to the fifth and last phase and test the prototype on your target group. This is where you receive feedback you should use to perfect your product.

Move across the phases iteratively to ensure a free and creative-orientated process that will ensure that your product solves a problem.

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