Instead of the process, focus on these simple rules to design successful products

1. DESIGNTHINKING SIMPLE RULES

2. THE ORIGIN OFTHE "SIMPLE RULES" IDEA
2

3. DESIGNTHINKING SIMPLE RULES
• Make hypotheses, personal beliefs and biases explicit. Test them as rigorously as reasonable, though it's better
to work with untested and explicitly formulated beliefs than pretend you don't have any such beliefs and biases,
and can fully empathize with your customers. Distinguish between problem hypotheses and solution
hypotheses, and if you want/can test them, test them separately.
• Customer empathy means you are using proxies for your real customers. Choose your proxies wisely. Personas
are not the best proxies. Extreme users (users with disabilities, extreme expectations, extreme skills, etc) are
much better. Even better if you don't think of the customers themselves, but the jobs they want to accomplish,
pains they want to avoid, and gains they would appreciate.
• Challenge formulation precedes searching for a solution. Challenges should have the form: how might we...?The
seeking of solutions has two stages: divergence (create choices), and convergence (make choices). Sketching
solutions is better than writing them down.
3

4. DESIGNTHINKING SIMPLE RULES
• Bad products are your friend, if they point to an unfulfilled real need. It's your responsibility to
decide if an unsuccessful product is unsuccessful because there is no real need for it, or because
the actual solution doesn't live up to the expectations.
• Only surprising insights are valuable.
• The product owner makes decisions.
• The solution to a design challenge has to fulfill 3 criteria: human desirability, technical feasibility,
businesses viability.
• A DesignThinking sprint should not take more than 40 hours.
4

5. DON'T PRETENDYOU GIVETOYOUR
CUSTOMERS WHATTHEY WANT
5