Design Thinking Toolkit for Healthcare Innovation

Abstract

To achieve a successful design, one must start by engaging with end-users to understand their stories. After defining the problem through an empathy and a define phase, the next three phases—ideate, prototype and test—will help you come up with solutions that will meet the users’ problems. Tools like observation, interviews, the 5 whys method, creating an empathy map and understanding the customer’s point of view will guide you through the problem finding phase. When the problem is defined, how might we statements, brainstorming, the subtraction method and prototyping and testing possible solutions will help you get through the problem solving phase. Success is achieved through diverse teams and daring to take a leap of faith into the unknown to find the right solutions to meet the customer’s needs. Design thinking has established itself as a go-to method for human-centred innovations. Tom and David Kelley coined the phrase Design Thinking in the late 1970s to describe a methodology and mindset that brought the users’ influence into product design. Design thinking-driven innovation was different from standard development processes at the time, in that it placed equal focus on the preparatory work of fully understanding a problem or need as it did on solving it. The methodology of design thinking can be applied to any problem held by any user group and requires no specific prior knowledge. The method focuses on behaviour rather than outcomes, and diversity in teams and solutions rather than consensus, and has proven especially useful in designing solutions for the healthcare sector. This chapter is designed for you to apply the methodology to a problem that you are faced with in your healthcare, or other, setting. The aim is to provide the tools and guidance to get you through the design process from a to z.