How we use impactful collaboration to bring Design Thinking to life

At Daemon, we’re on a mission to demystify tech, and to make the world a better place in the process. The industry is full of complex-sounding concepts that are quite simple on closer inspection. This is certainly true when it comes to Design Thinking - a term that is often used but sometimes misunderstood. 

There’s nothing mysterious about it. Design Thinking is just a human way to solve problems. Here’s how Design Thinking has transformed our approach to collaboration, and how it can do the same for you.  

Think like a designer

It’s great when projects work, but there’s plenty that can be learned when they don’t. We recently surveyed hundreds of CTOs about unsuccessful attempts at digital transformation. It became clear that the problem wasn’t a lack of skills or a poor choice of tech- it was failing to take the human element into account. 

This is where Design Thinking comes in. Designers don’t just deal with aesthetics and craft. They have a unique way of looking at problems, and this is something that we can all learn from. The key is to start from a place of empathy. By taking the time to understand the challenges that users are facing, we can come up with solutions that really work. 

Controlled chaos

There’s more to Design Thinking than just brainstorming. It’s about structuring the process in a way that gets results. A Design Thinking workshop is a hands-on, activity-based session built around elements of the Design Thinking process. We use the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the goals and objectives for business success. 

This approach has been invaluable. It lets us better understand our users, question assumptions and redefine the challenges they face. Most importantly, it allows us to develop new solutions which can be carried forward to the prototype and testing stage. We do this by looking at a problem through three lenses:

1. Desirability-First, we need to work out what the user wants. What are the goals of the project, and does everyone agree on them? 
2. Feasibility- This is where we get practical. What technology have we got, what will it cost and can we access it when we need it? 
3. Viability- Finally, we look at the bigger picture. What are the long-term goals of the business, and how will our solution help to achieve these?

Coming soon to a meeting room near you

We believe that design thinking has something to offer every business. That’s why we’ve assembled a team of eight collaboration coaches, all of them trained to run Design Thinking workshops. 

These sessions are not intended to be a deep dive into potential tech solutions. Instead, they focus on a specific problem and give everyone a chance to collaborate on a solution. Our aim is to encourage a creative mindset, and provide a practical toolset to back it up. 

We want to avoid workshops for the sake of workshops. That’s why we always structure our sessions for maximum impact. For this to work, there need to be clear rules in place, and someone in charge of enforcing them. Enter the Facilitator…

The Facilitator is the key to a workshop’s success. They have several duties, all designed to ensure that participants do the most impactful, meaningful work they can:

• Deciding who speaks and when, making sure that everybody has a chance to be heard
• Splitting up the group when necessary in order to avoid bias or groupthink
• Ensuring that every session ends with an actionable outcome
• Taking care not to influence the discussion, or lead the group to a certain idea or decision

Putting people first

By involving everyone in the problem solving process, we find that users are far more invested in the eventual solution. This helps us to avoid the scenario that every company dreads- a big, expensive DX project that alienates staff while doing little to solve the actual problem.

This is what sets us apart from other technology consultancies. We’re not here to impose our ideas on you. We want to hear yours first. We want to know what keeps you up at night so that we can create a tailor-made solution. 

This is the power of Design Thinking. It uses empathy to drive collaboration. It finds solutions to problems, not problems to fit solutions. This approach has helped us to transform dozens of projects for our clients, and we’d love to help you. 

Get in touch today to find out more.

Connect with Steve, our Design Strategy Lead, on LinkedIn here.