The Power of Design Thinking to Revolutionize the Way You Sell Products

What is Design Thinking, and How can it Improve your Business?

Design Thinking is a process aimed at solving problems by involving the end-user and understanding the user's needs. It focuses on the human element of design and aims to create solutions for people using empathy. Design thinking is a human-centred design approach used to solve complex problems across many industries like healthcare, education, and business. The Design Thinking process is helpful, especially when designing curricula for students; business and organizational design, such as customer service and marketing design thinking, can also be used in qualitative research. Qualitative research involves understanding human perception so the researcher can better understand a system or phenomenon. Design Thinking is useful for understanding human perceptions because it fosters empathy and helps guide researchers.

Design Thinking Process in Detail

The Design Thinking process involves five steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. 

Empathize:

Designing products or services for customers starts with an understanding of their needs and motivations. Designers should understand the customer's perspective by interviewing them and observing them in their natural environment. 

Define:

Once they clearly understand the customer's needs, designers must define the problem they are trying to solve. This will help them create a product or service that meets those needs rather than just focusing on what they think is best for the customer. 

Ideate:

Next, designers must ideate on possible solutions to the problem by brainstorming ideas and sketching out their concepts to get feedback from others on which ideas might work best. This step is where the concept design phase of product design typically happens.

Prototype:

Once they have a high-level understanding of what they're creating, designers can then prototype the design and start testing it to see how well it works with potential customers or users. They may use paper prototypes or digital prototypes to quickly test out their ideas.

Test:

After testing their product in a target market, designers will know whether the concept is viable and whether any changes need to be made before release.

How to Apply the Design Process for a Better Product?

Paying attention to what end users want during product development 

In the design process, there are various steps that designers should follow. One of them is usability testing. It is a process of evaluating your product's ease of use and interface. The goal of usability testing is to ensure that the user can use the product without difficulties and get the desired results. This way, you will know what needs to be improved in your product design and what should stay as it is. It is essential to conduct usability tests because they can help improve your user experience and ensure that your customers are satisfied with their purchases. There are two types of usability testing:- External usability testing, by hiring a company or asking a friend to do it.- Internal usability testing is typically done by the designers or quality assurance team. Internal usability tests are more detailed and accurate and can also help you identify patterns in your design process. In order for your design process to be successful, it needs to have specific criteria. From the insights gathered by usability tests, you can see if there are any problems

Step-by-Step Guide on Building a Killer Product for Effective Sales

In order to build a product that customers are willing to buy, you need to understand the customer experience. This is a step-by-step guide on how to do just that.

Step 1: Identify your target customer and the problem they face.

Identifying your target customer and their problem sets the stage for your product/ service or content. It is essential to know who you're speaking to and what they need before you create a product/ service or content.

The key is figuring out what they want and need, which can be determined by asking these questions: What do they value? What challenges do they face? Where do they see themselves in the future?

Step 2: Identify product options & identify the best product option.

The most successful companies have always been run by people who understand their customer base and needs. Always use your team effectively to come up with product options. Make sure they heard the results of step 1 and fully digest them. Once options are available, brainstorm to finalize the best-suited products. Always facilitate healthy debate among the team to choose the best product option.

Step 3: Create a list of features that will enhance their experience with your product.

The best products are intuitive, have a simple interface and offer a wide variety of features that enhance their experience. When developing products, you might be able to come up with a lengthy list of features. Evaluate them against customer needs and how they fulfil customer needs and potential value to businesses and customers. Never base decisions on the latest technology or the most attractive-looking features. User-friendliness is the key to success for any product.  

Step 4: Create a prototype/ mock-up of the product's appearance and what kind of user interface/ interactions it will have. The prototype level should not consume a lot of time and effort. Focus more on the workflow of the products. If the product is UI driven, there are plenty of free mock-up tools. If you understand the customer and the problem, a simple mock screen drawn on a piece of paper can do the trick.

Step 5: Test out your mock-up with potential customers and revise accordingly.

When it comes to launching a new product, there's no room for error. The customer is always right, and you never know what might catch their eye. That's why it's important to test out your mock-up with potential customers and revise it accordingly. If you don't have access to a potential base or have any intellectual property concerns, try to find some team members who can think from users' perspectives or come from socio-economic backgrounds. 

Step 6: Once product flow is finalized, develop & launch the product. Focus on the features and usability over visual aspects. If you can balance both features and visual elements, that's the best. But keep in mind that less visually appealing software with usable features is more user-friendly than the best possible visual elements with buggy features.

Step 7: Feedback feedback and more feedback.

Allow end users to provide feedback. Create effective and short surveys and ask users for feedback. Reach out to influencers in your field and ask for feedback. Keeping an eye on your social media channels is another great way to find feedback. 

Step 8:  Refine your product based on feedback. 

Collecting feedback is great. But acting upon feedback is greater. Always act upon feedback. Even if the decision is "Won't Fix", it's better than keeping things in an undetermined state. Announce all key enhancements in an intro video, company blog, and other platforms. If you have access, use influencers and tech reviewers for a review.