Everybody can be a designer!

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This is the principle you need to remind yourself when you feel you are lacking creativity.

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This been said, we have got you covered with a series of templates to work on solving any challenge your DMO or organisation may face.  We have collected all the material we used at the first edition of the DTTT Academy we ran in September 2019 in Canterbury. The event was all about Human-Centred Design Thinking and what you will find here is an incredibly useful process for you to follow with your diverse and empowered team in the office!

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The first thing you need to do is ask yourself why you are facing that challenge - bear in mind you have to question yourself 5 times!

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The first thing which is needed is to transform your challenge statement into a Problem Statement which has this structure:

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Our Users (people involved, not necessarily you) struggle to do this activity because they have this limitation.

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Write your Problem Statement in the first box and then ask why this is happening 5 times, starting every time from the new reason you found. Eventually, you will get to know the root cause of the problem and you may also find out that your problem statement, and consequently the challenge, have evolved. You can then complete the template by writing the updated problem statement (not compulsory).

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The first actual phase of the Design Thinking process is empathising. In other words, you need to understand, be aware of, and vicariously experience the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another individual (your User).

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Human-Centred Design is all about people, hence you will need to focus on the people affected by the challenge you are facing. Identify the users and what they do on a daily basis, think about their struggles and their needs. To conclude, complete the statement at the bottom of the template.

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Then move into the next phase, which is about Defining some concrete actions that can help you make a step towards your solution.

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Once again, take into consideration your users. Try to define what they do, think and feel; then cluster common actions, thoughts and feeling under the same group (what we called Phase). You can define whatever group you think it’s relevant according to the direction you are going and the findings you are making.

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Then, it’s time to define the Hills, such as concrete actions that can be taken to improve your situation like “The Social Media Executive will run a webinar about trends and performance of the social media channels for all the team members every month”. This is something feasible, that you can implement in the short-term.

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The next phase is called ideation, and it’s the phase in which you take some time to think about amazing ideas to solve your challenge. Just remember to write before you speak, so that no one (not even yourself) will stop you from adding your ideas to the board.

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If you are stuck with no ideas and need some help with the ideation phase, bear in mind that you can think outside the box and that from any absurd idea can generate a brilliant one!

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After voting the best idea, it’s time to decide how to make it a concrete action. This is the prototyping phase, the stage in which you verify and plan the feasibility of your solution. In this template, you can reorganise the outcomes of the previous stages and start to think about a draft timeline for your solution.

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And last but not least, the concept poster! This template is made up of different boxes that will help you define different aspects of your solution, focusing specifically on the prototype, such as the testing part, to verify as quickly as possible, if your implementation is valuable, reducing the risk of failure in case of an unsuccessful outcome.

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For any further question about how to run a workshop with this pack, you can contact the Research & Knowledge Team at knowledge@thinkdigital.travel.