Unit -1 Design Thinking Principles

Human Centered Design:

Human-Centered Design is a powerful approach to building new products. It aligns what the
users want, with what is technically feasible and financially viable. It can be applied to both
physical products, like cars, and digital solutions, like web and mobile applications.
Human-Centered Design generates insights about your current or target users, and your internal
stakeholders by building empathy for every person involved in the product design process so
that the final product is tailored to meet their needs. It’s all about putting human beings at the
heart of the product design process.

It is achieved when the following pillars of the methodology intersect:

Desirability: What do people desire?

Feasibility: What is technically and organizationally feasible?
Viability: What can be financially viable?
Human-Centered Design recognizes the importance of behavioral, emotional and environmental
contexts. It encourages designers to see product users as real human beings with real, complex
lives, instead of just as numbers on a screen.

Human-centered design and engineering is divided into three fundamental principles –

Observation, Ideation, and Testing.

Observation:
It is also known as an Inspiration Phase.
Identifying the challenges is the first step. You need to be clear about the obstacles your
human-centered product design will be addressing.
Market Research can be done to identify the problems the customers are facing in a product
and to get an insight about how the product / competitors are solving their problems in the real
world. Gaining these insights through market research, it is possible for us to provide the
customers with better solutions by understanding where the product/competitors fail to meet
customers expectations.

Ideation:

The Ideation Phase helps you make sense of what you’ve learned in the Inspiration Phase. It's
time to identify opportunities, and create high/low fidelity prototypes.
The best way to start is by gathering your team for a brainstorming session. Educate your team
to make them think from a user’s perspective. The main focus should be to get to the
one-in-a-million idea through collaborative efforts.

Testing:
Testing is the most important part of the human-centered design process as it helps us to know
if the product is useful to the users. Testing helps to understand various constraints faced by
the customers. Feedbacks collected during the testing phase can help you improve your
prototypes iteratively before launching the product.
Importance of Human-Centered Design

1. People-centered:

Focus on people and their context in order to create things that are appropriate for them.

2. Understand and solve the right problems, the root problems:

Understand and solve the right problem, the root causes, the underlying fundamental
issues. Otherwise, the symptoms will just keep returning.

3. Everything is a system:

Think of everything as a system of interconnected parts.

4. Small and simple interventions:

Do iterative work and don't rush to a solution. Try small, simple interventions and learn
from them one by one, and slowly your results will get bigger and better. Continually
prototype, test and refine your proposals to make sure that your small solutions truly
meet the needs of the people you focus on.

Innovation Process in Design Thinking:

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge
assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test.
Involving five phases—Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test—it is most useful to tackle
problems that are ill-defined or unknown.
Design thinking is an iterative and non-linear process that contains five phases:
1. Empathize
2. Define
3. Ideate
4. Prototype
5. Test.

Empathize:

Empathizing is the first stage of the design thinking process. Design teams conduct research to
get personal grasp of their users’ needs. Research Your Users' Needs to gain an empathetic
understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve, typically through user research. Empathy is
crucial to a human-centered design process such as design thinking because it allows you to
set aside your own assumptions about the world and gain real insight into users and their
needs.

Empathy is the foundation of a human-centered design process.

To empathize, you:
- Observe. View users and their behavior in the context of their lives.
- Engage. Interact with and interview users through both scheduled and short ‘intercept’
encounters.

- Immerse. Experience what your user experiences.

Reason for Empathy:

Uncover needs that people have which they may or may not be aware of

Guide innovation efforts

Identify the right users to design for
Discover the emotions that guide behaviors

Define: State Your Users' Needs and Problems

It’s time to accumulate the information gathered during the Empathize stage. You then analyze
your observations and synthesize them to define the core problems you and your team have
identified. These definitions are called problem statements.
In the Define stage, you will organize the information you have gathered during the Empathize
stage. You’ll analyze your observations to define the core problems you and your team have
identified up to this point.

For example, you should not define the problem as your own wish or need of the company: “We
need to increase our food-product market share among young teenage girls by 5%.”

You should pitch the problem statement from your perception of the users’ needs: “Teenage
girls need to eat nutritious food in order to thrive, be healthy and grow.”

Ideate: Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

Ideate: the third phase of design thinking, where you identify innovative solutions to the problem
statement you’ve created. Brainstorming techniques are typically used at the start of the
ideation stage to stimulate free thinking and expand the problem space. This allows you to
generate as many ideas as possible at the start of ideation.

Brainstorming is a method design teams use to generate ideas to solve clearly defined design
problems. In controlled conditions and a free-thinking environment, teams approach a problem
by such means as “How Might We” questions. They produce a vast array of ideas and draw links
between them to find potential solutions.

Prototype: Start to Create Solutions

Prototype: the fourth phase of design thinking, where you identify the best possible solution.
The design team will now produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of the
product (or specific features found within the product) to investigate the key solutions
generated in the ideation phase. These prototypes can be shared and tested within the team
itself, in other departments or on a small group of people outside the design team.

This is an experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of
the problems identified during the first three stages. The solutions are implemented within the
prototypes and, one by one, they are investigated and then accepted, improved or rejected based
on the users’ experiences.

By the end of the Prototype stage, the design team will have a better idea of the product’s
limitations and the problems it faces. They’ll also have a clearer view of how real users would
behave, think and feel when they interact with the end product.

Test: Try Your Solutions Out

The fifth and final phase of the design thinking process, where you test solutions to derive a
deep understanding of the product and its users.
Designers or evaluators rigorously test the complete product using the best solutions identified
in the Prototype stage. This increased level of understanding may help you investigate the
conditions of use and how people think, behave and feel towards the product, and even lead you
to loop back to a previous stage in the design thinking process.
You can then proceed with further iterations and make alterations and refinements to rule out
alternative solutions.
The ultimate goal is to get as deep an understanding of the product and its users as possible.
Empathy Building Techniques:

Storytelling:

Designers use storytelling to get insight into users, build empathy and reach them emotionally.
Designers create personas to represent target users and add conflict to stories that reflect their
user journeys and problems. Crafting stories, designers can better understand what users want
from a solution.

Storytelling helps explain the interconnections among people in situations and settings,
teaching broad lessons that engage real human beings. Listening engages people; and
empathy is an essential and fundamental component in the process.

Stories generate questions and questions expand the breadth and depth of stories, leading to
lots of innovative thoughts and ideas. Storytelling becomes an important tool for feedback,
which is the basis of the iterative process of prototyping that lead to solutions. Stories and
prototypes are intertwined, explaining and repositioning experiences through a multitude of
potential interpretations, which allow researchers to test new solutions before committing
exclusively to a particular policy, program, or service.

Stories take on a variety of forms: digital storytelling, visual storytelling, storyboards, scenario
generation, storytelling through videos, skits or plays, animation, talk and image, text or image.
Empathy map:

An Empathymap will help you understand your user’s needs while you develop a deeper

understanding of the persons you are designing for. There are many techniques you can use to

develop this kind of empathy. An Empathy Map is just one tool that can help you empathise and

synthesis your observations from the research phase, and draw out unexpected insights about

your user’s needs.

An Empathy Map allows us to sum up our learning from engagements with people in the field of

design research. The map provides four major areas in which to focus our attention on, thus

providing an overview of a person’s experience.

An Empathy Map consists of four quadrants. The four quadrants reflect four key traits, which

the user demonstrated/possessed during the observation/research stage.

The four quadrants refer to what the user: Say, Do, Think, and Feel.
It’s fairly easy to determine what the user said and did. However, determining what they thought

and felt should be based on careful observations and analysis as to how they behaved and

responded to certain activities, suggestions, conversations, etc.

Empathy Interview:

An empathy interview is about active listening and active hearing. The following points highlight

their importance:

1. Empathy interviews allow users to speak about what is important to them.

2. They focus on the emotional and subconscious aspects of the user.

3. They allow interviewers to gain insights on how users behave in given environments and

situations.

4. They can reveal solutions you might not have discovered otherwise, or unmet needs and

challenges you might be overlooking.

5. Empathy interviews are about getting deeper and going beyond your run of the mill

questions.

6. They’re about making the subject feel at ease so he or she can shed the mask and speak

from the heart.

7. They offer interviewers a chance to observe body language and reactions of the

subjects. This allows for spontaneous questions based on observations.

It’s important you ask questions that allow the interviewee/users to give long answers. Never

push your thoughts on the interviewee. Be mindful that open-ended questions can be good, but

sometimes they can be too broad.

Things to Remember

● Always have a beginner’s mindset.

● Suspend your judgments. You’re not there to judge. Keep an open mind. Openness is a

mindset that is required.

● Be fully present. Be truly there. Someone can tell if you’d rather be elsewhere. Show each

interviewee they are the most interesting, person you have ever met.

● Silence all devices. Do not look at your texts or answer phone calls.

● Always bring a voice recorder to document the interview.

● Interview in pairs. One can ask questions whilst the other takes notes. You can take

turns.

● Use a permission form for taking photographs.

● Use release documents for interviewee to sign.

● Also explain how the person’s data and any data you collect will be used from the

interview.

● Leave 30 minutes or so between each interview. This gives the interviewer some time to

make additional notes and compile their thoughts while everything is still fresh in their

mind.
Mitigate Validation Risk with Forge Innovation Rubrics:

A diagnostic tool to guide innovators through a fast-tracked process of validating inherent risks
by linking their progress to customer-acceptance and customer-commitment, and thereby
evaluating the true market potential of product innovations.

For any Product Innovation, Validation Risk is associated with the following factors:

#1 Problem definition & Customer selection and specificity:

The first and foremost step in building an innovative product is clearly defining the problem. All
the downstream activities—like customer development, crafting a value proposition, etc., will fail
if the problem is not defined clearly.
Here are 3 key attributes that a clearly defined problem statement should have:

● Specificity
● Detailed profile of the different types of beneficiaries that are impacted by the problem
● Quantified significance & severity of the problem, i.e. cost of the problem

The problem statement tells innovators exactly what type of failures the solution must address,
the benefits that the solution should offer, and who will be using the solution. Finally, and most
importantly, the problem statement has to be validated by end-users, unless this is done, the
problem will be abstract without any real-world significance.

These three factors along with validation from end-users significantly reduce the risk associated
with product innovations.

#2 Problem significance & magnitude

The first step in building an innovative product is to clearly define the problem. Once done, we
should assess if the problem is worth solving. In order to work on a worthy problem, we need to
identify problems that are unsolved.

Here are a few attributes of an unsolved problem:

1. It should be unsolved, i.e. there should be no solutions or products in the market that solve
the problem. [The product you will develop would have almost no competition]

2. The significance & severity of the problem should be high, i.e. it should be a pressing problem
to those who are impacted by it. [Your customers' willingness to buy will be high]
3. It should be experienced by a large number of beneficiaries, i.e. the problem should be
widespread. [Your product will have a huge market opportunity.]

#3 Motivation level of target customer to solve the defined problem

One of the key reasons for product innovation failing when launched in the market is that
innovators don’t choose the right set of target customers. Despite identifying a significant
problem to solve, it is equally important to identify the right set of customers who are impacted
by the problem and assess their motivation to buy a product to address it. If an innovator
doesn’t address these, all the downstream activities of building a product will fail. The innovator
will face the following challenges later:

● Inability to showcase the value that the product can create

● Difficulties in pricing the product
● Inability to assess the customers' ability to buy
● Planning Go to Market strategies and other challenges

In brief, the innovator would build a product that no one is willing to buy.

#4 Quantification & its acceptance by the target customer of the Value Proposition offered by
the innovation

Value Proposition is the fundamental reason why customers buy any solution. In fact,
customers don't buy products, they buy the value that the product offers, products are merely
vehicles that carry value to customers. Hence it's imperative to design & test the value
proposition before developing the product.

There are certain attributes that a good value proposition should have:
 ● The problem being addressed
● Significance & severity of the problem
● Profile of the end-users
● The value that the product can offer
● The solution, i.e. the product

#5 Adoption barriers that will prevent target customer from experiencing the value proposition

Adoption barriers are potential bottlenecks that will stop the users from buying & using a
solution/product. If an innovator/startup founder does not consider the Adoption barriers that
will prevent target customers from experiencing the value proposition then the whole efforts
made will go in vain.

The above factors are vital in mitigating the risks and should be considered for product
innovations. Higher the Validation Risk, lesser the possibility that this product innovation can
succeed in the market.
 Unit 2 Customer Centric Innovation

Customer Centric Innovation:

It's a centric way of doing business that is focused on providing a positive customer experience
before and after the sale in order to drive repeat business, enhance customer loyalty and
improve the business grade. Good customer service, Leadership principles, Working backwards
for the needs, and Customer obsession.
A customer-centric innovation would imply that the organization will actively work to create
better products for its consumer base.

As companies grow and scale, maintaining focus on meeting customers’ requirements at speed
becomes more difficult as other business imperatives and pressures (e.g. cost, infrastructure,
competition) arise. But the necessity of understanding your customers’ needs and desires, and
rapidly inventing solutions that meet those needs, is more critical than ever for companies
looking to remain innovative in an increasingly uncompromising business environment.

It is not enough to simply react to what your customers are telling you they need. This may
address prominent pain points or the highest priority issues in the short term, but does not
guarantee that you will proactively stay ahead of those needs. They will inevitably shift over
time, and there is a likely chance you won’t even know when this shift occurs.

Putting the customer at the center of everything you do, and going beyond simply knowing what
customers want but deeply understanding them and the context of their needs, has many
advantages. One is that it will provide endless ideas and inspiration to innovate, opening you up
to explore and invent in many more areas than you may have otherwise. Another benefit is that
by getting ahead of your customers’ needs, you stay relevant in providing continuous value for
them. If you aren’t meeting customer needs today, they will quickly find someone else who can.

Customers have more choice than ever before in quickly finding another product, service, or
offering that better meets their demands. In addition to existing competitors, there is no
shortage of companies rushing in to fill identified gaps and opportunities to serve customers
better.
Example: Amazon's own retail business experience illusion focuses on long-term customer
needs. Constant focus on improving the end-to-end customer experience making it faster, easier
and more convenient to find, but and receive products leads to more traffic from new and
existing users.

Lower prices, durable values of price, selection and convenience led them to innovate services
like prime, prime video.

(or)

Students can also give their own examples

Problem Validation and Customer Discovery:
For a product innovator, achieving the milestones of Problem-Solution Fit and Value-Price Fit
backed with data/metrics that demonstrate strong customer-motivation,
customer-commitment, and customer-acceptance is the first and minimum point of safety.
Getting there is much more work on problem validation and customer discovery than in the
areas of technical specifications, technology selection/application, product concept, design and
engineering.

Building the right PRODUCT and building the product RIGHT, matter only after having validated
that you are solving the right PROBLEM and solving the PROBLEM right!

The product validation through customer interviews happens before a rigorous process of
problem validation.

In most cases what I observe is that the ‘problem statement’ is assumed to be RIGHT and the
focus of customer interviews is in refining the solution concept. And in almost all of these cases
the effect of very limited validation of the problem is the lower adoption, inadequate usage, and
much lower purchase of the product than expected.

Only adoption, usage, and purchase of the product and retention/referral of the customer prove
that your innovative solution is in fact the RIGHT PRODUCT. What separates RIGHT PRODUCTS
from WRONG PRODUCTS is not more effective validation of the solution concept but a more
effective validation of the ‘problem statement’.

The way the customer interprets the problem, describes its, experiences it, sets priorities for
solving it, the benefits of solving it, the constraints within which to solve it, his attempts to solve
it, the issues faced in doing so, and the behaviors/habits he will be unwilling to change etc. are
the details that the innovator has to understand deeply.
Understanding this can come in copious amounts through effective use of the tools and
techniques of empathy and ethnography. However what also works is the effective use of
questions and an interview process to better understand the problem.

The Problem Validation and Customer discovery Canvas can be used for identifying the right
problem in order to develop the right product.

RIGHT Customer & RIGHT Problem leads to RIGHT Product!

The RIGHT CUSTOMER being the one:

● That faces the problem most severely, and the beneficiary that benefits most from

having this problem solved;

 ● That is not only aware of the problem and the potential gains from solving it but

also has made attempts to solve the problem;

● That is not satisfied with the existing solutions and expects a more effective

solution;

● That is willing to experiment a different solution with the potential to solve the

problem and to deliver the expected benefits by working within the constraints;

So basically in cases where identifying and targeting the RIGHT Customer is achieved through

strong intuition of the innovator, then the customer interviews focused on and around the

problem statement can help rigorously validate the problem statement. In such cases the phase

of ‘customer discovery’ is done almost effortlessly.

In other cases though, the profile template of the RIGHT customer can help narrow down
customer choices and when coupled with effective customer interviews can help the innovator
perform the process of ‘customer discovery’ and ‘problem validation’ effectively.
User Persona:

Personas are fictional characters, which you create based upon your research in order to
represent the different user types that might use your service, product, site, or brand in a similar
way. Creating personas helps the designer to understand users’ needs, experiences, behaviors
and goals.

Personas are distilled essences of real users. Use personas to build empathy with target users
and focus on their world. You should always create personas from observations about real
users, personas should never be invented out of your assumptions about your users. Because
you must map your users’ needs to your design’s functionality, you must first clearly define both
the needs and the users.

Create Effective Personas

Personas are deliverables in design thinking’s Define phase. As they’re extremely helpful in
ideation, they should feature early in design processes. To create them, you:

1. Collect extensive data on target users.

2. Determine the qualities of and differences between users.
3. Develop a hypothesis from the research, determining the qualities of and differences
between users.
4. Ensure stakeholders agree on the hypothesis about the users.
5. Determine a number of personas – more than one per project, but focus especially on
one.
6. Name and describe each persona in 1-2 pages, including:
a. A picture.
b. User’s values, interests, education, lifestyle, needs, attitudes, desires, limitations,
goals and behavior patterns.
c. Extra details about the persona (e.g., interests) – anything to make him/her more
real and relevant and help build empathy. A written story is better than bullet
points.
 7. Describe several situations/scenarios prompting the persona to use your product – put
him/her in contexts with problems to overcome.

Example:

Note: Students can work on creating their own personas for the problem statements they are
working on.
 Unit 3 Applied Design Thinking Tools

MUP Challenge Brief:

Minimum Usable Prototype (MUP) is used to make the Value Proposition tangible and concrete.
The Minimum Usable Prototype also helps in finding out if something is technically feasible, if
design ideas look and feel good, and satisfies design criteria, or if ideas resonate with customer
acceptance for piloting. In order to build a MUP, the innovator should clearly understand the
intricacies of the challenge statement as is faced in the real-world by the target beneficiaries.
At this juncture MUP Challenge Brief guides in analyzing the information gathered from
customer development process (PVCD). As a result this framework helps in mapping the
information into the corresponding sections of the Canvas to obtain the landscape of the
problem.
The MUP Challenge Brief transforms your recognition of a problem into an actionable project a
critical milestone. The framework helps the innovator in:
● Understanding the challenge statement
● Discovering Use-case and target users
● Exploring the alternatives and their gaps
● Organizing and focusing on the features which can be provided by the innovation.
● Identifying constraints for usability and deployment
The MUP Challenge Brief will draw from PVCD and consolidate the insight into a
comprehensive, cumulative canvas. Together, the Canvas elements contributes innovation
outcomes into focus:

1.Challenge Statement: A clear and concise description of the nature, characteristics and
scope of the challenge you are dealing with, or opportunity you are responding to. Who is this a
problem for? How does it play out? Where? Why?

2. Use-case: Use case defines the different scenarios in which the challenge is faced in the real
world and helps the innovator in clearly setting the context.

3. Target User: Customer commitment, motivation and acceptance play a vital role in order to
adopt/test and accept the MUP in the profile of specific use-case identified. It is critical that you
first determine or clearly identify your primary target user and their profile.
4. Gap analysis: The process of analyzing the existing alternatives available today and
recognizing the shortcomings identified by the user.

5. Utility and Features: This element of the canvas helps in identifying the specific job customer
expects to complete, what are expected outcomes and how to quantify them. This segment of
the canvas helps in identifying pains to be relieved and gains to be created.

6. Constraints: By thoroughly understanding the limitations that constrain a design solution,

Innovators can make the right tradeoffs and come up with the best design solution possible
under those constraints.
7. References: Indicate other details or reference materials to learn more about user/use-case
and the existing solutions and alternatives.

Step #1: Define Challenge statement:

“Describe the challenge statement as it is faced in the real world by the target beneficiaries”
Strong challenge statement in the early stage helps to focus ideas, identify assumptions and
work towards building MUP.
Here are some points, which helps in building challenge statement:
● Provide a clear goal and not open ended.
● Answer to 5Ws
○ Whom the problem affects?
○ What the outcome would be if the problem was not solved?
○ Where is the problem taking place?
○ When the problem needs to be fixed?
○ Why is it important for the problem to be fixed?

Step #2: Use-Case:

“From different scenarios in which the challenge is faced, describe the specific use-case you wish
to target?”
Study across industries and identify the specific potential use-case based on impact of solving
the problem. This is where you define the customers to whom the Innovation serves and how.
Step #3: Target User:
“For this use-case, describe the profile of the target user, that you expect to adopt/test and accept
your MUP as a permanent solution.”
The following approach is suggested to identify the target User:
● Think of specific individuals or firms in this segment and list them
● Narrow the search to the most promising target segments.
● Select the target customer that offers the greatest potential.
Step #4: Gap Analysis: The gap is the difference between what the existing product offer to
consumer and what the consumer wants. If the gap is filled, Innovation will survive.
Alternatives
“How does the target user solve the challenge today?”
“What are the other alternatives available in the market today?”
Explore and understand the approach followed by the target user to solve the challenge today.
One can attain the information by customer interviews, brainstormings or self experiences. The
commercialized alternatives present in the market has to be studied and identify the current
state of problem.
Gaps
“What are the gaps in the way the challenge is solved today?”
“What are the gaps/shortcomings?”

This column should first identify whether a gap exists by the way it is solved today and outline
what constitutes the gap and the factors that contribute to it. To achieve this one should be
committed to:

○ Be honest about deficiencies.

○ Be honest about strengths
○ Be realistic
○ Be specific

Step #5: Utility and Features:

The innovation journey of many teams starts with a customer discovery process and a large
number of customer interviews. These interviews will lead to a deeper customer understanding
and critical insights for designing a product or service that customers want. The processed
information from customer interviews should answer following areas.
Jobs:
“Describe the specific job that the target user wants to complete (get done)?”
Outcomes:
“What are the expected outcomes?how do you quantify them?”
Pains:
“What are the pains to be relieved?”
Gains:
“What are the gains to be created?”

Step #6: Constraints:

“What are the usability and deployment constraints to be considered for the solution to be easy to
use and to adopt?”
Constructive and comprehensive Gap analysis helps innovator in determining the usability and
deployment constraints the customer is facing. This analysis paves the path to think what are
the constraints/challenges that have to be overcome or accommodated while solving this
problem? Constraints need to be honestly filled corresponding to usability and deployment
because this is pivotal to take the actions in order to fill the gap.
Step #7: References:
“Indicate other details or reference materials to learn more about user/use-case and the existing
solutions and alternatives.”

In a nutshell, MUP Challenge Brief will be the basis and helps in preparing for the next stages in
the Innovation journey.
Value Proposition:

A value proposition refers to the value a company promises to deliver to customers should they
choose to buy their product. The value proposition provides a declaration of intent or a
statement that introduces a company's brand to consumers by telling them what the company
stands for, how it operates, and why it deserves their business.

Value Proposition, in very simple terms, is essentially how much a product (solution) is worth to
its target customer.
Customers don’t buy the product; they buy the value proposition on offer and that’s what they
are willing to pay for. The product is just a vehicle to deliver that value proposition.
Startups are often advised to get feedback from users and customers to avoid building the
wrong product. But the feedback that matters most is knowing what price customers are willing
to pay for the product. To get this feedback the customer has to first experience the value, and
become sure about what it’s worth. At this stage, the Value Proposition is defined, quantified,
and validated.
The target value proposition is defined, quantified, and validated, matters the most. Getting to
this milestone within the shortest time possible as well as spending the lowest amount of
money sets up the innovator and the startup for success.
This milestone is called the ‘Proof-of-Value’, proof that a defined, and measurable target value
proposition that a set of similar customers (let’s say the first target segment) are willing to buy
by paying a fixed price.

The VP is built using the VP canvas.

Components of Value Proposition should contain the following points
 Unit 4 Concept Generation

MUP Concepts Generation:

After the innovator has a compelling value proposition for the target customer enumerating the
benefits in terms of measurable outcomes or gains from solving the problem and the pains you
are relieving, the innovators then create a solution concept in terms of Minimum Usable
Prototype (MUP). Minimum Usable Prototype should be useful, usable and deployable to prove
value for the customers and find how much their solution is worth to the target customer and
achieve the Value-Price Fit. Find more about how to craft a compelling Value Proposition and
Minimum Usable Prototype.

The innovator, after conceptualizing the solution idea of the Minimum Usable Prototype (MUP)
using the Value Proposition Canvas, is ready for the next step to define an MUP concept with
details on the technologies that will be used to build it.

When building the concept, the innovator’s goal is not to find the most complex way of building
a solution with complicated technologies but to drive the formulation of the MUP concept within
the shortest time and in the most resource saving way possible. The user pays for the usability
and the utility of the product, not the technology complexity involved behind it. The MUP
concept should assist to achieve the milestone where the target value proposition is defined,
quantified, and validated by the innovator and the startup for success.

Before starting to build a concept, the innovator has to explore and create various concepts and
validate it thereby reducing the risk of building something that cannot be used to test the value
proposition. Exploring the full space of alternatives reduces the likelihood that the innovator/
startup will stumble upon a superior concept late in the development phase and also reduce the
likelihood that a competitor will introduce a product with drastically better performance than the
product under development. With these above considerations it is evident that concept
generation and selection becomes a vital part of the solution design process.

The “MUP Concepts Exploration Canvas” is built to support innovators on the solution design
process to curate the right concept by having divergent and convergent phases. The tool is
based on the approach of systematic problem solving combining structured creativity
techniques. The tool also helps the innovator on the selection of the right concept against a set
of metrics. The innovator starts off with a clearly defined value proposition and understanding
the adoption barriers the users have.

Structured Creativity

1. Divergent Phase

Functional decomposition

The innovator after having conceptualized the solution, has to break down the main idea into
sub functions. One of the commonly used techniques is “Functional decomposition” which
helps dividing a larger task into smaller tasks. There is no one-and-only-one functional
decomposition for a given solution. For a moderately complex product design usually four to six
critical sub functions are identified. Since the innovators will need to choose among competing
conceptual designs, the team should expect to develop more than one functional
decomposition. It is also imperative to understand that design will require iteration and
refinement as the team's knowledge improves as the solution design evolves. Therefore, initial
attempts at functional decomposition will likely need to be revised or even discarded altogether.
The goal is greater understanding, not checking a box in some recipe for the design process.

Morphological Analysis

One of the techniques to attain structured creativity is the concept called “Morphological
Analysis” which is derived from General Morphology developed by Fritz Zwicky, Swiss-national
astrophysicist based at the California Institute of Technology. Among others, Zwicky applied
Morphological Analysis (MA) to astronomical studies and the development of jet and rocket
propulsion systems.

In order to apply morphological analysis to solution design, the innovators take the sub
functions from the functional decomposition and then identify many different tools/techniques
that can be used to complete each function. The results of this research are compiled and
presented in a morphological chart. During conceptual design, the team uses Functional
Decomposition and Morphological Analysis to explore solutions to a given problem without
overly constraining the choices for implementing those solutions.

A morphological chart has the critical sub functions listed across the column and then each row
contains the different tools/techniques solutions for each critical function. To use a
morphological matrix to generate concepts simply requires the user to select one solution from
each row and then try to integrate the solutions into a complete concept. Brainstorming and
other creativity techniques can be coupled to generate many concepts.

2. Convergent Phase
During the divergent phase all the possibilities are explored without criticizing and is
documented in a morphological chart and different concepts are generated. After which each of
the concepts is evaluated against a certain set of metrics to converge to a single concept to
build. The convergent phase should be done with support from external partners and
stakeholders. The parameters chosen for the evaluation of concepts are Capability, Usability
and Feasibility. Each of the parameters is scored on a scale of 1-10 and the concept with the
highest score on all three parameters is chosen to be built.

Capability
Capability is a metric which is used to assess the innovators capability to build the chosen
concept. The team may lack certain infrastructure , skills within the team, the right expertise etc.
Assessing the capability factor will enable the team to find gaps and also to make the decision
if the team should take up building the concept.

Usability
Usability is a metric which is used to assess if the prototype when built will overcome all
adoption barriers and can be used to test value. Usability is a very critical factor in figuring out
which product concept has to be chosen.

Feasibility
Feasibility is a metric which is used to assess if the prototype is really feasible for the innovators
to build taking in consideration the time and cost of building the prototype.
 Unit 5 System Thinking

Systems thinking:
Systems thinking is a powerful methodology focused on understanding how parts interact and
work together within a whole system. This approach can be used for problem solving to develop
better solutions for your organizational challenges.
Systems thinking is one way that creative problem solvers look at how parts interact with the
whole.

■ Systems thinking looks at connected wholes rather than separate parts.

■ Systems thinkers are curious, have open minds, are good listeners and seek out root
causes.
■ A systems thinker tries to expand the range of options available for solving a problem.

Interconnections: Projects and people are connected. A systems thinking approach identifies
those connections. This shifts the problem from a linear solution to a circular solution.

Emergence: The opposite of working “in silos,” emergence is where a larger idea or outcome is
born from smaller parts. It often is a better solution than any single “silo” could have designed.
Larger things emerge from smaller parts – the natural outcome of things coming together.

Synthesis: This means combining two or more things to create something new. “Sometimes
you’re combining old ways to make a new way. Sometimes you gain new information and create
something new,”

Feedback loops: This is the step that makes whiteboard geeks drool. Feedback loops illustrate
via charts or diagrams the feedback between various parts of a system.

Causality: Causality looks at how one thing influences another in an interconnected system.

Systems mapping: Systems mapping is the chart or flow that will inform decision-making. This
flow diagram will help them understand what is needed to make the change.
Example:
A real-life example from Borneo in the 1950s. The people were suffering from an outbreak of
malaria, so they went to the World Health Organization (WHO). A decision was made to spray
pesticide to control the malaria outbreak.
This killed malaria-carrying bugs, but it also killed wasps, which controlled a worm population.
Worms ate through the thatch roofs, many of which collapsed.
The pesticides also were ingested by other insects, which were the food for local lizards, which
were the food for local cats. Eventually, cats died off from pesticide poisoning, which caused the
rat population to explode. In the end, one infestation was traded for another.

Stock and flow diagrams:

Stock and flow diagrams are composed of two main elements: stocks and flows. Stocks are the
accumulations or quantities of something in the system, such as water, money, population, or
inventory. Flows are the rates of change or movement of something in and out of the stocks,
such as rainfall, income, births, or sales.
Stocks and flows are connected by valves or converters, which represent the factors or variables
that influence the flows. For example, a stock of water in a bathtub is affected by the flow of
water from the faucet and the flow of water from the drain, which are controlled by the valves of
the faucet and the drain.
Stock and flow diagrams help you visualize the system's behavior and understand how the
stocks and flows interact over time. They can show you how the system responds to different
scenarios, events, or interventions, and how it generates delays, feedback loops, or
nonlinearities. They can also help you communicate your insights and assumptions to others,
and facilitate collaboration and learning.

Benefits of stock and flow diagrams:

Stock and flow diagrams have several benefits for systems thinking, such as simplifying
complex systems by focusing on essential elements and relationships, revealing causal
connections and feedback loops, enabling simulation and testing of different scenarios,
policies, or actions, fostering a holistic and dynamic perspective, and enhancing learning and
understanding of the system. They also help you identify and challenge mental models and
assumptions. These diagrams can explain why a system behaves the way it does, as well as
how it can be influenced or improved over time.
Iceberg Model:

The iceberg model is a systems thinking tool that can be used to help people understand the
relationship between noticeable problems or events and underlying factors. Just as how only
10% of an iceberg's mass is visible above water, the model is based on the idea that there are
usually more factors involved in a problem than what is initially apparent. The model can be
used to help people identify hidden causes of problems so that they can be addressed.

Iceberg Model and Systems Thinking

Systems thinking is a way of thinking that focuses on how different parts of a system interact
with and influence each other. Through the use of systems thinking, problems can be well
defined, causes can be deeply explored, and system changes can be developed with the intent
of solving complex problems. The iceberg model is a systems thinking model and visual tool
that can be used to help people understand the underlying causes of problems and events. It
shows how problems can be caused by underlying factors that are not immediately obvious.

These levels are known as the event level, the pattern level, the structure level, and the mental
model level. Each level represents a different depth of thinking about a problem or event. The
levels can also be thought of as the visible level, the surface level, the underlying level, and the
hidden level.
Event Level of the Iceberg Model
The event level is the most visible and obvious part of the iceberg, the recognition of the event
itself. The event level is represented visually as the tip of the iceberg above the water line. It is
the surface level of thinking. The event level is what people see and experience on a daily basis.
For example, a person is late for work. The simple act of showing up late without any further
thought to potential causes or consequences is the event level.

Pattern Level of the Iceberg Model

The pattern level is represented as the part of the iceberg slightly below the water line. The
pattern level is where people begin to see the relationships between events. Noticeable trends
and patterns begin to emerge. Returning to the above example, the same person is late for work
every Monday morning. The pattern level is where this fact would be noticed and recognized.

The pattern level is important because it helps people to begin to see the bigger picture. It helps
people to understand how different events are related to each other and to identify trends and
patterns that can be helpful in the problem solving process.

Structure Level of the Iceberg Model

The structure level is the next part of the iceberg below the pattern level. Visually, it can be
thought of as the lower-mid submerged section of the iceberg. The structure level is where
people begin to see how different events are connected to each other and understand the
underlying causes of the patterns. They also begin to understand how different parts of a
system interact with each other.
Mental Model Level of the Iceberg Model

The mental model level is the final part of the iceberg, just below the structure level. It is the
deepest and most submerged part of the iceberg. In this sense, it can be thought of as the
foundation of the entire system. The mental model level is where people's underlying
assumptions and beliefs about a problem or event are located. The mental model level can be
said to hold beliefs, values, and opinions without which the other layers would not be able to
exist. These assumptions and beliefs can be difficult to change because they are often based on
personal experiences and worldviews. In our example, the person who is late for work every
Monday morning might believe that it is acceptable to be late occasionally, especially if it relates
to childcare. This belief would be located at the mental model level.