MADAREC Ideation Program: Ideation and Design Thinking Workshop

Workshop Overview

• Facilitator: Mr. Kevin, Product Design and Research Director in Barcelona.
• Experience: 17+ years in user experience, product design, data visualization.
• Background: Work with consulting firms (PwC, EY) and companies (Hilton, Gap, Booking.com, Uber).

Workshop Agenda

1. Introduction to Design Thinking
2. Focus on Ideation Stage
3. Business Idea Validation
4. Customer Targeting and Personas
5. Removing Bias in Design

Key Concepts

Design Thinking

• Focus on customer needs and problems.
• Framework: Customer Centricity Model.
• Phases: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test, Implement.

Business Stages and Ideation

• Early Stage: Confirm market demand for your product/service.
• Testing Stage: Adjust selling models (e.g., subscription, consulting).
• Launch Stage: Establish market presence, move beyond friends and family.
• Growth Stage: Efficient growth without overspending on marketing.
• Maturity Stage: Expand with new business units or products.

Customer Centricity Model

• Level 1: Focus on product delivery, customer feedback at the end.
• Level 2: Involve tech feasibility and occasional customer feedback.
• Level 3: Customer feedback for strategic decisions, outcome-focused language.
• Level 4: Customer feedback in all business areas, potential consultants.

Amazon's Working Backwards Method

1. Envision customer satisfaction (press release concept).
2. Understand market opportunity.
3. Brainstorm solutions.
4. Prioritize top ideas for execution.
5. Develop detailed action plans.

Experimentation and Feedback

• Run experiments to validate ideas without significant cost (e.g., MVP, usability testing).
• Use tools and customer feedback to measure effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.
• Automate feedback collection where possible.

Frameworks and Models

• Design Thinking: Iterative process involving empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
• Customer Personas: Understand needs, behaviors, and goals of different customer types.
• Usability Testing: Gather data through experiments, feedback loops, and customer interactions.

Practical Methodologies

• Fake Door Test: Present an unbuilt feature to gauge interest.
• Smoke Test: Early validation through teasers and pre-sales.
• Dogfooding: Internal use of your product by employees.
• Engagement Models: Flywheel effect, freemium models, variable rewards.

Challenges and Considerations

• Navigate user feedback that contradicts initial assumptions.
• Adjust strategies based on competitive landscape and market changes.
• Balance between user needs and technical/business feasibility.

Q&A Highlights

• Customer Involvement: Engage at all stages, use as focus group or for feedback.
• Service Testing: Consider discounted/free models for early feedback.
• B2B Launch: Use early adopters, segment marketing strategies.
• Physical vs Digital Products: Different approaches to testing and validation.

Resources

• Free engagement book from Intercom.
• Platforms like usertesting.com for UX audits.

Conclusion: Continuous iteration and customer feedback are crucial in the ideation and design thinking process to ensure a product/service meets market needs and achieves strategic goals.