Design Thinking Applications

🗼 The Elements Of Product Design (https://lnkd.in/dxWDJmTg), an interesting look at product design through the lens of reality, problem space and solution space — by viewing it as a stack of decisions built on top of a stack of knowledge. Put together by Jamie Mill on top of Jesse James Garrett’s work, and discovered via Dan Brown 🤎. ✅ Design decisions happen across many different layers. ✅ They can be aesthetic, structural, conceptual, strategic. ✅ Each layer requires a different approach, skills, expertise. ✅ Bottom layers heavily impact and shape the upper layers. 🚫 If upper layers don’t map well to layers below → poor UX. ✅ Our digital products must match the complexities of life. ✅ We map life by building a simplified knowledge model of it. ↳ E.g. we observe behavior, learn the domain, track user needs. ✅ Then we make decisions about products to offer to match it. 🚫 We often focus too much on individual touchpoints and UI. ✅ First, we explore desired business outcomes (strategy). ✅ Then, we define objects, relationships, actions, IA (concept). ✅ Afterwards, we explore interaction design and flow (touchpoints). ✅ Finally, we refine micro-interactions, UX writing and artwork (UI). ✅ To innovate, repeatedly study problem/solution spaces separately. Many companies assume that design mostly happens in the UX team. But every person contributing to a product even in the smallest way co-shapes and co-designs the end user experience. In fact, much of the design happens before users interact with a screen, from word-of-mouth to public reviews. For any product or a service, design happens everywhere. In marketing, in sales, in editorial, in engineering, in customer service, in 3rd-party apps and integrations. And more often than not, products are designed by people who don’t have a “designer” in their title. Probably the best investment in a product team is to have teams working on problem and solution spaces separately, and to spend enough time building an accurate conceptual model of the solution space. As designers, we often excel at the UI design, often with plenty of underlying challenges on the layers below. But if you find yourself seeking a challenge, explore the messy layers of product strategy and conceptual model. Very often only few designers live there, and very often an improvement there is exactly what a company desperately needs. ✤ Useful resources Business Thinking For Designers, by Ryan Rumsey https://lnkd.in/ejVxnbhP The End Of Navel Gazing, by Paul Adams https://lnkd.in/ewRM6V2e Designers, We Have a “Figmaism” Problem, by Artiom Dashinsky https://lnkd.in/daN-i64J Components of UX Strategy, by Sarah Gibbons, Anna Kaley https://lnkd.in/et3WWSzG Five Layers of User Experience (PDF), by Jesse James Garrett https://lnkd.in/dq69jfTp #ux

Japanese engineers once faced a problem that seemed impossible to solve. Every time their bullet train exited a tunnel at high speed, it created a loud boom that disturbed nearby communities. Many expected a complex technological solution, expensive redesigns, or years of engineering trials. Instead, the breakthrough came from a simple observation. An engineer noticed how a kingfisher bird dives from air into water with barely a splash. Inspired by nature, they redesigned the train's nose to mimic the bird's beak. The result was extraordinary: the train became quieter, more energy-efficient, and even faster. The lesson extends far beyond engineering. The most powerful solutions are not always found by working harder, adding more complexity, or spending more money. Sometimes progress comes from stepping outside your field, staying curious, and seeing familiar problems through a different lens. Innovation is often less about inventing something new and more about noticing what has been there all along. The world rewards those who remain open-minded enough to learn from unexpected places, because simplicity, when combined with observation, can solve problems that complexity cannot.

I learned Design Thinking on my first day as a data scientist at IBM, and it quietly became one of the most useful mindsets in my AI career. It taught me to slow down, understand the real problem, and build solutions that actually land with users. Here’s how I still use it today: → Solve the right problem Most AI teams jump into modeling too early. Design Thinking forces you to reframe, question assumptions, and check if the problem is even defined correctly. → Diverge before you converge Explore many possibilities, then narrow down. This prevents tunnel vision and leads to better architectures, better experiments, and better product decisions → Use the 2x2 grid Am I exploring or deciding? Am I thinking about the problem or the solution? This simple check saves me from going down the wrong path. → Observe behavior, not opinions The real insights come from watching users, not asking them. The same applies when evaluating agents, prototypes, or internal tools. → Prototype fast, assign ownership Ideas die when nobody owns them. Execution is where Design Thinking turns into impact. This mindset shaped how I build AI systems then, and it still shapes how I build them now. ♻️Share this with your network

India’s Big Step in Digital Governance: UX4G Design System The Government of India has launched UX4G, a common design system to make all government apps and websites look, feel, and work in the same smooth way. Why it’s important • Ready tools for designers & developers → Figma kits and code libraries available to use instantly. • Easy for everyone → Built with accessibility rules (GIGW) so people with different abilities can use it. • Faster rollouts → No need to reinvent the wheel for every ministry—same design blocks can be reused. How it compares globally • India (UX4G) → Citizen-first, multilingual, inclusive. • UK (GOV.UK) → Famous for simplicity and accessibility. • USA (USWDS) → Great documentation and widely used across federal sites. What this means India now has its own global-standard design system that will help: • Make govt websites/apps more user-friendly & consistent • Save time & money in development • Provide seamless digital services to citizens Check it out on Figma Community: https://lnkd.in/gaue2drs Explore here: https://www.ux4g.gov.in/ #UX4G #DesignSystem #DigitalIndia #UIDesign #UXDesign #GovTech #Accessibility #InclusiveDesign #ServiceDesign #UXResearch #DigitalTransformation #PublicSectorInnovation #UserExperience #UIDevelopment #GovernmentDesign

It took me a decade to truly understand what it means to design for B2B enterprise. Here are some hard truths. B2B is wonderfully complex. Release cycles are driven by engineering rigor, and the domain knowledge runs deep. Learning it takes time, and there’s incredible institutional knowledge to absorb. You earn trust when you invest in understanding the domain as deeply as your engineering partners do. Vision thrives when leadership champions it. The challenge is demonstrating how design thinking adds value within real technical constraints. Here’s what I’ve learned about how design succeeds in this environment: Push the envelope, always. Designers bring unique ways of seeing, framing, and solving problems. That’s the power of creative problem solving. Great design requires great engineering, and the partnership works best when both disciplines challenge each other constructively. Design naturally gets pressure tested from multiple angles. That’s healthy. As designers who understand technology and product (myself included), we can empathize deeply with engineering constraints. But we also need to maintain one perspective that imagines beyond current limitations. That’s where breakthrough solutions come from. Measure what matters for your customers. B2B customers typically upgrade quarterly or semi-annually, not daily or weekly. Understanding their actual adoption patterns helps us focus on the right success metrics. Designing for B2B requires patience and perspective. Progress can feel slow day to day, but when you do the right things consistently, impact compounds and arrives all at once. If you need instant gratification, enterprise work will frustrate you. But if you appreciate compounding returns, it’s incredibly rewarding. B2B customers often become accustomed to friction in their tools. They accept it as normal until something like Slack shows them a fundamentally better experience. Our job is to not accept that friction, even when customers have adapted to it. We can create those breakthrough moments. Some days feel like you’re keeping the ship running smoothly. Other days you’re pushing toward the future state. Both matter equally. Both are essential to success. What I wish I’d understood earlier: - Be the designer you’re meant to be. - Collaborate with your partners with deep empathy. - Stay relentless about simplifying your customers’ lives. - Don’t accept unnecessary complexity. Trust in long-term impact over quick wins. The domain is deep. The pace is measured. The collaboration is constant. And the work matters tremendously because enterprise users deserve experiences as intuitive and delightful as the consumer products they use every day. Earn respect from your stakeholders and partners. Keep pushing forward. #design

A man carved a shelter inside a fallen giant tree. 30 days. No power tools. No architecture degree. Just hands — and engineering older than any university. Think about that. Viral bushcraft creators are turning massive fallen logs into hidden homes — excavating, reinforcing, and weatherproofing structures using techniques their ancestors knew. Load distribution along the trunk. Natural arch shapes for strength. Drainage carved into the base. Insulation from bark and clay. Civil engineering, taught by the forest. What many modern organisations still assume about building capability: ↳ Learning happens in classrooms with textbooks ↳ Simulations replace real-world experience ↳ People need expensive labs to understand physics ↳ Theory must come before practice What hands-on builders prove instead: ↳ 92% of educators report better math mastery through environment-based learning ↳ 97% of teachers see improved problem-solving from place-based curricula ↳ Hands-on engineering tasks score 4.23 out of 5 for knowledge construction ↳ People who build solve problems faster than those who only study theory And yet most organisations still train people away from the environments where real judgment is formed. Here’s the part that stopped me: These builders aren’t cutting live trees. They’re transforming decay into protection. A fallen giant that would rot for decades becomes shelter, classroom, and proof that nothing has to be wasted. That’s circular design thinking — taught without a single lecture. Every beam placed teaches load distribution. Every joint sealed reveals material behaviour. Every drainage channel carved demonstrates hydrology. The Multiplication Effect: 1 hands-on project = 3 semesters of theory come alive 10 outdoor programs = communities of problem-solvers 100 schools adopting = engineering education transformed At scale = a generation that learns by building, not just reading. The real risk isn’t lack of intelligence — it’s leaders who’ve never had to test their understanding against reality. We spent decades making capability abstract. A better question for leaders: do we keep designing systems that teach theory in isolation — or ones that produce judgment through contact with reality? Worth reflecting on how we develop real capability. Video source: Unknown and might be AI generated. Similar bushcraft builds on YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook show single builders creating shelters under roots or on top of giant fallen trees, often with basic hand tools and no heavy machinery. Evidence that environment‑based learning leads to higher math and science scores and better problem‑solving than traditional classrooms. (WWF “Schools for Nature”, 2019; Becker et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 2022; Gray Family Foundation, “Empirical Evidence Supporting Benefits of Outdoor School”, 2015)

AI is killing the UX Design role as we know it. Designers who adapt will evolve into Strategic Experience Architects who will be in high demand. While traditional designers are "pixel-pushing," a new set of designers is emerging.  They're using AI to fast-track design ideas and turning prototypes into working code. A lot of what UX designers are doing manually today is exactly what AI tools are getting good at: • Rapid wireframing concepts • UI component creation • Basic user research • Persona development • Usability testing automation The ability to automate some UX tasks is already here. We have to assume that the technology will only advance quickly. I recently spoke with several Product Managers who are already replacing basic UX tasks with AI tools. When PMs can generate, iterate, and validate designs using AI, what happens to the traditional UX role? Simple products and startups will streamline. PMs with AI will be able to handle the basics. We're already seeing this shift. However, there's a big opportunity here as well. AI has a critical blind spot: it can't grasp the nuanced psychology of human behavior. It can't navigate complex stakeholder dynamics. It can't translate business objectives into meaningful user experiences. This is where the evolution happens. The future belongs to Strategic Experience Architects who: ✦ Define the right problems to solve ✦ Extract insights from human complexity ✦ Align teams around user value ✦ Guide AI with human context The market is splitting: → Basic products: UX roles blend into other roles on the team → Complex enterprises: Strategic UX roles become critical Fortunately, most valuable products are complex and human-centered. Want to stay relevant? Here's what to consider. 1. Master AI design tools   But don't just use them, learn to orchestrate them 2. Evolve from maker to strategist   Your value is in thinking, not in pushing pixels (AI will eventually handle this) 3. Develop business intelligence   Connect user needs to revenue 4. Study human psychology    This is your moat against AI 5. Learn systems thinking Focus on developing repeatable systems in your daily work The UX industry isn't dead, but it is transforming. -- ♻️ Share if you think this will help others ➕ Follow Jason Moccia for more insights on AI and Product Design

When everyone can build, everyone needs to think like a product person. AI tools are democratizing the ability to create features across engineering, design, and product roles. Engineers can prototype interfaces, designers can generate code, and suddenly the lines between disciplines are blurring fast. Just because we can build something quickly doesn't mean we should. I'm seeing teams fall into a new kind of build trap. They're shipping AI-generated features without asking the fundamental question: does this solve a real customer problem? To spread product thinking beyond product managers, your engineers need to understand customer jobs-to-be-done. Your designers need to grasp business strategy. Your entire team needs the critical thinking skills to keep customer satisfaction at the center of everything they build. This shift is already happening at forward-thinking companies. They're training cross-functional teams in product fundamentals, not just their functional expertise. Because when building becomes effortless, thinking becomes everything. At Product Institute, we're seeing demand for product education across all roles. Teams are realizing that product thinking can't be siloed when building capabilities are distributed. How is your organization preparing for this shift?

Design Thinking: 7 Common Mistakes and Misuses (And How to Avoid Them) Design Thinking is a powerful approach – but it can be misused or misunderstood. I’m working on something new—and part of that involves helping leaders spot (and avoid) some of the most common mistakes and misuses of Design Thinking. Here are 7 common misuses I often see—plus tips on how to avoid them: 1️⃣ Made-up empathy Too many teams and organisations brainstorm what their customers’ needs and jobs are—rather than uncovering real insights through empathy research. 2️⃣ Doing ‘drive-by’ empathy Spending an hour doing a few ‘street intercepts’ is not enough. Whilst it is most likely better than nothing, true empathy requires depth and context—not just soundbites or anecdotal input. 3️⃣ Fast-tracking and skipping steps Calling it a design sprint doesn’t mean you’re not rushing the most important stages of innovation. Developing products and services that customers love and that work for your organisation takes time. Rushing the front end of the journey typically results in more defects, rework, delays, and costly failures in the back end. 4️⃣ Testing usability before desirability With the growth of digital, many teams are focusing on usability testing prematurely—before they’ve validated whether the concept is actually desirable to users. Just because something is usable doesn’t mean people actually want it—or will pay for it. 5️⃣ Treating Design Thinking as a standalone workshop Workshops are great for sparking insights and ideas, collaboration, energy, and buy-in. But they’re not a substitute for the hard, ongoing work of research, idea refinement, iteration, and experimentation. The most effective approach combines both: collaborative workshops and deep work. Design Thinking is a mindset and practice—not a one-off event. 6️⃣ Starting with the Business Model Canvas Jumping into the Business Model Canvas before you’ve proven you have a desirable solution leads to wasted effort. Nail the problem–solution fit first. 7️⃣ Believing Design Thinking alone ensures desirability, viability, and feasibility It doesn’t. Design Thinking helps you generate and validate solutions for problems customers want to see solved. But to build solutions that are also viable for the business and feasible to deliver, you need to integrate Design Thinking with tools and methods like the Business Model Canvas and Lean Startup. Have you seen these misuses? What would you add? (P.S. I’m focusing specifically on misuses of the methodology itself, not broader innovation pitfalls.) 👉 DM me if you'd like help building your teams' and leaders’ Design Thinking and innovation mastery — or help solving some of your most important innovation challenges. #designthinking #humancentreddesign #hcd #productdiscovery #experimentation #innovation #leadership

Stop relying on flashy features! Instead, build systems that meet human desires. At the heart of great games are 2 motivators 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: • The pure joy of solving puzzles, • Mastering challenges, • or just exploring. 𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: • The drive to earn rewards, • Climb leaderboards, • or flex rare items. A killer game design hits both. Here’s how you can pull it off: 1. Design for Achievement • Add challenges, quests, and progression. • Show growth with every session. 2. Reward Self-Expression • Let players customize characters & spaces. • Skins and builds create emotional ties. 3. Mix Competition & Collaboration • Use leaderboards, but include co-op. • Add gifting to strengthen community. 4. Make Rewards Meaningful • Tie points to key moments. • Ensure every reward feels earned. Here’s the kicker: 🔥 People play games for Control → Freedom → Identity. When your systems tap those buttons, you’re not just making a game - you’re creating a world they want to live in. So, ask yourself: Are your game systems hitting human desires, or just throwing out flashy features? Focus on what makes us tick, and your players will come back - again and again.