A page from the Design Thinking Book highlighting the four phases of the design process.
The Design Thinking Program is a three-phase immersive course created to propogate the use of a user-centric framework while solving problems in a legacy corporation.
Design as a domain was comparatively new to GE Transportation, which is primarily an engineer's habitat. While the company designed and manufactured top notch locomotives and freight transportation parts, and had a strong presence in the industry, it's digital products lacked a user-centric approach. The transportation industry, especially rail, was several years behind in terms of logistics and harnessing information. This means that there was always a team trying to solve a problem to build a better experience. However, our research told us that they were not equipped with the right tools.
The Design Thinking Program was the brainchild of the Innovation Lab at GE Transportation. It was created to equip employees across hierarchies, with a user-centric process to approach a problem. Every year, a mixed bag spanning executives to entry-level professionals are brought in to a common space. These employees then go through a 2-day workshop that introduces the basic design process and it's 4 phases. Attendees do different exercises that train them in understanding the user, their motivations, identifying a problem, ideation, design constraints and prototyping.
Video Credit - Kharisma Cendhika Putra
Initial Identity - Building Blocks
We wanted to introduce the design thinking process as building blocks, to convey it's fundamental nature and interchangeability. (Lego, if you're watching, we used square pegs instead of round ones). One block for a phase - Empathize, Define, Ideate, and Prototype - in the process, together it built the base for our visual language.
Three Phases
The Program trains participants to three levels of expertise. The first level is unlocked after a one-day workshop, and the second after a week of on-site immersive problem-solving. The thirst level is unlocked when the participant introduced the design thinking methodology within their own team.
The Workshop
A mix of executives, mid-level and entry-level employees were invited for the first workshop. They also belongs to different disciplines within the org.
This was a lesson in teaching for our team. We learned about the most effective pedagogical techniques through conducting exercises within our team. The final workshop was an introduction to the four phases of the design thinking process.
Participants were divided into groups and they picked out problems relevant to their teams to solve. With one design thinking expert on their team, they performed exercises like creating a problem statement, establishing design criteria, creating personas and archetypes, user journeys, and ideation.
In the end, each team created a prototype of their solution through a storyboard and shared it with the audience for feedback.
A New Identity
There was some pushback from the organization with regards to the initial identity using visual references from Lego.
We moved to a different, more direct approach that drew inspiration from Thomas Edison's iterative process of discovery.
We moved to a different, more direct approach that drew inspiration from Thomas Edison's iterative process of discovery.
The Design Thinking Book
The Innovation Lab wanted to create an exhaustive artifact that participants could take back to their teams, that would sit at the their desk and they could refer to at anytime. We used content outlined by The Stanford D School.
Each tool was explained through a textual outline and steps, along with an illustrated example.
Success/Failure
There was some pushback from the organization with regards to the initial identity using visual references from Lego.
We moved to a different, more direct approach that drew inspiration from Thomas Edison's iterative process of discovery.
We moved to a different, more direct approach that drew inspiration from Thomas Edison's iterative process of discovery.
