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Design Thinking for Social Change 2: The Mindsets, Steps, Skills and Methods

Assignment | Step 3 Ideate 1

September 26, 2024 11:42 PM

Idea Generation

Now it is your turn.

Generate ideas that address the design challenge from Step 2. Practice with a friend, and also on your own.

All of the rules of brainstorming apply:

  • Go for quantity
  • encourage wild ideas (go wild)
  • Defer judgement
  • Build on ideas - of others if you can, but it is just as well to practice building on your own ideas...without a doubt you will surprise yourself.

Get a big pad of sticky notes - only one idea per note. You can also use words - but sparingly - to help you convey the essence of your idea.

Set aside at least 1.5 hours, and do not pause - just keep the pencil moving... Even if it is scribble.

Do not edit along the way!

 

Idea Synthesis

The great transformative ideas are an amalgam of many ideas woven into a new pattern...yet, it is our impulse when trying to solve "problems" to jump on the first "good" idea.

Now go back to your sticky notes, put them up on wall where you can see them all at the same time.

Step back and look for patterns, keep doing this until you have generated a compelling story about the challenge you’re addressing.

And how you’re going to go about it: what new ideas suggest themselves from the cluster? Keep generating ideas and keep synthesizing until you have a story that is compelling to you and that you feel ready to test on others.

Use your RapidViz skills to tell a story in pictures then translate if necessary into words. It is now a story with a beginning, which is the difficulty your user has; a middle, which is the solution you provide; and an end, which is what life looks like for your user when they have your solution in hand.

 

This is the concept you’re going to take into the next step.

 

Please share your thoughts (approximately 300 words).