Explore | Design Thinking - Class 6 PDF Download

After scoping the design challenge, the explore phase focuses on reframing the design challenge topic into design opportunity from multiple perspectives.
The explore phase will help you:

• Synthesis the STEEP trends analysis to gain insights on the implications and context of your design challenge.
• Foster multiple perspectives to explore your design challenge.
• Map the organization’s activity system/ecosystem as the foundation model to leverage for your new idea delivery.
• Map key stakeholders to appreciate the key people who determine the success of your design challenge
• Frame project (design challenge) into design opportunity
• Identify, select and invite your target stakeholders for the interview
• Plan your design challenge project management.

Methods & Tools

1. Steep Analyse
2. Strategic Priorities
   A Strategic Priorities Matrix is used to explore from multiple perspectives to gain insights and deep understanding of the design challenge (to see the whole and its parts).
3. Activity System
   Activity System is a visual representation of how the organization creates value, satisfies its users and builds competitive advantages.
4. Stakeholder Mapping
   Stakeholder mapping is a process to identify the key people, group and organization that have direct influence on the design challenge and understand the key stakeholders so as to better engage them.
5. Opportunity Framing
   Opportunity Framing is to better define the design challenge, ensuring all relevant notes have been considered before reframing the design challenge and transform it into design opportunity with many possibilities.

STEEP Analysis

Once you know your design challenge, you need to understand the context of your design challenge which can be done through STEEP analysis to determine the impacts of macro environmental trend related to the design challenge to understand what possible (possible innovative ideas).

What is STEEP Analysis?

STEEP Analysis is a tool to explore and determine the impact of macro-environmental trends in the context of the project topic (design challenge) as you should not limit your thinking just to the people you are designing for. You may need to consider governments, international partner and other stakeholders.
STEEP Analysis is used:

• To understand the future opportunities and challenges.
• To keep an eye on the future while focusing on the possibilities of the current as new services, processes, administration and public policies may have to be developed in response to these trends.
• To cultivate thinking which leads to future implications of the present changes? How to conduct STEEP Analysis 

How to conduct STEEP Analysis

•  Reframe the design challenge title and understand the design challenge statement in depth
• identify the relevant trends affecting the design challenge by studying secondary data to back up the analysis
• Compile the trends based on impact and (un)certainty of its occurrence for each trend and evaluate them as Opportunities or Challenges
• Review the entire analysis to ensure that trends and implications identified are relevant to the design challenge

Templates to be used for the conduct of STEEP analysis

• STEEP Trends analysis Templates
  List down trends under each category and label them as opportunities and challenges
• STEEP analysis Matrix
  Sort the trends based on its impact and (un)certainty of its occurrence.
• STEEP analysis Matrix Prioritization Template
  

Strategic Priorities

This tool is used after the STEEP Analysis. A Strategic Priorities Matrix is used to explore from multiple perspectives to gain insights and deep understanding of the design challenge (to see the whole and its parts).

What is Strategic Priorities?

Strategic Priorities Matrix is a tool with which you will look through multiple perspectives to better understand the context and the real issues with your design challenge and help you synthesise and formulate a point of view or theory to explain your design challenge problem.

How to use the Strategic Priorities

1. Revisit the filtered STEEP trends and look for patterns, links, relationships, cause and effects and correlation amoung the research findings leading to new insights and fresh perspectives of your design challenge
2. Understand the reality that focuses on the relationships amongst the parts of the system and the dynamics those relationships produce
3. List what challenges need immediate attention going forward for your design challenge and why?
4. Identify which trends are more important than others
5. Synthesize the trends and trategic priorities based on importance of the relationships amoung the trends, opportunities and challenges that demand immediate attention for key stakeholders

Templates for conducting Strategic Priorities

• Strategic Priorities Matrix
  From the STEEP Analysis Matrix prioritization Template, filter and the trends using this template
• Synthesis: Making sense of steep analysis & Strategic priorities template

Activity System

You can use the activity system to gain insights on the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, advantages and gaps to explore fresh opportunities and possibilities. It should also be used to establish foundation for leveraging and evolving the strategic ‘ecosystem’ or a model in the Design Thinking Phase 5: Evolve. 

What is Activity System?

Activity system is a visual representation of how the organization creates value, satisfies its users and builds competitive advantages. It also identifies gaps in achieving the objectives (providing service) and possible duplication of jobs. A powerful organizational model is one with a unique activity system that has mutually reinforcing activities which is difficult to replicate.

 How to define the Activity System 

1. Identify the vision, mission, goals and objectives of the organization
2. List all current activities carried out in relation to the dsign challenge and identify the key strategies (Strategic Hub)
3. List all the support activities for each strategy (Strategic Hub)
4. Determine the relationships between the strategic hubs
5. Determine the relationships between supporting activities and the strategic hubs
6. Organize/distill the inputs and map the activitiy system

Templates to conduct Stakeholder Mapping

• Stakeholder Mapping Matrix
  
• Stakeholder Links & Relationship Mapping Template
  
• Stakeholder Priority Mapping Matrix
  
• Stakeholder Analysis & Engagement Strategy Template
  
  The last step is to synthesize the above matrices and template using this template to come up with the Stakeholder Engagement Strategy.

Opportunity Framing

Opportunity Framing is carried out after you know and understand the ‘Future Trend’, ‘Organization’ and the ‘user’ (stakeholder) to relook into the design challenge and reframe into opportunity.

What is Opportunity Framing?

Opportunity Framing prepares you to better define the design challenge, ensuring all relevant notes have been considered before reframing the design challenge and transform the design challenge into design opportunity with many possibilities (It is not only about thinking out of the box but it is about the expansion of the box). This will also help you in identifying the potential interviewees for later phases. 

“How might we <verb> a <desired end state/outcome/issues for <user>?

How to do Opportunity Framing

1. Revisit the initial design challenge (issue/statement), the STEEP analysis, strategic priorities, activity system and stakeholder mapping
2. Look at the design challenge from various perceptive i.e. the Future Lens (STEEP analysis and strategic priorities), Organizational Lens (current activity system) and User Lens (stakeholder mapping)
3. Use project brief and opportunity framing assessment questions as a guide
4. Discuss and answer the questions in the project brief scoping template. (1) challenge definition, (2) opportunity framing
5. Come up with 3 to 4 alternative “How might we...?” from opportunity/possibility statements and narrow it down to one

The fundamentals of Opportunity Framing are: 

• From the industry focus to user focus (Public Sector Agency to Citizen or End Users)
• From single idea to system
• From symptoms to root cause (What are the real issues, pain points, underlying deep needs)

Templates to be used for the Opportunity Framing

• Project Brief And Opportunity Framing Templates
  
• Project Brief and Reframing Project Challenges Templates