RED4SUS
Design Thinking:
- Toolkit -
This Toolkit, designed by the UFRGS and Uppsala University team, allows you to translate theory into practice, in a simple and objective way. It offers a collection of resources aimed at supporting the learning of the contents presented in the Application Manual.
You can access the content by browsing through the blocks that follow, or you can download the Red4Sus eBook, containing Manual and Toolkit, by
What is it?
It’s a visual map, where the main actors involved in the challenge are identified.
​
Why use it?
This tool is essential to start the process. Before exploring the problem and deepening our understanding of the challenge to be solved, based on empathy, we need to know who the actors involved in the challenge are. We are talking about actors, because often those involved, in an initial moment, are seen as an institution, for example. And this must be considered, in order, later, to understand who are the people within this institution who can contribute to the deepening and exploration of the challenge.
​
How to use?
-
It starts with a brief brainstorming period of at most 10 minutes, identifying who is involved in the problem, from the point of view of all team members.
-
After that, it will be a moment of deepening, where it is necessary to identify who will be the user of the solution to be developed. If it has not yet been identified, it must be added to the map.
-
Subsequently, it is necessary to think about who impacts this user, thinking directly or indirectly, as well as who is impacted by him, directly and indirectly.
-
All actors must be registered on the map, as the exploration and empathy process, as well as the subsequent development of the solution, must consider, understand and add value to those considered essential for the success of the final solution.
What is it?
It is a visual map, where topics associated with the exploration of the challenge are registered.
​
Why use it?
The idea of the exploratory process is to ensure that you have a broad, in-depth vision, with the development of empathy towards the challenge and the people involved.
​
How to use?
-
To use the exploration map, brainstorming with the team should be done, initially seeking to understand the team's own point of view, identifying what they should deepen and use to build interviews that seek to reveal the actors' unexpected.
-
Subsequently, the observation, interview and research of information that can help to find new learnings and insights regarding the challenge should be planned. All of this should focus on developing empathy towards the people involved in the challenge and the challenge itself.
-
The next step is going into the field, looking for new data and insights. The map must be alive, that is, it must be fed collaboratively in new rounds of brainstorming, until the team has encountered the unexpected. The search for the unexpected must be relentless. If it's not found, it's because the team didn't go deep enough in their search.
-
The last step is to organize the data collected, grouping them by similarity, so that these groups are translated into new learning.
What is it?
It is the construction of a character that represents the problem, but that, at the same time, represents someone real, with qualities and defects.
​
Why use it?
This persona should act as a guide, helping to keep the focus on who should be thinking about the solution. It can help in the process of understanding the problem, but also in generating, developing and validating solutions.
​
How to use?
The construction of the persona should start with brainstorming, where the people who represent the challenge are listed, that is, personify the problem. There is often one more persona, but care must be taken to create a manageable number of personas. A number of 1 to 3 personas is suggested, but it will depend a lot on each case. The important thing is to know how to prioritize who are the personas that will benefit directly from the solution of the problem, as well as those on which the success of the solution depends.
Thus, for the construction of the Persona, some steps must be followed:
-
Identify the role of the persona in the face of the challenge;
-
Define who the Persona is, giving name, age, profession, personality, that is, giving life to the persona;
-
Think about what this persona feels and thinks, that is, seek to empathize with this persona;
-
Raise what are the main problems and needs that this persona has and that need to be resolved;
-
Draw the persona.
When building a persona, it must be thought of in a broad way, considering not only factors directly related to the challenge. A person's personality can often define how he or she relates to certain solutions, even if it has no apparent relationship to the challenge.
What is it?
The Journey Map is a visual representation of the detailed journey of a particular character, in this case the persona(s).
​
Why use it?
Detailing the journey of a particular beneficiary of a solution goes beyond his direct interaction with this solution, but rather with what he does before, during and after his decision making, the points where there are opportunities to bring him closer to the solution of the challenge, just as the interaction with the solution or challenge interferes with their subsequent actions.
​
How to use?
To design the journey map, you should think step-by-step about what the persona does on a day when she will interact with the challenge being worked on, detailing what she does before (not just directly before) and after that interaction.
To do this, the following steps can be performed:
-
Establish the period of the journey to be detailed (one shift, one day, one week, etc.)
-
List the activities that this persona performs on their journey;
-
Place activities on a visual map, on a timeline;
-
Check the contact points with the challenge;
-
Check what makes the persona happy and satisfied;
-
Check the main problems and difficulties of the persona in the interaction with the challenge;
-
Check the points where they are not currently being attended to and which may be opportunities for improvement or understanding to enable the execution of a future solution;
-
Check interaction points between other personas and/or stakeholders.
The journey map should reveal new information and learnings regarding the challenge, which should be added to the exploration map to build existing clusters or generate new clusters and learnings.
What is it?
This tool seeks to present a list of the main problems and opportunities identified from the exploration of the broad problem.
​
Why use it?
Summarize and organize, in a simple and straightforward way, all the learning generated in the exploration stage.
​
How to use?
To organize the lists, you must:
-
Return to the exploration and its groupings and review what was recorded;
-
Review the persona and add new learnings;
-
Review the journey map and add new learnings;
-
Through brainstorming, prioritize the most relevant given the initial challenge;
-
Organize the learning generated in problems and opportunities; Opportunities are not always problems, but issues that are still not being addressed and that could be a differentiator for the successful solution of the challenge.
At the end, there must be a clear, short list, which should be the guide for the generation of solutions in the next stage, of ideation.
What is it?
Brainstorming is a group activity, where people gather in the same place to work on a certain theme.
​
Why use it?
The aim is to promote communication, collaboration and creativity among participants. The more diverse the team, the better the results, since there are different views to be confronted to generate common results.
​
How to use?
To carry out a Brainstorming, some rules must be followed:
-
Focus on quantity: the ideation process should focus on quantity, not quality, as the greater the number of ideas, the greater the chance of finding something that is really different and that adds value to the beneficiary of the solution;
-
Prohibited to judge: we learn to judge our own ideas, but also those of others. It is important to be clear that in order to generate many ideas, we need to let go of judgments;
-
Create on the other's idea: ideas must be understood as part of the team, one person's idea can and should be a driver of new, improved or totally different ideas;
-
Don't fall in love with ideas;
-
Be visual: the more visual, the better to express ideas and ensure that everyone has the same vision about the idea (or often that the vision is different and that they are actually different ideas);
-
Annotate everything: All ideas should be annotated so that everyone has access to those ideas and that ideas can be tracked at some point in the future.
This brainstorming should have time for the beginning and end, as well as being planned for the execution of all the desired activities, so that in the end, you already have enough ideas to go to the idea selection stage. This brainstorming can take more than just one session, as it should also consider the individual ideation process, but it shouldn't be too long to avoid the project stagnating and losing the motivation of the team involved.
What is it?
A model for selecting ideas, which integrates a moment of greater objectivity with subjective decisions.
​
Why use it?
The purpose of the ideas funnel is to make the idea selection process a little more analytical, but at the same time more agile, as it requires the evaluation of all ideas against pre-established criteria.
​
How to use?
To use the idea selection funnel, you must:
-
Search for all the ideas generated to solve the challenge;
-
Check if there is any other criterion to be considered in the funnel and where it should be placed (it is always suggested at the end, but it depends on each case);
-
First, select only the ideas that are desirable by the people involved in the challenge (stakeholders);
-
Among the selected ideas, select only those that are technically feasible;
-
Among the selected ideas, with an increasingly reduced number, select only those that are financially viable;
-
Among the selected ideas, select the ideas that are sustainable;
-
Among the selected ideas, select the ideas, in a very small number, that meet the proposed initial challenge, the persona and the problems and opportunities selected to be worked on.
At the end, there should be a very small number of relevant ideas, which will be the ideas to be developed.
What is it?
It is a detail of the solution to be developed.
​
Why use it?
In addition to helping to detail the solution, it also helps to organize, develop and represent in a summarized and visual way what must be done for the solution to be implemented. The process alone makes the idea improve, seeking to resolve inconsistencies.
​
How to use?
The construction of Canvas must follow the numbering shown in the image, as follows. The objective is that each box feeds the other and that the details are constructed in a logical way, leading to an understanding of the whole. But more important is, with each advance, review all the previous topics, since all must be clearly aligned with each other.
-
Define who the project will be for – it is a time to review who the persona is and if she is really being served by the project;
-
Define what benefit is being delivered with the project – the focus is the persona, but also the other stakeholders, as the project must deliver value to everyone;
-
Define the name of the project – it is important that it has its own identity, that it is in the minds of the people involved and that it communicates quickly what the project is;
-
Define how the project will be publicized and communicated – think about the means to communicate the project and how the relationship with the project beneficiaries will be;
-
Describe the project – the description should explain what the project is, in a way that anyone can clearly understand what it is proposing and how it delivers the benefit to the project beneficiary;
-
Define the activities and resources needed to carry out the project – think of resources considering physical, intellectual, human and financial resources;
-
Define who the partners are – think about who are the actors who will help implement the project, both internal and external.
All of this must be thought through and revised at each advanced topic, always evaluating whether the actions and definitions will be sustainable.
What is it?
Pitch is a structured and organized way, in narrative format, to communicate a project, drawing attention and engaging the audience.
​
Why use it?
Often, the opportunity to convince someone that their project should be prioritized, approved or receive some financial support is in a single, informal moment, with little time to present the project. For this reason, having a clear, logical, attractive narrative can be a differentiator.
​
How to use?
The construction of a Pitch must follow the logic of a story, or narrative, that starts from a problem and someone who suffers from that problem, presenting the solution and how it will be developed. The logic presented below is a suggestion for construction, but the most important thing is that it is part of a narrative and can be adjusted according to the context to be presented. The template helps in the construction and visualization of the whole, and must be completed and presented in the following order:
-
Problem / Challenge: The presentation of the problem and/or challenge must contain data that indicate the relevance of the topic. These data can be from the market, but also data obtained from surveys carried out to validate the problem. In addition, the persona who suffers from the problem can be presented. One of the strategic ways to start a pitch is to create a connection with the audience, bringing up some common question that arouses interest in what will be presented next;
-
Solution: After presenting the problem/challenge, the solution is presented, that is, how the presented problem will be solved;
-
Differential: show that you know what already exists, highlighting the project's differential over existing solutions;
-
Implementation strategy: in addition to showing the difference, the implementation strategy must be shown, especially in public projects that have a series of restrictions established by the characteristic rules and bureaucracies of the public sector;
-
Solution Stage: At this point, it is important to present what has already been executed, showing the potential of the team involved in the project;
-
Next steps: right after presenting the solution stage, it is important to show what the next steps will be within a certain period of time;
-
Who we are: in this topic it is important to present the work team, highlighting the competencies of each one that can help in the execution of the project;
-
Purpose: Pitch should end with something that makes an impact and provokes the audience to want to know more about the project, arousing curiosity about the results of the project.
A pitch should have a short presentation time. The shorter and more interesting the better. This helps to understand what should be said that really adds value to the audience. Pitch doesn't necessarily need a visual presentation. The most important thing is the narrative, that is, a visual presentation should only serve as a support, to illustrate what is being said, and should remain just as a background.