Counter assumptions and define bold challenges with empathy-driven insights
Insights generated from empathy are far more powerful inputs into problem framing than our own assumptions. They also form a much stronger foundation for ideation.
Agenda
30 minutes
Get a deeper understanding through primary research using Interviewing
- Identify a topic for investigation: a given challenge, an experience in need of improvement, etc.
- Set up a 30-45 minute interview with a key stakeholder.
- Create a protocol of 5-10 questions you would like to ask during the interview.
- Make a plan to record audio or video of the conversation.
- Decide on team roles: interviewer, note taker, audio/video recorder
- Introduce yourselves to kick off the conversation. Explain why you want to speak with them.
- Ask permission to record the conversation for later reference.
- Start with easy questions, then draw out specifics: A good opening for your questions might be something like “Can you tell us about...”
- For follow-up questions, it can be very powerful to simply ask “Why?”
- Make sure the note taker takes copious notes.
- It’s good to finish interviews with prompts like “is there anything else you’d like to share?”
- If they have suggestions for anyone else you should talk to, ask them for an introduction.
Interview questions can be prepared ahead of time and audio/video recording can be set up in advance.
20 minutes
Make sense of your interview data using Rose, Thorn, Bud
- Give each team member a marker and three sticky note pads (pink, blue, and green).
- Instruct everyone to record their interview data on the colored stickies according to positive (pink,) negative (blue,) and potential (green.)
- Make sure people only record one item per sticky note.
- When everyone is done, ask them to collect their sticky notes onto sheets of paper and meet at the whiteboard.
Interview notes can be recorded in a shared document or note-taking app instead of using physical sticky notes.
45 minutes
Find patterns and insights using Affinity Clustering
- Gather participants around the whiteboard with their sticky notes in hand.
- Kick off the discussion by asking someone to share a Rose, then place it on the whiteboard.
- Ask if anyone has a related item—Rose, Thorn, or Bud—and then place it next the the previous. Allow discussion and questions.
- Continue inviting related items of any color and placing them in the group until that affinity is exhausted.
- Take turns individually sharing notes, placing similar items in proximity.
- Discuss each note as it gets added and rearrange them as groupings emerge.
- Discourage side conversations or adding sticky notes to the whiteboard without discussion.
- Don’t label the clusters too early. They may shift.
- Repeat the pattern until each sticky note has been discussed.
- Revisit the clusters and look for opportunities to create sub-groupings.
- Label the clusters that finally take shape with a clearly articulated insight.
- As a group, pick 3-5 of the most important themes to address in next steps.
45 minutes
Prepare opportunity statements using Statement Starters
- Divide the themes from Affinity Clustering among the groups, so that each group has a few themes to consider.
- Distribute a few index cards to each participant.
- Working individually, transform each theme into a problem statement that invites broad exploration.
- For example: “A team feels burdened by the maintenance of their current products.”
- Have them write problem statements on each index card, starting with “How might we...”
- For example: “How might we reduce maintenance by 50%?”
- Inspire the teams to view the themes through a new lens. Be bold and provocative.
- For example: “How might we create products that heal themselves?”
- Remind the group not to embed solutions within their statements.
- After ten minutes, have each team member share the problem statements they created.
- Working as a team, narrow down to one statement describing each of the 3-5 themes.
- As teams finish, ask them to tape each statement onto the corresponding theme within the affinity cluster.
- With 20 minutes remaining, have each team present their statements to the group.