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Design thinking for business architects

Design thinking overview

Design thinking and design sprints are proven approaches that help teams work together to solve problems and deliver value with new and innovative solutions. These techniques have been around for many years and have spread widely throughout the business world. The methodologies practiced and recommended by Pega leverage these techniques. 

Design thinking is the broader term to cover the overall philosophy and approach to problem solving and innovation.

“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from a designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”

Tim Brown, IDEO 

A design sprint refers to a prescriptive and timeboxed method of applying design thinking with a team. In practice, this process takes the form of specific sequenced and timeboxed activities that begin with understanding and empathizing and builds to prototyping a solution and testing with real users. A design sprint usually consists of four to five days of intense workshops with a variable amount of time for prep work before the sprint. The following image shows an example of a high-level design sprint schedule with key activities for each day.

design-sprint-overview

    Roles

    Give thoughtful consideration on whom to include in design thinking workshops and design sprints. The group must be small enough to be effective but large enough to capture the necessary perspectives and skills to work on the problem or opportunity at hand. As a general rule of thumb, expect 10 or less participants with a variety of skills such as executives, product managers, end users, experience designers, system architects, business architects, and subject matter experts.

    Fill the following roles to get the most value out of your design thinking workshops and design sprints.

    Facilitator

    The facilitator role is very demanding and critical. This person must be able to bring design maturity to the team and elevate the ability of the team to leverage design thinking to unlock complex problems. The facilitator expertly guides the process and drives the team through the design thinking activities while fostering and promoting teamwork and a designer mindset. A facilitator must be able to deal with difficult people, difficult situations, and conflict.

    Decider

    The decider is responsible for making decisions. While the facilitator and the processes ensure that the whole team provides input and is heard, the decider ensures that the team moves through the process efficiently. The decider should be a capable decision-maker with the ability to make difficult decisions. One person typically performs the decider role, but in some cases, multiple people work together to fill the role.

    Co-creator

    Co-creators are selected based on the skills needed to work on the problem or opportunity effectively. Co-creators help to explore problems and identify and refine solution ideas based on perspective and skills.

    In the following image, click the + icons to display details for the team member role example.

      Responsibilities

      As a business architect (BA), you might find yourself engaging with design thinking in the following ways:

      Stakeholder

      As a recipient of material from design workshops, you help prepare the solution concept for development. You groom epics and user stories and mature the backlog into a sprint-ready backlog.

      Co-creator

      As a member of the design thinking team, you bring your perspective to help identify and refine solution ideas. You may be asked to help with prep work, such as user or market research.

      Deliverables and outcomes

      The deliverables and outcomes of design thinking workshops and design sprints generally fall into the following categories:

      Output Description
      Long-term goal A statement of the long-term objective that sets the direction for the project and creates a shared understanding of why the project must be done.
      Problem/opportunity statements Specification of problems and opportunities, often in the form of "how might we," goal statements, or big questions.
      Maps and diagrams Maps of key activities, such as journey maps and process maps.
      End-user empathy Information on end users intended to cultivate empathy for end users and their needs, often in the form of empathy maps, personas, and details from user research such as interviews and observations.
      Solution designs Sketches that illustrate a solution idea.
      Storyboards A visual narrative that showcases a solution in context to solve a set of problems.
      Solution prototype An interactive prototype of a solution.
      User-testing results Reactions and other data from real users that tested the solution prototype.

      The design-thinking output varies based on problem or opportunity, the stage of understanding of the problem, and what transpires in session. For example, the output from the first workshop exploring a new problem is different than the output from a workshop that is iterating a solution, studied, and worked on for months. Any critical documents in use by the team are maintained and updated as needed to ensure communication and alignment regarding any changes.

        Key benefits of design thinking and design sprint

        Design thinking and design sprints offer key benefits for the whole team.

        In the following image, click the + icons to learn more about the benefits.

        Design thinking and design sprint business architect activities

        Design thinking and design sprints can help enhance several key BA activities.

        • Better scope definition – The whole team gains a shared understanding of the problem and solution, which helps you in your efforts to document and manage scope with your team. 
        • Less rework of user stories – Solution concepts are tested with real users using prototypes, resulting in solution designs and requirements that are supported with test results rather than assumptions. Fewer assumptions lead to fewer gaps and less rework of user stories.    
        • More detailed business cases – Business cases can be enhanced based on the results of user testing. The addition of user quotes and reactions can make the business case more personal and memorable.

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