The goal of this stage is to take the key insights and themes, identified during the Understand phase, and translate them into a set of high-level design objectives for the solution.
I WANT TO SET A DIRECTION…
In this stage we examine the data we’ve gathered about the users and other stakeholders, the environment in which the service is to be delivered, along with the internal and external constraints. From this analysis we can draw key insights and begin to frame the problem or an opportunity statement in a series of constructive statements – “How might we…?”. This framing of the problem or opportunity along with the business objectives are combined to create the design brief that becomes the rallying cry for the project team and all the stakeholders in your organization. The design brief establishes in detail your target users, the customer, business and operational goals of the service, the detailed criteria for the user experience as well as the overarching design objectives, and finally the key milestones and the resources for design and implementation. It will be much deeper than the original scoping statement, and should align with the key goals established at the outset. However, if it starts to diverge from these because of the new and deeper understanding derived from the research, then the project sponsors should confirm their commitment to the revised scope and the detailed project brief.
WHEN TO BEGIN THIS STAGE
Before focussing, it is essential that you have a clear understanding of the environment you are operating and the people and users involved in your intervention (internally and externally) including those with special requirements.
Ideally you would have built personas, stakeholder maps and journey maps to understand the experiences of the field you are operating in as well as it’s constraints and requirements.
You should have sufficient clear and compelling insights about the needs of the customers or users, as well as their motivations, challenges and aspirations.
If you are working within an existing organisation, you should know the different internal and external interactions within the business and it’s delivery as well as its broad operational and system constraints.
What are the OUTCOMES
Define the overall solution space
Translate the key insights and themes into a set of design objectives
Synthesise the design objectives with the internal and external constraints to create a design brief
Ensure alignment of the design brief with the initial scoping statement, or agree any differences with the executive sponsors
CASE STUDY
I WANT TO SET A DIRECTION…
By focussing on target users
Introduction
This approach to the focus stage is about selecting your target users based on the research and synthesis you have already done and being specific about what their needs are.
Pick target users
In the last stage you have established who the people are that are associated with the problem and potentially built personas of who they are as representations of a group of people. In this stage it can be useful to map out your personas in a similar way to how you would use the evaluation canvas. Decide on relevant attributes of your users and map them out into quadrants to distinguish key differences among them. For instance you might say, ‘Persona A’ has ‘X’ behaviour and experiences the problem less than Persona B’. The aim of doing this is to help you identify who may be your target users as the primary focus of your design efforts. For instance you may focus on Persona B with the intent to help them establish ‘X’ behaviour.
As you move forward in the next stages you will explore different strategies for different users so for now. Pick a couple of users that you think have the most compelling needs or the most meaningful opportunities to solve their problems and then define in more detail what they want and need.
Focus on their needs
Using the tools available here examine in more detail what they think, feel, do and say using the empathy map and break down their objectives using the jobs to be done tool.
I WANT TO SET A DIRECTION…
By framing the problem
Introduction
See challenges as opportunities
One of the most important elements of design is its ability to frame problems and challenges differently. In the first instance this is achieved by integrating new and varied voices as new perspectives to help understand the problem in new ways. The second way it draws power from framing problems is in the way it chooses to define them.
Problems and challenges have to be framed and put into words in order to be communicated and be agreed upon. This sounds simple, but language builds reality and is able to open or close up roads for innovation and creativity. It is very common to frame challenges or questions outlining an underlying solution (e.g. How can we build a bridge for the people to cross the river). For this reason, design frames problems in an open-ended way, so they become opportunities instead of places to fit existing technologies, systems and services (e.g. How can we help people cross to the other side of the river).
Create many framings of the problem, then evaluate
The ‘How might we…’ structure (HMW...) helps you to reframe your insights and challenges as opportunities because they suggest a solution is possible and give you space to solve them (think of the example of the bridge or a crossing). This device can be used in two distinctive ways. The first (described in this approach in the ‘Reframing Canvas’), is to create a large variety of them focussing on different elements of the challenge to draw out varied opportunities. The second way (described in the next approach), asks you to decide on one and add a little more detail to the statement so that it can be used as a discussion point to define the scope and strategy of the next stage and reach agreement. Evaluating which of these opportunities is most compelling based on your own criteria for success, can be supported using the evaluation matrix.
I WANT TO SET A DIRECTION…
By agreeing a detailed brief
Introduction
Now that you have a range of different challenges framed as opportunities and have prioritised the direction you’d like to take, It’s important to be rigorous about checking how it will have an impact and what the risks are. Then you can shape a clear and detailed brief for the rest of the project around it so that you can agree with all parties how the rest of the project will unfold.
Check your strategy
You will now have some clear statements that explain your direction in its briefest terms. It’s important that you challenge these statements to check that your logic of intervention and impact is right before building your strategy around them. Using the Theory of Change tool you can break down the chain of effects from your intervention to your intended impact and check that you are making safe assumptions. It can also be valuable at this stage to go back to your users and involved stakeholders and get their perspectives of your strategy as well as those of your project partners. In addition, the use of tools such as the PESTLE analysis can help you identify barriers to your project before you proceed too far. If you are confident with your strategy the ‘How might we…’ structure can become useful again.
Articulate your mission
As described in the previous approach, the ‘How might we…’ structure (HMW) can be used in two distinctive ways. The first (described in the previous approach), reframes challenges as opportunities. The second way (described used here), asks you to decide on one strategy and add a little more detail to the statement so that it can be used to define the direction of the next stage, reach agreement and form a mission statement or a rallying cry for all stakeholders.
Agree on the details
Finally, before proceeding to the ideation stage you must build a detailed design brief and form agreement around it. Consider this design brief a much deeper version of the scoping stage and the project plan, so that it can establish in detail your target users, the customer, business and operational goals of the product or service, the detailed criteria for the user experience as well as the overarching design objectives, and finally, the key milestones and resources for design and implementation. This should align with and extend agreements made at the ‘Scope’ stage, however, if it needs to diverge from these because of the new learnings from the research, then the project partners must commit to the revised scope and the detailed project brief.
