The Design Tree
Engaging entrepreneurs in the power of design thinking through a simulation of their customer's story.
Start with a video of a Customer Story
Start design thinking with the perfect prompt a simulation of a customer story in video format.
Investigate the Narrative
Collaborate with entrepreneurs in investigating the customer story claims obtaining deep insight into your customers and validating your target market and their problem.
Design Think Products & Experiences
Use the customer story and design thinking strategies to brainstorm product ideas, customer experiences, and marketing approaches.
The Design Tree
We found it a toolset so ingenious it can be used in both business and economic development. With The Design Tree toolset, we can engage entrepreneurs in design thinking strategies through a simulation of their customer story.
The video serves as the perfect prompt to trigger ideas and to engage our entire community in design thinking. It begins by first investigating the narrative validating the customer and the problem. Then using the video of our customer story to engage our entire community in brainstorming product solutions, product experiences, and marketing approaches along with the entrepreneur.
Most importantly, we can cross-collaborate around a collection of our simulations and create a shared customer experience, solving local problems, and driving revenue to our businesses, creating a future transformative economy.
The Design Tree Toolset
Design Think around a video of your customer story with the following sticky note strategies.
Design Thinking Training
Learn the art of design thinking that incorporates digital storytelling by learning the process of design thinking and how we can leverage digital storytelling in all phases.
Empathizing Tools
Empathizing Persona
Humanize the story of your customer. Document your customer as they move through time experiencing aspirations, frustrations, and finding the motivation to continue. Our digital story will help us explore and understand our customer and craft the ideal solution that fits seamlessly within their human story.
Validation Map
Use a Validation Map to understand the perspectives of the persona found in the digital story. Validation Maps help us craft solutions that are sensible to the needs, emotions, and perspectives of our target demographic.
AEIOU
Use AEIOU to understand the variety of pressures or constraints on your target demographic. Understanding the Activities, Environment, Interactions, Objects, and Users will allow us to craft solutions that account for constraints and design for the needs of our target demographic.
Digital Story Map
Use a Digital Story Map to create a visual representation of the customer's interactions and experiences with a product or service over time. A Digital Story Map help us to understand how our target demographic will experience our solution.
Defining Problem Statement
Reflect on the empathizing persona, discover where the persona encounters the problem, document events that precede, and proceed the persona's frustration. Then define the problem.
Storytelling
Use to create a narrative around those experiencing the problem. Storytelling engages our target demographic to define the problem through their statements. It helps us define the problem from their perspective and to craft a solution that addresses their needs.
Critical Items Diagram
Use to identify and prioritize key elements or factors for successful problem-solving. A Critical Items Diagram helps us to brainstorm key experiences and functions leading toward crafting an innovative solution.
Digital Storytelling Example
Create and communicate narratives that engage and inspire your team in the design process. Digital Storytelling combines elements of storytelling, visual design, and technology to convey information, evoke emotions, and drive collaboration and innovation
Digital Storytelling Repository Research
Add your user research to your digital story. Digital storytelling in design thinking stands as a transformative force by infusing life into user research and humanizing data. It transcends the traditional presentation of raw statistics or research findings by weaving them into compelling narratives that resonate on a human level. By contextualizing data within stories, it bridges the gap between mere numbers and the lived experiences of individuals, fostering a deeper understanding of user needs and motivations. This approach allows designers to convey complex insights in a relatable and accessible manner, evoking empathy and emotional connection among stakeholders. It transforms abstract data points into meaningful stories that illustrate real-world challenges, aspirations, and behaviors of users. Through this process, digital storytelling breathes life into user research, empowering design thinkers to glean profound insights, inspire innovative solutions, and create designs that authentically address the nuanced needs of the people they serve.
User Participant Group
A user participant group is a collection of people who mirror the persona found in your digital story. Use your user participant group to validate or invalidate your digital story.
Brainstorming/ Ideation Tools
Brainstorming Session
Collaborate with your team reflect on your digital story and brainstorm solutions to empower the persona to overcome the problem. Finally, develop an elevator pitch detailing the solution.
Brainstorming
Use to generate ideas without judgment or evaluation. Brainstorming is a creative ideation technique that uses brainstorming guidelines to generate future solutions to a problem.
Dot Voting
Use as a democratic exercise to vote on a variety of ideas. Dot voting can help us to determine which solution is beloved by our team or community.
Special Brainstorming
Use for unconventional brainstorming to obtain new ideas or insights into a problem. Special Brainstorming helps us to reframe our thinking to craft new solutions.
Persona Validation Survey
Use a Persona Validation Survey to validate our representation of those experiencing the problem found in the digital story. Personas help us craft solutions that align with our target demographic.
Peers Observing Peers
Use Peers Observing Peers to observe those experiencing the problem. Peers Observing Peers provides us with an observational framework to analyze behavior and draw conclusions that will help us craft the ideal solution.
Interview for Empathy
Use to understand users' perspectives, needs, and emotions through meaningful conversations. An Interview for empathy helps us validate our persona problem and increase our understanding of their need for a solution.
Defining Tools
Explorative Interview
Use to gain new insights, ideas, and perspectives about those experiencing the problem. An Exploratory Interview helps us to understand our target demographic so we can address their needs through our solution.
How Might We Question
Use to create the correct problem statement through an open-ended exploration of of a wrong and right problem statement. How Might We Question is a problem framing tool to develop the right problem statement to help focus our attention on the innovative solution that could solve the problem.
Context Maping
Use the Context Map to understand the perspectives, needs, and behaviors in their social and cultural context. A Context Map helps us craft solutions that are conscious of our target market’s social and cultural context.
Digital Story Telling Tools
Create your Digital Story
Collaborate with your team and use the information from your Empathizing Persona and Defining Problem Statement to create a Digital Story. Use your digital story as a prompt for collaborative ideation and conduct design thinking experiments to validate its narrative.
Prototyping Tools
How it Works Prototype
Collaborate with your team to construct a visual representation of an idea from your brainstorming session. Then, devise a brief marketing strategy to discover the solution. Lastly, provide an explanation of how the solution works in three sequential steps or list three important features.
Minimum Viable Product
Use to create a version of a product with core features to test the solution’s ability to solve the persona’s problem. An MVP helps to gather value feedback to create the ideal solution.
Prototype to Test
Use to document how the persona experiences the idea or prototype and its prototype variants. The Prototype to Test helps us to assess user needs and acquire important feedback.
Pitch Deck
Use to create a presentation that succinctly communicates a product, service, or idea to stakeholders or investors. Pitch decks help others to understand, care, and take action in championing our solution.
Testing Tools
Testing for Validation
Use to craft a series of quantitative and qualitative questions to gain insight into how your solution is solving or failing to solve the persona's problem.
Testing Sheet
Use to plan, execute, and record observations testing your solution. The Testing Sheet helps to ensure your prototype is meeting the needs of your users.
Solution Interview
Use to gather feedback and insights on a solution. The Solution Interview helps us to test if our solution is accepted by our target demographic.
Exploration Map
Use to gain new insights, ideas, and perspectives about those experiencing the problem. An Exploratory Interview helps us to understand our target demographic so we can address their needs through our solution.
Design Thinking Plan
Create a design thinking plan a list of design thinking strategies you can perform to validate your digital story and develop and test your solution.
Complete Digital Storytelling
Update your digital story with the information from the ideation, prototyping, and testing phase and other design thinking experiments that validated or invalidated your persona and their affinity for your solution. This powerful visualization helps us to explore our alleged persona's journey and refine our solution and user experience.
Digital Storytelling Cross-Collaboration
Our digital story once completed is the perfect repository for our user research and with this user research we can co-create and cross-collaborate to design a suite of products and services, or collaborate to solve systemic issues, or work together to build new ecosystems and even collaborate overtime with stakeholders, our government, businesses, civil society and the public to build a new economy.
2x2 Matrix
Use to create a criteria to categorize ideas or options based on two values or two criteria. A 2x2 Matrix can help us determine which solution maybe more beloved by our target market.
NABC
Use as a framework to articulate the Need, Approach, Benefit, and Competition of a proposed solution or concept. NABC can help us craft a solution that will be embraced by our target market.
Analogies and Benchmarking
Use to draw inspiration from existing products, experiences, or industries for innovative problem-solving. Analogies and benchmarking can help us to generate out-of-the-box ideas to solve our target markets problem.
Service Blue Print
Use to create a visual representation of a service's, customer interactions, and underlying processes to identify areas for improvement. The service blue print will allow us to create the ideal user experience.
Exploration Map
Use to create a visual of various paths, possibilities, and potential solutions for a problem. The exploration map helps us to rate and evaluate the various prototype the variety of solutions that can solve the problem.
Feedback Capture Grid
Use to organize and analyze feedback received from users or stakeholders during a design process. The Feedback Capture Grid helps us to analyze if our solution solving our target demographics problem.
A/B Testing
Use to compare two versions of a product or solution to determine the more effective option based on user responses. A/B testing help us determine which version of our product our target demographic likes the most and why.
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Master the Formula
Learn how to use a design thinking formula that incorporates a simulation of our customer story.
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Master Digital Storytelling
Master a new innovative design thinking process that utilizes digital storytelling a simulation of your customer story to develop products and services.
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Master The Design Tree
Master The Design Tree plan, learn share, and perform over 40 design thinking strategies that incorporate digital storytelling a story of your customer.