Engineers are trained to jump quickly to solutions, but design thinking helps us to understand the needs of the people we are designing for. In this blog, Harish reflects on how he learned that listening to human stories and understanding people’s experiences in design thinking creates better solutions than relying only on quantitative data.
Written by Harish Shankar, Qualitative Data Archivist, Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Engineering Science
Coming from a technical background, I tend to have a bias against qualitative research. The bias comes from my idea that for data to be meaningful and valuable it has to be based on some measurable data as opposed to being guided by feelings, interpretations and stories. Working at the iHub, I realized that design thinking involves listening to stories and understanding people’s experiences at a deep level. We use people’s stories to highlight themes and uncover the challenges they face in order to create designs that improve their experiences.
During my time at the Innovation Hub, I have learned about design thinking and uncovered how it can guide my growth as an engineer while working on technical projects. My perceptions of design thinking and the value of human stories have changed as I discovered their value for engineers and others in technical roles.
Approaches in Engineering Design
My journey with design began as a student working on engineering design projects. I am grateful to our faculty for encouraging us to speak directly to our stakeholders, individuals or groups interested in the project. This is what I enjoyed most about our design work; hearing what the stakeholder’s problem was. However, our training as engineers encourages a focus on developing solutions. We spend a lot of our time diverging on potential solutions, and there is a mindset of “let’s solve the problem” as opposed to understanding all stakeholders involved and their core needs. There’s a time and a place for quick solutions, but sometimes we jump to solutions too quickly and the designs don’t truly meet the need or solve the problem they were intended to.
A prime example of jumping too quickly to solutions that might not work for the humans they are designed for is PlayPump, a water-pump connected a merry-go-round in Mozambique communities designed to harness the energy of children playing to deliver water [Stellar]. The pump ultimately failed to meet the needs of the community because the children didn’t use it enough, and their mothers carried the burden of being forced into playing on the merry-go-round to collect water.
I’ve learned that even the most creative ideas might fail without sufficient community-centered research. Running with the first solution and attempting to have a one-size-fits-all solution runs the risk of not addressing stakeholder needs.
Design Thinking at the Innovation Hub
What struck me when learning about the Innovation Hub was the student focus as well as the empathy-based interview practices. We begin with an exhaustive research process understanding the current landscape about the problem and how our past data can help contribute to our current project. From here, we began conducting our interviews and mapped out themes developed from stories across all stakeholders. This process was completely new to me. Through this process, we were able to uncover what works best for students currently, what barriers students face, and patterns that exist across stakeholders. Working with these insights helped guide us in our recommendations and suggestions for the department we were working with.
In engineering, however, we collect primary research through survey data, where issues are ranked from a scale of 1-5, or we have people choose from a list of concerns that we have outlined for them. But when I started hearing stories from stakeholders during iHub research projects, it challenged my understanding of what primary data can look like. These stories not only helped me understand challenges students face, but also what is already working well for them.
Value of Design Thinking for Engineers
There is a notion in tech that to be successful is to build. What I find lacking from this paradigm is to be successful is to understand. We can develop a million poor solutions, but until we sit with customers and hear their stories, can we then identify their real problems. Design thinking can help engineers like me fill this gap. After working at the Innovation Hub, I have taken what I have learned in design thinking into my engineering projects, and I have seen it work wonders. Something that I have frequently struggled with is staying on track in a project—it felt like there were so many different paths I could take or tools I could use. However, using design thinking to get a strong grasp of stakeholders and their needs creates a perfect framing of the problem to help me stay focused on the specific experiences of our stakeholders.
Design Thinking Beyond the iHub
Since I started engineering, I always viewed myself as someone that had a customer-focus, always caring for what the customer thinks. Looking back at my journey through design thinking, I can see now that even though I had a goal in mind for how I wanted to work, I did not have the tools and language to really anchor customers or stakeholders in my design process. Working at the Innovation Hub has reinforced this focus and helped guide me in the future roles I want to pursue. Namely, Product Management roles where I can work from start to finish on features to improve the customer experience.
Let Qualitative Data Drive Better Design
I hope engineers or others working in tech shift their approach to a more human-centred design thinking approach. Imagine what might happen if we consider how qualitative data can be used to flesh out the problem statement and provide a stronger focus our work. We might just release better products that last.
Sources
Stellar, Daniel. “The PlayPump: What Went Wrong?” State of the Planet, Columbia Climate School, 1 July 2010, news.climate.columbia.edu/2010/07/01/the-playpump-what-went-wrong/.
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