יום שני, 27 ביולי 2015

Compassion as a basic for Design Thinking


Design Thinking methodology is a problem-solving protocol that any business or profession can employ to achieve extraordinary results.
Compassion is having the quality of “feeling-with” and deep empathy.
Compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering, find a solution. Compassion comes from Medieval Latin passiōn- (stem of passiō) and a variant of preposition cum- with.
When you sympathize with someone, you have compassion for that person, but you don’t necessarily feel her feelings.

Design thinking steps combined with Compassion:

1.   Understand the problem: 
Get an initial understanding of the problem. Doing it right is perhaps the most important of all the steps. Compassion is taken a step further, where a person feels empathy and then a desire to help alleviate the suffering/ need of the other person. Another way to say it is defining the right problem to solve. Participation usually involves immersion and the intense cross examination of the filters that have been employed in defining a problem. In design thinking observation takes center stage. Observation can discern what people really do as opposed to what you are told that they do. Observe users, visit them in their (work) environment, and observe physical spaces and places. The emphasis here is on action i.e. wanting to help. Having compassion for another requires one to put the other person first, imagine what the person is going through, and then consider ways in which to help the person feel better and cope. 

2.   Interpret the results:
Interpret the empirical findings. Focus on human values and needs. Have empathy for the people, solicit user feedback, and use it in their designs. Compassion is taken a step further, where a person feels empathy and then a desire to help alleviate the suffering of the other person. 

3.   Generate ideas (Ideate):
Engage in brainstorming sessions to generate as many ideas as possible (expand the solution space).

4.   Prototype, experiment:
Build prototypes and share them with other people (narrow down the solution space again, experimental phase).

5.   Test, implement, improve:
Test, implement, and refine the design (narrow down the solution space again; solution-driven phase).

When you sympathize with someone, you have compassion for that person, but you don’t necessarily feel her feelings. It helps you to understand the problem, and generate the ideas. Compassion is strongly linked to the principle of diversity. Collaborate with people from various backgrounds and respects their viewpoints; enable “breakthrough insights and solutions to emerge from the diversity”.




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