4 - Define
The initial Discover phase is about opening out and exploring the challenge to identify problems and opportunities. The Define stage channels these towards actionable tasks.
The mass of ideas and findings are analysed and structured into a reduced set of problem statements. These are aligned with the organisational needs and business objectives to identify which to take forward. The Define phase results in a clear definition of the fundamental challenge or problem to be addressed through a design-led product or service.
Objectives:
- Analyse the outputs of the Discover phase
- Synthesise the findings into a reduced number of opportunities
- Define a clear brief for sign off by all stakeholders.
What should you do in the define phase:
Analyse the data
Analyse and evaluate all of the data gathered in the ‘discover’ phase to establish focus. As you'll have lots of information creating a synthesis wall to identify clusters and themes can help make your findings more managable. Use statistical data analysis for quantative data to show patterns in the data, which may tell a story.
Utilise techninques like the Roses & Thorns exercise for qualative data, like customer feedback or staff interviews as this can draw out the positives, negativies and opportunities to show what the real problems are. Or turning feedback into User Stories can again highlight what the real user need is and not what we assume it to be.
How does what we’re doing at the moment not meet user need
Once you've analysed your data and understand the problems and user need you need to consider if, and how your current service offering or process does not meet that. Taking the user needs from your user stories, or opportunities identifed in the roses and thorns exercise and turning this into How might we (HMW) questions allows you to understand what you need to do to meet that need, which will in turn highlight if what you're currently offering doesn't.
Define what the actual problem is
Now you're in a position to say exactly what the user needs, what the authority wants and how we're not meeting that currently. You can define what the real problem is that you need to design out. Whilst a research findings report may be necessary to summarise this information utilise tools like Personas/character profiles to humanise who your designing for and keep the user at the centre of the design.
The outcome from this stage is to understand what the user and stakeholder need is and how we will know we’re successful at meeting this.
