I recently attended a session sponsored by Associations Catalyzing Entrepreneurship (ACE) on problem-solving using the design thinking method.
The session led by Garth Jordan, senior vice president, corporate strategy at the Healthcare Financial Management Association and Arianna Rehak, CEO and co-founder of Matchbox Virtual Media.
Many say that design thinking is a powerful process for problem-solving, and has tremendous potential for associations.
It’s human centered, learn by doing, team based approaches to maintain organizational speed and flexibility. Have a core group of people go and ask additional staff questions to get a since of what is going on in your organization.
You need to get information from the end user, the member. Ask them what they want. Solve their problems making them a hero in their office.
It's all about the member. You need to get your staff to think that way. Everything we do is helping our members grow their business.
They discussed the different stages of design thinking:
First
Understand - research, gain insight, empathy, define. Less people x more time in understanding = lots of insights. Find the powerful themes to be able to ask the right questions.
Second
Create - brainstorm for ideas, ideate. Asking the right questions to the right people is key.
Third
Deliver - prototype, test. Learn and grow from feedback. Think fail forward.
And finally, when these different stages come together - feasibility (technology), desirability (user), viability (business), where they intersect, that is innovation!
For resources on design thinking go to:
