What is design thinking? A simple guide to the five stages, with an example

What is design thinking?

It’s a human-centred method: you first understand the needs of the people you’re designing for, then try quick solutions, test them with those people and improve them. The approach was popularised by the design firm IDEO and Stanford University’s design institute (the d.school), which framed it in five stages.

The five stages

1. Empathise: observe and talk to people to understand what they really need, not what you assume they need.
2. Define: sum up what you learned in a clear statement, then turn it into a question starting “How might we…?”.
3. Ideate: write down as many ideas as you can before judging any, then pick the best.
4. Prototype: make a quick, cheap version of the solution: a sketch, a paper model or a simple page.
5. Test: try the prototype with real users, learn from what happens and go back to any earlier stage if you need to.

The stages aren’t a straight line. Testing often shows you need to understand users better, so you loop back and start again with better knowledge.

A worked example: the university cafeteria queue

• Empathise: a team of students notices long queues at break time. They interview classmates and find many skip food because the break is short.
• Define: “How might we help students get their food within a short break?”
• Ideate: pre-ordering on WhatsApp, a separate drinks window, ready-wrapped meals, a shorter menu at peak time.
• Prototype: they run a paper pre-order form for a week with the cafeteria owner.
• Test: they measure waiting times before and after, ask students what they think, then improve the idea.

Tools you can use today

• Open interviews: questions like “Tell me about the last time…” instead of “Do you like…?”.
• Empathy map: what the user says, does, thinks and feels.
• “How might we…?” turns a problem into an invitation to think.
• Crazy 8s: eight sketched ideas in eight minutes.
• Storyboard: drawing the steps of the user’s experience with your solution.
• Paper prototype: the fastest way to test an app or service before building it.

Who is design thinking for?

Students in school and university projects, teachers designing lessons, employees improving services and processes, and founders before they launch anything. You don’t need a design or drawing background.

Common mistakes

• Jumping to a solution before understanding the problem.
• Falling in love with the first idea.
• Building an expensive prototype before testing.
• Testing with friends instead of real users.

Common questions