Design Thinking for Tech: Solving Problems and Realizing Value in 24 Hours

by George Anderson

Overview

In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, Design Thinking for Tech helps you inject techniques and exercises into your projects using the same systematic and creative process that designers have used for years.

Anderson walks you through a simple four-phase Design Thinking model, showing how to loop back, keep learning, and continuously refine your work. You start by understanding the essential “what, how, when, why, and who” of Design Thinking. Next, you use core Design Thinking techniques to understand the big picture, focus on your most critical problems, think more creatively about them, take the "next best steps" toward problem resolution and value creation, and along the way rapidly iterate for progress.

Every lesson builds on what you've already learned, with exercises crafted to deliver directly relevant experience. Regardless of your role in the world of technology, you'll learn how to supercharge success for any tech-related project, business initiative, or digital transformation.

Learn how to...

• Apply a simple four-phased Design Thinking model in team and individual settings
• Inject game-changing methods into the project lifecycle
• Gain crucial “big picture” insights into how a situation has evolved over time
• Build and maintain healthier, more resilient teams
• Reskill teams to deliver greater business, functional, and technical impact
• Set and manage realistic expectations through a 360° view of your stakeholders
• Connect, communicate, and empathize with the right people at the right time
• Liberate the ideas trapped in your head so you can explore them deeply with others
• Think divergently, expand creativity, and work through uncertainty
• Navigate problems to quickly arrive at potential solutions
• Deliver incremental yet real value to people who desperately need it
• Start small to deliver greater value at velocity
• Improve how you approach and manage change

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common tasks.

Practical, hands-on examples show you how to apply what you learn.

Quizzes and exercises help you test your knowledge and stretch your skills.

Notes and tips point out shortcuts and solutions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780137933037
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	12/10/2022
Series:	Sams Teach Yourself -- Hours
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	0.70(w) x 9.13(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

George Anderson is a program director for Microsoft and an adjunct professor and guest lecturer for several universities. George holds Stanford Innovation & Entrepreneurship as well as Innovation Leadership credentials, PMI's Wicked Problem Solving and Prosci's Change Practitioner certifications, an MBA with a focus in Human Resource Management, and a PhD in Applied Management and Decision Sciences.

As a program director, George assembles and leads global tech teams that help organizations transform themselves. George's architects and consultants provide the technology and business skills necessary to design and develop business-enabling technology solutions, and George and his project managers provide the leadership, governance, and communications necessary to deliver those solutions.

In these ways, George's teams solve problems that drive meaningful change and measurable value. George knows first-hand the power of thinking and executing differently to change our world and often shares those learnings and experiences. He has co-led worldwide design thinking communities within Microsoft and has incorporated design thinking techniques and exercises into several of Microsoft's governance methods and project delivery methodologies.

Since 2002, George has also been assembling authoring teams to publish popular technology planning and implementation books, including Teach Yourself SAP in 24 Hours (2015) and SAP Implementation Unleashed (2009). More recently, he has shared how Design Thinking can be applied to our work and personal lives through Stuck Happens: 95 Simple Life Hacks for Thinking and Thriving (2021). And George and his team shared guidance and techniques organized around PMI's Process Groups in Design Thinking for Program and Project Management (2019).

Design Thinking for Tech: Solving Problems and Realizing Value in 24 Hours marries George's love of people, high-tech software development, platform-based business solutioning, and Design Thinking. It bridges the real-world intersection of technology and more than 130 Design Thinking techniques and exercises useful in learning, empathizing, and solving difficult problems while providing early and repeatable value along the way. Connect with George on LinkedIn or through email at [e-mail].

Table of Contents

Foreword xvi

Preface xviii

Prologue xix

Part I Design Thinking Basics

Hour 1 Design Thinking Explained 3

Thinking Slower to Deliver Faster 4

A Process for Progress: Popular Design Thinking Models 4

Our Design Thinking Model for Tech 6

The Battle Between Perfection and Time 6

The What: Techniques and Exercises 7

The How: The Design Thinking Cycle for Progress 8

The When: Ambiguity, Complexity, and Uncertainty 10

The Why: Better Practices and Faster Outcomes 11

The Who: Design Thinking by Technology Role 12

Design Thinking in Action: Real-world Tech Examples 14

What Not to Do: Lessons Learned the Hard Way 14

Summary 14

Workshop 15

Hour 2 A Design Thinking Model for Tech 17

Human-Centered Thinking 17

Design Thinking in Four Phases 18

What Not to Do: Exclusively Left to Right 24

Summary 24

Workshop 25

Hour 3 Design Thinking for Small Audiences 27

Design Thinking for Me 27

Learning More Quickly 28

Thinking and Problem Solving 30

Coping with Ambiguity 31

Prioritizing Next Best Steps for Uncertainty 32

Executing More Effectively 33

What Not to Do: This Isn't for Me 34

Summary 35

Workshop 36

Hour 4 Resilient and Sustainable Teams 37

Design Thinking for Tech Team Alignment 37

Design Thinking for Sustainable Teams 45

Responsibly Operating at Speed 53

What Not to Do: The Archipelago Effect 54

Summary 55

Workshop 55

Hour 5 Visible and Visual Teamwork 57

Making Teamwork Visible and Visual 57

Tools for Visual Collaboration 60

Executing a Design Thinking Exercise 61

What Not to Do: Keeping It All Inside 65

Summary 65

Workbook 66

Part II Understanding Broadly

Hour 6 Understanding the Lay of the Land 69

Listening and Understanding 70

Assessing the Broader Environment 78

Understanding and Articulating Value 86

What Not to Do: Ignore the Culture Fractals 86

Summary 87

Workshop 87

Hour 7 Connecting with the Right People 89

A Framework for Finding and Prioritizing People 89

Exercises for Stakeholder Mapping and Prioritization 90

Exercises and Techniques for Engaging Stakeholders 99

What Not to Do: Stick to the Happy Path 101

Summary 101

Workbook 102

Hour 8 Learning and Empathizing 103

From Stakeholders to Personas 103

Three Types of Empathy 104

A 360-Degree Model for Empathizing 106

A Recipe for Empathizing 107

What Not to Do: Ignore the 20 Percent 117

Summary 118

Workshop 118

Hour 9 Identifying the Right Problem 119

Identifying and Understanding a Problem 119

Three Exercises for Problem Identification 119

Techniques and Exercises for Problem Validation 124

What Not to Do: Jump In! (to the Wrong Problem) 131

Summary 132

Workshop 132

Part III Thinking Differently

Hour 10 Introduction to Thinking Differently 137

Ideation and Thinking for Problem Solving 138

Divergent and Convergent Thinking 139

Warm-ups for Thinking Differently 141

Techniques for Clearing the Mind 144

What Not to Do: Stay Convergent! 146

Summary 147

Workshop 147

Hour 11 Guardrails for Thinking Creatively 149

Constraints and Guardrails 149

Simple Guardrails for Thinking Differently 150

Exercises for Thinking Through Risks 158

Crazy Techniques for Extreme Thinking 163

What Not to Do: Avoid the Silly-Sounding Stuff 166

Summary 167

Workshop 167

Hour 12 Exercises for Increasing Creativity 169

Creativity and Thinking 169

Techniques and Exercises for Creative Thinking 170

What Not to Do: Concluding Thinking Too Early 180

Summary 181

Workshop 181

Hour 13 Exercises for Reducing Uncertainty 183

Next-Step Thinking for Uncertain Situations 183

Reducing Uncertainty and Ambiguity 185

Working Through Uncertainty and What's Next 191

What Not to Do: The Brute-Force Path 201

Summary 202

Workshop 202

Hour 14 Thinking for Problem Solving 203

From Ideas to Potential Solutions 203

Visual Exercises for Problem Solving 211

What Not to Do: Skimp on Brainstorming 214

Summary 214

Workshop 214

Part IV Delivering Value

Hour 15 Cross-Teaming and Communicating for Outcomes 219

Cross-Boundary Teaming for Collaboration 220

Techniques for Working Across Teams 221

Techniques for Communications Challenges 232

What Not to Do: Using Words When a Picture Is Needed 236

Summary 236

Workshop 237

Hour 16 Prototyping and Solutioning by Doing 239

The Prototyping and Solutioning Mindset 239

Making Progress versus Solving the Entire Problem 240

Techniques for Making Planned Progress 247

What Not to Do: Ignoring the Inverse Power Law 253

Summary 254

Workshop 254

Hour 17 Solutioning Small and Fast 257

The Progress Mindset: Showing Up and Starting Small 257

Realizing Value Through Objectives and Key Results 258

Starting Small and Delivering Fast 261

Techniques for Delivering and Executing to Think 262

For a Limited Time Only 265

What Not to Do: The Forever MVP 266

Summary 267

Workshop 267

Hour 18 Delivering Value at Velocity 269

Delivery Techniques for Increasing Value Velocity 269

Team Considerations for Velocity 274

Change Control Considerations for Velocity 277

What Not to Do: Shrink Sprints to Speed Up 278

Summary 279

Workshop 279

Part V Iterating for Progress

Hour 19 Testing for Validation 283

The Testing Mindset 284

Traditional Types of Testing 284

Testing Techniques for Learning and Validating 287

Testing Tools for Feedback 291

What Not to Do: Automate Everything 293

Summary 293

Workshop 294

Hour 20 Feedback for Continuous Improvement 295

Simple Feedback Techniques 295

Strategic Feedback and Reflection Techniques 299

What Not to Do: Wait for Late Feedback 302

Summary 302

Workshop 303

Hour 21 Deploying for Progress 305

Avoiding Perfection Traps 305

Novel Techniques for Making Progress 306

Edge Case Techniques for Deploying and Realizing Value 308

What Not to Do: Deploying Too Soon 311

Summary 312

Workshop 312

Hour 22 Operating at Scale 313

Techniques and Exercises for Effective Scaling 313

Operational Resiliency Techniques 317

Techniques for Sustaining Systems and Value 319

What Not to Do: The Scale versus Features Mandate 322

Summary 322

Workshop 323

Hour 23 Making Change Sticky 325

Change Management and Adoption 325

The Four-Phase Change Process 327

Methods for Creating Awareness 327

Techniques for Providing Purpose 329

Driving Readiness Through Design Thinking 330

Four Techniques for Adopting Change 332

Techniques for Timing Change 335

What Not to Do: Change Management Can Wait 337

Summary 338

Workshop 338

Hour 24 Design Thinking for Project Velocity 341

Project Management Velocity 341

Leadership and Governance 344

Stakeholders and Expectations 346

Development Approach 347

Risk Management 348

Schedule Management 350

Managing Scope 351

Delivery and Quality 352

Communications and Collaboration 354

What Not to Do: No Courage, No Future 356

Summary 357

Workshop 357

Appendix A Case Study Quiz Answers 359

Appendix B Summary of Design Thinking Techniques and Exercises 371

Appendix C Design Thinking in Action (by the Hour) 387

References 395

Index 399