I wanted to start this off by saying every designer has their own process and this isn't an exact science. Every project is different and as always, the answer should always be, it depends. So please, take this as an outline as to how I go about solving problems using design thinking frameworks. Also, this process is far from linear and very feedback and iterative driven.

PROBLEM DISCOVERY

‍RESEARCH

A solution can only be as good as how well we understand the problem, so first, I always start with research. Research helps me empathize with others so I can make the right products for their needs. Qualitative research lets me learn the "why" behind people’s actions in ways quantitative research doesn’t.

1. I think about user goals & motivations. What are they trying to accomplish? Why are they doing this? How do their goals change?

2. Next, their actions: What are they doing to achieve their goals? What are their workarounds?

3. Then, what are the users routines? What do they typically do? How has this changed over time? What caused these changes?

4. Last but not least, what are the pain points? What makes the experience bad or unsuccessful? How often? How do they overcome this?

In this stage I'm trying to breakdown the design problem, some research techniques I commonly will use are observational research, user interviews, heuristic analysis, adjacent industry audit

and/or desk research. Most often I use desk research (broken down into primary research, analogous research, and competitive research) at every level project because it's cost effective and helpful.

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‍SYNTHESIZING RESEARCH‍

Research helps me empathize with others so I can make the right products for their needs. Synthesis is when I go deep into understanding. This gets me ready ready for prototype creation. When I am able to make affinity maps and grab those insights, which I will then breakdown into meta insights, which is very helpful when presenting to clients or stakeholders to help them empathize and understand the users and their needs/wants.
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Presenting these insights will then help me make my "How might we" statements. Example: If users are dropping off on product listing page and conversion is slow, making the HMW statement into... "How might we... Help users find the checkout page faster and convert into a sale?"
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‍DESIGN & IDEATION

Again, every project is different and I do feel it always depends on budget, time and situation, but I always try and start working out my designs and ideas on paper. This helps me work things out quickly and rule out any bad ideas.

WIREFRAMES

If the budget allows, after pen and paper, I always recommend starting with digital a grey-scale Lo-Fi prototype for first round. Great for testing abstract ideas. 
Understanding a user’s behaviors, needs, goals, and metal models. Can be called conceptual or propositional prototypes, too. Mid-Fi Helps you start to explore the flow through your product and experiment with the UI a little. Then, Hi-Fi design can fine tune flows, visuals, and system architecture.

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People are good at knowing if something is good or bad, so when I'm prototyping I want to show several very different designs to elicit reactions faster, so using a lower fidelity design, with less color, buttons and distractions like functionality I'm not testing should be removed so I can get quick and clear answers from user testing in the next steps.

DIVERGENT DESIGNS

By creating intentionally different concepts I can give users rough ideas to pick apart and discuss with me. Prototyping philosophy: Do the least amount of design for your users to understand your idea.

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FEEDBACK & PROTOTYPING

Digital Prototypes give people something tangible to critique and discuss which helps me better understand their needs. We create prototypes to elicit reactions for users. Prototypes are not final designs, they are a way of stimulating a conversation. Prototyping can take several rounds with each round of testing our prototypes become more detailed.

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‍USABILITY TESTING

Important to create prototypes to elicit reactions for users when testing. Again, prototypes are not final designs, they are a way of stimulating a conversation. I believe testing with users is super important, but sometimes the client budget will only go so far. I try and work around the budget. If I can't do formal interviews maybe we opt for usertesting.com or alike. When I have limited time, I always test with my co-workers (cross-functional teams). Then, the stakeholders will test and make any comments or suggestions.

At the end of this I like to feel like I walked away with answering at least some of these:

- What parts of your ideas clicked with users? 

- What didn’t? 

- What don’t you know? 

- What new questions popped up?

- Bring these into your next round of prototype testing

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SYNTHESIS & ITERATION

Do I keep working the same level of fidelity or move up? Did my interviews go well? Is the project out of hours? After this I really like to make sure I made use of the discovery budget. This can be a stage where I would present my research and synthesis findings, or move on the the next level in the prototype steps.

DESIGN FIDELITY

I increase the fidelity of my design so I can test more complex interactions and ideas. I would examine my findings from propositional prototyping.

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This is the stage where I can test and iterate until the team and I feel the product is ready for final presentation and review. I would always like to test and iterate as much as I can to work out as many instances as we can in order to work out not only power users but first time users as well.

PRESENTING

I tend to focus on telling the story of my work, not just using a presentation is an "artifact". Basically, I like to breakdown my presenting like this:

- Set an agenda

-Set context

- Key moments & evidence

- Recap

- Wrap up

- Q & A
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Lastly, I just want to empathize with the audience, so I do my best to make sure I explain everything correctly and leave less room for guessing and assumptions.
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NOTE ON PM:

‍I wanted to add an ending note about project management. I Create checkpoints with the client and team to review what I’ve been working on and I set expectations. I try to keep meeting notes or ask something to help me with this. Zoom recording is helpful. I repeat back to the client what I'm doing and I close the loop when something is finished or when something isn’t finished on time.
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“The design is not just what it looks like and feels like.The design is how it works” — Steve Jobs

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