Good design isn't a mystery that happens in a black box. It's a human-centered thought process that helps make sure you understand why you're solving a problem and precisely who you're solving it for, before you decide what the solution is.
Many product development teams skip over the critical initial discovery process and jump straight into coding, then are left trying to retrofit the finished product once customer complaints start coming in. The main reason? "We don't have time to do discovery work - we have to get this out the door." The reality, however, is that not doing up-front discovery work virtually guarantees that projects will take longer and cost more in the end.
Through years of working with various teams and teaching workshops about problem solving through creativity, I have designed the process shown in my "sea monster" map.
While it might look like a lot of steps, the design process that I teach is simple and quick. You can arrive at personas, scenarios and story maps within a matter of days or sometimes hours. Along with those artifacts comes a critical shared understanding of why you're doing what you're doing, which leads to smart decisions during the development process. A few days up front can save weeks or months of rework down the road.
This approach is simple to master, and it works for every project... whether it's a startup idea or a change to an enterprise tool.
If you'd like to learn more, please contact me.