3 KEY LEARNINGS

Anet Redmer

01

The Empathy Map (EM) investigates perception, thoughts and action in a very human way.

It does not matter with whom I discuss an EM, is it a CFO, a HR manager or the barista in the neighbor café - everybody understands what I am talking about.

A global tool and very easy to align with.

Everybody can align with and understand the Empathy Map.

02

First of all, it is good to set goals. Generating 50 ideas can be quite a challenge. I truly enjoyed it and looked in the most diverse corners of my brain to come up with new ideas. The trick for me was to focus on the crazy stuff first, such as digging a tunnel from Sydney to Amsterdam. From there I moved on via geography, transport systems, personal relationships, criminal actions, environmental deeds, luck, rock stardom to the most obvious stuff.

From now on I will start with trying to pin down the most unlikely ideas first instead of the obvious - a great brain stimulator!

Loved the 50+ idea generation

03

Leave your ego at home. Listen, watch and ask with an open 'unlearned' mind and integrate what you learned during testing phase into the product.

A great designer does exactly that, putting the needs and requirements of the endusers into the spotlight, not his/her own idea.

The true creative part lies in how those needs and requirements are integrated into the product.

Solutions that seemed great in my view, were not perceived as such by

the interviewees during testing phase.

Ask different

users

PROCESS MAP

PROBLEM SOLUTION

Observe & Ask

How to do things

differently

Watch different

users

Document

Ask and interview

Prototype

Test

Improve

Iterate until solution

Anet Redmer

Define, choose, focus on few ideas

only

NeedsRequirements

Roadmap

Different environme

nts

Reserve engineering

Ask people to help

brainstorm

Empathy Map

Optimize my own

environment

Different circumstan

ces

Generate MANY Ideas

Surprised about

different perception of

user

Wanna haves/ wishes

Focus on solving only part of the problem

Add magic

White board

Do the impossible

Light

Co-working space

REFLECTION

Anet Redmer

Design thinking skills and mindsets to be applied.A problem I really care about in my own environment is my daily practice of Bikram yoga.

For your information, Bikram Yoga is synthesized from traditional 1000+-year-old Hatha Yoga techniques. All Bikram Yoga classes run for 90 minutes and consist of 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises. Bikram Yoga is practiced in a hot room heated to 105°F / 40.6°C. We are practicing in a mild sauna-like environment and the effect on my mind and body is amazing. Having that said though, what's the effect on the environment? As you might imagine, I have started to feel bad about my carbon footprint. Next to cranking up the heat in the room, we obviously sweat a lot, using lots of towels, gear etc. Every week my sweaty towel and gear use adds up to about two machine washes. I refuse to use a dryer, but many just throw their gear in to the dryer and let it run, run, run - no care for reduced energy consumption, carbon footprint or sustainability. I love my yoga, I do it everyday. I am as fit as a lion, yoga has become part of my life, it is like brushing my teeth everyday. I would never give it up, so my quest is: How can I make Bikram yoga more sustainable?

01 Empathize: understanding the needs of those you are designing for. In this case I am primarily thinking of the environment, creating more awareness for the environment within this niche discipline. This is my main concern. In addition, I want to target the pain points that bikram yogis have, caused by the 'hot room'.

Empathy Maps

Interviews

Research facts on environ

ment

Observe

Ask

Docu ment

02 Define: framing problems as opportunities for creative solutions.With the problem statement I can narrow down the initial challenge to a more actionable problem based on the data gathered in the interview.I will probably need several problem statements, because there are several stakeholders, such as a yoga practitioner, a yoga teacher and a yoga school owner.

Problem statement

03 Ideate: generating a range of possible solutions.As already mentioned in the three key learnings, I loved the challenge to design at least 50 ideas. Generating such an amount of ideas requires you to search in more unrelated areas, sectors, processes and rituals and come with ideas that you would have never come up with in the first line.In my case I would be looking into the green tech, sports, wellness industriesfor sure.

04 Prototype: communicating the core elements of solutions to others.The chosen idea(s) will be converted into simple prototypes, which then will be subject to discussions and user interviews. I would interview yoga practitioner, a yoga teacher and a yoga school owner, but also sustainability experts and people from the wellness industries, who for example deal with saunas and other heated rooms.

50+ ideas

Look into areas that

seem unrelated

at first

Choose

Sort

Prioritize Analyze05 Test: learning what works and doesn’t work to improve solutions.This part is key to make the idea a success. If the user does not accept the idea/concept, it has no value for the market.The improved concept needs to be tested and refined several times until a certain level of quality and consistency is reached.

Interviews

Listen

Learn

Iterate