How to Understand Design Thinking Principles

Design is no longer about pushing pixels on Figma. It’s about solving real, human problems. Today, AI can generate wireframes, UI kits, even entire design systems—with a prompt. Tools like Galileo, Uizard, and Framer AI can produce landing pages and prototypes in seconds. This means one thing for designers: 👉 Your value isn't in how well you use the tool anymore—it's in how well you define the problem. Think about Airbnb. Their breakthrough wasn’t a prettier website—it was realizing that trust was the core blocker in booking someone else’s home. Their solution? Host profiles, reviews, secure payments. Design solved a trust problem, not a layout issue. Or look at Duolingo. The design team didn't just make learning look good—they gamified the learning experience, keeping users coming back daily. Their insight? Retention is emotional, not functional. In both cases, it wasn’t about a sleeker UI. It was about understanding people deeply and designing systems that solved for that. As AI speeds up the “how,” designers must double down on the “why.” → Can you identify friction no one’s talking about? → Can you connect business metrics with user motivation? → Can you reframe a problem in a way that unlocks 10x outcomes? That’s where great design lives now. Tools will keep evolving. But design rooted in understanding and impact? That’s timeless.

The simplest way to design for a problem space you’re struggling to understand: 1) Take a high-altitude view of your space and determine the business rationale. In other words, identify what’s the value exchanged between parties. 2) Deeply identify the motivations and goals of the parties exchanging or transferring value. Why are they doing it? Who are they doing it for? Who benefits from this exchange? Who bears a cost in this exchange? 3) Identify the nature of the value itself. Why is it valuable? What is the lifecycle of the value? What’s the cost and level of effort to produce that value? 4) Identify what can be done to streamline the value exchange or reduce the cost/level of effort to produce the value. 5) Rinse and repeat at different altitudes or from different angles. 95% of the problems I have seen in my design career always reflect on the same need: Finding ways to facilitate the exchange or transfer of value between two or more parties (or systems), often acting on behalf of other parties. TL, DR: Understanding who the vendor and the customer of your problem are is usually all you need to design against the problem properly.

How might we uncover students' real unmet needs instead of applying predetermined solutions? It's time for human-centered solution finding. Traditional problem solving starts with a set problem and jumps straight to solutions. By contrast, design thinking begins with problem finding – gathering diverse insights to reframe issues in an enlightening way. This problem finding then leads to solution finding. Design thinking moves educators from trying to solve narrow, presumed problems to human-centered problem finding. For instance, rather than accept chronic absenteeism as the defined problem, a school community identifies underlying causes by employing techniques to empathetically hear from students directly. In this instance, problem finding may reveal issues like lack of belonging. Reframing the problem becomes essential for solution finding. Applying preset remedies without a diagnosis will not address the core issues students face. Design thinking flips the script to put collaborative problem-finding first, leading to creative solution-finding. This process allows schools to uncover root causes and design human-centered solutions that truly help students. #designthinking #students #educators #schools P.S. This post is in a series where I share learnings on design thinking in schools distilled from my book. I welcome your perspectives as we explore together how human-centered design can help schools better serve students. How can I make these better?

How the Double Diamond method helped me think and design better at Microsoft: I wish I learned the Double Diamond design process earlier at Microsoft. The Double Diamond is a tool that can help more leaders solve problems better. Too many people run around with a hammer looking for a nail: "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." -- Abraham Maslow And too many people brainstorm the solution, without even brainstorming the problem. The Double Diamond helps fix this. How? 𝗧𝗪𝗢 𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗢𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗗 The Double Diamond is a design thinking approach with two diamonds: 1. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗦𝗶𝗱𝗲: The first diamond represents the problem side. 2. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗶𝗱𝗲: The second diamond represents the solution side. That right there helps. I had a manager early on at Microsoft that would run up and tell me I had to solve Y. But Y was a solution. I didn't even know what the problem was yet. Neither did he. Now when somebody brings me a "problem" to solve, I ask them: "Are we on the problem side or the solution side?" 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗢𝗪𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗙 𝗗𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗚 + 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗚 The second aspect of the Double Diamond that I find useful is diverging and converging. When you are brainstorming and expanding you are diverging. You are diverging when you brainstorm the problem or the solution. When you are narrowing or contracting the range of options, you are converging. You are converging when you narrow the problem and narrow the solution. Now when someone brings me a "problem" to solve, I ask them: "Are we exploring the solution, or did you already have one in mind?" "Are we exploring the problem, or are you already set on the problem?" 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗕𝗟𝗘𝗠 𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘 𝗢𝗥 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘, 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗥 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚? It sounds simple, yet years at Microsoft taught me that even smart people can fall for traps. With the Double Diamond in mind, you have a simple approach to remind you to: 1.  𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 2.  𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 With the Double Diamond, you can quickly visually check: 1. 𝘼𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚? 2. 𝘼𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜? Sometimes all it takes is a quick check to remember where you are in the process. 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠𝗦 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗚𝗘 Even better, the Double Diamond gives you a way to orient teams. It's rare to find everyone on the same page when it comes to solving problems. Some people are brainstorming the solution. Some are exploring the problem. Some are diverging, while others are converging. But if you use the Double Diamond you can at least check in and get people on the same page. This is where having a simple process can shine. #innovation #leadership #creativity