From Insight to Clarity “What’s the problem?” Your team looks up at you expectantly. Maya has just voiced the question that’s on everybody’s mind. People on the team begin throwing out ideas rapid fire. “Wait!” you find yourself saying. “Let’s step back and reframe the problem before we define it.” Good move. But does your… Continue reading Reframing the Problem:
Category: Design Thinking
From Notes to Insight:
Organizing What You’ve Learned “What next?” I wondered as I sat at my desk looking at stacks of papers. I was working on a big design project for…let’s call them ABC. I’d interviewed people, observed their routines, and asked probing questions. Now I was sitting amidst a pile of material: my notes, photos, diagrams, and… Continue reading From Notes to Insight:
From Research to Real Understanding
How Problem Statements Get Better Let’s say you’ve done your desk scan. You’ve learned what programs exist, who the key players are, and where the gaps might be. You’re ready to dive into fieldwork and start talking to people. Right? Here’s where some founders skip ahead too quickly. They gather great insights from interviews and… Continue reading From Research to Real Understanding
Journey Mapping: A Practical How-To for Uncovering Opportunity
A Simple Six-Step Process for Finding Leverage Points in Complex Social Systems Social entrepreneurs are often very good at seeing problems. Describing inequities, inefficiencies, and unmet needs with clarity comes easily. But identifying where to intervene is harder. Not every problem is a leverage point. Not every barrier deserves equal attention. The real challenge is… Continue reading Journey Mapping: A Practical How-To for Uncovering Opportunity
Journey Mapping for Social Entrepreneurs
Part 2: How to Create a Simple Journey Map Let’s say you’ve built a persona like Maria, as previously described. Now how does she move through her day? How does she get from leaving work exhausted to sitting down to dinner with her family? What problems, challenges, and frustrations does she encounter along the way?… Continue reading Journey Mapping for Social Entrepreneurs
Journey Mapping for Social Entrepreneurs
Part 1: What a Journey Map Is (and Why It Matters) As you plan for your social enterprise, you’ve covered a lot of ground already. You’ve done interviews, reflected on the broader community context, and created a persona grounded in real research. You now know how your community partners move through their day, make decisions… Continue reading Journey Mapping for Social Entrepreneurs
Personas:
How to Turn Deep-Dive Research into Human Insight In the previous post, we explored what personas are and why they matter in social entrepreneurship and design thinking. This post focuses on the practical question: how do you create a persona from your deep-dive research? Remember Maria from Part 1? She’s not a real person, but… Continue reading Personas:
Creating Personas in Your Deep Dive:
A Practical Guide for Social Entrepreneurs What if you could use your deep dive research to sketch a realistic portrait of your ideal client? Then you could design with a specific type of person in mind, rather than a fuzzy abstraction. You could design for someone with a schedule, competing priorities, and a life that… Continue reading Creating Personas in Your Deep Dive:
Identifying Community Assets:
Simple First Steps Before Your Deep Dive Many founders start by asking, “What’s broken?” This is a logical question but also try flipping it. Also look at “What’s strong?” You may save time and earn trust before your first interview. Sometimes the most important early insights come from pausing. This post adds one idea to… Continue reading Identifying Community Assets:
Diving In:
How to Do a Quick Orientation (Desk Scan) for Your Social Enterprise Idea (Part 1 in the “Assessing Community Need” series) “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know that ain’t so.” —attributed to Mark Twain In the last post, we looked at why a Deep Dive was… Continue reading Diving In: