So far, it has been an eye-opener from understanding and connecting to problems and going through the process of unvailing the indepthness of identified problems.
Upon starting this cohort, I have so far been exposed to the knowledge of design thinking, which consists of the following:
The initial stage is empathy; this was the beginning stage where I learned how to identify problems and think through the solutions needed for the problems identified. Our case study is access to affordable, reliable, clean and safe water. In order to understand the problem, I was tasked with the responsibility of speaking with people who have the problem of accessing clean water. This enabled me to understand what the users were really going through, and it enabled me to connect well with them in order to understand what they were feeling and facing. The process of connecting with users helps me understand how research is done and how to get insight from others. Asking several whys goes beyond just asking to actually diving deep into the reasons behind the happenings. Also, connecting with users helps me empathize with them and put myself in their shoes; this is the first step of design thinking.
After empathizing with users and being able to connect on a deeper level with them, we then went ahead to define the problem. Using the notes gotten from interviewing or communicating with users, we defined the situation by putting things into better perspective. This was done by thinking through and writing out the needs, insight and problem statement. In order to write down the needs, we dug deeper using the notes taken from interacting with people who are facing the issue of access to water.
I am currently at the ideation stage, where I use the information gathered to create a solution to this problem.