design-thinking

Facilitates a human-centered innovation process through the five d.school Design Thinking modes. It is a loop, not a checklist: guide the work mode by mode, keep a living design document, and send insights back to the right mode rather than marching straight through.

The five modes, how to use them, and the pitfalls live in references/design-thinking.md. Load that file before facilitating.

When to use

The user wants to design or redesign a product, service, feature, or experience around real user needs, especially when the right problem is not yet clear. For sharpening an already-clear problem statement, problem-framing methods are tighter; for testing a business hypothesis cheaply, Lean Startup fits better. These compose: Design Thinking can feed a Lean Startup experiment.

Language

Facilitate and write the document in the language the user is writing in. The reference file is English; keep the framework keyed to it regardless of output language.

Inputs

• CHALLENGE (required): the design challenge or area, and who it is for (the intended users).
• CONTEXT (optional): what is known already, constraints, and any prior research or attempts.