The five-step framework to improve the success rate of entrepreneurial start-ups
Empathise, define, ideate, mock-ups and testing ... Standford University has a five-step design framework for start-ups, writes Vivek Wadhera
Teaching an entrepreneurial skill known as design thinking could help SA improve the success rate of its start-ups. Stanford University developed a five-step framework for design thinking. The first step is called empathise which involves researching the end user for whom a solution is being designed. The second step is called define. It involves analysing the data collected from research in the first step. Ideate is the third step which involves coming up with creative solution. Building prototypes or mock-ups of your solution is the fourth step. The final fifth step is testing which means returning to the end-user for feedback on the prototype. This process is then repeated. Design thinking is therefore not the same thing as design as in focusing on aesthetics. Design thinking encourages trial and error and continually pursuing the right questions rather than fixed final answers. For some, the above process will sound like something that they’ve done before in their workplaces — a...
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