5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process

Stages 1: Empathize Empathy is the ability to fully understand the users, their needs, and the problems that underlie the development of that product.

Stages 2: Define (the Problem) During the Define stage, you put together the information you have created and gathered during the Empathise stage. This is where you will analyze your observations and synthesize them in order to define the core problems that you and your team have identified up to this point.

Stages 3: ldeate During the third stage of the Design Thinking process, designers are ready to start generating ideas. You've grown to understand your users and their needs in the Empathise stage analyzed and synthesized your observations in the Define stage, and ended up with a human-centered problem statement.

Stages 4: Prototype This is an experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the problems identified during the first three stages. The solutions are implemented within the prototypes, and, one by one, they are investigated and either accepted, improved, and re-examined or rejected on the basis of the users' experiences.

Stages 5: Test The testing phase is often used to redefine one or more problems and inform the understanding of the users, the conditions of use, and how people think, behave, feel, and empathize. Even during this phase, alterations and refinements are made in order to rule out problem solutions and derive as deep an understanding of the product and its users as possible.