# Design Thinking

> Apply design thinking methods — empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test — to solve problems in a human-centered, iterative way. Use when framing ambiguous problems, facilitating workshops, or driving cross-functional innovation sessions.

- Skill: `itsual/design-thinking` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add itsual/design-thinking`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/itsual/design-thinking/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: itsual (https://skillmd.com/u/itsual)
- Updated: 2026-09-21
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/itsual/design-thinking

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# Design Thinking

## Overview

Design thinking is a structured approach to creative problem-solving that keeps users at the center and treats ideas as hypotheses to be tested.

## When to Use

- Ambiguous or poorly framed problems
- Cross-functional ideation and alignment workshops
- Early exploration before committing to a solution path
- Building empathy and shared understanding on a team

## Core Phases

1. **Empathize** — Understand users and context
2. **Define** — Frame the right problem
3. **Ideate** — Generate a range of possible solutions
4. **Prototype** — Make ideas tangible quickly
5. **Test** — Learn from real reactions and iterate

## Principles

- Bias toward action and learning over endless discussion
- Divergent then convergent thinking — don’t mix them carelessly
- Reframe problems; the initial brief is often incomplete
- Prototypes exist to learn, not to impress

## Verification

- [ ] Problem framing is grounded in user insight
- [ ] Multiple options were explored before converging
- [ ] Ideas were tested in some tangible form