# Design Thinking

> Design Thinking

- Skill: `sethdford/design-thinking` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add sethdford/design-thinking`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/sethdford/design-thinking/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: sethdford (https://skillmd.com/u/sethdford)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/sethdford/design-thinking

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# Design Thinking

Anchor on human needs and context before solutions. Reframe problems as opportunities; favor small experiments that produce learning over big untested bets.

## When to Use
- New products, workflows, or experiences where motivation, pain, and context are unclear—or when engineering constraints are dominating the brief.

## Workflow
1. Empathize: identify who is involved, what job they are trying to do, where it hurts, and in what situations behavior breaks down (jobs-to-be-done, empathy maps).
2. Define: synthesize a crisp “How might we…” that targets the human problem, not a pre-chosen implementation.
3. Ideate: diverge broadly (affinity mapping, brainstorming); defer feasibility scoring briefly.
4. Prototype: build the smallest artifact that makes the idea testable (sketch, script, stub, clickable flow).
5. Test: observe real reactions; capture surprises; iterate the problem statement if learning invalidates it.

## Examples
**Example 1:** Internal tool adoption is low: interview three users on their actual workflow before adding features; HMW reduce context switching?

**Example 2:** Onboarding drop-off: paper prototype the first five minutes; test with one new user before polishing visuals.