Design Thinking is an innovative way to problem finding and problem solving which builds upon a designer's way of approaching problems. By stepping back and looking at a problem with beginner's eyes while interviewing users (employees, customers, people), oftentimes problem is re-framed which ultimatelly leads to innovation.
Empathize
Innovation starts with empathy, therefore understanding your users is the first principal step towards innovation. What their goals, needs, struggles and motivations are.
Define
After understanding the business need, exploring various users' needs, points of views and insights, a problem statement is defined which serves as a design brief.
Ideate - Protoype - Test
Iterative design approach where first ideas are generated and collected, possible solutions are rapidly and cheaply protoyped and finally tested while feedback is provided.
About me
"Constructive feedback is as important as the work itself." - Elon Musk (founder at Tesla)
Mary Ortiz, MSc. MSc.
Design Thinking Consultant, Business Innovator, Lecturer & Researcher
I'm an experienced business consultant and lecturer who will work with you in order to help you identify and solve any sort of problems you might possibly have in your business. Having storng backround in teaching as well as applying Design Thinking to enterprises throughout my teaching career.
"Mary is a wonderful person with great lecturing and mentoring abilities. She posesses a profound understanding of the Design Thinking method and based on my experience, I would recommend her to any potential clients."
Vlad Korbel (Design manager at Novartis)
Case studies
Examples on how Design Thinking can be sucessfully applied on various areas
CNT Promotions
Design Thinking Mentor
Telecommunications | 2016
WIQ - A Smart Waterheater
Design Thinking Mentor
Industrial design | 2016
Mishky Burger
Design Thinking Mentor
Business model design | 2015
Services
Business models, Strategies, Processes, Products and Services which are Viable, Desirable and Feasible.
User Research
Interviews and users' observation are fundemental to any sort of innovation. Conducting research on user's needs, goals and motivation is a great starting point to innovation.
Design Thinking Workshops
Getting people together in a workshop which is faciliated in a way that makes the teams most productive and innovative. Withing minutes, people will start generating ideas and build them in a rapid way to immediately see results and get feedback.
Iterative Prototyping
Iterative design approach where first ideas are generated and collected, possible solutions are rapidly and cheaply protoyped and finally tested while feedback is provided.
Client: CNT (Corporación Nacional de Telecomunicaciones)
Industry: Telecommunication
Revenue: around $1 billion USD
About CNT
The Corporación Nacional de Telecomunicaciones, CNT EP is the public telecommunications company in Ecuador that offer fixed telephony services local, regional and international, Internet Access (Dial-Up, DSL, mobile Internet), satellite television and mobile telephony in Ecuadorian territory. [Wikipedia]
The task
CNT recognised a need of communicating promotions of mobile devices to their customers. After analysis, it's been decided, that to actually sell devices on-line, would be nice to try a new mobile e-commerce channel. While e-commerce in Ecuador is not very wide spread yet, we decided to proceed iteratively in 3 months sprints. So in the first release the functionality of e-commerce is rather limited, but next phases warehouse and mobile payments are planned to be implemented.
Deliverables
Design Thinking Workshop
User Research
Wireframes
Graphics
Prototypes (iOS, Android)
Apps delivery and Project management
Server side and backend administration
WIQ - A Smart Water Heater
Date: 2016
Client: Hipertronics S.A.
Industry: Telecommunication
Revenue: around $1 billion USD
About Hipertronics S.A.
Hipertronics is an Ecuadorian mobile device manufacturer and innovator mainly focusing on manufacturing, innovation and sales of mobile devices under a brand called Grun Mobile. [Wikipedia]
The task
Hipertronics wanted to build an IoT waterheater but they lacked of the product design skills as well as they were not sure what features they should focus on. Therefore they hired me as a consultant to help them apply Design Thinking to re=frame the problem they were solving and improve the overall product design in a user-centred way.
Deliverables
Design Thinking Workshops
User Research
High level protoype
Feedback gathering and presentation in a tech conference - Cemexpo Campus Party
Apps delivery and Project management
Mishky Burger
Date: 2014-2016
Client: Mishky Burger S.A.
Industry: Restaurants
Revenue: around $50 million USD
Mishky Burger S.A.
Mishky Burger is an originally Ecuadorian franchise restaurant chain bulding upon Ecuadorian cousine heretige with branches including cities such as New York City or London. [Wikipedia]
The task
The founder of the franchise was a student at the university where I was his mentor. He wanted to create a chain of restaurants but wasn't sure what would be the selling point. We've applied Design Thinking in order to find the competitive product and Mishky Burger was the result combininng traditional Ecuadorian food with modern concepts of western world.
