MGMT20140 - Design Thinking and Empathy: A Detailed Report

This report delves into the critical role of empathy within the framework of design thinking, emphasizing its capacity to facilitate effective problem-solving, informed decision-making, and innovative thinking. Drawing on references from Adams & Nash (2016), Carstrais (2016), Dalton & Kahute (2016), and Köppen & Meinel (2015), the report defines empathy as the ability to understand a situation from another person's perspective, thereby enabling a deeper comprehension of issues and needs. It explores the methods of employing empathy, such as interviews, collaboration, and creative thinking, and highlights its significance in the design thinking process. The report also underscores the practical applications of empathy in real-world scenarios, including personal and professional contexts, such as decision making, and problem solving. Through this analysis, the report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how empathy enhances the design thinking process and contributes to more effective and human-centered solutions.

Empathy
References
• Adams, C., & Nash, J. B. (2016). Exploring design thinking practices in evaluation. Journal of
MultiDisciplinary Evaluation(pp.51-57)
• Carstrais J. (2016, may 5). learning by doing at our design thinking workshop. Retrieved from
https://medium.com/pancentric-people/learning-by-doing-at-our-design-thinking-workshops-c2c9398bfac1
• Dalton, J., & Kahte, T. (2016). Why empathy and customer closeness is crucial for design thinking. Design
Management Review(pp.34-46)
• Köppen, E., & Meinel, C. (2015). Empathy via design thinking: creation of sense and knowledge. In Design
thinking research(pp. 15-28). Springer, Cham.
Empathy is a skill that provide a super power to understand a
situation as a another person (Adams & Nash, 2016). It can use to
feel or observe a problem as a other person to resolve the critical
issue in them from design thinking point of view. A Person can
better judge a situation from different point of view and from
different person’s point of view. It use for understanding and
feeling a situation from different angles, it provides help into
understanding.
Empathy
• Understand the situation
• Take decision based on the feeling and
understanding
• Provide solution of a problem using other
person point of view
Empathise methods, which can be used:
• Empathy can use in interview
• Solve issues using it
• Collaboration between people
• Creative thoughts
• Use 5 why
• Assume different persons mindset
Design thinking process has used empathy to understand and
feel the real situation or condition about something from other
person point of view (Köppen & Meinel, 2015). It can helpful
in finding solutions of the problem using empathy. It is
beneficial for a person to satisfied their solution from different
person’s understanding and feeling about the same issue
(Dalton & Kahute, 2016).
Empathy can use in the understanding of a situation from
different person’s point of view
It assist in various conditions that are based on the physical needs and
emotional needs of a person. I learnt about this skill during design
thinking workshop and It always used to solve different problems of
my personal an professional life, such as decision making, problem
solving, creative thinking, and many others.