The very first step in every design challenge is the Deep Dive. But whats behind this words. What does it mean? Why is it so important.
If you want to create or design a product or if you want to define a new way of working, changing processes for example. It is essential that you need to become an export about it. If you want to answer problem statements or questions you need to be the expert who is able to form the answer and present it to the audience.
Become the expert
When creating a team to start your design challenge you need to prepare this step for your team members. Choosing the right people for your challenge will be your first step. The next one will be to prepare them for the challenge. To be able to speak about a curtain topic it is important to get to know your topic. How to do it?
Deep Dive
As a first step in your Deep Dive phase you can check the normal channels everyone knows. Read and explore in the internet or local available sources to learn about the currently available solutions and problems. If you work on a problem you can check if anyone else also have similar problem and is writing about it. Check wiki sites or blogs to learn about it. If you work internally on a project you can check at other departments and intranet sites for information. Maybe there is an internal knowledge management solution available.
Explore your target audience
Also a very important step in the deep dive. Speak with your stakeholder. Get out and get to know the people who you are working for. If you need to design a process or product for a department. Get to know them. What to they expect. What are the real problems. What needs to done. How are there experiences with current solutions.
Knowledge mountain
Finally you should end up with all the knowledge available for you. All sources and people have been interviewed. You and the team are the experts now. It is time to prepare the challenge. You will look on it in a very different angle now than before the deep dive. Understand the problem, understand the needs and expectations.
Now you are in a position to create great solutions. Start now.
