Figuring out what the customer needs

Engineers are good at coming up with new, technical innovations. However, for really groundbreaking ideas that solve the users’ problems, you need more than just technology. That’s where design thinking comes in. Meet Blerand Bahtiri, an expert in this field.

“If you focus too much on what is possible to achieve technologically, you will not come up with the best solutions for those who use your product. You may even cause problems for them,” says Blerand Bahtiri, UX Designer at Volvo Group.

Design thinking is a human-centric approach to innovation. It combines the user’s human point of view with what is technologically and economically viable. This approach includes applying several creative tools to help the innovative team come up with creative ideas.

It usually starts with field studies, meeting the users and interviewing them about their every-day problems.

Blerand Bahtiri works in a global team, exploring the future of urban mobility. He has been involved in projects regarding digital products, such as dashboards and applications, but also ergonomic issues.

“For instance, drivers may tell us that they have problems with parking in narrow streets, loading and unloading or time-consuming paperwork. Then we figure out what problems are most important. We use different methods like creating personas who have these problems or mapping out customer journeys and we keep those in mind when we move on with the creative process.”

The next step is workshops, such as brainstorming and other group exercises.

As a result of the workshops, we create simple and cheap prototypes of the solutions. That is, what we assume is a solution. Then we go back to the users to get their perspective again.

Design thinking is a way of discovering the unmet needs of your users, of reducing the risk of launching bad products and of generating ideas that are groundbreaking instead of just incremental.

CampX is the perfect place to work with design thinking! Sitting close to so many multidisciplinary teams creates opportunities for collaboration. At CampX you feel like you are at a start-up – everyone is close by.”

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