Business Hypothesis is the first step of the Design Thinking process. In this step, we empathize with our users and conduct research to develop a better understanding of the stakeholders. The team focusses on the identification of the problem keeping all the assumptions aside. This includes defining the design vision and aligning them with business goals. Post this Stakeholder mapping is done followed by the user persona or archetype creation. This stage is accomplished more effectively with the help of empathy maps.
Why is Business Hypothesis Used?
Business Hypothesis helps us to get to the core of the problem before we move to the customer perspective. Here we gather the design team which includes the major stakeholders including the primary decision-maker(decider). With these stakeholders, we do a series of activities to identify what the real business problem is. Additionally, we try to find out why the activities causing business problems are there. Also, if they are relevant to business activities.
Breakdown of the process
The ultimate goal of a business hypothesis is to get a tangible picture of what the business challenge is. In the process, we need to drop all our existing assumptions and look at things from varied perspectives. For successful execution, we have various tools that elaborate on the Business Hypothesis step. The further break down of the Business Hypothesis Stage involves:
- Formulating the design vision: We work on formulating a design vision for our product or feature.
- Identification of the business goals
- Stakeholder mapping
- Archetype creation for the stakeholders
- Business Hypothesis Mapping
Through each of the steps, we are able to get a clear picture of what our hypothesis should be. Designers follow a series of exercises that allow the flow of creativity and flexibility in order to identify all the challenges that the business faces. Evaluation of the business hypothesis by going through each of the aforementioned steps helps us get a clear view of the challenges.
Take away from Business Hypothesis
It is the crucial first stage of the design thinking process. We have been able to get to the core of the problem and want to further get our customer’s perspective on this. By now, we understand the long-term motivation of the business leaders and see how they align with our business goals.
Stakeholders can be external (the ones beyond our control like the customers we want) or internal (the ones that we can control like our employees). The fact that we were able to step in the shoes of our stakeholders and extract information helps us understand what is expected from our product.
External links:
- Design Thinking process
- Design tools: http://www.designkit.org/methods