Design thinking is a human-centered problem-solving methodology that begins by developing a deep understanding of the people affected by a problem. Empathy is fundamental because designers investigate users' experiences, needs, motivations, frustrations, behaviors, and contexts before determining what solution should be built.

Typical design-thinking activities include empathy research, problem definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing. The process is iterative: information learned from testing may cause the team to revisit assumptions, redefine the problem, or create a different solution.

SAM is an iterative instructional-design methodology emphasizing rapid prototyping and successive refinement. ADDIE provides a systematic framework of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Agile approaches emphasize iterative delivery, collaboration, responsiveness, and incremental development. Although each can incorporate user feedback, human-centered empathy is most explicitly associated with design thinking.

Within talent development, design thinking can be used to develop learning experiences, employee-development processes, performance-support solutions, or other interventions by beginning with the actual employee or stakeholder experience rather than organizational assumptions about what people need.

Study Guide Topics: Design thinking; empathy; human-centered design; decision-making; problem solving.

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