360° Analysis Introduction

Design Thinking is a team sport; the entire team needs to participate in the data collection and analysis. This allows the team to cover more ground in less time and it ensures all the team members can leverage their past knowledge, domain expertise and insights to uncover richer opportunities.



There are two goals for this phase of Design Thinking. First, the 360° Analysis gives the entire team a comprehensive view of the design challenge and the opportunities for how to address it successfully. Finding key insights that will serve to inspire your team and gain empathy for the user so that their voice can be represented when design decisions are made. Second, it breaks down preconceptions within the team about the problem and its eventual solution.

Bringing together the collective knowledge from inside and outside the organization, the 360° Analysis looks at the customers, users, competitors, thought leaders, etc. as well as adjacent and analogous fields to inform and inspire the team. Diverse data sources provide a holistic understanding of the problem (and similar problems) however it is important in any research effort not to succumb to “analysis paralysis”. On any new endeavor it is easy to get caught in a never ending cycle of research and investigation. In order to better manage the research activities Design Thinking advocates using a very tight timeframe for the 360° Analysis. (Rather than months, think days and weeks.) Keep in mind Design Thinking is an iterative process, there will be time during the Prototyping phase for the team to validate their proposed solutions with customers and stakeholders to make sure the team didn’t miss any critical learning, insights or opportunities.


Balancing the points of view

It is important to have equilibrium between the viability of the underlying business opportunity, with the feasibility of developing and deploying the solution, with the needs and desires of the people who will use the solution.

It is tempting to focus the analysis on the business needs of your organization, optimizing your approach to meet your strategic business goals or to use your organization’s current or desired technology investments to determine your capacity and capabilities to build a type of solution. However without knowing the needs and desires of your market, any solution based solely on one or even both of those approaches will not guarantee success. Design Thinking advocates starting with the customer, and using their needs and desires to help balance your business and technology needs with the realities of the market. Combing all three perspectives into a single point of view will ensure you can deliver the greatest value to your organization.


Challenge Assumptions

“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones”, John Maynard Keynes

Often times when you are asked to solve a problem, the request comes with an unspoken expectation of what the solution will be. Even in cases where you are the one to define the design challenge, it is human nature to start from a predefined set of assumptions about the eventual answer. Fundamental to Design Thinking is to question all assumptions, nothing should be taken for granted or taken as fact; all aspects of the problem space are on the table. Design Thinking offers a systematic approach for identifying assumptions, providing tools to break them down into their underlying components and determine their applicability. Or if by removing them they offer the necessary room for innovation in the design challenge.

Setting aside our assumptions becomes easier when we are forced to examine it from a new perspective. The easiest way to achieve this is to look at the world through your users’ eyes. But remembers often times what people say and what they do are not the same; it is just the nature of human discourse. Having the ability to see the full context of their activities, including the “what, where, when, why, how and with who” is critical to understanding your users. To achieve this understanding, consider spending a day doing their job, or shadowing them as they do it; this will literally give you a chance to walk in their shoes! It will also give you a chance to see firsthand any work-arounds they have put in place giving your team insight to potential new solutions. The same is true for your stakeholders and thought leaders, whether or not they are from inside or outside your company, having the chance to have a direct conversation with them will give your team greater understanding and insight than just reading their reports, or listening to their presentation on the topic.

In addition to giving you a new point of view on the problem, this experience will also give you empathy for your customers and your stakeholders, it is important to experience the world, and the potential impact your efforts will have on it, from their point of view.


Primary & Secondary Research

The 360° Analysis begins with the team planning the scope of their research with a gap analysis comparing the prior learning on the topic from across the team and organization and identifying new areas requiring research be performed. Using both an Outside-In and Inside-Out approach allows the team to align the opinions and ideas from within the organization with those of their customers, partners and external thought leaders.

Design Thinking breaks research into Primary Research, which focuses on face to face interviews and direct observations of the people who will use the solutions in their natural surroundings, be it in the office, field, or on the factory floor, and Secondary Research. Secondary Research is based on internal reports, interviews with internal stakeholders, though leaders, third party reports, external resources, etc. This dual approach helps the team to gain new insights and maximize their resources.


Total Coverage

A key component of Design Thinking is to conduct user research but that is only part of the 360° Analysis. The goal of this phase is to give the team a holistic view of on aspects of the design challenge. In addition to user research the team will conduct research into business models, technologies, competition, as well as the domain expertise and best practices from thought leaders. Additionally the team should consider other areas for analysis include legal or regulatory, cultural and geographical, as well as emerging trends and technologies.

By including adjacent or analogous research topics, the team will be collecting insights to help them generate new perspectives on their design challenge. Allowing the team to learn from similar but different domains can inspire the team’s thinking with new points of view on the problem and potential solutions. For example, if you are working in the area of “Software as a Service” you may want to explore the service offerings from other industries to understand what they have achieved, as well the capabilities for developing and deliver services customer might expect from your solution.

Finally, 360° Analysis provides a common framework for data collection ensuring your team’s efforts can be used effectively by other groups within your organization.