Double Diamond model

Abstract

From the 2000s, Design and Creative thinking approach have become an interesting topic for the managerial field, especially when we talk about innovation. Mostly, the evolution of design is seen as a new and innovative way to manage organizational transformation and projects, thanks to its capability to re-frame problems and see them with a new point of view. Double Diamond is the name of a design process model developed by the British Design Council in 2004 and created to help designers and non-designers to solve complex social, economic and environmental problem. Indeed, it is a project management tool that helps in the scheduling phase to go through the complexity of a project, by providing a path and fundamental steps to pursue. It is a creative and innovative approach, with four principles at its roots: put customers first, visual communication, collaboration and co-creation, iterative work[1]. As the name suggests, Double Diamond model is composed by two different areas, the problem space and the solution space, which both begin with a divergent approach and end with a convergent one. In the Double Diamond there are four main stages: discovery, defining, developing and delivery.

Big Idea

The Context: Design Thinking approach

From the 2000s, Design Thinking has become a priority in the managerial agenda. The success of this creative problem solving approach is mainly due to two forces: the rising of the creative class, such as designers, and the open innovation concept, which means the need for a broader point of view and external knowledge. Design thinking is based on analyzing and framing an existing problem with a human-centered approach, starting from the understanding of customers’ needs and developing an iterative and holistic process.

The main phases are[2]:

Frame a Question: the working team has to be inspired to understand the customers’ needs
Gather Inspiration: pursue a qualitative research and field investigation, discovering a useful insight.
Generate Ideas: from the problem understanding, to a new and creative solution
Make Ideas Tangible: concretize the idea with prototypes
Test to Learn: collect feedback and refine the prototype
Share the story: reaching the final solution, share it with coworkers and customers.

The Model: Double Diamond

Visualisation of the Double Diamond by the British Design Council. Source:https://uxdesign.cc/beyond-the-double-diamond-thinking-about-a-better-design-process-model-de4fdb902cf

The Double Diamond model, known also as the 4D model, was developed by the British Design Council in 2004. The model was born to increase the awareness and to promote the value of "design management" as a discipline, and more in general to spread the design strategy approach in the project management field. As a matter of fact, design approach was not widely considered for coping with complex projects, due to the lack of a concrete model to follow and to a poor visibility. This issue inspired Richard Eisermann, Director of Design and Innovation at the Design Council, who decided to gather all the techniques and methods used at the Design Council and then create a framework with them, finding a common path. Jonathan Ball, a strategist of Eisermann's team, remembers the beginning of the process with this words: “As Richard got his feet under the table, he was excited to see the new work at Design Council and the breadth of challenges that were being addressed. He realized that Design Council talked about process – the design process – but wasn't explicit about how this process was defined.”[3]

Finally, this process leads to the creation of the Double Diamond model and of another Design Council resource, the Methods Bank.

Nowadays, the Double Diamond model is a project management tool spread worldwide: its strength is to help in coping with projects' complexity. In particular, the model gives a path to follow and some milestones to pursue. Indeed, it is part of the planning phase of a project, as it defines when to do the activities needed to reach the final output. The framework is characterized by an outside-in direction where users are the starting point. The model’s name recall the shape of the model made by two main areas: the first diamond is the Problem Space, where the problem is explored with a broader view (divergent phase) and consequently with a deeper and more focused one (convergent phase). Here, the goal is to design the right thing. Then, the following diamond is the Solution Space, where the problem is implemented in a solution through concrete actions, such as testing and prototyping. In this phase, the objective is to design things right. Moreover, in the Double Diamond model there are four main phases to follow: in the Problem space there are the Discover and the Define phases, on the other hand the Solution space starts with the Develop phase and the last Deliver phase.

The Main Pillars

Before proceeding with the application of the model, there are three key principles to understand. The following points are in fact at the basis of the Double Diamond model, so to exploit and follow this process at its best they have to be known and respected.

Framing and Reframing

The Double Diamond model alternates a framing process and a reframing one. In the framing phase the difficulty is gathering a huge amount of data and finding a sense in them. In fact, during this process is crucial to identify the meaningful information and create new patterns that link them. Finally, this work will lead to the creation of models and the discovery of insights. The Reframe activity is necessary to focus on the real problem: usually the creative problem-solving deals with wicked or ill-defined problems, where the roots of the problem are ambiguous and not precise. Then, the reframing leads to a new point of view of the problem, finding new alternative way of solving it.

Creativity and Abductive thinking

Since Double Diamond is based on the designing thinking approach, creativity has a primary role. The basic “reasoning pattern” in science follows the induction and the deduction model, while creativity relies on the abductive thinking. Deductive thinking is based on testing and evaluating theory, the players in the situation and how they behave and cooperate are already know, so the result needs to be foreseen from those established factors. On the other hand, inductive thinking starts with an empirical observation with the aim of developing a theory. Therefore, the results can be observed and the players are known, while the “how” and their interaction has to be explained. Finally, the abductive thinking starts with empirical observation that are deviated or unmatched from the theory, and aims at developing new understanding and creating something new. Indeed, it’s based on understanding the present in the light of the possible, building hypotheses that can be tested and eventually confirmed in a future.

Empathy

The main characters in the Double Diamond process are users and designers. The problem solving process starts with the users, their problems and attitudes, which designers during the various phases will have to understand and solve. Indeed, the Double Diamond is a human-centered design approach that starts with people and end with a solution tailor made to suit their needs. In order to succeed and accomplish this goal, designers need to build a deep empathy with users.

Application

The double diamond model offers a guideline through which designers can build a project where the goal is finding an innovative solution to an existing problem. It is a flexible model, so it can be adapted in many situation and projects. In a more focused vision, in the project management field the double diamond is a tool useful to structure the project, frame the problem and implement a solution following the design thinking approach. Depending on the project, the size of the diamonds may vary, for example it can be useful to exploit only the first diamond without implementing the solution space, or the contrary. It is also a non-linear process therefore the designer has to be ready to go back to the previous stage at any point of the process. The creativity required by this framework is based on a teamwork, as it is necessary to collect many points of view and idea. Thus, the best option is to create a team with people with different backgrounds and cultures, as they will see the tasks with different lenses. It is worth to use it when a project field is too sticky to traditional mental schemes and patterns and need a fresh point of view. Indeed, through the double diamond framework the project team will “think out of the box” and find innovative solution disrupting traditional patterns of thinking.

Limitations

Double Diamond model can be adapted to many fields and levels of a business. In fact, it is a problem-solving framework that combines a holistic user-centered approach with a more rational and analytical research, which makes the model flexible and not only for designers. Though, some aspects of a project which are not central in this model but are actually important for the organization and the project’s success, need to be integrated.

For example, it is not considered a time scheduling for the whole process or for the single activities and the economic feasibility as well is not really considered in the creative process.

In addition, the double diamond model doesn’t consider the specific roles of the team members inside the grou, while the cooperation and relation within the group is really important to accomplish an efficient final goal.