What do we do when we have to design with a solution first approach?
In the image, we see something called a Reverse Double Diamond which is explained by Andy Budd.
This is probably a familiar scenario to most of us who work on creating experiences for customers or employees.
You get pulled in to deliver something that has already been decided, you scramble to deliver and and once it launches you then report the results to stakeholders.
Usually - these results are not as great as they were imagined (as perhaps not prior research / evidence was used)
It is here in this failure where Andy believes the opportunity lies.
Which is not throwing away the whole project, but focusing on the second part of the reverse diamond - which is about improving the thing.
I will say that this is something we work on from time to time with organizations - evaluating the solution in a systematic way to find out where it failed.
If you do this in a logical way (with a logic model) - you can pinpoint the areas of failure and re-adjust - but only if you are through with that logic model.
If you are the one told to build it from a solution first approach, then build that logic model prior, so you can quickly evaluate.
If you improve it, then it will be easier to show ROI on something that is already made than try and argue to build something new. (Andy also says stakeholders may have moved on to the next idea by then, so there is also less push back anyways)
Here are some tips to follow from my experience
We want to build a model that helps us go backwards in a systematic way and that helps us answer and find evidence for the following:
Q1) What is the problem we are trying to solve? Q2) What is the overall solution and concept we built? Q3 )What features does the solution have? and how did we translate behavior strategies into them?
Q4) What Behavior change strategies have been included in those features? and how did we get to them? Q5) What are the drivers (barriers/ or enablers) we are addressing for the behavior, actor, and context? Q6) What were the initial needs, behaviors/actions, and context we were targeting?
Q7) How do the needs and behaviors connect to the outcomes we are looking for? (for our business and our customers/employees) Q8) What and how are we measuring for success? Q9) What is the outcome we are trying to get to?
I know starting at the end is not ideal, but sometimes it is exactly what we need to do