Avoid the 1 mistake that kills 99% of startups with design thinking

You tested a few different ideas for your business; some work better than others. User conversion does not improve. They may try the app but abandon it after a few days. Do you know why it's this happening? If you cannot answer this question in 1 minute, you should adopt a design thinking mindset before it's too late. Not knowing their customer in and out is the mistake that kills 99% of companies.

We tent building new features to improve user retention, descending into a building trap and releasing new versions with un-testes 'improved' versions.

We blinding believe we understand everything about our industry and our users. Therefore there will not waste their limited resources on applying new manners.

A customer relationship with a product is like any other relationship. It's base on trust and understanding. If you do not solve your customer's problems, another app will pop in and serves them correctly, and you will be out of business.

Also, a business-customer relationship is a fluid connection. It changes constantly based on the current app state, new features, competitors, trends in the industry, etc. We must adopt an evaluation proccess that keeps checking it regularly and tracks progress simply and concisely.

Is design a process or what?

More than a process, Design thinking is a mindset. It proposes your business as a set of experiments around solving your customers' problems in meaningful ways. You must understand that drive your business decisions based on biased and untested assumptions is the shortcut to waste money, resources, burnout and ultimately failure.

Okay, I hope you start realizing that you will benefit from knowing your customers inside out, and it is precisely what Design Thinking is all about.

It gives you the right mindset to understand that you must run your business as a set of experiments based on your customers and include them in all the decision-making; otherwise, you risk building something no one needs.

Umm, I am not a designer: How I will do this...

Design Thinking can be a broad subject with many different approaches, but in essence, it is just a matter to test your ideas and reiterate them based on the test results. So you can go through the process phase by phase or decide to conduct the stages simultaneously.

Besides, design is never a stand-alone discipline and comes in a bundle with user experience. Good design is characterized by buttery smooth experience, and just what exactly does design thinking help you do? You guessed it.