After weeks of design research in the Inspiration phase, you should have a large collection of notes, photos, impressions, and quotes. Now it’s time to start making sense of them. Look for evidence of how your observations relate to one another. Have any patterns emerged? Is there a compelling insight you heard again and again? A consistent problem the people you’re designing for face? What feels significant?

Find Themes

Effectively identifying themes and naming these clusters will help guide your insights and “How Might We” statements down the line. Name the clusters you have defined, e.g., “access to capital” or “problems with distribution.”

Turn Themes into Insight Statements

Take a closer look at the themes that you created. Next, transform each theme into a sentence, eg: “There is no financial incentive for distributors to deliver fruit in the community.” Write in full sentences, but experiment with the wording to best communicate your insights. Make sure they convey the sense of a new perspective or possibility.

“How Might We” Questions

Insights are most valuable when they can be used to generate inspiring new ideas. The trick is to transform your insight statements into generative questions which will become the springboard that you use to brainstorm innovative new solutions.

Framing a proper question can be difficult. Too narrow and you may hinder creativity, but too broad and it won’t be actionable. For example, “how might we sell more fruit in low-income neighborhoods?” is too broad, as it doesn’t imply a starting point or immediately help people generate ideas around one category (such as distributors).

For this assignment, follow the “Synthesis Process” diagram at the top of Module 10, and draw the respective post-it notes on a whiteboard or computer along with your Learnings, Themes, Insights, and How Might We Statements. Take a picture of your diagram and share it below, along with your final Insight statements and HMW questions from pg. 177 of The Field Guide for Human-Centered Design.

Grade Rubric (50 points):

• 30 points for the synthesis diagram
• 20 points for HMW sheet on pg. 177