The Influence of Training and Development Opportunities on Employee Retention
In the continuously changing workspace, recruiting and retaining top employees is more crucial than ever. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2020 Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), the overall voluntary turnover rate from December 2019 to December 2020 was 19.9%. This rate has steadily increased over the last decade. As the turnover rate increases, the cost of employee turnover also reaches new heights. The Work Institute's 2017 Retention Report states that turnover can cost employers an average of 33% of an employee's annual salary due to recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, and initial training costs (Sears, 2017).
How are companies supposed to recruit the right personnel, and then what do companies need to encourage recruits to be long-term employees? The clear answer is increasing training and development opportunities for employees to decrease turnover intentions. According to the EXECU Search Group report from 2019, 86% of professionals said they would change jobs if offered more professional development opportunities. Also, the top reported reason employees gave for leaving their position was lack of career development opportunities, as shown in the graphic below from the Work Institute's 2017 Retention Report. This reason is nearly double the second most reported reason, lack of work-life balance.
Similar to turnover intentions, 43% of the variance in organization commitment can be explained by an organizational learning culture (Joo, 2010). When organizations offer growth and developmental opportunities, such as training and further education, employees feel their employment is valued, that their current and future abilities are trusted, and that the company wants to continue their development (Mustafa & Ali, 2019). This can be further explained through the basis of social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) which says when employees feel their organizations value them as essential resources and care about their professional and long-term development, they are more likely to be engaged and diligently work for the organization to fulfill the reciprocal relationship exchange (Raza, Ali, Naseem, Moeed, Ahmed, & Hamid, 2018).
Studies are ongoing concerning the availability of learning and development opportunities for employees and their influence on different workplace outcomes, including organizational commitment, well-being, employee engagement, job satisfaction, role performance, and turnover intentions. The following sections provide current research and statistics relating to the learning opportunities studies.
Employee Emotional Exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion is a chronic state of fatigue characterized by physical and mental depletion due to workplace demands and stressors. Related turnover intentions are the deliberate and conscious effort to leave an organization for other opportunities or personal/professional concerns (Raza et al., 2018). According to Proost, Ruysseveldt, and Dijke, learning opportunities positively affect knowledge and skill acquisition and provide opportunities for "skill utilization, job enhancement, and professional growth" (2012). In addition, these opportunities help employees realize their goals and "adequately manage the physiological and psychological demands they encounter in their jobs" (2012), which decreases emotional exhaustion and related turnover intentions.
Employee Expectations
Increasing learning opportunities also help reduce early-stage turnover due to unmet expectations about one's position. For example, the 2012 Proost, Ruysseveldt, and Dijke study report the relationship between unmet expectations and turnover intentions are stronger when learning opportunities are low (b = .21) (i.e., one standard deviation below the mean) and weaker when learning opportunities are high (b = .08) (i.e., one standard deviation above the norm). This clearly shows how increasing learning opportunities can decrease turnover intentions.
Employee Engagement
Learning opportunities can reduce negative workplace tendencies and increase employee performance/engagement and extra-role behaviors. Employee engagement is the state of mind held by positive and encouraged employees characterized by vigor, enthusiasm, dedication, and absorption (Eldor & Harpaz, 2016). Extra-role behaviors define exceptional employees—proactivity, knowledge sharing, creativity, and adaptivity (Eldor & Harpaz, 2016). In one study, 625 employees were surveyed on employee engagement, extra-role performance, job satisfaction, and perceived level of learning. The study found that the relationship between perceived learning climate and employee engagement was strong, positive, and significant (r = 0.52, p≤0.001), as were the relationships between employee engagement and all four performance variables: proactivity (r = 0.35, p≤0.001), knowledge sharing (r = 0.38, p≤0.001), creativity (r = 0.49, p≤0.001), and adaptivity (r = 0.44. p≤0.001) (Eldor & Harpaz, 2016). This data reveals that organizations promoting learning opportunities reduce turnover and increase employee engagement and performance—these benefit employee satisfaction with their position and the organization.
Job Satisfaction
Finally, learning opportunities show one of the most potent effects on overall employee job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is one of the critical determinants of turnover intentions. It can be described as the perception of one's job expectancies and job reality and whether those expectancies are being met. Research shows that employees who feel more satisfied within their position and organization are more likely to become engaged employees and display lower turnover intentions (Lin & Huang, 2020). In addition, organizations that prioritize learning and development found increased employee job satisfaction, productivity, and profitability (Egan, Yang, & Barlett, 2004). Several studies on this topic show conclusive results. One study tested different forms of learning against employee satisfaction and employee turnover intentions and found that all types of learning (individual learning (γ=0.41, p<0.001), collective learning (γ=0.42, p<0.05), organization-level understanding (γ=0.40, p<0.01), inter-organizational learning (γ=0.45, p<0.01), and exploration learning (γ=0.44, p<0.01)) correlated positively and significantly to employee satisfaction and correlated negatively and significantly to turnover intentions. This shows that learning opportunities, in any form, are highly valued by employees regarding job satisfaction and can reduce an employee's turnover intentions.
Desired Learning Opportunities
These studies show that learning and development opportunities should not be underestimated in the scope of organizational success, both in reducing turnover and the increase of positive employee behaviors. Beyond understanding that employees desire training and learning opportunities from their organizations, it is imperative to understand what topics they want. PayScale's 2019 Compensation Best Practices Report surveyed 38,000 respondents who were asked to indicate which professional development opportunities they enjoyed the most from their organization. Shown in the graphic below are the top seven categories of training and development from the survey. The principal learning opportunity wanted to be selected by 32% of respondents in management/leadership training. A close second, chosen by 30% of respondents, is professional certification. Additional training included in the top seven are technical skills (17%), teamwork and interpersonal skills (8%), employer-subsidized degree (7%), communications/public speaking (4%), and diversity and inclusion (2%).
Conclusion
Radiant Digital specializes in custom content creation to suit your unique organizational needs and to learn objectives if you're looking to increase your organization's learning and development opportunities. It can be hard to know exactly where to start when creating a learning-focused culture. Radiant can assist you in the design, development, and implementation of learning programs so you can achieve your highest organizational goals. Reach out to us today to see how we can help.
Citations
2019 Compensation Best Practices Report. PayScale. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.payscale.com/data/professional-development-employees-want.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor (2020). 2020 Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Received from https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2021/article/as-the-covid-19-pandemic-affects-the-nation-hires-and-turnover-reach-record-highs-in-2020.htm
Egan, T., Yang, B., & Bartlett, K. (2004). The effects of organizational learning culture and job satisfaction on motivation to transfer learning and turnover intention. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15, 279-301.
Joo, B. (2010). Organizational commitment for knowledge workers: The roles of perceived organizational learning culture, leader-member exchange quality, and turnover intention. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 21. 69 - 85. 10.1002/hrdq.20031.
Lin, C. Y., & Huang, C. K. (2020). Employee turnover intentions and job performance from a planned change: The effects of an organizational learning culture and job satisfaction. International Journal of Manpower, 42. 409-423. 10.1108/IJM-08-2018-0281.
Mustafa, G., & Ali, N. (2019) Rewards, autonomous motivation, and turnover intention: Results from a non-Western cultural context, Cogent Business & Management, 6:1, 1676090, DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2019.1676090.
Proost, K., Ruysseveldt, J.,& Dijke, M. (2012) Coping with unmet expectations: Learning opportunities as a buffer against emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 21:1, 7-27, DOI: 10.1080/1359432X.2010.526304.
Raza, B., Ali, M., Naseem, K., Moeed, A., Ahmed J., & Hamid M. (2018) Impact of trait mindfulness on job satisfaction and turnover intentions: Mediating role of work–family balance and moderating role of work–family conflict, Cogent Business & Management, 5:1, DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2018.1542943.
Sears, L. (2017) 2017 Retention Report. Received from https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/478187/2017%20Retention%20Report%20Campaign/Work%20Institute%202017%20-Retention%20Report.pdf
The employee experience will be critical to business success in 2019, according to New Hiring Outlook report by the EXECU: Search group. PR Newswire. (2019). Received from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-employee-experience-will-be-critical-to-business-success-in-2019-according-to-new-hiring-outlook-report-by-the-execusearch-group-300773946.html.
Yu, H., Fang, L., & Ling, W. (2009) An empirical study on the construct and effective mechanism of organizational learning. Frontiers of Business Research in China, 3, 242–270. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11782-009-0013-3
What is A/B Testing? And Why?
The definition of A/B testing
A/B testing is another name for split testing. It’s a method of comparing two different versions of a website, app, or others by testing to see which one performs the best. In short, it’s an experiment where two pages that differ are shown at random and undergo a variety of tests to see which one not just looks the best but which one also performs the best. This is great for ensuring you only show the best version to your users. A lot of the time, when modifying websites, there is a lot of estimating undertaken as to what would be the best. This type of testing ensures that the changes you are making are backed up by research.
Terminology: The original version is identified as ‘the control’ while the alternative is called ‘the variation.’
Why is this type of testing used?
There are many benefits to A/B testing. Through a controlled process, individuals can tweak or completely change certain aspects to see results. In addition, the data collected from testing helps implement further modifications to other sources to enhance user engagement. Furthermore, this approach can help ensure all team members are on board. Designers may have opposing viewpoints on what will perform the best. Therefore, this method helps provide quantitative data to show real-time evidence of what direction to go. The main advantage of using this approach over alternatives is the ability to heighten your control. Single words can be altered if necessary to examine all possible modifications that will help gain the desired outcome.
How to use A/B testing
When using A/B testing, the source you want to analyze is selected. Whether this is a web page, app screen, digital advertisement, etc. An alternative to the original is created. This version includes noticeable differences. The amount of variation on this depends on you. Once the sources have been finalized, all traffic is split evenly between the two versions. Analytics is then used to identify different trends that emerge. The results from the test present three other possibilities:
- The new version increases ROI.
- The new version decreases ROI.
- Little to no impact.
Performing the A/B test
There is an extensive range of different possible variations that can be tested. Whether on a website, app, email, or anything else you want to try. Every time a potential customer visits your website, for example, you have the potential of converting them. Because of this, you need to test the critical parts to ensure it has the best chance of success.
Engaging headlines
As soon as someone visits your page, they look at the headline, which is usually one of the first things—because of this, making the headlines as engaging as possible is critical. Therefore, A/B testing is an excellent idea to make them as short, catchy, and captivating as possible straight away.
Don’t just play around with the content. Look at different font and color styles to decide the best first impression for your potential customers. This doesn’t just apply to websites and apps. For example, when creating email marketing campaigns, use A/B testing on your subject headers to find the most effective way for converting leads.
Straight to the point text: The body text should state precisely what the visitor will get most shortly and interestingly possible. Once again, testing is necessary because you are more likely to see a significant increase in conversions if the text is captivating. Use this test for content adjustments and to change the formatting. For example, by changing large blocks of text into smaller, easy-to-read paragraphs, visitors who like to skim-read are more likely to look at the content.
Providing high-quality UX design: An easy-to-use website or app makes the difference between a visitor staying on a page for longer or moving on and leaving the site. The best way to ensure a user is delighted with their UX (user experience) is by performing A/B testing to find how to create an excellent UX best.
Navigation: Straight forward navigation can distinguish between users guiding through your app or website quickly or leaving in frustration. A/B testing helps determine how the audience navigates and what should be changed to increase funnel potential.
A persuasive call to action: The call to action is one of the essential parts of any digital transformation strategy. This is where the visitor should be persuaded by what they’ve seen, resulting in them becoming a customer. By implementing A/B testing for a call to action, you can decide on the content and placement of the CTA that will have the best results.
How to avoid mistakes
Some businesses become carried away when it comes to testing all products or apps. This can be counterproductive as non-important factors could be taking up valuable time during development. Therefore, to avoid this, a relevant hypothesis must be used to determine if the item in question is worth testing. An excellent place to start is to look at any analytical data that already exists. For example, conversion pages are identified quickly and can be tested correctly to increase results.
Challenges to outcome
When A/B testing is implemented into the designing phase, it’s not always smooth sailing. However, there are specific challenges that all businesses face when using this improvement tool.
Audience differences: Sometimes, knowing the exact target market can be hard to identify early on. It may change significantly to what was visioned. If that happens, the initial design stage that used A/B testing may not be relevant later on.
Understanding data correctly: The whole point of this method is to gain quantitative feedback that provides an insight into the best product or app to use. Therefore, all measurements acquired must be looked at closely to support the right decision.
Getting started
Want to learn more about A/B testing? Our UX experts are available to discuss how this approach can help achieve your targets. At Radiant Digital, we’re always looking to enhance businesses’ digital transformation strategy without the fuss.
Benefits of Data Mesh
Data mesh has been generating a lot of buzz recently in the business intelligence world. This is because businesses are always trying to improve and scale. Due to its scalability and democratization features, data mesh can massively help with data requirements for your business and meet your increasing needs. It’s a relatively new concept that continues to produce optimal outcomes when data is concerned. Although, its true potential has not been reached yet. Continuous modifications are enhancing the data platform architecture to obtain new heights to its power.
What is a Data Mesh?
In simplistic terms, data mesh is a paradigm that is both architectural and organizational. It’s an innovative way to prove that massive amounts of analytical data don’t need to be centralized or can only be used by a specialized team to gain the necessary value from the information.
There are four main principles that this paradigm follows:
- Decentralization of architecture and data ownership that is domain-oriented
- Focus on data provided as a product that is domain-oriented
- Supporting self-serve data infrastructure by using a platform that promotes the use of autonomous, domain-oriented data teams.
- Ecosystems and interoperability are achieved by federated governance.
Why choose a Data Mesh?
There are many benefits as to why businesses should use a data mesh. If a company is looking to become data-driven, data mesh helps increase customer personalization and improve customer experience. Not only does it drastically increase efficiency by reducing your operational costs and employee time, but it also gives more in-depth business intelligence insights.
If you have a large number of domains, the data process can be highly complicated. For domain-based data ownership products that have been federated, a data mesh helps automate the right strategies to make it as efficient as possible. Thus, a data mesh is an essential step in improving the democratization of crucial data.
Data Lakes vs. Data Mesh: What’s the difference?
Data lakes are great if you are looking for one centralized system to complete all your data needs. However, data lakes can hold you back in achieving your goals when you scale your business. This is where a data mesh comes into play. A data mesh system gives employees more control over large amounts of data. However, as data is used for various things, having a less centralized system is necessary to complete data transformations in the most efficient way possible. Data lakes are great for smaller organizations. However, for larger companies that need lots of data to be processed, a data mesh is required to speed up their processes through autonomy and a more flexible system. This saves tons of time for data teams, giving those using this system a distinct edge over their competitors.
What’s a Data Mesh score?
A data mesh score is mainly based on how complicated your processes are. It also applies to how many systems or domains you have, the size of your data team, and the priority of data governance. If you have a high data mesh score, this means that your current processes would best benefit from using a data mesh.
Observability for Data Mesh
By measuring the internal states of a system by examining what is produced, businesses can analyze chains with more control and identify crucial elements. Data mesh helps ensure domain ownership when observability is concerned and offers these benefits by using self-serve capabilities:
- Quality metrics in data product
- Encryption for data at rest and in motion
- Monitoring, alerting, and logging in data product
- Data product schema
- Data production lineage
- Discovery, catalog registration, and publishing in data product
- Data governance and standardization
These core standardizations help give businesses high-end observability when utilized. Furthermore, it provides the ability to scale individual domains throughout the entire observability process.
Data as a product using Data Mesh
This is achieved through the ownership of data being federated to domain data owners, providing more control and allowing them to hold accountability when supplying data as products. However, during this process, owners are supported by self-serve data platforms to reduce the technical knowledge needed for data mesh to work.
In addition, a new system of federated governance that is automated to ensure interoperability of data products that are domain-oriented is required. All these factors allow data to be decentralized, helping enhance the experience received by data consumers. Businesses that maintain a high pool of domains that require various systems and teams to produce data can benefit from data mesh, along with those with a range of set data-driven access patterns and use cases.
Challenges of Data Mesh
Although the current data mesh has tons of benefits, there are currently a few challenges that you may face. Many domain experts are not knowledgeable in using the specific domain programming languages which the data mesh may be using. On top of this, many programs in the data mesh are not API compatible. This can sometimes make it difficult for some businesses to complete their required tasks efficiently.
Putting Data Mesh 2.0 into practice
Digital transformation can be a complex process, primarily when data mesh is implemented on large networks. However, with version 2.0 coming soon, many of its advantages will cancel out many of the current challenges of Data Mesh 1.0 while significantly improving network processes. For more information on ensuring a smooth process, contact us today.
Matching Editing to Specific Needs
A technical document goes through several stages during development and requires multiple reviews before it is complete. Using a combination of internal and external reviewers helps ensure the final product meets its intended goal and contains a negligible number of errors. An external reviewer may be referred to as an editor, but depending on the state of the document, more specific direction may be required. An editor's review can span from complex content analysis to fixing the minutia of the technical paper. It is best to have a clear set of tasks when determining editor requirements rather than use a specific term alone. Often duties can overlap at different times, and editors may use additional terms to define specific tasks. Adding to the possible confusion, when editors use other words to describe their skill-set, the result is often misleading to the detriment of time, budgets, and the quality of the technical document. This article explains potential editing terms and their variants, when to engage editors, the tasks related to the terms, and potential editor titles or skills for which to look.
Developmental and Structural Writing and Editing/Revising
Developmental and structural writing and editing or revising focuses on the content and organization of the document. An external source should complete this review either as the subject matter experts (SME) create a draft document or soon after to avoid rework. During this stage, a writer, editor looks at the document as a whole to determine if the content meets the intended purpose. They check that the content is in a logical order for the audience, not just the SMEs. They also make sure the content makes sense by asking for clarification. For example, a process step was omitted, or the content assumes the reader has specific knowledge of the subject or removes unnecessary information.
Potential editor titles to engage include:
- Technical Writer/Editor
Consistency Editing
Consistency editing ensures consistency within a document or a group of records. This task is essential when dealing with program documentation, where there are multiple types of documents, and there are numerous documents of each type.
When reviewing for consistency, an editor verifies the single document is consistent within itself, matches records of the same type, and contains the key components that tie all of the program documentation together. This includes looking at the document structure/sections, formatting, and program-specific language.
Potential editor titles to engage include:
- Technical Writer/Editor
Copy and Line Editing
Copy and line editing focus on the clarity and conciseness of the writing regarding the document's type, style, and audience. For example, legal and standards documents, marketing content, and training papers have different writing styles targeted to the intended audience. This task is most successful once the document is efficiently organized and content is in place, but it can be, and is, done during earlier stages. A copy editor reviews a document as a whole, and a line editor examines the document line-by-line. Still, both have the same focus on overall writing quality and consistency. They review for passive voice, long phrasing, run-on sentences, regional colloquialisms, and unoriginal phrases.
Potential editor titles to engage include:
- Technical Writer/Editor
- Copy or Line Editor
Mechanical Editing/Proofreading
Mechanical editing or proofreading is fixing the document minutia. While last in this list, automated editing or proofreading can be performed throughout the editing process and must be done at the end regardless of previous efforts. It is often performed multiple times, primarily if internal reviewers fixate on these small details instead of the content and overall organization. An editor reviews spelling and grammar during this task and checks for consistent capitalization, abbreviations, punctuation, and formatting. When finalizing a document, the editor verifies that no errors were introduced when changes were accepted or rejected, provides a final check, and updates all fields and links in a document, including the table of contents and any figure or table references. They also verify any publication dates, copyright years, or other aspects that may change over time are current.
Potential editor titles to engage include:
- Technical Writer/Editor
- Copy or Line Editor
- Proofreader
Conclusion
Each stage in the editing process improves your final deliverable by improving clarity and reducing errors. In turn, you can trust that your audience is efficiently getting the information they need when they need it. At Radiant Digital, our Technical Writers and editors can support all of your writing and editing needs, no matter the stage of your technical documentation. Contact us today to see how we can help you meet your documentation goals.
Five Stages of Design Thinking to become a UX Designer
UX designers are under constant pressure to innovate and solve complex user problems with empathy. In addition, they need to foster product design innovation to gain a distinctive competitive advantage, including infusing a design-driven culture with a customer-first approach. Radiant Digital implements “Design Thinking” to connect the dots between human desirability, economic viability, and design feasibility. Read on to understand the principles of the Design Thinking process and its five stages of implementation.
Defining Design Thinking
Invented by Stanford University’s d.school as an approach to technical and social innovation, Design Thinking is an ideological process that seeks to solve complex problems and derive solutions in a user-centric way. It focuses on achieving the following results and practical solutions with a designer’s mindset and user’s perspective.
- Technically feasible: They fit into the technical specifications of functional products or processes.
- Economically viable: Businesses can afford to implement them.
- Desirable for the user: They cater to fundamental human needs.
Design Thinking is all about getting hands-on and converting ideas into tangible and viable products or processes at the earliest. The Design Thinking Process entails steps that materialize ideas by building prototypes that leverage designer empathy for users.
The Process of Design Thinking and Why it Matters
The Design Thinking process is a non-linear solution-focused framework that encourages creative thinking to develop products that address diverse user problems. The five crucial stages of Design Thinking enable designers to develop ideas and perspectives, design innovatively, and test prototypes for existing and novel concepts from the user’s perspective. Each stage may spark new ideas or findings in the user journey, inspiring new iterations for the completed phase. The five stages of the Design Thinking process would induce creators to examine new and untested angles constantly. But first, it’s essential to understand the core principles that shape these stages.
Design Thinking Principles
Design Thinking processes are built on these five foundational principles.
Empathy and User-centricity: Design Thinking focuses on user empathy to design an innovative product and organically meet users' needs. Thus, understanding and empathizing are critical to ensure that the solutions resonate with the users’ perspectives and needs.
Collaboration: Innovation is possible when diverse ideas, opinions, and perspectives converge. The Design Thinking approach encourages heterogeneous and multidisciplinary teams to work cohesively.
Ideation: Ideation is a core design principle and a step in the Design Thinking process. Designing thinking is all about bringing multiple ideas to the table without judgment to find as many solutions as possible instead of focusing on results.
Experimentation and Iteration: Design Thinking, an iterative approach, requires experimenting with different ideas, converting them into prototypes, testing them, and making changes based on the user’s feedback. In addition, design iterations help uncover and fix loopholes in your proposed solution.
A Bias towards Action: This principle of Design Thinking shows that the approach is inclined towards action rather than discussion. Instead of hypothetical assumptions on what users want, Design Thinking encourages engaging in interactions. It involves testing prototypes in the real world for various user contexts.
Five Stages of the Design Thinking Process
1. Empathy
This stage involves sitting down with real users and noting their perspectives, points of view, and expectations. Then, designers can get unbiased introspections into human-centric problems to build a crucial bridge between the target user and the solution being designed. Some of the actions Designers can take during this stage are:
- Consulting SMEs for insights.
- Handling an issue personally for a better understanding of a user’s POV.
- Having profound conversations about a topic with users and peers.
- Finally, immersing oneself in a user’s environment.
Empathy helps uncover a user’s motivations and experiences that will ultimately blend with a designer’s product.
2. Define
Here, designers can succinctly articulate a design challenge or problem using Analysis and Synthesis. Then, after understanding the user’s perspective through empathizing, the designer can integrate it into the human-centric issue at hand and outline the problem statement. This stage involves:
- Analyzing the gathered data from empathy and synthesizing the information for problem definition.
- Second, defining what the user needs in line with the problem statement, their challenges, and solutions.
- Third, outlining the solution based on company-centered thinking and human-centered thinking.
3. Ideate
This stage leans heavily on how creative and inventive a designer is in solving the defined problem. Without concerns over scalability and budget, designers need to think out-of-the-box. At this point, designers will get a workable understanding of their user base without focus on the limitations. Brainstorming, continuous discussions, and idea-sharing with team members prepare designers to taste success by garnering trust and confidence. Some of the methods include Brainstorm, Challenge Assumptions, Storyboard, Creative Pause, and Crowdstorm.
4. Prototype
Here, an idea is converted into scaled-down and inexpensive prototypes like sketches, models, or digital versions. The testing ground is set where many facts and truths come to light in the virtual environment. Better decision-making involves designers working using target individual problem-solution scenarios and advanced knowledge of limitations and roadblocks. Designers gain clear visibility into user behaviors, reactions, and expectations.
5. Test 
Testing allows designers to understand how the prototype works with real users and data. Then, you can run the test, observe the results, take feedback from users, and make the necessary improvements. Testing is often iterative and involves designers rolling out multiple prototypes for different datasets and change factors within an idea. Without extensive testing and refinements, user experiences and solutions will have difficulty scaling. Testing may also “restart” other design thinking processes such as creativity, as new ideas may spark additional proposed solutions.
Implementing Design Thinking in Design Sprints
Design sprints allow teams to finalize their critical business goals using a compressed version of these stages to efficiently design, prototype, and test. During a sprint, designers run through the end-to-end design thinking process within a week. This is useful since sprints don’t necessitate full feature-building or a product launch. Sprints help gain design visibility from quick prototype iterations instead of waiting for the final product launch to initiate testing.
The Take-Away
In essence, the Design Thinking process is focused, flexible and iterative, where the designer-user collaboration will define the success of all stakeholders.
If you want to know how the Design Thinking process can be applied to your customer context and solution, connect with our experts today!