Diamonds are a team’s best friend
The Double Diamond model, developed by the British Design Council, serves as a visual representation of how we approach problem-solving through divergent and convergent thinking. This framework is particularly powerful for design processes, innovation, and strategic decision-making.
A few tips for the practical use in your operative business.
Discover
- Team’s mindset: Curiosity + openness
- Challenge: Summarize the collected information in a neutral, comprehensive and understandable way.
- Gather all the information you need to understand the problem.
- Mind the biases.
- Keep descriptions comprehensible. Everyone involved should be able to get the whole picture.
Define
- Team’s mindset: Focus + clarity
- Challenge: Make concrete and practical assumptions to solve the problem. Use suitable visual evaluation tools for the problem/solution definition, e.g. service blueprint.
- Process data.
- Use further methods such as canvases, journeys, personas, service blueprints or excel-sheets etc. to link the collected data with different dimensions.
- Here you find that information is missing. Get in touch with the research team, engage with other disciplines.
- Create criteria and workloads for different stages of expansion (prototype, mvp, poc, scale-up).
Note
People tend to start in the “Define” or “Develop” phases. The problem is briefly described, but the expectation is often that the solution can be derived directly from it. Background information is missing in order to solve the problem well. Cling behind it. Go for regular team retrospectives to highlight sloppiness.
Develop
- Team’s mindset: Perseverance + playfulness
- Challenge: Document, use collaborative tools, collect feedback, Get Things Done.
- Develop solutions for problem creators.
- Note ideas or approaches that have emerged from your work.
- Prioritize based on feedback and data.
- Actively seek interdisciplinary feedback.
- Decide on the best approach based on the reflected data and available information.
Deliver
- Team’s mindset: Advocate for being able to talk openly about the outcome.
- Challenge: Be proud of the result. Consider the time invested and spent as valuable and the information gained as necessary. Listen carefully, tell joyfully.
- Deliver a concrete result that reflects the earlier stages in the best possible way.
- Make an upbeat and honest presentation.
- Team acceptance and cultivation of a healthy error culture are important in this part of the process.
- As a team, we have the responsibility to respect the outcome 100% while opening the space for improvement and preparing for the next phase.
The Double Diamond isn’t just for designers; it’s a model for anyone tackling complexity. Whether you’re a strategist, facilitator, or designer (like myself), this visualization supports clear thinking and shared understanding.
It’s a reminder to give equal weight to exploration and decision-making.
