The engineering profession has long been specialised and valued for numerous reasons: highly technical expertise, complex problem solving, and the foresight to consider how designs will perform 50 years or more into the future, to name a few.
From aerospace to environment, water, energy, buildings or transportation, these industries greatly affect citizens on a daily basis, whether it be directly or indirectly. While extremely technical and complex, these industries are also at their core, human systems. The challenge is that while we can engineer a technical system, it’s a lot harder to engineer humans. That said, the aforementioned industries, for all their importance to us, currently have a noticeable lack of human-centredness to them. When I say human-centredness, for those unfamiliar with the term, I am referring to the practice of putting the human experience at the centre of the solutions, services and systems designed.
In 2020, we are in a digital age where people are better informed and aware of all their options to make decisions easier and more enjoyable. Their expectations for a great experience are not limited to a particular company or industry. Certainly, they will compare their Uber to their Didi experience. They will also compare their Uber experience with their train experience. How can a train ride feel more like an Uber ride? And how can each mode of transport talk to each other to provide an integrated and seamless transport experience for commuters? These new problems will require a lot of technical problem solving, but most importantly, they will need a great dose of empathy and human-centredness.
To give you some context on my journey to this point, my foray into engineering was my first degree in mechanical engineering. In my first engineering internship, I worked on aircraft lateral trajectories compliant with new aeronautical standards for six months. While it was fascinating and enhanced my technical skills, I knew that I didn’t want to work on just one element of a puzzle. Thus, I went on to complete my masters in large project management, which enabled me to develop the big picture lens I desired. Consulting emerged as the career where I could combine my interests in business, customer and technology.
I still remember my first consulting project; the Spaceplane developed by Airbus. The project aimed at bringing passengers into suborbital space, as high as 100 kilometres, by taking off and landing at a conventional airport. While there was certainly some big technical challenges, I believe the biggest challenge was actually the desirability of the plane: will people fly it? And an even bigger challenge, how will the plane be commercialised? I didn’t know it back then but that was my first encounter with human-centred design.
Paying homage to recently passed Clayton Christensen, regarded as one of the world’s top experts on innovation, who said “Data is only available about the past. There’s no data on the future. The only way you can look through the fog of the future is if you have really solid theories.” I believe that design thinking and human-centred design are solid theories and approaches that can help us look into the future and invent better solutions for humans. To clarify, I am not posing that these are the only way to tackle problems but it is proven valuable to ensure that the human lens is central to how the problem is solved.
What is human-centred design?
To generate new ideas, we must first understand the needs and wants of users. From there, we assess technology and more broadly technical solutions to decipher how feasible the future solution is. Lastly, we consider the viability of the entire enterprise, meaning whether it is commercially sound and will generate revenue or decrease operational cost. If all ends well, we have a purpose-built solution that satisfies people’s needs and drives behavioural change.
How do you actually do it?
We use what is called the double diamond process (pictured below). This process is founded on the idea that we start with problems rather than solutions. The reason for doing so is to evoke creativity and the potential for numerous ideas and choices before picking one solution. I want to emphasise the importance of the user research as it ensures that before jumping into solution mode, we spend enough time understanding the problem. To do that, we wear the hat of an anthropologist and empathise with the people that are experiencing the problem in the first place. This helps us understand their wants and needs to better articulate what it is we are trying to solve. This will help breed your ideation, during which you diverge on your ideas before converging on potential solutions.
How will the engineering profession evolve?
What we need is to equip our current and future engineers with the tools, approaches and mindsets that will help them stay true to their fundamental purpose: solving problems that make life safer and easier for humankind.
The digital era and the shift in people’s expectations are both a challenge and an opportunity to bring more humanity into the complex systems that surround us. Human-centred designs and design thinking are robust approaches to help us achieve that.
Now, do you think it’s the role of engineers to look at the human side? How can we incorporate the human lens in building new solutions and assets? How do we move from asset-centric to customer-centric businesses? How can engineers better envision and influence future strategic direction? And how can we foster further collaboration between different disciplines? I’ll leave these questions with you.
About the Author
Meet Sylvain
Sylvain has close to 10 years’ experience delivering innovation strategies and programs of work which have resulted in new products, services, experiences or capabilities for Tier one clients across several industries including utilities, energy, banking, transport & logistic, education and government.
For more information please visit www.ghd.com/digital or contact Sylvain at Sylvain.Emeric@ghd.com