Design Thinking

Redefine Your Problem with Design Thinking

Design thinking is an iterative process where analyzing and leveraging the user experience drives teams to examine a wide range of solutions. Once a direction is chosen, the solution is prototyped and tested with users, providing feedback and validation before it is moved forward to development.

UpTop is a firm believer and practitioner in design thinking. It is the foundation for our Design Sprint and UX Strategy Sprint, compared below, where design thinking is applied in structured phases to help kickstart your projects. While they are different in scope, both sprints will help to align your team around a common goal, identify solutions with the highest impact, and provide you with insight to move forward with confidence. 

Key Benefits

  • Understand. Learn about your users needs
  • Define. Identify what problems to solve
  • Diverge. Separate to brainstorm individually
  • Decide. Consider all ideas and agree on where to focus
  • Prototype. Create a mock-up of the solution to test with users
  • Test. Confirm if the prototype offers an optimal solution


Design Sprint
If you’re tasked with solving a defined problem but you’re not sure where to begin, our 5 day Design Sprint is a great way to ideate and test solutions quickly.

 UX Strategy Sprint
If a problem is large with little research done, our ~10-week UX Strategy Sprint provides alignment and a roadmap to reach your North Star vision. 
Complex problem No Yes
Research needed No Yes
Prototype Paper or digital prototype of one solution Mid - high fidelity prototype with 80% of features and functionality
North Star vision No Yes
Recommendations Yes Yes
UX roadmap No Yes
Sprint length 5 day workshop ~10 weeks with 2 - 3 day workshop
Participants 5 - 8 5 - 8
Usability testing Lean usability testing R.I.T.E. usability testing
Design iteration No Yes
Alignment Yes Yes
Solution ideation Yes Yes
Prioritized features No Yes


Design Sprint
Ideate and test solutions quickly in this 5-day sprint.

 UX Strategy Sprint
Tackle complex problems in this ~ 10-week sprint.
Complex problem No Yes
Research needed No Yes
Prototype Paper or digital prototype of one solution Mid - high fidelity prototype with 80% of features and functionality
North Star vision No Yes
Recommendations Yes Yes
UX roadmap No Yes
Sprint length 5 day workshop ~10 weeks with 2 - 3 day workshop
Participants 5 - 8 5 - 8
Usability testing Lean usability testing R.I.T.E. usability testing
Design iteration No Yes
Alignment Yes Yes
Solution ideation Yes Yes
Prioritized features No Yes

Design Thinking Outcomes

Clarify your problem
Define your viewpoint
Test your results

Success Stories: UpTop

Premera Blue Cross

Reimagining the key moments of a patient’s journey for the largest health plan provider in the Pacific Northwest

Southwest Airlines

12 weeks from design to launch—Southwest’s California Millions web app and backend awarded 50,000,000 Rapid Reward™ points without breaking a sweat. End-to-end contest management (we even completed their taxes).

Premera Blue Cross

Reimagining the key moments of a patient’s journey for the largest health plan provider in the Pacific Northwest

Southwest Airlines

12 weeks from design to launch—Southwest’s California Millions web app and backend awarded 50,000,000 Rapid Reward™ points without breaking a sweat. End-to-end contest management (we even completed their taxes).
SUCCESS STORIES
"UpTop has a wide range of capabilities. They had the rare ability to not only keep up with our speed but also bring unique and innovative ideas to the table. Their well of creativity never dried out in my experience. During the early stages of our product, they designed an excellent UX, then completely reinvented the product when we needed a refresh six months later."
– Katie Spring, Sr. Business Program Manager, Microsoft

On The Blog: Design Thinking

DESIGN THINKING BLOGS
BLOGS

Let's Talk

Let's Talk

Close
Close
Scroll to the bottom to agree