Product and strategy
Design thinking canvas
Also called Double Diamond canvas, Design project canvas
Plan a design project on one page: the vision, the team, the challenges and the impact, across discover, define, develop and deliver.
- Time60 to 90 minutes
- People3 to 8 people
- Steps4
What it's for
A design project drifts when nobody has written down what it's for, who is involved or how anyone will know it worked. This canvas lays a project across the four phases of the Double Diamond (discover, define, develop and deliver), with the vision above them and the impact below, so the team can see what each phase must produce before the next one starts.
Fill in what you know at the start, mark the rest as questions, and come back to the canvas at the end of each phase.
How to run it
Write the vision10 min
What the future looks like if the project succeeds, and why it matters.
Plan the four phases25 min
For each phase, what you need to learn or make, and how you'll know it's done.
Name the people and challenges15 min
Who needs to be involved or kept informed, and what could stop the project.
Agree the impact10 min
How you'll measure the difference the project makes.
Tips
- Discover and define widen and then narrow on the problem; develop and deliver do the same for the solution. Don't skip the first diamond.
- A phase with nothing to hand on to the next is a phase to cut or rethink.
Where it comes from
Built on the Double Diamond, which the UK's Design Council published in 2005 to describe how designers move between exploring widely and focusing on one answer.
Pairs well with
How might we
Turn problems and insights into questions that start with "How might we", which invite ideas instead of arguments.
Lean UX canvas
Eight questions that turn a business problem into user outcomes, testable hypotheses and the smallest experiment worth running.
Journey map
Map what a person does, thinks and feels at each stage of getting something done, and find where it goes wrong.