During one of the conferences I attended, I had the opportunity to see a great presentation by Tizian Kronsbein regarding “Data Thinking.” It is a workshop approach similar to Design Thinking, but focused on data. I liked this concept so much that I later traveled to Berlin to participate in workshops teaching this method in depth.
After completing the entire training, I noticed many areas where I could apply it in my work. I conducted several in-house workshops where Data Thinking worked great as an alternative to Design Thinking. I also had the opportunity to conduct workshops for students of various majors at SWPS University during a UXathon.
What is Data Thinking?
Everything relies on the Data Innovation Board, which is very similar to the Business Model Canvas. First, we focus on existing users, their needs, and existing data. Then, we come up with different ways to use data to solve problems and identify missing data. Finally, we define KPIs and refine the idea.
Here you will find a scientific paper explaining the Data Thinking method in detail.
Workshop for SWPS University
When planning the workshop, I adopted a similar structure but created my own worksheets that were better suited to the workshop’s layout. I cared about gradually revealing subsequent stages of work to the participants. Showing the entire template at once would definitely have disrupted the work and the appropriate thought process I was aiming for.
The Scenario
Students took on the role of developers of a modern building containing apartments, restaurants, offices, and shops. The participants’ first task was to list the most important groups of people managing such a building. For each group, participants had to list the activities that the given group must perform during building maintenance.
Design Process and Needs
After the first task, I moved on to explaining the design process, design thinking, and user needs research in general. The next task was for groups to list the needs that selected groups of residents and business owners might have.
Using Data
In the next module, I talked about the HTTP protocol and using various APIs. This was quite a new topic for many students, and I wanted to show them how to access a lot of content automatically. Then, the students were tasked with filling out worksheets with possible types of data that would be useful to collect in the building featured in the exercise (such a worksheet is useful to me on a daily basis in my work as a UX designer).
AI and ML
In the final learning module, I explained how data can be used automatically. Participants had to fill out another sheet with types of AI and ML solutions, such as segmentation, scoring, anomaly detection, etc. For many students, this was their first encounter with such topics.
Next Steps
The entire workshop was meant to prepare students for a design marathon that took place over the weekend. The workshop was held just before the summer holidays of 2023, so still before the widespread launch of ChatGPT and other AI tools we know today. Now, I would definitely expand this workshop to include the vibe-coding of prototypes in Google AI Studio or other related tools.
Data Thinking for Business
In my opinion, the entire Data Thinking format is perfectly suited for use in business in the age of AI. By integrating various data sources with AI agents, one can even automate the creation of tools using Claude Code and other tools of this type. In all of this, a UX expert can support user needs research, tool development, and subsequently, testing and usage monitoring.