A Method for Identifying Product Opportunities in Complex Domains

Evidence from practitioners and literature suggests that Design Thinking (DT) boosts innovation. The initial stages of DT rely on knowing the target users and the design goal. But what if defining the design goal is a challenge in itself? This paper outlines our experience in exploring the vast design space of commercial Building Automation (BA) in search of opportunities that could lead to successful products. Standard DT approach was insufficient for reasons that will be discussed. This urged us to develop a methodology involving 3 distinct phases and 3 interconnected cycles. This method (which is an extension of DT) helped us identify product/design opportunities in the sprawling domain of BA where several roles of users and stakeholders were active at different points of the product lifecycle.