A five-phase description of the design innovation process is described by Plattner, Meinel, and Leifer as redefining the problem, needfinding and benchmarking, ideating, building, testing.

Design Innovation

We possess within us two minds. So far I have written only of the conscious mind. I would now like to introduce you to your second mind, the hidden and mysterious subconscious. Our subconscious mind contains such power and complexity that it literally staggers the imagination.

“While the stages are simple enough, the adaptive expertise required to choose the right inflection points and appropriate next stage is a high order intellectual activity that requires practice and is learnable.”

We possess within us two minds. So far I have written only of the conscious mind. I would now like to introduce you to your second mind, the hidden and mysterious subconscious. Our subconscious mind contains such power and complexity that it literally staggers the imagination. We know that this subconscious mind controls and orchestrates our bodily functions, from pumping blood to all parts of our body to egulating our breathing and digestion.

We further know that the subconscious has recorded every event that has ever happened to us. Every incident in our personal history is recorded within, along with the emotions and thoughts evoked by those incidents.