Top Down Design Thinking Example

Designing digital products is all about identifying, analyzing, and solving (or appearing to solve) problems. The basic analysis is:

Identify

• a people (target population) who have a common need or desire
  manufature if necessary

Discover

• What they do -- goal and problems
• Why they do it -- motivation
• How they do it -- Job-to-be-done, step-by-step

Three primary methods

1. Inductive, watch and break an existing process down step by step
2. Deductive, using some method, often psychology, develop a model of what, why, how
3. Mixed, give them a prototype based on assumptions, then verify assumptions and modify design based on feedback and watching people using the prototype

Deductive Design Thinking Applied to ToDo Listing

This morning, TikTok presented me with a slide show about how to do todo lists right. I'm using their model as a blueprint for designing a todo app.

People with checklists complete their work 40% faster.

But 99% of them are making their checklists wrong.

Here's how to do it right: (Using psychology)

[The slide show's hook. Some variation of this thinking would form the basis of the sales language for the app we build on the model presented below.]

1. Do a brain dump.

Write down all tasks in your head.
All projects, goals, and to-dos.
This releases cognitive load. [This would be build in, you wouldn't tell them this]

[One screen? What scope of work? Next hour, day, week, month, semester?]

2. Separate tasks.

Distill it down to 3-5 big tasks for the day. 

Use the Eisenhower Matrix to separate tasks by importance.
> Urgent and Important
> Not Urgent, but Important
> Urgent, but Not Important
> Not Urgent and Not Important


3. Create a Morning Routine list.

Every day, start with a simple 5-15 minute routine.

Example:
> Water
> Breakfast
> Stretching
> Plank
> Meditation

This helps your brain switch into a productive state.

[Ping thier phone at set time, walk them through the routine they chose or designed]


4. Time Block.

> Schedule time for each task.
> Work for 90 minutes and then take a break
> Use the Pomodoro Technique (task chunks rather than time on task)
	> 25 minute work sprints with 5 minute break

[use AI to break goals into tasks and schedule each task with interval breaks [play a song, an inspirational video]]

5. Connect tasks to goals.

For each task, ask "Why?"
Knowing the why behind each task links it to goals.
Goals = motivation = more productivity.


6. Stop overloading your list. [This principle would be built in -- you wouldn't tell people this]

Busy does not mean productive.

3-5 major tasks and 1-2 minor tasks are enough.

This prevents burnout and keeps you motivated. (you would build this principle in, not tell them to)


7. Review your list at the end of the day. [built in, ping user at their scheduled bedtime]

> Look back at completed tasks.
> Celebrate the wins.
> Analyze what was missed.

This makes the next day's list better. [built in, but you would use this as the value proposition up front >> Achieve your goals, make your  life better!!]

Using this a set of principles (objectives) and strategies (how to achieve each goal) you could design a todo list app that would both teach people this technique for work management and help them do it.

So the next step would be a prototype modeled in this way.