Define Stage — Design Thinking Quiz

1. After interviews, the team groups sticky notes with similar user quotes into clusters labeled “frustration with time,” “space limitation,” and “menu confusion.”

2. They rephrase the issue from “students hate cafeteria food” to “students want meals that fit their time and energy constraints.”

3. The team creates a clear sentence: “Busy students need quick, healthy options between classes because long lines make them skip meals.”

4. They write: “Maya, a nursing student, needs to grab lunch in 10 minutes so she can attend her next lab without stress.”

5. The team draws a flow of “student lunch journey” and marks red circles where students feel most frustrated or bored.

6. From their notes, they write an insight: “Students feel guilty when they eat fast food, but convenience wins over health when under pressure.”

7. The team asks, “Why are students skipping lunch?” repeatedly until they uncover that long cafeteria queues and class timing are the true root cause.

8. The group develops new categories of personas — “The Rusher,” “The Planner,” and “The Social Eater” — to sharpen their user focus.

9. They write: “How might we help students get nutritious meals without waiting in line?”

10. From hundreds of sticky notes, the team merges overlapping ideas into a single diagram showing 3 key problem areas.