Ideally
In terms of education, you need to know the theory first. Fuzzy Front End of the design thinking process is where complex thing gets sorted out. So when the complexity is high, you should use more inspirational methods rather than numerical research such as surveys and statistics. Such preliminary surveys are meaningless. Conversely, it is better to conduct an interview and observation, organize the scenario to some extent ,and set a purpose before starting. When there is something that already exists, there is also many other things to be discovered. While thinking big about the actual problem, a long process report on the big picture, and user research at this time with front stage, back stage, and timeline, and a diagnosis should come out rather than a new service coming out at the back.
Realistically
Be flexible. : All Methods Instead of going through all the processes in the first, second, and third steps in a fixed order, you have to keep going according to the problem of the task. As a starting point, it's good to do user research in the front part. This is because a lot of information can be found through user research and interview observation without knowing what the problem is. You have to create a Blueprint first, then interview it, edit the Blueprint, make new observations, interview it, and be flexible with it. It's case by case.
Suggestion for beginners: It is difficult for a beginner designer to start with a big picture. Thinking of it as service development rather than service design, it is easy to set a narrow scenario and modify the existing ones, such as Baskin Robbins, for a specific problem or purpose. It's good to start like this at the beginner level
Example from my experience:
💡 After receiving the topic and completing appropriate desk research, simply draw a blue print of flow. If there are too many empty spaces in this Blueprint, we do an interview in front. You have to fill in the blanks, so prepare for the interview very systematically. In the case of new service development, in most cases, it is drawn to some extent after desk research and field investigation. In this case, I drew a blueprint first and then went to an interview with the feeling of verification. Therefore, rather than gathering and drawing all the materials from the beginning, I draw little by little while collecting the materials. I drew the blueprint by finding empty areas, conducting secondary research, and drawing.
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