Which stage of Design Thinking involves researching your users' needs?

The stage of Design Thinking that focuses on understanding and researching users' needs is the Empathize stage. During this phase, designers engage directly with users through interviews, observations, and other methods to gain insights into their experiences, challenges, and motivations. The goal is to develop a deep understanding of the user's perspective, which helps in identifying their specific needs and problems that require solutions.

This foundational understanding is critical as it informs the subsequent stages of the design process, like defining the problem clearly, generating ideas, and ultimately developing and testing solutions. By empathizing with users, designers ensure that the solutions created are relevant and meaningful to the target audience.

The Define stage, while important, is primarily about synthesizing the insights gathered during the Empathize phase to articulate a clear problem statement. The Ideate stage is focused on brainstorming creative solutions, and the Test stage involves evaluating design solutions with users, rather than gathering initial insights about their needs. Each stage is vital to the overall Design Thinking process, but the Empathize stage specifically prioritizes research into users' needs.