The Design Thinking Process: a scientist's toolkit for market validation

2 days ago
4 min read

You've made a discovery. Maybe it's a new diagnostic method, a more efficient lab process, or a novel compound with therapeutic potential. The science is solid. But before you can bring it to the world, you need to answer a deceptively simple question: Is this actually solving a problem someone has — and is willing to pay for? This is where the work of defining and validating a business idea begins.

What is a business idea, really?

At its core, a business idea is two things in one: a problem you want to address, and a solution you believe can solve it. Both halves matter equally.

One of the most common mistakes early-stage founders make is falling in love with their solution before fully understanding the problem. Before building anything, look carefully at what already exists. Are there competing or indirect solutions on the market? If you find nothing, that's rarely a good sign. No existing solution (including “indirect" solutions, like the combination of several tools already on the market) often means no established market demand. The absence of competition is not opportunity — it's a warning signal worth investigating.

Design thinking gives you a structured, evidence-based method to move from observation to validated concept. Its five steps will feel familiar: it's essentially the scientific method, applied to human needs.

Step 1: Empathise

Everything starts with genuine curiosity about people — not just data about them. Ideally, you should leave your lab and interact with potential users: other researchers, biotech teams, clinicians, patients, etc.

Three modes of empathy are especially powerful:

Observation — e.g. watch other researchers run an experiment, handle instruments, or analyse data. Where do they hesitate? What takes twice as long as it should?
Conversation — e.g. conduct informal interviews about daily challenges, problems and pain points. Keep asking "why?". The first answer is rarely the real one.
Immersion — e.g. try to do what your user does. Step into their shoes, literally. Physical and emotional friction reveals itself differently when you experience it firsthand.

Step 2: Define

Empathy generates raw material. Definition turns it into insight. Synthesise your observations to surface the real problems, unmet needs, and underlying challenges your customers face. A useful framing:

"[User] needs [something] because [deeper reason]."

This simple structure forces clarity and keeps you anchored to the human need rather than your solution. Once you have a set of candidate problems, rank them. Not all problems are worth solving commercially. Prioritise based on four criteria:

Purchasing power — Can your target customer actually afford to pay? Business-to-business markets typically offer more reliable revenue than direct-to-consumer.
Pain intensity — How urgent and painful is the problem? A workaround someone uses daily signals a much stronger opportunity than a mild inconvenience.
Reachability — Can you identify and efficiently reach the decision-makers? Patients through clinicians, pharma through business development teams, researchers within defined scientific communities.
Market size and growth — Are you entering a growing field? Emerging therapies, new diagnostic modalities, and areas attracting investment momentum are strong signals.

Step 3: Ideate

With a well-defined problem and a clear picture of your user, generate a range of possible solutions. Breadth matters here — resist the urge to refine too early. The goal is to explore the solution space, not optimise one path prematurely.

Step 4: Prototype

Prototyping is about speed and learning, not perfection. Build two or three quick, low-cost representations of your leading ideas. These can range from a basic demonstrator, to a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that a potential customer could actually use and interact with. But avoid building something close to a final product at this stage.

The key is to introduce only the most essential features — spend the minimum time and resources needed to make the idea tangible enough to test and get a feedback from the customers.

Step 5: Test

Testing is the cornerstone of design thinking — and the step most scientists find most natural, because it mirrors what they already do. Put your prototype in real users' hands. Observe before you explain. Let them interact naturally with it in realistic conditions, not in a structured evaluation setting. Test multiple prototypes in parallel where possible — the comparison often surfaces needs that single-concept testing misses entirely.

Testing lets you validate your concept against real needs, refine your solution, deepen your understanding of your users, and — importantly — redefine the problem itself if the evidence points elsewhere.

Iteration is not failure — it's the method

Design thinking is not a linear checklist. It is a cycle. Move through empathise, define, ideate, prototype, and test repeatedly. Each iteration sharpens your focus, narrows the gap between concept and reality, and builds the evidence base you'll need to move forward with conviction.

Launch when your solution has been tested, refined, and clearly aligned with a real, validated user need. That moment of confidence is not the end of the process. It's what the process was designed to produce.