Rose, Thorn, Bud

The purpose of this series of articles is to expose you to some of the most powerful design thinking techniques and show you how to use them.

These are the same techniques used by most of the leading organisations when ideating or problem solving.

This week we looking at my most frequently used and one of my favourite DT techniques.

 What is it?

• ROSE, THORN, BUD is a problem framing technique.

When to use it?

The beauty of this technique (and why I like it so much) is that you can use it in multiple ways and across the life-cycle of the project/initiative:

• Typically at the start of the ideation process (problem definition phase) to quickly collect information about the current problem area/topic.
• As part of an interview or workshop (instead of asking lots of questions to key participants).
• To codify your research data by identifying patterns and themes following a research activity.

Why use it?

• It’s a simple and powerful way to contextualize what is going-on currently (around the chosen topic).
• Shares a common understanding among the user group.
• Helps sets context and focus for following ideation sessions.

How to use it?

• Identify a problem statement or a topic area to solve for
• Gather a few people to ideate with (a more diverse audience is better)
• Share the problem /topic area with your audience
• Explain the color key:

(Roses = Pink (indicates all things that are positive or going well)

(Thorns = Green (indicates all things that are negative or not going well)

(Buds = Blue (indicates all opportunities or things that have potential)

• Spend a few minutes focusing on the “Roses” – one item per post-it.
• Then spend a few minutes focusing on the “Thorns” , followed by a few minutes focusing on the “Buds” – again, one item per post-it.
• Finally, share feedback collected with the group – got through all the Roses, then Thorns and then Buds.

Expert Tips

• Only list one idea (item) per post-it.
• Encourage participants to generate as many post-its as possible.
• Do them in sequence and time-box each session (5min for Roses, 5 min for Thorns, then 5 min for Buds).
• Group or organize the feedback collected to drive insight.

Leave a comment below if this was helpful or if you want to know more about another technique/topic