What are the stages of design thinking in the correct order?

• A. Define, empathize, prototype, test
• B. Empathize, define, ideate, prototype
• C. Empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test
• D. Ideate, prototype, empathize, define

Answer: (C)

Design thinking moves from understanding people to turning that understanding into tested solutions. Start with empathizing to gain deep insights into users’ needs, motivations, and context. From those insights you frame a clear problem through defining a concise problem statement or point of view. With a well-defined problem in hand, you brainstorm a wide range of ideas in the ideate phase. Then you bring some ideas to life through prototypes, quick and tangible representations that reveal how a solution might work. Finally, you test these prototypes with real users to gather feedback, learn what works, what doesn’t, and what to improve next. This order helps ensure you’re solving the right problem before you explore solutions, and you gather concrete user input before finalizing concepts. While teams often loop back to earlier stages to refine ideas, the canonical sequence is Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test. The other options skip a necessary stage, start with a later stage, or place activities out of order, so they don’t align with how design thinking builds understanding into solution.