The define mode is when you unpack your empathy findings into needs and insights and scope a meaningful challenge. Based on your understanding of users and their environments, come up with an actionable problem statement: your Point Of View.

More than simply defining the problem, your Point of View is a unique design vision that is framed by your specific users.

Understanding the meaningful challenge at hand, and the user insights you can leverage, is fundamental to creating a successful solution.

Needs Analysis for Code the Dream

My interview and observation data show that the senior software developers at Code the Dream currently face difficulty assessing the abilities of current interns, determining whether a student should be brought on as an intern, and determining whether an intern should be promoted to a staff developer.

My results show that the problem is happening because they do not have an agreed-upon rubric for assessing software developers from beginner intern to beginner staff developer.

Based on the interviews with these senior developers, I think that creating a rubric of hard and soft skills with five levels can solve the problem and help them standardize the assessment process and hire competent interns and staff.