Design Thinking – A Primer Week 1 NPTEL Assignment Answers 2026

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✅ Subject: Design Thinking – A Primer
📅 Week: 1
🎯 Session: NPTEL 2026 January-April
🔗 Course Link: Click Here
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NPTEL Design Thinking – A Primer Week 1 Assignment Answers 2026

1. Which of the following stage is described as the most important piece of the 4-stage Karmic Design Thinking process

• Analyze
• Empathize
• Test
• Solve

Answer : See Answers 

2. What does Empathize phase in Design Thinking (DT) entail the practitioner to do?

• Buy a pair of shoes for your customer
• Perform a psychological analysis of your customer
• Experience the problem that your customer is facing as if it were your own
• Go on a journey with your customer

Answer :

3. In trying to empathize with patients who were bought into the Emergency Room of a hospital, which of the following did the Ideo (Design Thinking Company) team do?

• Attached a video camera and pretend he was one of the patients
• Interviewed patients who were admitted to the Emergency Room
• Documented their own accident experiences
• Stopped the hospital from attending to patients

Answer :

4. What was the key insight the Ideo team observed when they pretended to be a patient admitted to the emergency room of a hospital?

• Patients mostly saw the roof of the hospital when admitted
• Patients were provided excessive medication
• Patients were treated badly by the hospital
• Patients were unconscious the whole time

Answer :

5. Empathy through observation allows Design Thinkers to

• Identify diseases in older adults
• Identify inherent problems people are facing, even they are not completely aware of them
• Create child-proof medicine bottles
• Assist the older adults with having medicines

Answer : See Answers 

6. What is customer journey mapping?

• Providing a map to customer
• Understanding the sequence of events that a customer goes through in a given scenario
• Testing customer problems
• Going on a journey with the customer

Answer :

7. Customer Journey Mapping (CJM) is a process based on

• ticky notes
• Excel sheets
• PDF documents
• Mobile Apps

Answer :

8. What are the important phases that one needs to analyze while conducting a CJM

• When, Where, Why
• Before, During, After
• Why, How, When
• Who, What, When

Answer :

9. One important activity to perform during the CJM process is to

• Conduct a survey to validate your process
• Assign an emotion to each of the activities performed
• Sit still and meditate on the problem
• Go on a journey with the customer

Answer :

10. How many steps does each block (Before, During or After) of the CJM need to have at a minimum?

• Three
• Two
• Four
• One

Answer : See Answers 

NPTEL Design Thinking – A Primer Week 1 Assignment Answers 2024

1. What is the first Noble Truth according to Lord Buddha?

a) Accept suffering
b) Avoid suffering
c) Eliminate desire
d) Practice kindness
✅ Answer: a) Accept suffering
📝 Explanation: The First Noble Truth is “Dukkha” — recognizing that suffering exists in life and must be accepted as the starting point of transformation.

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2. How does the concept of empathy in Design Thinking relate to the teachings of Lord Buddha?

a) By eliminating user pain
b) By emphasizing the importance of understanding others’ feelings
c) By designing luxurious products
d) By ignoring emotions
✅ Answer: b) By emphasizing the importance of understanding others’ feelings
📝 Explanation: Both Design Thinking and Buddha’s teachings stress understanding others’ emotions deeply, which is key to solving problems effectively.

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3. What tool is used to visualize the steps a customer goes through when interacting with a product or service?

a) Customer Map Card
b) Customer Journey Mapping
c) Product Flowchart
d) Empathy Layout
✅ Answer: b) Customer Journey Mapping
📝 Explanation: This tool maps out the entire experience of the user, revealing their actions, emotions, and challenges during interaction with a service.

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4. Which of the following best describes a “Customer Persona”?

a) A fictional representation of a typical user
b) A list of customer complaints
c) A group of employees
d) A business report
✅ Answer: a) A fictional representation of a typical user
📝 Explanation: Personas are created based on real data to represent user types, helping designers keep users in mind while making decisions.

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5. Which of the following tools is commonly used to capture and organize thoughts, insights, and ideas during design thinking exercises, helping teams visualize connections and prioritize actions?

a) Spreadsheet
b) Whiteboard
c) Sticky Notes
d) Survey Forms
✅ Answer: c) Sticky Notes
📝 Explanation: Sticky Notes help in brainstorming, visual thinking, and grouping ideas quickly during creative sessions.

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6. Karmic Design Thinking comprises how many phases?

a) 3
b) 4
c) 5
d) 6
✅ Answer: b) 4
📝 Explanation: Karmic Design Thinking is structured in 4 key phases inspired by Eastern philosophical frameworks.

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7. What should be documented from personal experience and observations before going to the Analyze stage?

a) Product price
b) Steps and emotional mapping
c) Team skills
d) Market trends
✅ Answer: b) Steps and emotional mapping
📝 Explanation: It’s essential to capture how users act and feel at each point in their journey to identify real pain points and opportunities.

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8. Why is it important to use real observations rather than just asking customers about their experiences?

a) Customers always lie
b) Observations provide more accurate and unbiased data
c) Interviews are expensive
d) Data is not important
✅ Answer: b) Observations provide more accurate and unbiased data
📝 Explanation: People may forget or misreport their behaviors, so direct observation leads to more accurate insights.

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9. What is the final step suggested for ensuring the completeness of the Customer Journey Map?

a) Ask the marketing team
b) Having a second persona for a more comprehensive view
c) Skipping emotional mapping
d) Add product reviews
✅ Answer: b) Having a second persona for a more comprehensive view
📝 Explanation: Considering another type of user helps identify blind spots and ensures broader coverage of user experiences.

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10. What was the problem identified by the Ideo team when observing a senior citizen taking her medication?

a) She forgot the medicine name
b) She couldn’t open the child-proof medicine bottle
c) She didn’t like the color
d) She used the wrong tablet
✅ Answer: b) She couldn’t open the child-proof medicine bottle
📝 Explanation: IDEO noticed that although the bottle was safe for children, it was too hard for older people to open, revealing a design flaw.