Design Thinking
Overview
Design thinking puts people at the centre of solving problems. This course takes participants through the full design thinking process, from empathy research and problem framing to idea generation, prototyping and testing, using hands-on challenges based on real services and products.
Who should attend
Managers, innovation and excellence staff, service designers, product and marketing teams, and anyone who designs services.
Training methodology
Interactive presentations, practical exercises, case studies, group discussions, role-plays where relevant, and a personal action plan that participants apply in their own work.
Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Explain the design thinking mindset and process
- Conduct empathy research with users
- Frame problems as clear, human-centred challenges
- Generate and select ideas using creative techniques
- Build quick prototypes and test them with users
Course outline
Day 1Design Thinking Mindset
- Origins and principles
- The double diamond
- Human-centred design
- Divergent and convergent thinking
- Design thinking in organisations
- Quick design challenge
Day 2Empathise
- Planning user research
- Interviewing users
- Observation and shadowing
- Empathy maps
- Capturing insights
- Fieldwork exercise
Day 3Define
- Synthesising research
- Personas
- Journey maps
- Point-of-view statements
- How might we questions
- Workshop: frame the challenge
Day 4Ideate
- Brainstorming rules
- SCAMPER and analogies
- Crazy eights and sketching
- Clustering and voting
- Selecting ideas to prototype
- Ideation session
Day 5Prototype and Test
- Low-fidelity prototypes
- Storyboards and role-play
- Testing with users
- Learning from feedback
- Scaling ideas into projects
- Final pitches and action plan