Overview
Design thinking is an over-used phrase and has accumulated quite a bit of misinformation in recent years. However, the original concepts behind design thinking are immensely valuable in today’s organizations as we seek solutions to complex problems. Arising from early visual design and ideation practices, design thinking has evolved over time into both a philosophy for solving complex problems as well as a concrete methodology for designing and building solutions. This design thinking course teaches you both.
During this fast-paced course, you experience a hands-on journey through the design thinking process. Led by an expert with deep experience leading teams who design and build solutions in real-world environments, you and your peers collaborate to define and solve problems using design thinking techniques. You will learn a straightforward process for problem definition, ideation, teaming, testing solutions, and applying the process of solution building in your own organizational environment.
GSA: $1885 USD
Next Upcoming Course
Train up your teams with private group training
Have a group of 5 or more students? Cprime also provides specialist private training with exclusive discounts for tailored, high-impact learning.
Full Course Details
Part 1: Introduction – What do we mean by design…and what are we thinking?
- Design thinking overview
- How structure and process apply to creativity
- The need to solve problems
- Types of problems, types of solutions
- Components of design thinking
- Human centrism: The importance of your users, customers, & consumers
Exercise: Who has the problem? Defining the user or customer
Part 2: Framing Problems
- What’s the problem, really?
- Discovering problems
- Technology problems and products
- OODA loops and backlogs
- Distinguishing symptoms, problems, and root causes
- Refining problem definition
- Repeatably finding “a-ha” moments
Exercise: Select a problem candidate
Exercise: Root cause analysis for isolating and defining a specific problem
Part 3: Divergent Ideation
- What is divergent thinking?
- Generating raw material
- Iterating on divergence
- Your north star: Human-centric solutions
- Using divergence to refine the problem space
Group exercise: Rapid ideation
Part 4: Convergent Ideation
- What is convergent thinking?
- Refinement and synthesis
- Defining a future state for solution paths
- Selecting solution candidates
Exercise: Revisiting your user persona and choosing the solution
Part 5: Testing Solution Candidates
- Agility overview
- Advice on prototyping
- How to prototype rapidly
- Collecting data
- Variables
- Rapid testing
- Iterating on tests
Exercise: Modeling a testing cycle and group critique
Part 6: Iterating on Solutions
- The feedback cycle
- Agile practices for iteration
- Measuring value
- OODA loops again
- Evolving solutions
Exercise: Walking through the iteration
Part 7: Teaming for Design and Solution Building
- Applying design thinking in the typical enterprise
- Product, service, system, or solution?
- Teams in the problem space
- Design collaboration
- Prioritizing the design portfolio
Part 8: Obstacles to Design Thinking in Organizations
- Cultural obstacles
- Overcoming silos
- Defining value correctly
- Keeping human qualities at the center of the design
- Applying design thinking to non-traditional roles
- Engineering hurdles
- The challenge of scale
Exercise: Preparing for scalability challenges and transitioning from discovery to delivery
Part 9: Class Conclusion – Charting Your Course
- Expert Q&A
- Discussion: Is your solution useful?
- Your action items when the class is over
This design thinking course is perfect for anyone involved in product development, which includes roles such as:
- Product Managers
- Product Directors
- Business Analysts
- Project Managers
- L&D Professionals
- UX/UI Designers
- Graphic Designers
- Visual Designers
- Product Designers
- Services Designers
- Software Developers
- Web Developers
- Engineers
- Entrepreneurs
- Identify the components of design thinking
- Define users and customers
- Distinguish symptoms, problems, and root causes
- Create repeatable “a-ha” moments
- Define a future state for solution paths
- Prototype rapidly
- Apply Agile practices for iteration
- Keep human qualities at the center of the design
- Apply design thinking to non-traditional roles