Description
Design Thinking is a systematic methodology for applying the type of problem solving and innovation techniques common to many different disciplines and industries. For example, design thinking techniques are an integral part of customer service, Agile development methodologies, Lean product development, market innovation and a range of product and service design methodologies.
This course provides a hands-on exploration of design thinking from four different perspectives:
- The Individual Skill Set: How people develop the insights, creative solutions and breakthrough thinking and how to develop these critical skills in yourself.
- Group Collaboration Methods: The techniques that groups use to work together to develop innovative solutions as a team.
- Strategic Design Processes: The goal-oriented methodologies for applying design thinking to real world problems as described in the Stanford Design Process, the Delft Design process and other standardized processes.
- Incorporating Design: How design thinking can be incorporated into Agile development, customer focused product and service design and development, as well as other areas.
The course starts with developing an understanding of how individuals develop solutions by have those breakthrough ideas and moments of creative inspiration. The various techniques that people use, such as lateral thinking and mind mapping are explored along with explanations of how these techniques work, based on the best current science, so that students can start learning how to be creative on demand.
The course moves to exploring the sorts of collaborative methods that are used by groups to problem solve by leveraging each individual’s creative abilities. How techniques like brainstorming, three mode thinking, scenario development work is demonstrated as well as the best practices groups use to produce optimal results.
The third part of the course is a deep dive in to the standard design thinking process and incorporates the previous parts to help students understand how to effectively structure, execute and evaluate a design process like the Stanford design process. This is the main core of the course with an intensive hands-on investigation of each of the phases of a design thinking process. Students will work through a design problem that the class chooses as their hands on practice.
The last part of the course examines how the design thinking process can be incorporated into other processes such as Lean product development, customer centered program design, Agile software development and business process re-engineering.
In this Design Thinking Course, You Will Learn:
- How to become personally creative and innovative on demand
- How to use collaborative problem solving and brainstorming methods in groups
- How to design, execute and evaluate a formal design thinking processes
- How to develop deep understanding of the the problems to be solved
- How to empathize with different perspectives in the problem domain
- How to distinguish between symptoms, problems, and root causes
- How to create and prototype solutions
- How to test and evaluate solutions
- How to work iteratively to develop optimal outcomes
- How to sustain, monitor and update solutions and products
- How to integrate design thinking into the whole business
- How to problem solve, innovate and be creative on demand as individuals and groups
- What the best practices and pitfalls are in design thinking