Design Thinking Workshop

The principles that comprise Design Thinking, like most principles, are best taught through experience. The workshop outlined below is one approach for people to learn and apply the principles of Design Thinking in a one-day workshop. While by no means should participants expect to leave as experts, they will have a firm understanding of its principles and its potential.  

 The workshop follows the principles outlined on the other pages of this site and is intended for groups of 20-25 with an interest in learning both the ideas behind Design Thinking and the practical applications toward a business or organizational goal.  

 There are two options for the workshop:  

Option 1 is to redesign something familiar to everyone but not core to the business (i.e. a ticket machine for a train, a child's playground, food court, self-check out system, city services, homeless shelters, etc.) This option can be completed in one day. Given you will taking the entire class out to the location, you will need to get permission in advance from any local authorities etc. Invite these people to your workshop as "judges".  

Option 2 is to redesign something that is core to their business or organization (a product, service, operational issue, etc.). Option 2 requires more prep work with the team, clients, business partners, etc. but follows the same outline as below but often requires multiple days. It is recommended that all participants complete Option 1 before doing an Option 2 workshop.  

Below is a general outline for the Option 1 workshop. Both options follow the same flow allowing the participants to experience the principles, however the Option 2 workshop is tailored to reflect the specific requirements of the design challenge.   

THE WORKSHOP SET-UP

For the workshop you will need a Moderator, coaches and participants. The workshop is ideal with 20-25 participants broken in 4-5 person teams; each assigned a coach for the duration of the workshop. It is recommended you define the teams and assign their Coaches in advance. Taking into account the social dynamics of any organization, it is important that the teams have a balance of personality types and 'power' to ensure all the participants can contribute equally.    

The Moderator will lead the workshop and guide the group through the principles and stages of Design Thinking. Included are the historical contexts for Design Thinking, examples of Design Thinking as well as models of the various principles, etc. The Moderator will also facilitate the overall workshop ensuring the group stays on schedule and helping to advert any potential conflict.

Each team's Coach is an experienced practitioner of Design Thinking and will help their team understand and apply the various principles to their project. Encouraging their teams to take risks, listen to their users, participate in the brainstorming and prototyping, is just part of the Coach's role.

Participants should be comprised of cross-functional members of the organization responsible for defining, designing and developing the solution being addressed by the workshop. In cases where the workshop is being used as a general training, either to train coaches or to train a cross-functional team on the concept of design thinking, the participants should share a common context. 

The workshop is presented a light competition between the teams, with prizes awarded for the best solutions as day's end, the Coaches will help to make sure their team has the best chance of winning the prize. Coaches really drive the experiential learning for the participants.  

Set-up: 

• You need a large room with large tables (round tables work better), enough for one per team. 

• The room should be flexible (i.e. the tables should be able to move)  

• Each person will get a name badge, notebook, pen/pencil  

• Each team gets a Polaroid camera and one packet of film. 

• You will need prototyping supplies: construction paper, pipe cleaners, markers, boxes, tubes, clips, staplers, duct tape, clay, etc.)  

• It is also recommended you include, costumes (wigs, hats, jackets, lab coats, scarves, glasses, etc.) in case the teams want to role play or perform their prototypes.  

• For the Design Challenge you will need a location with lots of foot traffic (i.e. train station, playground, pedestrian street, etc.) and a common system/service that can be redesigned (i.e. ticket machine, information services, actives, etc.)      

IN THE WORKSHOP:  

1. Introduction (20 mins)

Once everyone has their nametag and team assignment, the Moderator will kick of the workshop with a brief overview of the day, the intended outcomes etc. It is important to highlight that this workshop is not a "lean-back" workshop; its also not even a "lean-forward" kind of workshop. Its a stand-up and build something workshop.  

Included in the introduction...

• Overview of the day; elevator pitch for DT and its relevance to the business. 

• Examples of solutions that have come from this approach. 

• Round of introductions within each team, name & why they are in the class.      

2. Warm-up Exercise (10 mins)

In order for the group to get in to the spirit of make-to-think, it is important to given them a warm-up exercise, something that will get them up on their feet, moving and making. There are many different warm-up exercises available, when selecting one remember the goal should be to get the group in the mindset of doing/creating not sitting/listening  

Example: give each team a modified small Lego car/truck kit (i.e. a kit with 20+/- pieces, to which you have added other random Lego parts). Using all the pieces provided, each team has 3 minutes to build a vehicle that rolls. Each team has to demo their prototype and explain it to the full group. Debrief the exercise focusing on ideas like being able challenge of assumptions, the need to reframe problems and of course team work.    

3. Design Challenge Introduction (20 mins)  

Going into the workshop the group is not told what they will be redesigning for the day. Part of the experience of learning Design Thinking is to embrace uncertainty and to allow your intuitive and abductive reasoning to emerge. Being informed in advance of the design challenge can allow participants to form preconceptions even self-doubt.  

The group is presented with some simple photos of the system being redesigned; these could include some of the people using the system, the surroundings, etc. The goal of the Design Challenge is to define the problem space but not the direction of the solution or to allow the teams to develop preconceptions about the potential issues or boundaries. One of the basic principles of Design Thinking is to challenge assumptions, it is important to allow the teams to define their own POV of the Design Challenge.  

The Design Challenge is most effective when the system being redesigned is a common, everyday system, indeed something that most people would take for granted. One often used Design Challenge are train ticketing machines, vending machines, or a child's playground--what could be better understood? Yet all of these systems are filled with potential innovation and improvements.

These systems also have tactical issues behind them, including operational logistics, social and security issues, as well as the potential for integration with other services in common use. The key to identifying potential innovations is to objectively observe these systems in use.  

Each team is given a Polaroid camera with one packet of film, the are also told they will have 60 minutes to collect as much insight as possible when they get to the location of the Design Challenge. As with the Design Challenge itself, the teams are not told about their field trip until now!   

4. Observation (45-60 mins not including travel time)

To help the teams prepare for their site visits they shown how to interview and observe people. The focus is on asking open-ended questions. Prompting the users with "what if" and "what could be" type inquiry. The Moderator and one of the coaches will role-play what the experience could be like--approaching strangers with questions about their use of ticket machines or playground equipment can being a little challenging. The teams also get a chance to practicing with their coaches and team members.  

The teams are each given a short time to prepare a list of open-ended questions, topics of interest, etc., for their observation. (NOTE: they can keep working on it the issue on the bus to the location.) The observation is limited to 60 minutes so they need to be ready to hit the ground running when they get on site. (Option 2 requires advanced logistics to set-up time with customers/potential customers, etc.)  

Once on site, the coaches make sure each team member actually engages with multiple people on site. The team operating individually or in pairs of two observes, interviews and learns the issues faced by the people in the situation. Using their notebooks and the cameras, the team captures their observations and insights. The teams scribble notes, maps, diagrams, etc.  

SIDENOTE: While the teams are observing the coaches are tasked with discretely asking people from the site if (for a small incentive) they would be willing to come to the class to give the teams feedback on their prototypes. The idea is to recruit two groups of 3-4 people.    

On the return trip the teams are encouraged to begin consolidating their notes, making sure they write down their insights. Once the teams are back in the room, the entire group is given the chance to debrief, sharing their experience and insights from being the field. The Moderator will focus on the preconceptions v. reality of the experience.   

5. Synthesis (45 mins) 

There are many methods for turning insight into action, the Synthesis aspect of Design Thinking pulls from many disciplines. Returning from their Observation experience the teams will each have a large amount of data that will first need to be organized, grouped, and connected.  

While the individual team members recount their discoveries, their teammates will make notes on post-its--each post-it should only include one individual idea or concept. The photographs taken on site should also be included in the storytelling along with any doodles, diagrams, or maps the team created. To be sure there will be repetitions across the different stories and even the same observations reported many times, regardless all the relevant ideas should be captured--these can be consolidated when the team begins "clustering" the ideas.  

Once the team has completed "storytelling", the full team will stick all their post-it notes to the wall and begin to move them into clusters. These groupings will naturally emerge as the team puts like with like. Special consideration should be given to notes than stand-alone; they might have a unique idea. Once the groupings have been completed, the team will assign each cluster a thematic or topical name. The team will also begin to draw the connections between the groupings, causalities, dependencies, influences, gaps, etc.  

Once this collective mind-map has been drafted, the team can begin to use to identify gaps and unmeet needs of the people associated with the system—consumers, providers and its benefactors. Focusing on the "what could be" the team begins to prioritize the needs and areas of improvement.

The team can also begin to define a set of Design Principles both to guide and assess their efforts in creating a solution to the Design Challenge. Additionally, the team can also create as set of personas or user types to help differentiate the various areas of the system.   

6. Point of View Definition (30 mins) 

Once the team has clustered and prioritized their findings, and established set of Design Principles, they can then define their Point of View on the problem. Each Design Challenge could be addressed in many ways and with many different approaches. Clearly stating a POV will help focus the teams in their efforts for the remainder of the workshop (project) and help them not get distracted as they begin developing their prototype the design challenge. The team will write their Design Principles on a large easel pad, to be placed on the wall next to results of their Synthesis.  

The team will write their Design Principles on a large easel pad, to be placed on the wall next to results of their Synthesis.  

Remember, that Design Thinking is iterative and even the team's POV is off, they will have a chance to correct that perspective with feedback from their stakeholders.   

7. Ideation / Brainstorming (45 mins)  

Brainstorming is often misused and seldom practiced as a competitive sport, however the most effective brainstorms, like sporting games require both practice and rules. While there are many ways to generate ideas during the workshop teams will follow a these basic rules:

• Defer Judgment 

• Build on the ideas of others (no buts, only ands) 

• Quantity over quality 

• Encourage wild ideas 

• Visualize your ideas 

• One conversation at a time 

• Number your ideas 

• Stay focused    

Again using the walls of the room, the team keep their brainstorm visible along with their Design Principles and Synthesis outcome to keep themselves immersed in their project and to keep focus.   

8. Prototype Development (60 mins)  

Now the fun begins... the teams can begin to build their prototypes, remembering the mantra of Design Thinking is Make to Think. Keeping in mind these are meant to be simple, depictive, disposable and fun.  

Teams are each given their own basic supplies, scissors, tape, etc. and an initial allocation of other supplies, however there is a pool of larger items (boxes, long cardboard tubes that they can also include in their prototype. Coaches will also often encourage the team to use other items--the furniture from the room, coffee cups, etc. if appropriate. Coaches also make sure the teams are making prototypes and not just talking about their ideas.  

• The idea of these prototypes is to:

• Keep it lo-res and simple. 

• Visualize Alternatives 

• Create Experiences not just things 

• Use What You Have--be it paper and markers, people or the things from your bag. 

• Isolate Variables--focus on the main narrative of the solution you are creating 

• Iterate Quickly  Focus on generating one prototype for show & tell to the group.   

9. User Feedback (10 mins/team)  

The first group of users from the Observation step is brought into the class and given a chance to walk around to each team to given them 1:1 feedback on their prototypes, the problems it addresses, new issues it brings up, etc.   

10. Prototype Iteration (45 mins)  

Based on the feedback from the users the teams are given time to iterate their prototypes. This could also require a new brainstorming sprint.   

11. Presentation (7 mins/team) 

The second group of would be users from the Observation are brought in as well as a few "domain" experts (i.e. for the playground example we had the Director of Parks, for the ticket machine someone with expertise in public transportation came in). These experts can provide deeper feedback and context for the solution relative to the design challenge. 

• Collectively these people are the panel of judges. 

• Each team is given 7 minutes to show their prototype and 3 minutes to answer questions from the panel. 

• The panel then confers and decides who had the best prototype. 

• Awards are given out (simple little trophies--more for bragging rights)    

12. Debrief  (30 mins)  

Using "I like/I wish", go around the room and each person in the class can express one thing they liked about the day and one thing they wished from the day. The participants can additionally share any ideas they have for applying DT, the coaches and Moderator can share any additional internal/external resources they have for DT, and offer follow-ups on specific issues.