Design Thinking
Foundations
Course
DURATION: Five 3-hr sessions / 5 consecutive days
FORMAT: Live-online
DATES: September 25-29, 2023 /
1:00-4:00 pm EDT
Looking for an intensive, career-boosting learning experience in just five short, online sessions. This course is for you. Learn the fundamentals of design thinking in a convenient, live-online virtual environment.
Why This Course?
Join us for five, 3-hour sessions over five consecutive days. This live-online course is a high-energy, deep-dive learning experience led by seasoned facilitators. You will work in small teams to tackle a design challenge in an interactive, “learning-by-doing” environment. The foundations course will teach you the mindset, methodology, and core tools of design thinking. You will learn how to apply these tools—both online and in person—to product/service design as well as customer/employee experience design. Each daily session combines full-group discussion, small team breakout sessions, and asynchronous individual work.
Learning
Objectives
At the completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Explain to others what design thinking (DT) is and how it differs from other problem solving methodologies.
- Project greater creative confidence when tackling challenges.
- Use DT tools to gather data, define challenges, and ideate, prototype, and test solutions.
- Become more innovative, creative, and confident in your problem solving capabilities.
- Work collaboratively in a virtual environment.
'Learn By Doing' Virtual Format
We believe that experience is the best teacher. That is why our format for this course uses a hands-on, “learning-by-doing” method which fits perfectly with the iterative nature of the design thinking process. You will connect to your instructors and fellow participants on Zoom video conferencing and learn to apply foundational design thinking tools with the virtual whiteboard application, MURAL.
Online learning offers many advantages, but it can be exhausting to stare at a screen continuously for hours on end. This course has been carefully designed to optimize learning and minimize fatigue. We have honed this course approach over years of live experimentation.
Program
Session 1: ONBOARDING
Monday, September 25, 2023 /
1:00-4:00 pm EDT
- Meet the facilitation team and fellow participants.
- Acclimate yourself with the tech we use in the workshop.
- Gain an understanding of design thinking's method and mindset.
- Research the design challenge.
Session 2: SENSEMAKING
Tuesday, September 26, 2023 /
1:00-4:00 pm EDT
- See how companies use design thinking to innovate.
- Learn how to make sense of your design research.
- Create stakeholder maps and personas to help you focus on the right problems to solve.
Session 3: SEEK INSIGHTS AND REFRAME
Wednesday, September 27, 2023 /
1:00-4:00 pm EDT
- Create JourneyMaps for your Personas.
- Find opportunities to innovate and tackle the challenge.
- Reframe the challenge putting the human at the center.
Session 4: UNLEASH YOUR BIG IDEAS
Thursday, September 28, 2023 /
1:00-4:00 pm EDT
- Learn how to free your creative side and brainstorm for big ideas.
- Idea selection and write-up.
Session 5: DEVELOP YOUR IDEA INTO A SOLUTION
Friday, September 29, 2023 /
1:00-4:00 pm EDT
- Collaborate with your team on building out your chosen solution.
- Create storyboards and pitch your concepts.
- Solicit and process peer feedback.
- Refine your concept and prepare to test them.
Materials & Certification
Each participant will receive the following upon successful completion of the course:
- A copy of course presentation and reference materials.
- All course templates and frameworks in both PDF and MURAL formats.
- A certificate of completion from reshift.
Facilitators
Ezequiel
Williams
Senior Facilitator and Instructor
Ezequiel is a customer experience and innovation strategist and facilitator. He works with brave leaders who want to tackle complex problems using a combination of design thinking, anthropology, and business tools to deliver value for organizations’ customers and other stakeholders. He is a creature of the tropics and thinks there’s no place like the beach, loves dark chocolate, and is an avid podcast listener and producer.
Dana Akins- Adeyemi
Senior Facilitator and Instructor
Dana is an Innovation & Design Strategist and Educator, with over 30 years experience in Product Development, Design, and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) Education and Inclusive Design & Equity. She is a former Rhode Island School of Design Industrial Design professor and trains professional designers. She has founded K-12 programs, served on a Department of Education frameworks committee, and worked in High Tech, Biomedical, Municipalities, Higher Ed, Fortune 500, and more.