Design Thinking is a user-centered design process that consists of 5 stages (see diagram). It emphasizes understanding the needs and realities of the customer / user before applying creative techniques to develop solutions. It enables teams and individuals to combine right-brain creative thinking with left-brain analytical thinking to create ideas and develop products, services and systems that are viable and sustainable.

While the concepts of design and product development have been around for decades, Design Thinking entered the world of business in the 80s when Harvard Business School, Stanford University and the Illinois Institute of Technology introduced it as a field of study and research. Originally intended to bring user-centricity to product development, Design Thinking is now also being successfully applied in the areas of Problem Solving, Process Improvement, Innovation, Strategy Formation and Managing Change. Several corporations have adopted Design Thinking to solve problems that affect people in the real world, which has contributed to their differentiation and thus, competitiveness. If your team needs to develop or re-engineer a new product or application or service, Design Thinking will help them attain their goal through achieving the following objectives:

• Gain deep insights into what the users are trying to accomplish, before, during and after using the solution/product with EMPATHY – they understand, observe, research, ask questions and learn of the users’ environment and needs without quick judgement.
• Bring together their learning to DEFINE and articulate a precise problem statement.
• Brainstorm (or IDEATE) a diverse set of solution ideas that may include new products or services.
• Creating PROTOTYPES, they make their ideas tangible with quick, low-resolution mock-ups.
• TEST their prototypes with the intended users in order to get feedback and refine their ideas.

Our 2-day workshop introduces participants to the 5-stage Design Thinking process and the various tools associated with each stage. Participants learn to use the tools of the 5 stages with the help of activities and exercises when they work as a team on an actual class project.