What is Design Thinking and Why is it Important?

Design thinking is a process for solving problems by prioritising the end user's needs above all else. It is solution based and user centric rather than problem based.

Design Thinking relies on observing, with empathy, how people interact with their environments, and employs an iterative, hands-on approach to creating innovative solutions.

It's about thinking how humans will engage with the product or service rather than how the organisation thinks they will engage or what they need.

It's about asking questions such as "Who will be using this product?" and "How will this solution impact the user?"

The first and most important, step of design thinking is building empathy with users. By understanding the person affected by a problem, you can find a more impactful solution. On top of empathy, design thinking is centred on observing the interaction between the user and the product, drawing conclusions based on research, and ensuring the user remains the focus of the final implementation.

To be truly human-centred, the second step is to watch how people use a product or service and continue to refine the product or service in order to improve the user's experience. This is the "iterative" part of design thinking. It favours moving quickly to get prototypes out to test, rather than endless research or rumination.

In contrast to traditional problem-solving, which is a linear process of identifying a problem and then brainstorming solutions, design thinking only works if it is iterative. It is less of a means to get to a single solution, and more of a way to continuously evolve your thinking and respond to consumer needs.

Why is Design Thinking important?

With design thinking skills comes the ability to develop product and service innovations that add value to your clients and customers' lives quickly and efficiently.

Because design thinking is so user-centric, innovative products, by definition, add value to customers' lives.

Using design thinking, you can continually iterate on existing products and create new ones that meet customer pain points as they arise—leading to greater business performance over time.

Overcome Cognitive Fixedness

One of the key tenants of design thinking is overcoming cognitive fixedness—the state of mind in which one consciously or unconsciously assumes there's only one way to interpret or approach a situation.

Design thinking requires breaking out of the box when looking at your product or service ("What else could this product/service do?") and when considering potential solutions to problems ("It's always been solved this way. What if we tried this instead?").

Like a muscle, overcoming cognitive fixedness becomes easier the more you do it. By using design thinking to guide your work, you can practice out-of-the-box thinking and excel in any problem-solving scenario.

Lead your Team Toward Innovation

Paired with leadership skills, an intimate knowledge of the design thinking process can enable you to lead innovation within your organisation.

With this framework, you can empower your team to take ownership of each part of the process, work together to pool knowledge and diverse perspectives, and track and measure tangible results.

With these 3 key points using Design Thinking saves organisations time and money and proves you to be a game changer.

This is a practical class that is suitable for all audiences, and provides participants with tools they can apply on-the-job (and in other contexts) the very next day.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

In this course participants will:

• Develop deep consumer insights
• Reframe problems to reveal innovative solutions
• Solve productivity bottlenecks
• Reduce risk and accelerate learning through rapid prototyping
• Be comfortable operating in ambiguity
• Use a creative process to manage intractable problems
• Use insights to generate better ideas faster
• Begin to instil a design culture in your organisation

Design Thinking is a proven methodology which provides a creative solution-based approach to solving problems.

It's extremely useful when tackling complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown.

Using the 5 steps of Design Thinking helps to understand the human needs involved, enables you to reframe the problem in human-centric ways, create numerous ideas through brainstorming sessions and adopts a hands-on approach to prototyping and testing.

After completing this course, participants will have learned to:

Third-party registrations:

• Small classes, average 5 people, max 16
• Prices excl. GST
• Lunch and refreshments included
• Certificate of Completion (always available in the App)
• Comprehensive courseware available in the App
• Pay on Invoice or by Credit Card