Category: Design Thinking

What is Design Thinking and how can teachers get started?

Design ThinkingPublished onUpdated on1 Comment on What is Design Thinking and how can teachers get started?

With this introductory guide to design thinking for educators, we lay the foundations for better problem solving and creative ideas.

Use this introduction as a launchpad for your further research, skill development and professional growth in creative problem solving with design thinking.

Table of Contents

What is Design Thinking?

Design thinking is a creative, human-centred process for developing new ideas and solving problems.

The design process includes five phases: empathising with the user, identifying needs and defining the problem, envisioning what could be, generating potential solutions, prototyping ideas and testing prototypes with users.

The five phases are often labelled:

  1. Empathise
  2. Define
  3. Ideate
  4. Prototype
  5. Test

Design thinking aims to uncover creative solutions for complex problems through generating ideas, testing them with stakeholders, and refining them in an iterative process until they are ready for implementation.

The process is often illustrated - this is an example of the Double Diamond representation of the Design thinking process.
The process is often illustrated – this is an example of the Double Diamond representation of the Design process.

Why is it called design thinking?

For professional designers and design-oriented creatives, design thinking is their standard process or way of doing things.

Many disciplines, including education, have co-opted design thinking techniques to develop innovative solutions or product development processes.

Design thinking is also sometimes called design-led innovation or a design methodology. It is a series of:

design-specific cognitive activities that designers apply during the process of designing

Visser, W. 2006

The opportunity in education is for us to use design methods and designerly ways of thinking intentionally.

My experience across the last decade of applying these methods for thinking in an education setting challenges and provokes new ways of approaching long-standing problems and issues.

Who invented design thinking?

Design thinking originated from design disciplines, creativity research and design practice between the 1940s and 1960s.

One of the first authors to write about design thinking was John E. Arnold (1959), who identified design thinking as a design methodology. Arnold distinguishes four areas of design thinking and developmental change:

  1. Novel functionality
  2. Higher levels of performance
  3. Lower production costs
  4. Increased saleability

The term design thinking came into widespread use in the 2000s when David Kelley, founder of the design consultancy IDEO, shifted design thinking from creative engineering to innovation management. 

Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.

Tim Brown, Chair of IDEO

Although our experience in education with design thinking is in the last 10-15 years, the practice goes back much further—a good reminder of the limitations of our use as non-design professionals.

Create a space for your design thinking work
Create a space for your design thinking work

Design Thinking Steps

The design thinking process is made up of five steps or stages. What are the 5 stages of design thinking?:

  1. Empathise
  2. Define
  3. Ideate
  4. Prototype
  5. Test

Let’s have a closer look at each and expand further on what is involved in the different phases of design thinking:

Empathise

In the opening phase of the process, the goal is to understand better who is at the heart of the problem or issue. A range of design research techniques is used to understand the problem area, including interviews, mapping and user surveys.

We might be speaking to students and families in the education context, observing and working with different community groups. Anything that helps us listen to the stakeholders at the heart of the issue we explore.

Define

The goal of the Define phase is to synthesise information and write a clearly framed problem statement. You might be thinking, ‘do we not start with the problem?’ This is a valid question and is one of the critical ideas to explore with design thinking.

I often say that the process of design thinking helps us start from further back. The empathy phase challenges us to listen and understand the needs of people involved before we fixate on a specific problem or solution.

Ideate

This is where design thinking diverges from the norm. We are no longer trying to find a single solution or ‘fix’ to an identified problem. The design process prompts us to consider many ideas and solutions, even if they are potential future options.

The structured process of idea generation helps us develop a range of alternative solutions. Once we have a range of ideas to explore, we can filter and analyse the proposed solutions before identifying something to invest in further and prototype.

Prototype

After much creative work, it’s time to prototype your ideas into something tangible that can be tested with people involved in the project. You might reconnect with the school community groups that you spoke with in the empathise phase.

A key benefit of design thinking is its ability to test early and often through prototyping. Prototyping and testing are part of the same tight feedback loop. The reason we prototype is to gain feedback.

Prototypes should be designed to ask a question and get some data about something you’re interested in. Good prototypes isolate one aspect of a problem and design an experience that allows you to “try out” some version of a potentially interesting future.

Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Test

As ideas are tested, the design thinker will learn more about what works well in practice and refocus efforts accordingly. Any feedback or insight is used in the creative process to inform the next iteration of the solution.

In education, this prototyping and testing often get overlooked for a Pilot programme, and it is worth dwelling on the difference for a moment.

Pilot studies or programmes tend to be more advanced real-world solutions with more significant investment. A prototype test is generally on a much smaller experimental scale.

Is design thinking a linear process?

Design thinking is often referred to as a linear process, and while the design thinker will understand the value of each step and be applying them in order, there can be some ambiguity.

Search for a diagram of the design thinking process, and it looks orderly, linear and structured. However, in practice, the design thinking process is flexible and can be extended or iterated based on feedback from testing. Prototyping and testing is the design thinker’s key feedback loop.

As with any creative process, design thinking is an iterative design, research, creativity, and testing process. It is common for teachers and leaders to return to the initial phases to explore other opportunities or possibilities with different stakeholders.

The design thinking process is flexible enough to move around within it, returning to previous steps while also seeking new forms of inspiration and insight. It’s not about finding ‘the answer’ – design thinkers are mindful that there is rarely just one perfect solution.

They know that through design thinking, they can explore many ideas in parallel without siloing their efforts into one project at a time.

IMG 20191003 102916
Architects and designers working together

When is design thinking relevant?

To answer this question, let’s return to design thinking’s roots in design, which is about creating successful outcomes through innovation, research and prototyping. Everything begins with design.

Designers identify a problem or opportunity to design something better for people who will use it. Design thinking is relevant when working on creative solutions that need to be user-centred and grounded in empathy research.

Design thinking can be used by educators, school leaders, and teachers to grapple with complex community problems. The sort of challenges that seem connected to many aspects of the educational experience and need collaboration to understand.

Design thinking is not relevant for specific operational challenges or urgent matters impacting the school.

How design thinking helps

There is a range of benefits to teachers and education leaders for using design thinking. These include:

  • Strengthening critical and creative thinking.
  • Solution-based approach to address complex problem-solving.
  • Design thinking provides a framework to design creative solutions.
  • Design thinking helps with a better understanding of what is happening on the ground, close to home. Real issues that affect the school community.
  • Design solutions that are more innovative, creative and engaging.
  • Design thinking help to design future possibilities for students.
  • New insights into how people learn, what they need and where design can make a difference.
  • A collaborative approach to design, research and prototyping.
  • Facilitates a deeper understanding of school community challenges that could lead to more innovative, creative or engaging design solutions.
Working with PNG secondary teachers to use design thinking in curriculum planning.
Design thinking with curriculum planning in PNG

How to get started with design thinking in education?

The best way to get started with design thinking is to experience it with your team. Explore design thinking as a school or district. You may even want to design something yourself.

Start with the design thinking process described above and commit it to paper for your team to discuss together. Where could you apply design thinking in your practice? How might design thinking help make a difference at your school?

Remember to explore issues in your school community that are complex and human-centred. Here are some general themes and areas to consider:

  • Assessment and reporting
  • Community engagement
  • Curriculum design and development
  • Teaching and learning (onsite and offsite)
  • Student voice and agency
  • Community wellbeing

You may also enjoy diving deeper into design thinking with my self-paced course, ideal for building your skills or learning with your team. Find out more about my online course below.

Articles for further reading

Conclusion and Summary

Design thinking is a design-centred, user-focused process that can help educators and school leaders to design creative solutions for complex challenges.

Design thinkers use design, research and prototyping as they work on problems in education communities. With design thinking, you’ll be able to strengthen your critical and creative thinking skills. While also addressing complex problem solving through solution-based approaches or more innovative ideas.

You will get better insights into what’s happening close to home by seeking out new forms of inspiration and understanding rather than finding the answer right away.

Unlock Your Creative Potential

Join me and take your first steps with Design Thinking. Drawn from a decade of facilitation and experience, my course is fully loaded with the essential strategies, resources and tips to support your successful first step. Let’s get to work!

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Feedback Is Oxygen For Your Ideas — Start With A Minimum Verbal Prototype

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Drafting or prototyping is one of the later stages of the design process. Our approach and mindset have the potential to influence anything we create.

The key to success: share your ideas early and often.

Activate the feedback loop as early as you can — Photo by ThisIsEngineering

Minimum Verbal Prototype

One of the simplest prototypes you can create is to describe your idea to someone else.

  • What if we
  • Why don’t we
  • Imagine that we

Your Minimum Verbal Prototype or MVP is a more rounded description of your idea — not just one of many ideas on a list. Your verbal outline creates the first impression and helps someone understand your initial intent.

The MVP is the kick to begin representing your idea in a more tangible way.

The Word prototype is from Greek prōtotypon “a first or primitive form,” from prōtos “first” + typos ‘impression, mould, pattern.”

Prototyping is not the goal. Feedback is.

A different way to approach prototyping is:

To engineer as many opportunities for feedback as you can.

Feedback is the main reason we share drafts. Rough and ready versions give us the chance to test and think about what works and what doesn’t.

And to truly understand how bad our ideas are.

Feedback is oxygen for your ideas.

When you share a First Verbal Prototype, you activate a feedback loop to develop your creative ideas.

Remember, the only thing worse than a bad idea is to isolate an idea from feedback for too long.

Feedback is oxygen for your ideas. It will help them grow and get stronger, starved of it, and your ideas weaken.

This is a snippet of my Dialogic Learning Weekly. ⚡A weekly email designed to build your cognitive toolkit and enhance your practice. It saves you time and provokes your thinking.

Exactly the nourishment I need on a weekly basis.

⚡️ Subscribe now and get started this week.

How To Improve With The Start Stop Continue Retrospective

Design Thinking, Discussion, Mental ModelsPublished onUpdated on1 Comment on How To Improve With The Start Stop Continue Retrospective

The Start Stop Continue routine has been around for decades. It is commonly used as a ‘retrospective’ activity in Agile development and Scrum meetings.

Our development toolkit is filled with templates, activities and protocols for reflection, but often the simplest tool can be the most effective.

In this post, I explore the fundamental components of the reflection, how you can use it and the benefits. I also share an extended version that gives you some new options to try in your next review session.

Before you finish make sure you grab a copy of the editable PDF resource for the Start Stop Continue extended version. You can use it in your next meeting.

Start Stop Continue

In its simplest form, the protocol explores the three actions of its namesake. When you are reviewing the development of your project or even your own teaching practice, ask these three simple questions.

  • What should I stop doing?
  • What should I keep doing?
  • What should I start doing?

What are the benefits?

  • Provides a clear and comprehensive structure for agreeing on and setting actions.
  • Helps teams explore different types of improvements, using three different triggers.
  • Makes it easier for individuals to talk about what is not working and clarify issues.
  • Simple and memorable enough to be conducted quickly with little preparation.
  • Flexible enough to be valuable for individuals or large teams.

How do I facilitate the Start Stop Continue?

The first thing to do is grab a copy of the editable PDF resource for the Start Stop Continue. All of the sample questions below are included in the download.

This retrospective model will help you and your team explore what is working, what is not effective and what might be useful to try.

To support this and make it easier for participants, use some of the example questions below:

Start

  • What practices do you need to START doing?
  • Outline some of the new ideas that you want to start?
  • What are the habits you want to start?

Stop

  • What negative practices do you need to STOP?
  • What are the low-impact processes which need to stop?
  • What do you need to stop investing in?

Continue

  • What established practices do you need to CONTINUE doing?
  • Which aspects of your work need to be maintained?
  • What needs continued investment to maintain the impact you want to see?

A useful hack from Sarah Beldo, Head of Content and Communications at Miro, is to switch the order a little:

I’ve found that people find it easier to think about what already exists – both the good (“continue”) and the bad (“stop”), before venturing into uncharted territory (“start”).

Sarah Beldo, 7 retrospective templates we love and use at Miro
Start Stop Continue

Extend Your Reflection

Beyond the core Start Stop Continue routine, we can extend the reflection protocol in a few different directions. I think these provocations offer some much-needed nuance to the activity.

For example, the option to Pause, and not just Stop, is a useful distinction. The addition of shifting the thinking frame forward and back in time helps us to consider some important strategic modes of reflection.

I have developed the following additional provocations to complement the core trio and help you facilitate a comprehensive reflection.

Improve

  • What aspects of your practice can you IMPROVE?
  • Which parts of your project have room for growth?
  • What changes can you make to increase the impact?

Pause

  • Which elements of our work need to be PAUSED to allow resources to shift elsewhere?
  • Which projects would benefit from a short developmental hiatus?
  • Which projects are a priority and would benefit from other elements being PAUSED?

Fast Forward

  • Which aspects of this project would benefit from an increase in pace?
  • How might we increase the speed of development?
  • In the future what might be a block or challenge to the success of this?

Rewind

  • What have we learned from the story of development so far?
  • If we returned to the beginning of this project what would we start with?
  • What can we learn from how this problem was handled in the past?

Challenge

  • Which assumptions do we need to CHALLENGE?
  • What bias do you need to talk about and better understand?
  • What will you do to disrupt and challenge the status quo?

Download your editable PDF

If you are interested in this extended version of the model you can download an editable PDF. Just subscribe to my weekly newsletter and I will send you a copy.

Potential Uses and Applications

  • You have reached the end of a teaching placement, and you want to capture your reflections.
  • Your team is making progress with the implementation of a new programme prototype and you want to refine the approach.
  • You want a simple structure to use with your coach to reflect on the past few weeks.
  • During a weekly catchup with one of your team, you want to implement a simple structure for personal/professional mentorship.
  • At the beginning of the term, you want a framework for some collective reflection for your class.
  • You have moved into new learning spaces and need a tool to review what is working and what needs changing.

Further Reading and Resources

7 retrospective templates we love and use at Miro – MiroBlog | A blog by Miro. (2020)

Start, Stop, Continue Tutorial by Say, M. | Forbes. (2021)

The Stop, Start, Continue Approach To Feedback | The World of Work Project. (2019)

Start Stop Continue Template & Start Stop Continue Retrospective | Miro Template Library. (2021)

Design Better How Might We Statements

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It is widespread for us all to wrestle with the DEFINE stage of design thinking as we try and seek out a well-defined how might we statement. This might be true of your team, or perhaps your students struggle with writing a clear How Might We (HMW) statement.

If we have fully committed to the previous EMPATHY stage, we have a bucketload of data and insight for our design challenge. We are also switching our thinking mode and mindset from divergent to convergent. That change can often be tricky. We are attempting to make sense of the information we have gathered. The DEFINE phase brings clarity as you make connections and see some directions to explore.

But how do we know we have clearly defined a problem? What makes a good HMW statement from a great one? What should we focus on when offering critique to improve them? What do we know works best in this phase?

In this post, I have gathered together some of my key recommendations to improve your problem defining efforts. These are my top strategies and tactics for navigating the DEFINE stage of design thinking and creating compelling how might we statements.

Is The Problem Worth Solving?

We develop how might we statement in the DEFINE stage of design thinking. The problem should clearly state and define a genuine need or issue. Whatever happens next has to be worthy of your time and creative effort. Your defined problem should coherently represent the issue you are addressing and the learning you have experienced so far.

Once you have some examples, a good question is: How do we know this is the issue we need to resolve? This question will force you to connect back to the previous work and justify your choices.

The Goldilocks Problem

My standard approach to developing an HMW statement, or critiquing them, is to use the Goldilocks Principle. You can use this to offer feedback and review the versions and ideas you have created. We are looking for a balanced problem statement. Not too narrow and not too broad. It has to be just right.

A narrowly scoped challenge won’t offer enough room to explore creative solutions. And a broadly scoped challenge won’t give you any idea of where to start.

(DesignKit)

Consider the following HMW statement about adapting and changing the physical learning environment. Notice the different versions and how each iteration broadens or narrows:

HOW MIGHT WE change the classroom to provide my students with more opportunities for choice in their learning? (Too broad)

HOW MIGHT WE change the room layout and types of chairs to provide my students with more opportunities for choice in their learning? (Too narrow)

HOW MIGHT WE make small changes to my learning space this term to provide my students with more opportunities for choice in their learning? (Just right)

Start and Iterate

Developing a powerful HMW question is an iterative process and takes tweaks and many versions. It is easy to get stuck wondering where to start. Perhaps you are looking at all the interviews you did or student data you have gathered and begin to feel overwhelmed. My best advice is to get started writing some HMWs down, and then you can refine and iterate as you go.

What is your 4th Word?

Focus on the fourth word. The imperative, the fourth word, signals the action. We use the How Might We structure, so the fourth word is the first choice you have in crafting a problem. Consider what action you want from this creative problem-solving process.

Is this aligned with what we are trying to achieve? Is it aligned with the needs of the people we have interviewed? “How might we encourage” is very different from “How might we direct.”

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Image from Doug Belshaw, CC-BY-SA

Language Inspiration

Explore word banks and vocabulary sets to support students with fourth-word choices. I sometimes use Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs as a good starting point.

Explore the verbs from the taxonomy. There is plenty of inspiration and options to consider.

It is powerful to have alternatives to our stock language: create, help, support, make, implement. Sometimes more nuanced word choice helps capture our intentions better.

Breadcrumb Trails

Keep it connected to the EMPATHY phase. Ask yourself: where is the evidence for this focus in the data we gathered? Which insight or experience tells me this is a real need? Force yourself to articulate the breadcrumb trail back to the EMPATHY stage again and again. That will help you develop a rigorous and well-defined problem, not just something in response to your bias or interpretation.

Stick to a Template

Use the HMW template to help comprehensively build each element of the statement. Explore the quality of the different parts as well as the overall idea and how it reads. What are we trying to communicate with each element? Who are we helping?

How Might We Statement Template
Use this template for writing your How Might We statement.

Focus on Your Intended Impact

Pay attention to the part of the statement that signals your intended impact, the “In order to…” element. What change are you looking for? Share feedback about the desired effect we are seeking from this process. Consider how it is aligned to the needs of the people at the centre of the issue.

A great provocation for problem framing is to finish the sentence, “It’s not right that.” This helps us focus on impact, unmet needs and genuine problems people are facing. Thanks to Annie Parker for teaching me this back when I ran the Google Teacher Academy in Sydney in 2014.

It’s not right that________

Fill in the blank

Resist Excessive Wordsmithery

Try not to wordsmith the problem statement too much. We can easily get bogged down in the language and start to split hairs over small changes. Yes, I know this might seem to contradict the use of word banks – design thinking is full of tensions.

Remember this problem definition phase is there to help you. We are not writing to impress others. Be clear and concrete in your writing style and try to avoid too much jargon and abstractions. Does it represent the needs of the people we have connected with? Is our intention clearly stated?

Take the time you need

Please don’t rush this phase, as it will have a knock-on impact on the remaining process. I have seen many design thinking processes grind to a halt because of a lack of investment in the DEFINE phase. There is no need to rush to ideas. Take your time to identify a significant unmet need and define it clearly.

A clearly focused problem statement invariably yields both greater quantity and higher quality solutions.

(Stanford d.school)

One of the most powerful ways to know whether you are on the right track with the problem DEFINING phase is to listen to your team’s reactions and trust your judgment. If the problem you have defined is a genuine reflection of the needs of the people you are trying to help, you now have the responsibility to CRACK ON and figure it out.

Let me know what resonates, and if you would like some independent critique on your ideas, email me your HMW statements. I would be happy to help.

Some other readings worth exploring

Download a FREE Problem Framing Resource (PDF)

I have updated and refreshed my popular Problem Framing Resource, which hundreds of design thinkers use to support their work in the DEFINE stage of DESIGN THINKING. You can download a FREE copy of the PDF below.

Click here to download

Download a free copy of my Design Thinking – Problem Framing resource by subscribing to my small but perfectly formed newsletter, the Dialogic Learning Weekly – ideas and insight about Innovation, Leadership and Learning.

  • Step by step process and detailed instructions for you to follow.
  • Key provocations to challenge your thinking.
  • Space to iterate and create multiple versions.
  • A tried and tested template for writing HMW statements.
  • Graphic organiser structure.

Featured photo by Thanos Pal on Unsplash

Set Your Design Thinking Process up for Success

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On Tuesday I co-facilitated a design thinking education event with Google in Melbourne. We worked alongside 50 teachers from Catholic schools.

It got me wondering about what it takes to get the most from a design thinking (DT) process. Although my lense is for teachers and education teams, these ideas apply to anyone using the DT process.

For each idea, I have shared some links to further articles and readings to allow you to dig deeper.

Context

Design Thinking (DT) has to be meaningful for us to make the most from it. Connecting to a clear context is a vital commitment. We might do this by thinking clearly about the people at the heart of the problem. Unless we have a meaningful purpose we might easily check out.

Collaboration

Forming a team to work with is a basic tenet of quality design thinking. Every phase of DT benefits from sharing and critique from others. In fact when we say “How Might We” we are signalling our intent to share and create a solution with others.

Concept

Our willingness to explore ideas that are barely formed is a critical disposition. In fact, we might say this is a prototyping disposition. Ideas and solutions from DT are often first explored in conceptual ways. We need to know when to bridge from this to enacted or built forms.

  • IMG 20200218 071055
  • IMG 20200218 090457
  • IMG 20200218 140455 2

Challenge

There has to be enough of this component to instil an urgent, edge of your seat, discomfort to do good. Our message to the teachers was to take the ideas and make them happen. Build-in milestones and opportunities for really early (painfully early) feedback with the people we are trying to help. Increasing the level of challenge often materialises from connecting our DT process to a real context or stakeholder group. Invite them in to see your results – keep the whole effort grounded in who we are trying to help.

Conditions

The teachers working with us were outside of their normal physical space. The renowned function and aesthetic of a Google workplace formed a provocative backdrop for our group. This was not just the living moss wall Google sign in the Melbourne office or perfectly formed booths, it is what these spaces represent. If we want more creative thinking in our schools, we need to consider how the physical environment can mediate that.

Another key reflection from one of the participants about the conditions was time. I know that allowing ourselves dedicated time to immerse in a topic or challenge is very powerful. It often feels like a luxury, but we will likely be more creative and productive if we can be present and focused.

Critique

One of the ways I describe the prototyping phase of DT is that it is about communicating your idea so that other people can share feedback. A prototype is not an end of itself. It is created to provoke critique from others so that we can refine our idea and make another version.

But the impact of critique cuts through the whole process. Early feedback helps us understand we are on track. Critique about our reframed problem always provides a new perspective or language we can use.

Culture

The big question for us all is how we shift the culture in our schools. The design thinking process challenges our capacities and dispositions – perhaps stretching them in new ways.

But really it is the persistent, ongoing, intentional use of the DT protocols and practices that reap the greatest reward. Not just once every term but an effort over many months and years.

When we utilise DT day in day out. When we normalise the language and the critical thinking expectations, that come with DT, it elevates the impact beyond just a process to a better collaborative culture.

An interesting mix of ideas there for you to ponder on. Certainly not an exhaustive list of the considerations, but a strong set of provocations nonetheless.

In order for us to make the most of the Design Thinking process we need the tools and activities, but perhaps, more importantly, we need to intentionally build the best possible conditions for the deeply creative and critical thinking that occurs.

Google for Education, Forward events are an opportunity for Educators, IT leaders, Googlers and Design Thinkers to tackle some of the big educational challenges we face. This is a chance to bring your creativity, collaboration skills and critical thinking to an authentic challenge.

Drop me a note if you are interested in learning more about these events.

tom@dialogiclearning.com