What is design thinking? How has it evolved? What is the paradigm of “learning by doing” all about and how can you apply it to solve the challenges that you’re currently facing? Answer all these questions in the first module of this dynamic course.

Learn the powerful mindsets and ways of working that design thinking offers you on your path to increasing your creative confidence. Armed with what you learn in this introductory module about how you can better solve problems, select a personal or professional challenge that you want to explore using this methodology and begin working on your chosen challenge immediately, applying the design thinking mindsets you’ve just learned. In other words, you will begin to learn by doing!

Examine the effectiveness of empathy as a tool in understanding human-centered challenges, and the power of defining your target for solution-building. Develop a “point of view” (POV) that will help you understand the problem space from the perspective of the “user” or the person or people who is/are facing the challenge. As you hone in on the problem space, you will also have time to reflect on where you are in the process, and how your synthesis of the data you’ve collected is helping you define the problem better. This module will help you become a better sleuth in search of insights that are core to problem definition.

Often, we define a problem and think we’re done. However, there are ways to reframe and redefine challenges that can really help us innovate when it comes to solutions. The key is detachment. In this module, you will learn to apply tools that help you examine problems differently, and decide how you want to reframe your chosen challenge in more useful ways. You might look at a problem through the lenses of space, scale, or time, or choose to delve deeper into the reasons for the existence of the challenge. This step will allow you to bypass your usual ways of thinking and analyzing.

After some time spent focusing on the problem space, it is time to flare outward and generate many solution ideas, without holding back! This is the ideation phase, which allows you to brainstorm with unrestricted energy, going for volume of ideas without judging any of them. In the very next step, you will begin to screen ideas and then visualize and build a solution to yourchosen challenge. This is the most energizing phase, and we will prototype in an atmosphere where playfulness is not only possible, but vigorously encouraged. These steps will snap you out of your usual ways of thinking, and plunge you into a timed sequence of events that will boost your creative confidence. You will prepare to show your solution idea to users and obtain their feedback.

Once you have built a solution, it’s time to test it with your users. This phase will look at the results of your user testing and provide a space for you to revise your solution idea based on feedback, and other lenses, including behavioral science and biomimicry. As you revise your solution, you will begin to see the importance of integrating different methods, and the efficacy of design thinking as a tool for systematic creativity. This module offers a gateway to synthesis beyond the traditional scope of any one body of knowledge.

As we come to the close of the course, you will have an opportunity to analyze your own lifestyle and routines and figure out ways to make innovation a new habit in your life. Not only will you have space to plan out how to implement the solution you have designed, but also to go beyond this exercise and think about how to continue being creative each week personally and/or professionally. You will explore how to bring these methods to your colleagues and teams. We will also be reflecting on the course and other challenges you want to solve moving forward. This is only the beginning of what you can achieve with your creative confidence!