Kursthemen
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The EduBox Design Thinking is part of a series of educational resources for self-learning, teaching and improving future skills. The EduBoxes developed so far strengthen competencies that are fundamental now and in the coming decades. These include transformative thinking, the ability to develop innovative ideas, a high level of connectivity in collaboration and the skill full use of technologies. Design Thinking is an established agile project method and as such also invigorates these types of future skills.
Design Thinking is a mindset and approach to problem-solving and finds its application across many industries and business sectors to address common users and business problems in particular to optimise the process of product creation and for finding innovative solutions. It is a method that is characterised by several special features:
- User-centricity: The focus of Design Thinking is on people and puts the needs, desires and problems of the users at the centre. Therefore, the process begins with a thorough understanding and empathy for the experiences and emotions of the users as well as the challenges they face. The aim is to fully understand these from the users' perspective. For this reason, For this reason, it is vital to clearly define the relevant stakeholders.
- Framing: A lot of emphasis is placed on defining the problem clearly and concisely before seeking a solution. This process often reveals that the initial problem statements need to be refined in order to address the real issues at stake. Problems are often reframed to look at them from different angles and from the perspectives of specific target groups.
- Diverse perspectives through interdisciplinary teamwork in diverse teams: Design Thinking promotes collaboration between people from different backgrounds and with different skills. The diversity of perspectives within the team helps to explore new perspectives and seek creative approaches to problem solving. This often leads to innovative ideas and solutions that an individual person might not come up with.
- Creativity and innovation: The process encourages brainstorming, creative and unconventional thinking. Ideas are collected without being immediately evaluated or rejected, which can lead to unexpected and often groundbreaking solutions. Experimentation, testing and developing ideas is encouraged without fear of failure.
- Iterative approach: Solutions are developed in the form of prototypes that are quickly created and tested. This allows feedback to be obtained at an early stage which allows continuous adjustments to be made. Since the process is iterative, the team can always refer back to earlier phases and incorporate new insights. Mistakes are considered to be part of the process and are used to make improvements.
Phases of Design Thinking
The method is typically divided into five phases:
- Empathise – understanding the needs and problems of users.
- Define – defining the central problem.
- Ideate – generating as many ideas as possible.
- Prototype – creating simple, testable prototypes.
- Test – testing the prototypes with users and gathering feedback.
Overall, the user-centred approach, iterative approach and interdisciplinary collaboration make Design Thinking a particularly suitable method for developing creative and innovative solutions to complex problems.
Topics
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Welcome ...
... to this visual journey. It illustrates the different pathways of the Design Thinking process and introduces you to the different steps you are going to take in tackling your challenge.
You can download the collected images of this learning journey as a pdf file in two formats, in DIN A4 format for reading it on your screen or as a print version in DIN A5 format:
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The EduBox "Design Thinking" was originally developed as a transfer task and exercise for the EduBox "Working in virtual intercultural teams". It is designed to facilitate the practical application of working in virtual intercultural teams (see the eponymous EduBox) while addressing the challenges of team building, time management and organisational issues when preparing a pitch for the outcome of collaborative work. The employment of Design Thinking as the guiding methodology fosters the cultivation of competencies such as multi-perspectivity and creativity, thereby setting the foundation for future skill development.
The EduBox “Design Thinking” is designed to be utilised in two distinct capacities: firstly, as an independent online course, enabling the acquisition and practical application of the Design Thinking method, alongside the aforementioned future skills; and secondly, as a practical exercise following the completion of the Virtual Intercultural Teams e-learning course. It is imperative to emphasise that effective management of the team is paramount, entailing observation, reflection, and adjustment of collaborative work within one's own team. It should be noted that this course is designed for group learning and cannot be undertaken independently. To fully reap the benefits of Design Thinking, it is essential that the collaborating team has a minimum of four members. A team of four to eight is ideal.
Although this trainer manual generally supports teaching the course “Design Thinking”, it focuses on the more complex second variant, which involves consciously shaping and reflecting on teamwork in an intercultural setting. It specifically describes the procedures, challenges and risks that arose when two groups of people, each of whom were geographically dispersed and lacked prior acquaintance with one another used the EduBox and worked on a project together. In total,40 people were divided into teams of five and went through the course to work on given challenges using Design Thinking.
Background to the trainer manual
The trainer manual incorporates the experiences of four test runs. In none of these did the learning material, documents or videos pertaining to the method pose any significant challenges to the users. However, developing into a team and working as a team proved to be challenging for all participants. The fact that all teams were both intercultural and multidisciplinary added to the challenge. Consequently, in addition to the attractiveness of learning to apply Design Thinking methods, the course is an excellent way to consciously learn and reflect on working collaboratively in a virtual heterogeneous team.
This manual is formulated on the assumption that the facilitator has prior experience in project management, team building and support in virtual environments, as well as facilitating online learning processes. The course encompasses a slide set and order to follow the descriptions and recommendations, it is recommended that the set of slides provided for the learning sessions (marked in yellow below) be viewed simultaneously while reading this manual.
As mentioned, the approach presented here has been successfully tested several times. In each round, a total of 40 master's students from different subjects and universities participated and were led by at least two teachers. Of course, the approach taken can be modified e.g. when smaller sized groups or other configurations are involved.
Because of the large group size, we decided to bring in an expert on Design Thinking to support us occasionally. We also made use of a virtual teamwork expert, who helped teams carry out climate checks and assisted with team conflict management. Of course, it was an added plus to have these two experts on board but if you are familiar with leading virtual teamwork and its challenges, the Design Thinking approach and the mediation of team conflicts, two facilitators are fully sufficient.
It is well known that a Design Thinking process can be completed in just a few days, especially when the event involves face-to-face interaction and is led by a professional agile coach. In other settings, more time is needed. This is particularly the case when teams are spatially distributed, as well as when a lot of self-work is required or when teams work without a moderator.
To successfully acquire and implement the methodological steps of the DT course, as well as to create project results alongside other activities without too much stress, it is essential to plan a minimum of eight weeks between kick-off and evaluation. Our best practice recommendation follows the pattern below. It is designed so that the learning material is made available after the first meeting and session. Our experience is that this helps to reduce complexity in the beginning.
As can be seen from the plan below, we had four plenary sessions with all participants, one meeting with each team, which was mandatory, and one meeting for support and consultation if needed.
Structure and timeline of online meetings
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Kick-off Meeting (mandatory plenary session with all participants, 3 hours of work plus breaks)
- The Kick-off meeting is followed by a self-learning phase to sift through the material.
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Follow-up Meeting (mandatory plenary session with the whole group, one week later, 3 hours of work plus breaks)
- The follow-up meeting marks the beginning of the intensive work phase in the teams.
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Consultation
- We made ourselves available online on fixed days in order to provide support during the implementation phase.
- A consultation session of three hours for expert advice was also offered.
- Every team had to take part in one mid-way evaluation and coaching meeting focusing on team dynamics.
- In addition, shortly before the pitches, one voluntary online meeting aimed at preparing the pitch and answering final questions relating to the self-work phase in teams was offered.
Session Pitches I (mandatory plenary session, with all participants, 3 hours of work plus breaks)
Session Pitches II (mandatory plenary session with all participants preferably the next day, 3 hours of work plus breaks) + Evaluation session (either included in session pitches II or on a separate date)>
Having developed, evaluated and reworked the teaching and learning material for the EduBox Design Thinking” as well as having applied it in practice with more than 120 participants we would like to introduce you to our best practices, which may serve as an inspiration for you as a trainer.
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As already mentioned, the initial starting point to create the EduBox Design Thinking (DT) was to have a practice-oriented transfer course linked to the EduBox Virtual Intercultural Teams (VIT). Due to different framework conditions, not all participants of the Design Thinking course were able to engage intensively with the topic of working in virtual intercultural teams from a theoretical point of view, i.e., to work through the EduBox “Virtual Intercultural Teams” beforehand.
We tried to deal with this situation by implementing different approaches.
- Half of the 40 participants worked through the EduBox VIT beforehand so that the knowledge was potentially available in all teams.
- Participants were asked to read through the EduBox VIT and were asked to reflect on which sessions they found particularly informative.
- We gave recommendations on which units of the EduBox VIT should be read in addition to the Design Thinking course.
We discovered that prior experience with the VIT EduBox is not an essential requirement for using the EduBox Design Thinking. However, to work with Design Thinking under complex conditions without having been sensitised to the challenges of virtual teamwork in heterogenous teams, is bordering on a social experiment. Having been used to working virtually since the pandemic began, most assume that they already ‘know how’ to do so. Our experience is that there is a lot to learn if teams really want to benefit from the knowledge and experience available in their diverse team. Team dynamics in virtual collaboration, especially when it comes to common goals, products and services remain a challenge.
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- EduBoxes Design Thinking and if at all possible, the complete or parts of the EduBox Virtual Intercultural Teams
- Design Thinking course as a pdf for reading and as a slide show for practical use (to enable the participants to access the tool templates)
- A slide set for facilitators for the kick-off session
- A slide set for facilitators to be used when following up the kick-off session
- Your preferred tools for collaborative work during interactive units in the sessions (like mentimeter, mural, miro …)
- Your choice of tools for evaluation
- Design Thinking, a learning journey
