Do you have a problem you need to solve or do you want to make a difference in your community? Design thinking might be for you.
Design thinking gives us a process to come up with solutions to big and small problems…it helps us gain back our creative confidence.
BRIEF HISTORY
Why I Started Learning About Design Thinking.
I first started learning about design thinking a few years ago when I went overseas and encountered problems that I had no idea how to solve. I understood the issues in education but didn't even know how to begin to address the problems. I had seen how microfinance helped in places like Tajikistan and so when I encountered child slavery, I turned to business to see if there were any answers.
That is when I came across design thinking.
A Brief History of IDEO. I came across this company several years ago when I first started learning about design thinking.
When I read and watched videos about IDEO, I realized that they had something our students had. They work in teams with different majors to solve challenges. Our students have that and also in groups from different countries.
IDEO helped Steve Jobs invent Apple's first mouse. Later in IDEO's history, others came to the company needing a wide array of problems fixed.
Now they helped start Stanford University's Design Thinking School and they have their materials free there. David Kelley, one of the founders of IDEO, wrote a book called Creative Confidence along with his brother. https://www.creativeconfidence.com/
He gave a Ted Talk several years ago and that Ted Talk is basically the introduction of his book.https://www.ted.com/talks/david_kelley_how_to_build_your_creative_confidence
A few Successes
There are several ways in which the company and design thinking has made a difference. Here is just one:
In the book and also in their own Ted Talk, a group called Embrace Innovations talks about the challenged they solved. When they were at Stanford's D School, they were given the challenge to find a cheaper incubator.
Here is a picture of an incubator:
Do you know what an incubator does? It helps save babies that were born too early. They cost $20,000 and so there was no way someone who was poor could afford one. They wanted to help premature babies live and not die.
The group of students from Stanford used design thinking and discovered that they didn't need a cheaper incubator. They needed to keep babies warm so they created a way to do that. Do you know how much it costs? $25.
The Process
Over the years I looked at different sites, read a lot, did design thinking challenges with my students and then modified the process some because my purpose in doing design thinking was to give the tools to my students who could make a difference in their own community when they went back to their countries.
1.We begin with Stanford D School's wallet exercise, https://dschool.stanford.edu/groups/designresources/wiki/4dbb2/The_Wallet_Project.html
2.Then we come up with our own design challenges.
3.We look at the process and learn about it in depth. Here is a quick summary of that process and how I have adapted it.
4.I then give them resources so that they can learn more.