How to build human centered design mindset
A view of the benefits and success elements of an in-house Design Thinking training to learn in practice solving problems and create value.
This article was written together with Chiara Parmiani, Valeria Fai.
Design Thinking has become a well-known term in many organizations. However, there is still a gap between theoretical knowledge and practical applicability among employees to overcome.
At the same time, various companies nowadays run their business, cultural and digital transformations concentrating their goals on people’s needs. In this scenario, more and more organizations, instead of acquiring external support, set the goal to invest in developing internal research and design competencies.
To support the change and the expansion of a “design mindset” in the organization, in-house collaboration of Research and Design teams came up with a structured education practice addressed to colleagues from numerous departments of the whole organization. It assists overall mindset change by facilitating cross-functional collaboration in the company, helping build bridges between organizational units, and increasing employee satisfaction rates. Moreover, it contributes to revenue growth by improving financial performance and accelerating goals reach.
The Design Academy, as we named the training internally, is thought to be held online or in person and is based on a real challenge. It allows participants to experiment with the end-to-end Design Thinking process and to acquire knowledge about the methodology by practicing design tools and developing new skills.
This article shows the analysis of the organizational aspects, the key benefits, and success elements for all the actors taking part in this initiative: in-house trainers, participants and the Organization.
In-house trainers
The Design Thinking course is held by internal trainers who practice Design Thinking, Design Research, and Service Design inside the company. They have extensive experience in the field and, for more than ten years, have been carrying out projects that help to understand people’s needs and create innovative solutions for omnichannel experiences.
Below is the perspective of the organizers and promoters of the training initiative.
Training organization
When organizing a new Design Academy edition, we typically begin with a reflection on the date, location, and spaces necessary for the theoretical and practical parts of the course. The mix of the two aspects requires large and flexible rooms with vast walls for group work typical for design thinking activities.
In the meantime, the coaches identify the challenge students will work on — it should be realistic and relevant to the Organization. We interview internal stakeholders and develop a strategic topic compatible with company goals and attractive to participants.
When all is set, we proceed with the recruitment of training participants and interviewees for practical exercises. We use photo and video material collected during previous editions to promote the course on internal digital channels.
The Design Academy is structured as two full-time days with some “social breaks”: breakfast, coffee, and lunch. we concluded that 16 working hours are an excellent balance to guarantee the right comprehension level and not to lose participant involvement due to their regular working tasks.
Though we, as service designers, tend to systemize the training structure, we leave part of the experience very flexible to enhance teamwork. Here are some considerations for a successful training organization:
- Breaks are scheduled, and we noticed that often participants prefer using those moments to speak to each other about what they have just learned or the challenge they are facing;
- Social Lunch Breaks are organized daily: it helps to involve people and create conversation opportunities.
Benefits for trainers: in-house team
Promoting knowledge among non-designers benefits the dissemination of design practices and processes. The overall design maturity level in the company expands and contributes to a human-centric strategy.
Nonetheless, another main advantage for the trainers is broadening the network with colleagues from various company units and gaining credibility and trust as internal knowledge experts. Especially in the areas where research and design impact seem rare, the activities suggested during the training break ground for future collaborations and challenges for the training team.
What makes the training successful?
The training is based on the successful collaboration between correlative disciplines — research and design. It is held by coaches with diverse backgrounds to widen the perspective and present the elements necessary for efficacious project realization.
A heterogeneous approach is also applied to candidate selection. We favor a mix of skills and backgrounds to maximize give-and-take and divergent thinking, encouraging creativity. We have tested several application models. Although the HR department identified potential candidates during the first training editions, we quickly opened the course to a spontaneous application using word of mouth, the application wall during the training, and the Workplace online form.
But the journey continues. After the course, participants receive a surprise — a design-related book with a personal, handwritten inscription from the trainers. They also get access to broader content prepared for them and the closed community on the company Workplace, where we share interesting information.
“As I was flipping through the book you gave us, I found the paper you left us with thanks. This gesture touched me; I do not know how to thank you for the wonderful experience.”
Participants
“It is not only worth taking this course, but it is essential to attend it. These are the tools of 2022; we are no longer in the 1980s: we must think like this.”
The Design Thinking training addresses individuals who are not or are partially involved in design methodologies. The main drivers to attend are:
- understanding better how design can help in their everyday business innovation challenges;
- the opportunity to interact and improve networking with colleagues from other units.
Participants always complete the training with enthusiasm about the newly discovered topics. Below is the course from the participants’ perspective and why it is so much appreciated.
Small groups work best
Only 15 to 20 participants are involved in each edition of Design Academy; then, they are split into 3 or 4 small groups to optimize their learning process.
To foster cohesion within teams, each group is required to have a name chosen by the members.
Groups are always well mixed in terms of competencies and professional backgrounds: this makes the training experience more inspiring.
Benefits for participants
During the two days of training, participants learn a lot: on the first day, they acquire essential information about the Design Thinking Framework and the basics of Qualitative Design Research; the second day is focused on how to generate and prototype ideas.
Design Research tried techniques:
- defining research needs and objectives for any new design challenge
- writing an In-Depth Interview moderation guide, formulating questions in a neutral and effective way
- moderating interviews with a “real” user/customer
- analyzing research results and generating insights
Design Thinking tried techniques:
- defining problems challenging the original assumptions
- knowing and using idea-generation methods and tools (e.g., negative thinking, analogies, Crazy 8)
- creating Personas
- designing Customer Journey
- prototyping a new service/product idea (e.g., low-fidelity prototypes, storyboards, Role Play)
- elaborating and presenting an Elevator Pitch that synthesizes the developed concept
But that is not all: the Design Academy training offers the participants some “side benefits”, such as:
- Networking among the organization: Design Academy is organized to provide the possibility to network, as participants come from different organizational units and can discover other points of view;
- Being part of a Design Community: participants are invited to join a Design Community made by alumni of the different editions of the Academy. The Community is created to encourage them to broaden their knowledge in specific themes related to the course;
- Trust in the Design Thinking methodology: design process is a structured practice that brings benefits and does not only mean creativity;
- Understanding what work-life challenges could benefit from design and research methods support
- Some insights and solutions defined during the course can also be used in other work-life situations.
What makes the training successful for participants?
Several elements contribute to the success of this initiative:
- The training is based on a real challenge: this makes the training experience even more practical and relevant;
- Mixing participants with diverse backgrounds helps a lot in adopting an open mind approach and enriching the training experience;
- The overall structure that alternates theoretical moments with practical exercises consent to acquire competencies more effectively;
- The duration of two days for most participants is ideal to have a minor impact on their working schedule;
- Finally, teachers who hold the course have years of experience in the Design and Research field: this offers the participants the possibility to acquire solid and valid notions and skills.
“If I were asked today: is it possible to turn a group idea into a project in a few hours? I would answer yes, being able to rely on clear and easy-to-use service and research design tools.”
Organization
In our company, Service Design competence is systemized as a ‘chapter’ that plays the role of a promoter of Design Thinking knowledge and methodologies and an advocate of experience design through standardized guidelines. This role has been interpreted to facilitate connections and synergies within the company, adopting a host leadership role. It requires Service Designers to work within various teams and allows knowledge sharing and cross-functionality.
Below is the company’s perspective on the training initiative.
From Design Studio to Inclusive Design
The Design Academy results from a strategy that sees design as a cross-functional collaborative process in which skills from across the company are enhanced and pooled from various organizational units.
The training also contributes to two of the four specific common-benefit purposes that our company pursues as a Benefit Company:
1. Putting the customer at the center
One of the main learnings of the course, which may seem obvious, is the process of empathy with the user that fuels the entire Design Thinking process. Listening directly to people without interpretation and stereotypes, and delving into their needs, expectations, and difficulties generates a great sense of responsibility and concreteness: we work for real people!
2. Safeguarding diversity and integration between people
Including different skills and points of view in the Design process leads to more articulate solutions. Non-designers work on user-centered concepts that become everyone’s ownership, increasing effectiveness and focus on business results.
Contamination as a benefit
Collaboration between designers and non-designers leads to contamination with a mutual benefit:
- It allows non-designers to learn how to more consciously use tools such as design research, idea generation, and user testing;
- It allows designers to learn about the rationale of choices and business, enabling them to make their professional profiles more complete.
The combination of these perspectives generates not only the ability to calculate the value and benefits of experience improvements but also to create upskilling paths for both designers (e.g., market peculiarities, regulations) and non-designers (e.g., knowledge of user research and design thinking methodologies, systemic thinking).
Success beyond training
The success of this initiative provides tools and fosters professional connections, for example:
- The Customer Journey for mapping the pain points of an experience has become a commonly used tool, even among non-designers;
- Some concepts that emerged during the training ideation sessions entered the backlogs of various teams in the company;
- Promoting the initiative on LinkedIn led to contact from other companies to learn more about how and why to organize this training.
Conclusions
To summarize, the contribution of our internal design thinking training to the customer-centered approach has been reported in the company Impact Report in 2021. We continuously improve the course structure and organization, gathering qualitative feedback from participants and examining the satisfaction rate. We also measure how often the alumni can independently apply learned methodologies and techniques in their daily undertakings.
By now, the course has resulted in new training models and initiatives that will be developed to expand the design maturity level and support the generation of innovative solutions in the organization.
