DESIGN THINKING

(KMBN 106)
UNIT-2
DESIGN THINKING EXERCISES AND
WORKSHOP
 INTRODUCTION
• Design thinking exercises are crucial in
fostering creative problem-solving,
collaboration, and innovation.
• These exercises engage participants in a
structured and iterative problem-solving
approach, enabling them to explore,
understand, and address complex challenges
effectively.
• A Design Thinking workshop is a hands-on,
activity-based session built around the Design
Thinking process.
• Design thinking exercises are structured
activities or methods used to encourage and
facilitate collaboration.
• These exercises foster creativity providing
structured but open-ended frameworks for
problem-solving.
 Design Thinking Workshop
The Design Thinking Workshop is at the
core of Design Thinking, which is a
collaborative and dynamic space where
participants embark on a journey of
empathy, creativity, and iterative
problem-solving.
 Based on the five phases of Design Thinking, a
Design Thinking workshop focuses on:
• Empathy: Getting to grips with a real user
problem and building empathy for the target
users / customers.
• Ideation, innovation, and problem-
solving: Generating as many ideas and
potential solutions as possible.
• Prototyping and testing: Building low-fidelity
prototypes of the ideas generated, ready for
testing on real or representative users.
 Why run a Design Thinking
workshop?
Here are some of the benefits at a glance:
• Teach people how to problem-solve: Problem solving is a key skill
that everyone should master. A Design Thinking workshop teaches
problem solving in action, giving the workshop participants an
approach they can apply to almost any challenge in any area of
their lives.
• Foster innovation and teamwork: The very essence of Design
Thinking lies in collaboration and thinking outside the box. As a
designer, these things are second nature to you; for others, it might
not come so easily. A Design Thinking workshop breaks down silos
and shows participants how to challenge their assumptions—a
recipe for innovation!
• Secure a competitive advantage: A Design Thinking workshop may
result in groundbreaking solutions that ultimately set the company
apart—but competitive products aren’t the only takeaway. Design
Thinking workshops teach creative thinking, which is increasingly
seen as a competitive advantage when applied at a strategic level.
 How to run a Design Thinking
workshop: Step-by-step
Phase 1: Planning and preparation
• To help with the preparation phase, we’ve put together a
pre-workshop checklist (below). Further down, you’ll find
more information to help you with each checklist item

Pre-workshop checklist:
• Scope out the challenge and set workshop objective(s)
• Find a suitable location
• Plan the agenda (including time slots for each activity)
• Gather all necessary materials
• Participants Mix (Diverse and suitable)
• Facilitators
2. Prepare the workshop location
• Next, you need to create the optimal space for your workshop.
• Design Thinking workshops should be dynamic and interactive, so
it’s important that participants have plenty of room—especially
when it comes to the prototyping stage. Ideally, you’ll have a
separate table for all the materials and equipment (more on that in
step three!).
• Aside from comfortable seating and good lighting, you can create a
relaxed environment by playing some background music. Another
simple yet powerful touch is to position some thought-provoking
artifacts around the room. If you’re running a workshop for a client,
you might print display advertising campaigns from three of their
biggest competitors, for example.
• The purpose of a Design Thinking workshop is to get people
thinking outside the box, so be sure to set up a space that invites
creativity.
4. Gather all necessary materials

• With your agenda in place, you should now have a

good idea of what you’ll need for the workshop.
• Part of the workshop will be dedicated to building low-
fidelity prototypes, for which you’ll need a good
selection of materials. Opt for simple, everyday
materials that everyone is familiar with—such as white
copy paper, colored construction paper, sticky tape,
marker pens, and Post-it notes.
• It’s also a good idea to have a camera on-hand so you
can document the workshop. This is extremely helpful
when it comes to reviewing your workshop, and, if
you’re running your workshop with clients, photos also
make for a great souvenir.
3. Plan your agenda
• Now for the most crucial part: planning your workshop agenda.
When tackling this somewhat tricky task, there are two golden rules
to bear in mind:
• Don’t overfill your agenda.
• Keep it activity-based.
• It might be tempting to cram in as much as possible, but the
workshop will just end up feeling rushed—which is not conducive to
creativity! Think about the time you have available and divide it up
logically. Ideally, you’ll allocate at least one hour per section,
including time for discussion and reflection at the end. You’ll also
need to incorporate an introduction, an ice-breaker activity to get
the group warmed up, and sufficient breaks throughout.
Phase 2: Executing your Design
Thinking workshop
 Challenges for DT Workshop
➢ Finding dedicated time for workshops amidst regular work
commitments can be challenging.
➢ Limited access to resources like tools, experts, or materials
necessary for conducting the workshop effectively.
➢ Conflicting personalities or a lack of collaboration within
the team can hinder the workshop's progress.
➢ Organizational hierarchies and rigid structures can impede
open communication and idea sharing.
➢ Pressure to deliver immediate results might hinder the
workshop's ability to explore innovative, long-term
solutions.
➢ Lack of prior training or familiarity with design thinking
principles among participants can impact the workshop's
effectiveness.
 Design Thinking Exercises
Design thinking exercises are
structured activities or
methodologies used within the
design thinking process to encourage
creativity, problem-solving, and
innovation.
 What is the Purpose of Design
Thinking Exercises?
• The primary purpose of design thinking exercises is to
cultivate empathy and a deep understanding of users’
needs and perspectives. By encouraging participants to
step into users’ shoes through empathy mapping and
user interviews
• Design thinking helps uncover valuable insights that
inform the design process.
• These design thinking workshops create a user-
centered environment that encourages collaboration
and creativity.
• These activities empower design teams to challenge
assumptions, explore diverse perspectives, and
approach problems from multiple angles.
 Why?
• Help designers to understand
user and identify their
challenges and needs.
• As a designer, incorporating
Design Thinking into your
process will help you to quickly
come up with viable, user-
centric solutions—ultimately
resulting in a quicker time-to-
market, improved customer
retention, significant cost
savings, and a great ROI.
 How?
• The Six thinking Hats
• Mind Mapping
• Deconstruction
• The Five Whys or “Nine
Whys”
• Thumbnail Sketching
• SCAMPER
 Six Thinking Hats
➢Proven problem-solving
technique.
➢Dr. Edward de Bono
➢Each of the Six thinking hat has
represented different direction or
type of thinking which is identified
by a color.
➢Allows examining the problem
thoroughly.
➢Reduces confusion and keeps
thinking on track.
 RED HAT
WHITE HAT •Emotions
•Information •Feelings
•Facts •Hunches
•Data •Intuition

GREEN HAT
YELLOW HAT •Creativity
•Benefits •New Ideas
•Logic •Growth
•Positive Vision •Options
•Feasibility

BLACK HAT
•Critic BLUE HAT
•Risks •Overview
•Obstacles •Control
•Caution •Decision
•Process
 Mind Mapping
•Tony Buzan, Chairperson of
Brain Foundation , USA
•Note-taking system that
uses images, colors, words
and numbers are arranged
in a connected, radiant and
hierarchical structure.
•Improve the quality of
Learning, thinking and
working.
 The Five Whys or “Nine Whys”
• Uses recursive
questioning to
help designers
better understand
the root cause of
the problem.
 Deconstruction
• The act of breaking something down
into its separate parts in order to understand
its meaning, especially when this is different
from how it was previously understood
• Revisit their understanding of the core
problems for the purpose of clarifying it.
 Thumbnail Sketching
• LOUISY THOMPSON given this exercise.
• Thumbnail sketching is an effective method for
focusing on the overarching aspects of an idea,
circumventing the need to dwell on minute details.
These sketches are small, quick, and abundant,
encouraging the creation of a multitude of diverse
options. The main aim is to produce a wide variety of
potential designs or concepts rapidly.

• Allows for rapid exploration of ideas.

• Encourages creativity and iteration.
• Saves time by quickly visualizing ideas.
 SCAMPER
•SCAMPER is an idea generation technique that utilizes action
verbs as stimuli.
•It assists the person in coming up with ideas either for
modifications that can be made in existing product or for
making a new product.
•Mr. Bob Eberle created it in the 1970s.

S: Substitute
C: Combine
A: Adapt
M: Modify
P: Put to Another Use
E: Eliminate
R: Reverse
• 1. Substitute – Substitution technique refers to replacing a
part of your product, concept or process with another to
achieve even better outcome.
• 2. Combine – The combine technique explores the possibility
to combine two ideas into a single, more effective solution.
• 3. Adapt – Adaptation analyses the possibilities to make the
process more flexible and focuses on other similar
incremental improvements to the idea, process, or concept.
• 4. Modify – Modifying the idea looks at the problem or
opportunity from a bigger perspective and aims for improving
the overall results, not just the idea.
• 5. Put to another use – This approach focuses on finding ways
to use the idea or existing solution for another purpose and
analyses the possible benefits if applied to other parts of the
business.
• 6. Eliminate – The elimination technique is quite
straightforward: it examines the possible outcomes if one or
more parts of the concept were eliminated.
• 7. Reverse – This action focuses on reversing the order of
interchangeable elements of an idea.