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What is Design Thinking? Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions...

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The Design Thinking Process - An Introduction

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In a recent post, I wrote about why I want to see students become innovators:
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Unfortunately, the system isn't designed for innovation. For years, schools have been stuck in a one-size-fits-all factory model, where students passively consume content. Some people will point out that this model is outdated. However, I would argue that factory education was a bad idea from the start. Because here's the thing: kids aren't widgets.

While one-size-fits-all works great for socks, it's not ideal for minds. Kids need to dream and wonder and imagine. They need to design and build and tinker. This is why I love design thinking. It's a flexible framework that guides students through specific phases in the creative process.

What happens when kids become design thinkers?

The following are some of the benefits I have noticed when kids engage in design thinking.

1. They move from engaged to empowered. Design thinking honors student agency, because they are the ones asking the questions, doing the research, generating ideas, and creating the final product. When they own the creative process, they own their learning.

2. They become problem-solvers. Real problem-solvers. The kind of problem-solvers who actually create the solutions. It's not always easy. It can take time. Sometimes they get frustrated by all the mistakes. But by the end, they view themselves as problem-solvers - and this is the kind of self-concept that continues outside of school.

3. They grow more empathetic. Design thinking begins with a place of humility. You aren't just making something. You are making something that serves an audience. This requires deep empathy. It might be a service project or a product or something you are publishing. Each approach requires a different kind of empathy. If this happens in a culturally responsive way, students can also learn cultural humility.

4. They remain curious. Design thinking begins with this sense of wonder and curiosity. It honors this natural desire to explore and to ask tons of questions. Too often, students internalize the idea that learning is all about answering questions. However, design thinking reminds us that learning begins with inquiry.

5. They learn how to work collaboratively. Traditional school work requires students to be dependent on their teacher as the source of all information. Individualized learning shifts to independence. But design thinking teaches students to work interdependently, balancing the needs of the group with the need for personal expression.

6. They view themselves as makers. By sharing their product with the world, they participate in a global community of creativity. They can also share their creative journey in what Austin Kleon describes as "showing your work." In the process, they are more likely to appreciate the creativity around them.

7. They value the diversity of creative mindsets. Here students experience a bigger definition of creativity. In design thinking, students might be hacking a system, solving a problem, engineering a solution, tinkering, tweaking a process, testing ideas, gathering data or dreaming up new ideas. In the process, they learn to value the creative mindsets of everyone around them.

8. They learn the power of creative constraint. For all the talk of "thinking outside the box," this is a chance for students to learn how to "think inside the box," working with specific limitations as they prototype. Here, they learn that limitations are often the very design features for their finished work.

9. They see the value of iterations. Too often, students are punished for getting the wrong answer. They are stuck in grading systems where they get an average on their scores. With design thinking, they have an entire phase devoted to refining their work. This doesn't mean they don't need to have any deadlines, but it does mean they have the time and the permission to keep working on a product until they are ready to send it to an authentic audience.

10. They become creative risk-takers. Design thinking encourages students to engage in creative risk-taking at every stage. In the research phase, students can engage in divergent thinking, learning that every question matters. In the ideation phase, they get over the fear that their ideas might be "dumb" as they generate and combine ideas. In the creating and revising phases, they realize that the only true failure is giving in to fear of failure.

In other words, when students embrace design thinking, they develop a maker mindset. They define themselves as problem-solvers.

My Journey with Design Thinking

When I first began teaching, I knew that students would thrive in a creative environment. I wanted them to embrace the maker mindset. However, I felt crippled by fear. I was afraid that I didn't have enough resources. I was scared that their success in a creative project wouldn't translate into higher test scores. I was concerned about classroom management issues (I had mistaken being busy with being engaged).

That's why I needed a framework. This is ultimately why I embraced design thinking. My students needed a different way to think about creative work. They needed something that would provide structure but also respect student agency and choice.

It's a bit of a debate where design thinking originated. Some claim that it started in the sixties with The Sciences of the Artificial. Others point to Design Thinking, which focused more on urban planning and architecture. Still others point to Robert McKim's work in Experiences in Visual Thinking. Like all great ideas, it has been an evolution, influenced by thousands of people. My work around Design Thinking has been influenced by people like Tom and David Kelley, Tim Brown, John Maeda, Peter Rowe (as well as organizations like Stanford d.school and IDEO).

But ultimately, I found that there were tweaks and iterations I needed to make to the existing design thinking frameworks. This is ultimately why I worked with AJ Juliani on the LAUNCH Cycle, a student-friendly design thinking framework for K-12 classrooms. We added a few key elements, including a broader starting point, an explicit stage of inquiry, a media literacy component and a final phase where they launch their work to an authentic audience.

You can learn more about it in our book Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in All Students or you could check out the video below:
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Design thinking prepares students for a creative life - whether that is in business, in the social or civic spaces, in the arts, or in engineering. But it does this by allowing them create things that matter to them right now. It's not some far off "grown up" thing. It's something they can engage in right now as they create things that matter to them.

So, while it's easy to complain about standardized education, we can offer strategies like design thinking and project-based learning as alternatives that empower students to be the creative thinkers we know they can be.

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10 Things That Happen When Students Engage in Design Thinking

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In a recent post, I wrote about why I want to see students become innovators: Subscribe to YouTube Channel Unfortunately, the system isn't designed for innovation. For years, schools have been stuck in a one-size-fits-all factory model, where students passively consume content. Some people will point out that this model is outdated.

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Design Thinking -- Maximizing Your Students' Creative Talent: Co Barry at TEDxDenverTeachers

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Steps and much more about Design Thinking, plus templates and worksheets!

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What is Design Thinking? A Handy Guide for Teachers | Makers Empire

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What is Design Thinking is and why is it important? What are the phases of the Design Thinking process and how can you teach students to use Design Thinking to solve real-world problems?

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Highly recommended toolkit

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Thinking at IDEO - Insight, innovation, & a healthy dose of play

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IDEO is a global design company. We believe a better future is for all of us to design. Explore thinking, Insight, innovation, & a healthy dose of play.

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A series of videos that give a realistic approach to the framework

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

Find and share resources to help students engage in innovative processes for tackling complex real-world problems in human-centered ways.

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How a visit to Starbucks inspired a change to flexible seating-and then some changes in teaching philosophy.

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George Lucas Educational Foundation Find and share resources to help students engage in innovative processes for tackling complex real-world problems in human-centered ways. Sort by: How a visit to Starbucks inspired a change to flexible seating-and then some changes in teaching philosophy.

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5 tools to implement Design Thinking in education

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Innovation Training | Design Thinking Workshops

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Design Thinking for Educators | InnovationTraining.org

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Looking for resources and tools for design thinking for educators? Click here for five tools to help you bring design thinking into education.

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A deeper explanation of the different stages of the process

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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A book I am reading to find a good bunch of inspiration. Find a lot more here!

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The term "design thinking" is often attached to maker spaces and STEM labs. However, design thinking is bigger than STEM. It begins with the premise of tapping into student curiosity and allowing them to create, test and re-create until they eventually ship what they made to a real audience (sometimes global but often local). Design thinking isn't a subject or a topic or a class. It's more of way of solving problems that encourages risk-taking and creativity.

Design thinking is a flexible framework for getting the most out of the creative process. It is used in the arts, in engineering, in the corporate world, and in social and civic spaces. You can use it in every subject with every age group. It works when creating digital content or when building things with duct tape and cardboard.

For the last 12 years, I've used design thinking. As a teacher, I used it for everything from coding projects to service projects to documentaries to engineering challenges. As startup co-founder, we used the design thinking cycle for product development. As an author, it's a framework I use for publishing.

So, here's a description of the design thinking cycle that AJ Juliani and I developed and included in our book Launch: Using the Design Thinking Process to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student. Note that we added a final phase that's often missing from design thinking models. It's the idea of launching. It's the belief that after students have designed their work, they should send it to an authentic audience.

Although there are many models for design thinking, we have developed the student-friendly LAUNCH Cycle. We created an acronym to help make it easier to remember:

L: Look, Listen, and Learn
In the first phase, students look, listen, and learn.The goal here is awareness. It might be a sense of wonder at a process or an awareness of a problem or a sense of empathy toward an audience.

A: Ask Tons of Questions
Sparked by curiosity, students move to the second phase, where they ask tons of questions.

U: Understanding the Process or Problem
This leads to understanding the process or problem through an authentic research experience. They might conduct interviews or needs assessments, research articles, watch videos, or analyze data.

N: Navigate Ideas
Students apply that newly acquired knowledge to potential solutions. In this phase, they navigate ideas. Here they not only brainstorm, but they also analyze ideas, combine ideas, and generate a concept for what they will create.

C: Create a Prototype
In this next phase, they create a prototype. It might be a digital work or a tangible product, a work of art or something they engineer. It might even be an action or an event or a system.

H: Highlight and Fix
Next, they begin to highlight what's working and fix what's failing. The goal here is to view this revision process as an experiment full of iterations, where every mistake takes them closer to success.

Launch to an Audience
Then, when it's done, it's ready to launch. In the launch phase, they send it to an authentic audience. They share their work with the world!

Please leave your email address below and click the yellow subscribe button to receive the free design thinking toolkit. It includes a free design thinking project, an eBook, and a suite of assessments. I will also send you a weekly email with free, members-only access to my latest blog posts, videos, podcasts and resources to help you boost creativity and spark innovation in your classroom.

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The LAUNCH Cycle: A K-12 Design Thinking Framework

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The LAUNCH Cycle: A K-12 Design Thinking Framework The term "design thinking" is often attached to maker spaces and STEM labs. However, design thinking is bigger than STEM. It begins with the premise of tapping into

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Deeper into problem solving

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Innovation Training | Design Thinking Workshops

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Innovation Tools, Resources, Videos, Reports, Articles, & Infographics.

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Looking for certification in Design Thinking?

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Innovation Learning Online Courses & Workshops

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Online innovation courses & design thinking workshops to help you innovate in your work & life. See practical examples at each step & work on your own project with activities we teach & facilitate.

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Design Thinking in social media

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Education Design Lab is a 501c3 non-profit that designs, tests, and implements unique higher education models that address the rapidly changing economy and emerging technology opportunities. The Lab demonstrates where technology, rigor, and design can improve equity and opportunity for historically non-traditional students to maximize their potential in the higher education system.

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Design Thinking, Education Innovation, 21st Century Skills, Micro-Credentials, Hybrid Post-Secondary Models, Supports for the "New Traditional Student"​, Alternative Post-Secondary On-Ramps, Building Adaptive Leadership Capacity, higher education, post secondary, innovation, equity, and design

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Education Design Lab | 4,529 followers on LinkedIn. Designing education toward the future of work. | Education Design Lab is a 501c3 non-profit that designs, tests, and implements unique higher education models that address the rapidly changing economy and emerging technology opportunities.