The Design Thinking Experience

This week I had the unique opportunity to join a group of about 40 other educators at Stanford’s Design School. Our eclectic group represented multiple age ranges, genders, educational organizations, and nationalities. The workshop was a 4 –day whirlwind tour of the Design Thinking process that allowed all of us to grapple with the higher level thinking skills and strategies involved in the problem-solving process.

The Design Thinking process consists of distinct phases. Once a general problem, or problem area, is identified, the process begins. Phase I, Empathy, means gaining knowledge and understanding of the person being impacted by the problem: the end user. We accomplish this through interviews, gathering artifacts, and engaging in authentic research. Then, after synthesizing this material, the designer moves on to Phase II, establishing a point of view that reflects the user’s needs. Next, the designer carefully delineates and defines the problem to be solved. This articulation becomes Phase III. Prototyping is Phase IV. This phase excites imagination and engages creativity. Synergy, through positive group interaction, is at its height. Brainstorming, sketching, and wild ideas are welcome. It is here that construction of a model (e.g. 3-dimensional object, flowchart) to solve the problem occurs. Part of this phase is preliminary testing. This means that a typical user is asked to view and give genuine feedback on the prototype by experiencing the solution in its raw form. The designer takes this feedback critique and reworks the prototype; often moving through several iterations before Phase V, Storytelling, begins. Storytelling, or “pitching,” adds an element of closure to the process. It is the presentation of a 3-minute story in which 1.) articulation of the problem and characteristics of the intended user are imbedded, 2.) the solution (prototype) is shared within the context of the user’s needs, 3.) the impact on a greater picture/audience is acknowledged and explained, and 4.) ends with ideas that are credible, emotional, or unexpected. Ideas that stick in the listeners’ minds. Once the story is told, listeners and users continue to offer feedback so that the prototype is continually refined and/or until a new problem statement is developed.

The cyclical nature of the Design Thinking process we learned this week was aimed at adult learners. It is a lengthy process full of social and emotional aspects having to do with group dynamics, and closely tied to the availability of fluid space, ideation, and access to numerous craft and communications materials. The process we expect to use in 5^th grade will, necessarily, be streamlined to include only 3 of these phases: Empathy, Prototyping, and Feedback. There will be considerable guidance in determining researchable problem statements that are curricular in nature. And we hope to move through one entire process cycle each quarter using our big question as a foundation for inquiry and problem solving. We plan to focus on a single element of the process during one of these cycles. But we will apply the process, as needed, throughout the school year as typical classroom problems arise. A rubric to determine quality of student engagement in the Design Thinking process is being constructed. For more information, you may want to connect with http://dschool.stanford.edu/k12

Parents familiar with education and classroom curricular delivery systems may want to know the difference between Design Thinking and Project/Product-Based Learning (PBL). I see PBL as more teacher-guided; having specific outcomes (information and products) in mind at the very beginning. Although students engaged in PBL do have significant choice in presentation of their learning (e.g. PowerPoint, iMovie, podcasts, wiki posts, written report, musical composition, skit, painting, etc.), the learning is circumscribed within a set of given guidelines and matched to a rubric that evaluates elements of the product. Design Thinking, in contrast, appears to differ in that the outcome of the learning is not known at the outset of the investigation, and the product or solution can be innovative and surprising. We will use both PBL and Design Thinking, as well as direct instruction (DI) and inquiry circles, as means of curriculum delivery this school year.

We are planning a quick 'parent participatory' demonstration of Design Thinking at our Back-to-School Night in September. Hope to see you then.