The last day of this design thinking extravaganza was all about storytelling and bringing these skills back to our organizations and communities. It was fun, and it was sad to end the process.

The whole thing ended with a major surprise. We were told at the end that 300 undergrads had signed up for a crash course on design thinking and had just arrived at the building. Guess who would be teaching them? Yep, it was us (newly minted design thinkers). At first, I was scared and worried that I wasn't ready to do this or provide a good experience for the undergrads. But in the spirit of "Don't get ready, get started," I just jumped into it and had a blast. The d.school has awesome facilitation guides and materials, and my teaching partner and I just went into it and did our best. The time constraints forced us to just get moving without worrying or thinking, and this worked to our advantage. I found that I learned a lot more about design thinking through teaching it and showing the concepts to others. Now I'm inspired to do this again for other groups (and learning more myself from the process and from others).

Below are the rest of my notes and takeaways.

Storytelling
i.      User -> character [use details to show this]
ii.      (user)Need + insight -> (character)tension, details of props, words
iii.      (user)solution -> (character)change
iv.      Use skits for storytelling (show > tell)

1.       Record video, put into PPT
v.      Lo-tech better
vi.      Keep each step of process alive

1.       Human centered, not tech centered

Group 360 feedback
i.      I like, I wish for each name (names down the left, IL/IW on top as columns)
ii.      Each person puts post-its for all including self
iii.      360 degree feedback for each team member

dd.  Another group feedback format
i.      Names down side, top: start, stop, continue (behaviors)

Reasons and Intentions
ii.      “All reasons are bullshit”
1.       Bottom line, effect matters
2.       All behaviors/reasons are just justifications for self-image
3.       You can always choose a different reason
4.       “That’s a good reason” (sarcastic)
5.       Don’t say to someone else their reasons are bullshit
a.       Just say to self
6.       Change self, not world
7.       Example: traffic as reason for being late
a.       Just give self more time
8.       Reasons just convenient excuses
9.       Reasons just excuse for own stuff

iii.      Intention
1.       Need it to do something
2.       Don’t try, just do
3.       Hokkaido exercise of intention of moving vs. not moving arm
4.       Design doing, not thinking
5.       Doing easier than trying

Bringing back to organization
i.      Self -> team -> org
ii.      Ax4: activities, artifacts, actors, atmosphere
iii.      Activities: bucket time in a meeting for ideation, selection, empathy
iv.      Actors: people at meeting, sometimes shake it up
v.      Atmosphere: change room
vi.      Artifacts: post-its, sharpies, bring list of related products, camera, do creative exercise at beginning

vii.      Steps
1.       Identify goal
2.       Discuss specific meeting
3.       Discuss how usually done
4.       Discuss how to do differently
viii.      Bring in consumers to meeting
ix.      Bring in crazy designers to shake it up
x.      Don’t expect the first step to bring result – just to start momentum
xi.      First thing: gift giving
xii.      Empathy = understanding, not sympathy

DT for sales cycle
1.       Metrics drive vs. human customers
2.       The person who shows up w/ the prototype wins
3.       Change a meeting with toys
4.       Plus activity, warm-up to take into different space
a.       Stoking

Teaching DT to undergrads
i.      Facilitator guide
ii.      1 hour exercise
iii.      Prototyping materials
iv.      Just do, time constraint, partner
v.      Don’t give enough time to think, just do

vi.      3 Learning modes
1.       Some things you only learn by doing; some by teaching; some by traditional learning

vii.      Leaders manage time and prescribe time constraints
viii.      Keep shortening the time allowed
ix.      Time box (agile)
x.      Keep yourself on edge
xi.      Adapt, cultural translation of script, make it your own

i.      Book Make Space explains cheap DIY office design

ii.      Steelcase brand

Final thoughts

a.       How to apply DT to my relationships?
b.      How to apply DT to my own self-development?

Day 2 of the bootcamp was all about ideation and testing. We brainstormed a ton of ideas, voted, went through an excruciatingly painful but educational process of narrowing and deciding, and then whirred through several prototypes, killed half our designs and coming to something simple and focused by the end. It was an awesome day working with our hands, moving our feet, and testing physical, tangible versions of our ideas (which were service-oriented) on real people. Whoa.

The day concluded with an awesome panel talking about bringing design thinking back to their organization (large and small).

Below are some of my most memorable takeaways from the day's activities and the panel.

Ideation

i.      HMW questions: how might we

1.       Break up POVs into mini-brainstorms w/ HMWs
ii.      IDEO brainstorming rules
iii.      Space makes a difference

1.       No table
2.       Big whiteboards
3.       Standing
4.       Lots of space
5.       Post-its onto whiteboard

iv.      “to build on that”

i.         Stoking/getting revved up for brainstorming

i.      Rock paper scissors tournament game

j.        Brainstorm voting using 3 selection criteria
i.      Most likely to succeed
ii.      Most likely to delight
iii.      Most likely to be breakthrough

k.       Everyone puts 2 of each of 3 color stickers on idea post-its to vote

l.         Cluster ideas + pick those w/ high votes (hard!)

Prototype

i.      Cycles = greatness
ii.      Don’t get ready, get started
iii.      Bring prototype to meeting, have it absorb emotional trauma (not you)
iv.      Don’t do sales on the prototype w/ user
v.      Show don’t tell; have user tell you
vi.      Ask for the negative stuff up front. When prototype breaks, it’s when you learn

Testing
i.      Not:
1.       Leading the witness
2.       Guarding your prototype
3.       telling

ii.      Hot:
1.       Ask open ended questions
2.       Letting go of prototype
3.       Show

Testing debrief

1.       Prototype: + (like), delta (change), lightbulb (idea)
2.       Test: + (like), delta (change), lightbulb (idea)

iv.      Feel exhausted, but good exhausted

Group Debrief
ii.      class as prototype
iii.      build in culture of feedback at work
iv.      “I like, I wish”
v.      How can I view all of life and work as a continuous prototype?
ix.      Use sharpies + post-its so you can read from distance

Panel on organizations
3.       Lots of market research/small group panels bad
4.       Step 1: start with yourself
a.       Read books: Change by Design, Business of Design, Do You Matter 
b.      IDEO
c.       Prototyping is messy, had to accept it
5.       Step 2: small teams, one a time
a.       Teaching to know
6.       Step 3: go to global org
a.       Stanford
b.      Trained facilitators

iii.      Responsible for experience, not equipment
iv.      Make your users be your designers; User Advisory Board
x.      Not acceptable to do quarter to quarter incremental change

v.      Process/empathy meetings w/ everyone so all can learn what everyone else does
vi.      Most of issues not technology
vii.      Design thinking for service

iv.     Build social network in your company one by one of DTs
v.      Building innovation lab, cross-disciplinary team

viii.      Innovation is everyone’s responsibility, not a secret club
ix.      Avoiding organ rejection

v.       principles
1.       Make it simple
2.       Exhibit craftsmanship
3.       Inspire delight
4.       Deliver unique value
5.       Focus on goals

viii.      CEO commitment

ix.      Dt applies across departments including finance, HR, etc.
x.      Everyone has role in making design matter

iii.      d.school space explicitly gives permission to make, go wild

iv.      Start bringing in prototyping materials, playdoh, legos, pink chair

v.      Told people about dt by rephrasing in other’s context
vi.      Did secret project using dt
vii.      Transform space, cube
viii.      Gift giving then real projects
ix.      Use “secret viral” if in your culture

w.     How to scale dt champion
i.      Work directly w/ teams to inspire others
x.       How to create right space
i.      Tear down cubicles, create foam core movable project spaces

y.       How to measure ROI of dt
i.      Catalog success stories
ii.      Design as driving value

Day 2 themes, takeaways
i.      Having champions
ii.      Don’t ask for permission
iii.      Cultural inertia is common
iv.      Keep the momentum, dive in fast
v.      Know own culture
vi.      Scaling: crank up hot emotions, not rational argument to scale change
1.       Hot cause, cool solution
vii.      Teach experientially, not PPT
viii.      Self -> team -> org
ix.      Design for extreme user to find inspiration
x.      Demos to teach, not lectures
xii.      Make a 6 word story of what you learned

Earlier this month, I was lucky to attend an awesome Design Thinking Bootcamp at the Stanford d.school in coordination with the Stanford Graduate School of Business. There were about 100 students from all sorts of companies, including many who flew quite far (Japan, Australia, Denmark, Oman, among others I met) to attend. I chose to do the program because the d.school opened around the time I graduated from Stanford, and I had always wanted to take some classes there in order to learn new problem-solving and creativity skills. This program was an awesome introduction to design thinking, which is a much different way of thinking about creativity, problem-solving, and innovation than traditionally taught. Some media, like the Wall Street Journal, have noticed this recently.

The focus of "d.thinking" is about learning from the world and people around you (instead of inside your head), primary observation and interviewing, and very rapid prototyping and iterating. The course itself followed these principles, focusing on learning by doing and minimizing lectures (with lectures ALSO focusing on showing rather than telling).

At the d.school, there were about 20 coaches who worked closely with five-person student teams on an intensive project (redesigning the airport ground experience for jetBlue!). Getting a "backstage pass" through TSA and interviewing real people at SFO was an awesome way to learn "empathy," the first stage of the design process. And each team took the project in a different direction, culminating with full prototype testing and storytelling demonstrations to jetBlue VPs on day 3.

The entire experience was fun and engaging, and the staff was awesome. I learned a lot and got the chance to meet and get to know some really smart and friendly people from around the world.

What's really amazing is that the d.school offers all their materials and methods online for free (Creative Commons licenses). Sort of like the Coursera effort that Stanford spearheaded, it's clear the university cares about spreading knowledge and improving the state of "design thinking" for everyone.

Below are my notes on Day 1 (blog posts about following days forthcoming). I plan to do my part to spread design thinking by promoting the methods and running an event or two to expose people to the methodology around Southern California. Let me know if you're interested in learning with me!

Intro to Design Thinking (Gift Giving exercise)
a.      Step 1: interview
b.      Step 2: dig deeper
i.      Just ask why
ii.      Tell me more
iii.      If you can get your partner to cry, it’s good (therapists on staff)
iv.      Great design fueled by emotion
v.      Not incremental design; new territory
vi.      Go into tough territory w/ questions

c.       Reframe the problem

d.      Step 3: capture findings
i.      Needs/goals and wishes
1.       Use verbs (not solutions)
2.       Insights
a.       Trust instincts

e.      Step 4: take a stand w/ a POV
i.      REFRAME
ii.      Not just gift giving
iii.      Get off reservation
iv.      New subjects

f.        Ideate: generate alternatives to test

g.       Step 5: sketch at least 5 radical ways to meet your user’s needs
i.      No words, #s
ii.      Crappy sketches
iii.      Quantity over quality
iv.      Record of 17 sketches in 5 min in some class

h.      Step 6: share your solutions & capture feedback
i.      Another learning/empathy step
i.         Iterate based on feedback
j.        Step 7: reflect & generate a new solution

k.       Build and test

l.         Step 8: build your solution
i.      Not just small version
ii.      All about physical experience
iii.      Let your prototype go
1.       Let go of it physically
2.       Let go of it emotionally
3.       Let it be destroyed, misused by partner
4.       It’s just a tool to enable more learning of partner

m.    Step 9: share your solution and get feedback
i.      What worked
ii.      What could be improved
iii.      Questions
iv.      Ideas

n.      What feels like to be so lo-fi?

o.      Debrief
i.      Brag on your user
ii.      Brag on your designer

p.      Emotional catharsis: throwing away your prototype

Empathy in Field
c.       Best to draw sketches of what you see around you, not just notes

d.      Debrief lecture
i.      Empathy map
1.       Say
2.       Think
3.       Do
4.       Feel
ii.      Unpacking onto empathy map: put post-its from stories you observed

1.       As put up post-it, say it out loud
iii.      Observe: broad
iv.      Define: narrow, reframe as no one has done before
v.      Talk to people THEN define the problem
vi.      Go after the harder challenge when offered

e.      POV: user, needs, insight
i.      Insight: what did you notice that no one noticed
ii.      Choose the hard route
iii.      When choosing a milkshake flavor, just choose some milkshake flavor then will know if it feels right

Takeaways from Day 1

i.      Lean into it
ii.      Don’t jump to conclusion, reframe problem
iii.      Stories, details, don’t generalize
iv.      Beginner’s/child’s mind
v.      Freedom to not have agenda
vi.      Ask why and repeat
vii.      Moveable furniture rocks