Design Thinking Workshops

Design thinking is a human-centered problem-solving and innovation method in which interdisciplinary teams work on new solutions. By working with the design thinking approach, the team develops a deep understanding of the needs and challenges of users in order to create tailor-made, effective solutions. Design thinking comprises four levels, which we address in our workshops: process, team, mindset, and methodology.

Process: Design thinking is an iterative innovation process that provides structure for teams. Each phase requires different skills, ranging from creative to structured analytical approaches. The focus of the process is always on the person (or group of people) for whom the solution is being developed.

Mindset: Innovation can only happen in a safe space where every team member feels free to express themselves and every idea is accepted and valued. Creative self-confidence is often not encouraged in today’s working world; more often than not, it is suppressed. Design thinking helps to rediscover this creative self-confidence and teaches people how to give constructive feedback.

Method set: Each phase of the innovation process involves a whole range of methods that are also suitable for other project work. Design thinking encompasses creative working methods, analytical approaches, interview methods, feedback tools, and much more.

Team: Design thinking is an intensive team process in which participants learn how to find their optimal role in the team, how to make decisions quickly as a team, and how to deal with complex team dynamics.

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Design thinking is an iterative process that combines creativity, critical thinking, and structured analysis to develop innovative solutions. Each phase of the process aims to better understand the needs of user groups or to adapt and improve ideas. Repeatedly going through the various phases results in tailor-made, user-centered outcomes.

It all starts with a challenge. This involves outlining in one sentence what experience needs to be improved. For example: Design a way to make team decisions more effectively.

The team then goes through the design thinking phases. First linearly, then iteratively.

Understand: The goal is to develop a common understanding of the challenge. Using methods such as mind maps or stakeholder maps, team members bring themselves to the same level of knowledge and develop an understanding of potential user groups and their needs. This phase is fundamental to effective, non-hierarchical collaboration and prepares the team for the following steps.

Empathy: Here, participants learn to put themselves in the shoes of user groups. This is done through direct observation, role-playing, and, in particular, interviews with users. Specially developed interview techniques and plans help to gain in-depth insights into the needs and motivations of users.

Synthesis: Based on the interviews, each team creates a focused “point of view” (POV). Through storytelling and joint analysis, needs are identified and summarized in a user-centered problem statement. This POV helps to find focus and summarize it in a tangible way for further work.

Finding ideas: In this phase, the team generates a variety of ideas. Based on the POV, creative “How could we…” questions are formulated. Brainstorming techniques foster a creative atmosphere in which unconventional ideas are valued.

Building prototypes: The team selects a solution from the ideas developed and implements it in an initial prototype. Various prototyping methods such as role-playing, paper mockups, or Lego models make the ideas tangible. The goal is to concretize the idea so that it can be effectively evaluated with users in the test phase.

Testing: The prototypes are tested with users to gather valuable feedback. An authentic test environment makes it possible to obtain honest feedback. This feedback is essential for the subsequent iteration and further development of the ideas.

You will learn the systematic innovation method known as design thinking.

We will show you a different, unconventional way of working in teams, as used by many founders and entrepreneurs.

Thanks to the highly practical focus, you will learn a set of methods for development and project work that you can put into practice immediately.

During the empathy and testing phase, we will encourage you to leave your “comfort zone” and adopt the perspective of real users in order to gain new, needs-centered insights.

Our workshops promote your creative self-confidence and your courage to actively tackle change.

Thanks to the high level of practical relevance, you will learn to work in “doing mode” in order to implement projects instead of talking them to death.

Our workshops promote your team skills and team cohesion.

Thanks to our founding history, we are all design thinkers, trained at the School of Design Thinking at the renowned Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam. Here we learned to develop ideas that consistently put people at the center. We are happy to share our enthusiasm for change with you in design thinking workshops.

The best way to get started is to send us an email or give us a call to arrange an initial meeting to get to know each other. This meeting will give you a better impression of who we are, and we will learn about your concerns and the general framework of your project.

Based on this meeting, we will send you a quote.

Once you have accepted the quote, we will hold a meeting to clarify the assignment. Here, we will discuss your concerns, challenges, expectations, and needs in detail. This will give rise to initial ideas for a suitable concept and approach for the design thinking project.

Based on the insights gained, we develop a rough concept for the workshop procedure. We present this rough concept to you and discuss your feedback and questions with you.

We then incorporate the feedback, develop a final detailed concept with needs-based focal points and a detailed schedule, and create the appropriate working materials.

With the detailed concept and working materials in hand, we start the design thinking project. Thanks to our many years of experience, we are able to respond flexibly and openly to unexpected issues and changes in direction. In such moments, we adjust the roadmap at short notice in collaboration with the participants.

After projects, there is usually a digital follow-up to track the plans developed in the workshop and discuss possible obstacles to implementation together. Here, we also share our observations and findings, if desired.