
Preparing for and runing a Design Thinking, Gamestorming and Creative workshop - ggeorgovassilis
http://eurydice13.com/2019/01/how-to-prepare-for-and-run-a-design-thinking-gamestorming-creative-workshop-and-what-to-do-with-the-outputs-too/
======
projectramo
To everyone who thinks design thinking is just the obvious way to do things, I
think you need something to contrast it with. In the same way that we cannot
see anything innovative about "agile" without understanding the standard that
was "waterfall."

Suppose we wanted to come up with a new product in the "old days". Or you ask
an unenlightened person to come up with a product. What might they do?

Brainstorm, would be my first guess. You would brainstorm various products. So
let's take the latest thought from @boredelonmusk:

"Eye tracking software that engages turn signals automatically when the driver
(who has no regard for other humans and shouldn’t legally be allowed to be on
the road or really be part of any modern society) doesn’t."

So there is an idea, and then maybe someone else will come up with another one
and another. After that maybe we'll all vote on the best idea.

After that someone start implementing an early version to test. So let's say
they mount a helmet on a person and they try to get the eye tracker to work
properly. Once they have that working, they will try to get it hooked up to
the blinkers.

Once the prototype is out, we'll see if we can mass produce it, and also start
market testing.

With "design thinking", you would not start with brainstorming "ideas". You
would brainstorm problems to solve. (People not putting on their turn
signals). Then you would go out and see if that really is a problem, and maybe
interview people. If its not a problem, you would discard it without anyone
voting on it.

If you did discover its a problem, you would then test to see if people were
interested in an eye tracker. You would do interviews and mockup a product to
see if people would even bother to wear it.

Its not "just" thinking. Its a particular habit (a "discipline") of thinking.

~~~
giancarlostoro
> To everyone who thinks design thinking is just the obvious way to do things

Things always seem obvious as someone explains them, but not when you're
wondering what to do without prior experience or knowledge of what works.

I have an idea of designs I like, I have no idea how to go through and
replicate those designs necessarily and they may not be what my boss or the
client wants. I've been led down paths of building awful designs by clients,
but they're paying so... I just do what they say, till they realize what we
realized long before the design was implemented (and trust me, no amount of
telling them works).

------
TrackerFF
I took a design thinking course in college, and it was something the people in
charge were pushing really hard.

Tbh, I'm not sure what the big deal was. To me, without any prior "formal"
(read: academic) entrepreneurship knowledge, it all felt extremely obvious.
It's the basic process that pretty much everyone uses to solve some unknown
problem

Find a need -> define the need further -> brainstorm solutions -> pick a
favorite, start building and prototyping -> test - iterate -> present final
prototype - GOTO start if needed.

I guess it's decent learning for people that are stuck on creating solutions
for unknown problems (i.e "solution waiting for a problem to solve")

~~~
ozmbie
Every time "design thinking" comes up the responses around here are similar:
That's it's an obvious and somewhat natural process.

I think that's part of the point. It's a natural process for creative people
with development experience and critical thinking skills. But those people are
often not in charge of projects. Those people in charge need these concepts
formalised into a process to even consider it. In my experience, many
development frameworks come from developers trying to get average managers to
sort their shit out.

------
baxtr
When I was working for a large consultancy, I hosted a couple of DT workshops.
The whole thing is no magic. But one thing for what it is great for: it forces
people to think from the customer perspective. Sounds trivial but especially
for large and old companies that is a huge thing.

------
Dowwie
Stanford's dSchool primer on design
thinking:[https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources-
collections/a-virtual...](https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources-
collections/a-virtual-crash-course-in-design-thinking)

Design Thinking MOOCS:

    
    
        https://www.edx.org/course?search_query=design+thinking
        https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=design%20thinking

------
lordnacho
Someone I know was at a big 4 consultancy was taking the internal class on
"Design Thinking".

At one point a lady turned whispered to the rest of the class:

"Design Thinking is just thinking!"

And actually this is simply the case. How did "having a think about things"
get its own proper noun?

~~~
spiderfarmer
I witnessed time and time again that if you can give something a catchy name
and somehow promise that doing / having that thing gives you an edge over
someone else, you can make a lot of money.

I should try to make a course out of this single realisation (by repeating the
same thing over and over) and call it " __brand thinking __, the most usefull
skill a product manager can learn in the digital age ". Or something.

It probably already exists.

~~~
marcosdumay
[https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/05/01/brand-thinking-
debb...](https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/05/01/brand-thinking-debbie-
millman/)

The name seems to be taken, and their Markov Chain results (something about
identity) seem to fit the name better than the one you are planning to run :)

Maybe with another name. Maybe you can create the research field of
metabranding!

------
adrianhel
For workshops like this, you should consider using Diggle (diggle.com/trial).
We're still in beta, but this is the type of thing we use it for.

~~~
adrianhel
(No mobile friendly backoffice yet)

