Design Thinking Workshop: Tips & Tricks (2023 Guide)

As a design researcher who has facilitated over 50 design thinking workshops, I’ve learned a thing or two about what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to unlocking creativity and innovation through collaborative problem-solving. Honestly, facilitating workshops is one of my favourite activities to do as a design researcher!

In this article, I’m going to share my design thinking workshop tips and tricks that I use in my day job. Whether you’re a seasoned facilitator or a newbie looking to level up your workshop game, this guide is for you.

I’ll cover everything from the basics of design thinking processes to advanced techniques for ideation and prototyping. So grab your sticky notes and whiteboard markers, and let’s get started!

Related: 6 Best Design Thinking Tools for 2023

What is a design thinking workshop?

At its core, a design thinking workshop is a collaborative problem-solving session that brings together people from different backgrounds and perspectives to ideate, prototype, and test solutions to complex challenges. 

By using a human-centered approach that prioritizes empathy, experimentation, and iteration, design thinking workshop’s can help teams uncover insights and opportunities that may not have been apparent at first glance. 

Reasons You Need to Run a Design Thinking Workshop

There are many reasons why this approach to problem-solving has become so popular in recent years. For one, a design thinking workshop can help teams break free from their usual ways of thinking and approach problems with fresh eyes. 

They also encourage collaboration and co-creation, which can lead to more innovative and effective solutions. Additionally, design thinking workshop’s can help teams build empathy and understanding for their users or customers, which can improve the overall user experience of a product or service. 

Finally, a design thinking workshop is just plain fun (with the right facilitator that is)! They can be a refreshing break from the usual work routine and provide a chance for teams to bond and build relationships.

Step-by-Step Instructions to Run a Design Thinking Workshop

In this section, I’ll share my step-by-step process for running a successful design thinking workshop. This is a process I’ve refined over the years and have used to help countless teams achieve breakthrough results.

Whether you’re new to design thinking or a seasoned pro, these instructions will give you the guidance and structure you need to facilitate a productive and enjoyable workshop.

Set the Stage: Creating a Safe and Creative Space

The first step in running a successful design thinking workshop is to create a safe and creative space for your team to work in. This means setting the stage for a productive and enjoyable session that encourages open communication, creativity, and collaboration. 

Start by selecting a comfortable and inspiring location for your workshop. This could be a conference room, a co-working space, or even an outdoor park, depending on the needs of your team and the nature of the problem you’re trying to solve. 

Next, create an agenda that sets clear expectations for the session, including breaks and opportunities for team bonding. Consider providing snacks, drinks, and other amenities that can help create a relaxed and inviting atmosphere. 

Finally, establish ground rules that promote respect, active listening, and non-judgmental feedback. For example, you could encourage participants to use “I” statements when sharing their ideas and to avoid interrupting or criticizing others.

By setting the stage in this way, you’ll create a supportive and energizing environment that will help your team tackle even the toughest challenges with ease.

Empathize: Understanding the User’s Needs and Pain Points

The second step in the design thinking process is to empathize with your users or customers. This means gaining a deep understanding of their needs, pain points, and motivations. To execute this step, start by conducting research and gathering data on your users. 

This could include conducting surveys, interviews, or focus groups, as well as analyzing customer feedback, reviews, and other relevant data sources. Next, create empathy maps or personas that capture the key insights and emotions of your users. 

Use these tools to generate insights and ideas that can inform the next steps of the design thinking process. It’s important to remember that empathy is not sympathy; you don’t have to share the same experiences as your users to understand their needs and emotions. 

Instead, strive to approach the problem with an open mind and a willingness to listen and learn from your users. By empathizing with your users in this way, you’ll be better equipped to create products and services that truly meet their needs and exceed their expectations.

Define: Framing the Problem Statement

Once you’ve gained a deep understanding of your users’ needs and pain points, it’s time to define the problem statement. This means framing the challenge in a way that is specific, actionable, and user-centered. To execute this step, start by reviewing the insights and data you’ve gathered during the empathy phase. 

Look for patterns and themes that emerge and use them to create a problem statement that captures the essence of the challenge you’re trying to solve. It’s important to keep your problem statement focused and specific, so that it doesn’t become too broad or vague. 

Use tools like “How Might We” statements or user-centered problem statements to guide your thinking and ensure that your problem statement is actionable and relevant to your users. By defining the problem statement in this way, you’ll be able to focus your efforts on creating solutions that truly address the needs and pain points of your users, rather than getting sidetracked by peripheral issues or irrelevant details.

Ideate: Generating a Wide Range of Solutions

Now that you’ve defined the problem statement, it’s time to start generating ideas for potential solutions. The ideation phase is all about generating a wide range of ideas, no matter how wild or seemingly impractical they may be. The goal is to think outside the box and explore as many different solutions as possible. 

Start by brainstorming ideas individually or in groups. Encourage everyone to share their ideas, even if they seem silly or unconventional. Use tools like mind maps, word association, or sketching to generate and explore ideas. Try to build on each other’s ideas and look for connections between seemingly unrelated concepts. 

Once you have a large number of ideas, start to narrow them down and evaluate them based on their potential impact, feasibility, and relevance to the problem statement. By generating a wide range of solutions in this way, you’ll be more likely to discover innovative and effective solutions that truly meet the needs of your users.

Prototype: Bringing Ideas to Life

Once you’ve generated a range of potential solutions, it’s time to start prototyping. The prototyping phase involves creating low-fidelity representations of your ideas in order to test and refine them. To execute this step, start by selecting the most promising ideas from the ideation phase and creating simple prototypes that illustrate how they might work in practice. 

Use materials like paper, cardboard, or digital tools to create your prototypes. The goal is to create something that is quick and easy to make, so that you can test and refine your ideas as quickly as possible. Once you have your prototypes, test them with users and gather feedback on how well they meet their needs and pain points. 

Use this feedback to refine and iterate on your prototypes, making changes as needed until you have a solution that is truly user-centered and effective. By prototyping in this way, you’ll be able to create solutions that are tailored to the specific needs of your users, rather than relying on assumptions or guesswork.

Test: Getting Feedback and Iterating for Improvement

The final phase of a design thinking workshop is the testing phase, where you get feedback from users and iterate on your solutions based on that feedback. To execute this step, start by testing your prototypes with real users and gathering feedback on how well they meet their needs and pain points. 

This feedback can come in the form of surveys, interviews, or user testing sessions. Use this feedback to identify areas for improvement and iterate on your solutions accordingly. The goal is to create a final solution that truly meets the needs of your users and addresses the problem statement you identified earlier. 

Once you have made improvements, test again and continue the iteration process until you have a solution that is truly user-centered and effective. By testing and iterating in this way, you’ll be able to create solutions that are continually improving and evolving based on the needs and feedback of your users.

Key Considerations For Successfully Running a Design Thinking Workshop

One key insight to keep in mind is the importance of diversity in your team and user group. By bringing together people with different backgrounds and perspectives, you’ll be able to generate a wider range of ideas and solutions that are more likely to meet the needs of a diverse user group. 

Another important consideration is to stay focused on the problem statement throughout the process, and avoid getting too attached to any particular solution too early in the ideation process. Finally, be sure to create a safe and collaborative space where all participants feel comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions.

How to run a design thinking workshop in a few hours

If you work at a start-up or a design agency, a common issue you come across is that there is no time for workshops. Instead of skipping the workshop entirely, I like to condense the entire workshop into a “design sprint,” which are highly structured workshops that condense the entire design thinking process into just a few days or even hours. The concept of design sprints was popularized by Jake Knapp’s book, “Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days.”

Conclusion

Wrapping up this design thinking workshop tutorial, I hope you have gained valuable insights into the design thinking process and learned how to successfully execute a workshop. As a UX designer, I have seen the power of design thinking in action, and I strongly believe in its ability to generate innovative solutions. 

By following the step-by-step instructions provided, you can create a safe and creative space, empathize with your users, define the problem, ideate potential solutions, prototype and test those solutions, and iterate for improvement.

If you’re interested in learning more about design sprints and how to run them effectively, I highly recommend checking out Jake Knapp’s book, “Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days.” It’s a great resource for any team looking to streamline their design process and achieve faster, more effective results.

If you’re looking to run a UX workshop but you don’t have anyone on the team with the necessary tools, you can reach out to me and we can work together.