You don’t need to be a designer to benefit from the characteristic thought and planning principles used by those in the design industry.
Our Design Thinking Experience, delivered in partnership with Sydney-based Echos School of Design Thinking, is an intensive three-day workshop aimed at teaching you to apply the Design Thinking approach to your own personal and professional projects.
“It’s about making yourself think about things differently," past course participant Jess Crowley said.
“You might have been doing things a particular way for some time, and that way might even be effective, but it might not be as effective as it could be if you applied this method.”
And you might be surprised by how broadly these principles can be applied. Brands such as Netflix, UberEats, Airbnb, Samsung, and Apple have been known to utilise Design Thinking to develop solutions to challenges.
Learning how to truly understand your audience/client/user’s needs can benefit every business, and a number of Tasmanian businesses are using these principles to help them to grow..
With a focus on problem solving, Design Thinking emphasises building a deep understanding of the people at the end of the process, those the services and products are being designed for.
Jess Crowley is general manager of Bioflex Nutrition in Hobart and said the Design Thinking process had been a big help in her everyday work life.
“I had heard about Design Thinking before but hadn’t really looked into it before this course,” she said. “I knew of it as a concept but didn’t realise it was applicable across all kinds of businesses.
“Sometimes in business you tend to do what’s right for you now, rather than what’s necessarily right for the end goal. For us, it was about making sure you’re looking in the right end of the telescope, so to speak.”
Similarly, Rodney Greene, Systems Leader/Executive Manager with community collective organisation Burnie Works, said he had heard of Design Thinking before but did not realise how well it could apply to work in his sector until he did the course.
“At that stage we were working through various issues like helping kids to complete school and helping young people to find employment. So we saw it as an opportunity to use the Design Thinking principles to address those community issues.”
“It’s very easy to design something from within four walls. But it’s more helpful to get feedback from the people who are going to have that lived experience.
“If you’re not clear about the problem then you can’t be clear about the design of the solution and you dive into solutions that will make very little or no difference.”
The Design Thinking Experience is intended to be very hands-on, with participants working in teams to test out and pitch solutions to real scenarios and problems.
The course is delivered by Echos School of Design Thinking founders Ricardo Ruffo and Juliana Proserpio, who aim to develop a new generation of innovators who will transform the world, one creative mindset at a time.
Originally launched in Brazil, the School has been offering Design Thinking Experience courses in a number of locations across Australia since 2011.
More than 12,000 people have participated in various workshops across the country. Echos has worked with a range of clients, including Google, T-Mobile, Bendigo Bank, Telstra, Porsche, Honda, Accor Hotels, and many more.
Register for our upcoming 3-day workshop, which will be held in Launceston.
When: Monday 29 - Wednesday 31 August, 2022
Delivery: Face-to-face, Launceston
Duration: 3 days
Cost: $1800