Hello Design Thinking!

As a result of COVID-19, almost all our members have had to change and adapt their programmes and services for young entrepreneurs. Whether it is the content, mode of delivery, or both. Many members have also launched new projects and are increasingly focusing on innovation to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing landscape.

In this training Dejan Markovic, Head of Innovation at YBI, will present an overview of design thinking – a powerful process of problem solving that will enable you to create new products and services as well as help to adapt your existing ones. You will learn how this approach can help you solve problems creatively in a range of different situations. This is an excellent introductory course for people within your organisation who have not come across this process before and a great refresher for those who have.

What is Design Thinking?

Human centered design thinking helps us be more successful by designing for and with our customers and users. It starts with understanding customer needs to define problems and develop innovative solutions. You may do user research, persona creation and journey mapping at the start to gain empathy. You then conceptualise your ideas with rapid prototyping to test and validate that your prototype solves a real problem.

What will you gain from the training?

• You will gain confidence from a greater understanding of how to use and deploy the design thinking method
• You will learn about practical design thinking tools and approaches that you can apply to your current and/or future projects
• You will receive support from YBI’s Head of Innovation for questions and troubleshooting during and after the training
• Participants who join both sessions will receive a certificate from YBI

 Which design thinking skills and tools will we cover?

• Empathise: Conduct research to understand users or customers and the challenges they might face in a certain area – interviewing, surveying, observing
• Define: Analyse and make sense of data collected in the previous phase – personas, as-is user journeys
• Ideate: Generate ideas on how to address the problem we are trying to solve – brainstorming, crazy 8, creative matrix, prioritisation of ideas to focus on
• Prototype: Quickly create a prototype that you can test with users to learn more about their needs - concept poster, storyboard, to-be user journey, sketch/drawing, physical prototype, digital prototype
• Test: Let real users test the prototype and provide feedback to the design team - problem interviews, show and tell, user observation

NOTE: We will broadly cover the main tools and methodologies and deep dive into the most popular ones for each stage.

What is the training format?

The training is comprised of two live sessions (2 hours each) in which we will cover the main content and give you the opportunity to ask questions, share your experience and interact with the facilitators and other members.

The content from the sessions, including recordings, presentations, practical tools and templates, will be made available to all participants.

Who is the training for?

English-speaking members and their teams who are interested in and would benefit from applying design thinking to their work. This is a great opportunity for members to sign up multiple people across various departments (including trainers, mentors and coaches) and to build design thinking capability into their organisation.

Requirements

We have a limited number of places for the training, so before you register, please make sure you meet all the following requirements: 

• Having a native or intermediate level of English 
• Having access to the internet 
• Being able to join both sessions taking place on 15th and 22nd September, from 1:00 – 3:00 pm (BST) 

Timeline

Registration from 2nd August to 13th September.

• Session 1: 15th September, 1:00 – 3:00 pm (BST)
• Session 2: 22nd September, 1:00 – 3:00 pm (BST)

How to register

Sign up for the training here.

After submitting your registration form, YBI will contact you via email within a few days to confirm your participation and share instructions to join the sessions.

Contact

If you have any queries, please contact Dejan Markovic, Head of Innovation at YBI, via email at dejan.markovic@youthbusiness.org.