Design thinking is a human-centered innovation process that emphasizes observation, collaboration, fast learning, visualization, prototyping, and concurrent business analysis. It is a non-linear process that includes need-finding, ideation, testing, and uses tools like visualization, ethnography, prototyping, co-creation, design of experiments, and collaborative sense-making. Teaching design thinking presents challenges as it requires an experimental and experiential approach, tolerance for ambiguity and inefficiency, and helps develop skills students may not have experienced from traditional analytic methodologies.

1. Design Thinking Pedagogy and Practice
Jeanne Liedtka
Darden School of Business
University of Virginia

3. Defining design thinking
“a human-centered innovation
process that emphasizes
observation, collaboration, fast
learning, visualization of ideas, rapid
concept prototyping, and concurrent
business analysis”
(Lockwood, 2009)

4. What is Design Thinking?

5. Design Thinking Tool Kit
process
Need finding
Ideation
Testing
tools
• Visualization
• Ethnography
• Prototyping
• Co-creation
• Design of experiments
• Collaborative sense-
making and ideation

8. What is?
Case Study | The Good Kitchen

9. [Design Tool]
Journey Mapping
Traces the journey of a customer as they
experience a product or service.

10. Case Study | The Good Kitchen

11. Key Insights
• Seniors were embarrassed to
accept government assistance
• Loss of control over food choices was painful
• They were lonely eating alone and missed the
seasonal food of their youth.
• Workers were bored and unmotivated
creating the same meals day after day

12. What if ?

13. [Design Tool]
Co-Creation
Inviting key stakeholders into the design process.

14. 14
Workshop
Participants
Employees of
residential
care centers
Volunteers
Municipality
officials
Experts in
elderly issues
Kitchen
workers

15. What if this public-service food-delivery
organization were a restaurant?
15

16. Trigger Questions
kitchen
cooks
vehicles
description
restaurant
chefs
waiters
menu




16

17. What wows?

18. The Wow Zone
18
What wows?
Stakeholders
want it
We can
do it
The economics
can sustain it
WOW

19. What works?

20. [Design Tool]
Prototyping
Make it tangible and concrete. Draw a picture,
tell a story, take a photo, make a map . . .

21. Case Study | The Good Kitchen

23. “If you have professional
pride, you’ll also cook good
food. Good food has to come
from the heart!”
– Anne Marie Nielsen, Director of The Good Kitchen
23

26. What are the challenges associated with teaching design thinking?
Experimental as well as experiential
Requires a tolerance for both ambiguity
and inefficiency
The case method builds bad habits
MBAS have not experienced the failure of
analytic methodologies

27. Optimism
Anxiety
Project duration
Credit: Jump Associates, LLC
Problem
Framing
Iteration /
Implementation
Exploration
Ideation
Prototyping
Emotional Journey

29. Specialization in Design Thinking and Innovation
http://bit.ly/darden-innovation
Design Thinking 1:
Insights to Inspiration
Design Thinking 2:
Ideas to Action
The Innovative
Workplace
Advanced
Discovery Tools