Design Thinking Training in South Africa

This instructor-led, live training in South Africa (online or onsite) is aimed at beginner-level to intermediate-level professionals who wish to understand and apply Design Thinking methodologies to drive innovation and improve business solutions.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Understand the core principles of Design Thinking and its role in innovation.
• Apply the five phases of Design Thinking to problem-solving.
• Utilise ideation techniques and tools to foster creativity.
• Implement Design Thinking strategies to improve processes and enhance efficiency.

This guided, live training in South Africa (online or on-site) targets beginner to intermediate learners who aim to resolve daily workplace challenges through gamification techniques.

Upon completion of this training, participants will be able to:

• Grasp the core principles of Design Thinking and how they apply to problem-solving.
• Utilise gamification techniques to boost engagement and drive innovation.
• Craft creative and practical solutions for common workplace problems.
• Collaborate efficiently across teams to deploy problem-solving strategies.
• Apply iterative methods to refine solutions using feedback and experimentation.

This instructor-led, live training in South Africa (online or onsite) is aimed at beginner-level leaders and HR professionals who wish to learn and apply Design Thinking methodologies to foster innovation, enhance problem-solving capabilities, and engage teams effectively.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Equip participants with tools and methodologies to foster innovation and team engagement.
• Develop skills in empathy mapping, ideation, and prototyping for solving complex challenges.
• Apply Design Thinking principles to leadership and HR scenarios.
• Promote a culture of innovation within tech teams.

In this instructor-led, live workshop training in South Africa (online or onsite), participants will learn to apply the five stages of Design Thinking to better understand the problems experienced by end-users of a product or service, then develop the best approach for resolving them.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Use creative strategies to match customers' needs with technologically feasible solutions.
• Formulate a strategy to increase customer value and enhance product and service offerings.

Overview:

The Design Thinking (DT) process comprises five distinct stages: empathize, define the problem, ideate, prototype, and test.

In today’s increasingly complex world, we encounter challenges that demand specialised approaches. Design Thinking offers a robust framework for tackling such complexity. By mastering Design Thinking, you can address difficult problems with greater efficacy, enhance your communication and persuasion skills, improve business outcomes, and elevate both organisational and personal behaviour and performance.

• How DT works: Learn from people and the problem, identify patterns, design a model (understanding model drift), test the model, evaluate it, and re-engineer as necessary.
• The relationship between DT, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
• DT methods and tools: persona development, stakeholder mapping, customer journey mapping, service blueprints, and business model innovation.
• Application of DT: Cultivating a design mindset, driving disruptive innovation, adopting an iterative approach, utilising agile estimation techniques, and honing critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, leadership readiness, and communication skills. Additional focus areas include technological savvy, forward-thinking, intercultural and ethical competency, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, negotiating skills, and conflict resolution.

Objectives:

• To grasp the fundamentals and nuances of DT.
• To explore key concepts, factors, theories, types, and models within DT.
• To experiment with, experience, and practice DT.

Delivery:

This is a one-day (4-hour) training course structured as follows:

• lectures (40% - presentation of theories, concepts, models, and interactive discussions),
• group exercises (30% - focusing on group dynamics, games, group discussions, and mock conflict resolution exercises),
• individual activities (15% - writing, designing, and peer discussions)
• and other materials (15% - videos, reading).

Note: Due to the interactive nature of this course, a minimum group size of 3 is required.