Empathize and Prototype: A Hands-on Dive into the Key Tools of Design Thinking

Move beyond theory and dive into hands-on practice in the art of innovation. In this course, you’ll be introduced to the key concepts and tools of design thinking by two of the Stanford d.school’s top design thinking practitioners. Through a series of application-based exercises, you’ll learn step by step how to approach new projects and challenges with the mindset of an innovative problem-solver.

Build empathy with your customer to gain valuable insights
Use rapid experimentation to prototype concepts quickly and effectively
Gain early user feedback to reduce time to launch
Synthesize your project findings into a compelling problem statement

Course Outline

Empathy Take a deep dive into the empathize part of the design thinking process. After introducing you to the concept of empathy, the teaching team heads to a hotel to guide you through the process of conducting real user interviews.	Define Explore the “define” stage of the design thinking process. After introducing some useful tools, the team discusses the results of their interviews and have fun creating a point of view that resonates with the group.
Prototype Learn the process of building your own rapid prototypes. Along the way, you'll see the teaching team at work on their own low-res prototypes.	Testing Explore user testing and learn how to engage with users to test a prototype. Get tips for collecting meaningful user feedback.