Design thinking forms the basis of our program at the Academy for Enterprising Girls. Young women participating in the program will be encouraged to cultivate their skills in entrepreneurship, innovation and business by learning and experiencing the design thinking process via our innovative eLearning campus, or as part of an in-person workshop program.
WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING?
Design thinking is a special process that helps us to solve problems based on the needs of people. It helps entrepreneurs carry out the right kind of research, create prototypes and test out products and services to uncover new ways to meet people’s needs. Ultimately it helps you create great and informed solutions.
A systematic way of thinking that allows us to develop ideas, and produce innovative solutions to problems we might want to solve, design thinking gets us to focus on who we are solving the problem for. And it can be applied across industries or sectors, providing people or companies with a flexible framework to develop solutions.
WHAT DOES THE DESIGN THINKING PROCESS LOOK LIKE?
There are a number of differing design thinking schools, but generally, design thinking follows a few key steps:
- Empathise:Understand the challenge and your audience.
- Define: Clarify the problem you want to solve.
- Ideate: Generate ideas to solve the problem.
- Prototype: Design your product or service for testing.
- Test: Test your product and make any adjustments.
This five-step process does not have to happen in a linear process. Steps can be repeated, or more than one can occur at the same time.
WHY START WITH EMPATHY?
WHERE CAN YOU LEARN MORE ABOUT DESIGN THINKING?
Learning more about design thinking is easy. You can get started on learning more by enrolling over at the Academy Campus.
As you work your way around campus you’ll learn about each of the five design thinking steps and put them into practice as you work on your enterprise idea, and build your entrepreneurial mindset.
The great thing about learning design thinking is that its a process you can apply not just to building a business, but also to designing apps, solving STEM problems and just about any challenge ahead of you. It boosts your problem solving, innovation and creativity skills – exactly the skills in hot demand on the job market now and in the future.
