The best way to learn design thinking is to do it. Our design thinking training and workshops bring a team together to practice human-centered design on a challenge that matters to them, guided by an experienced facilitator, onsite or virtually. Participants build empathy for the people they are designing for, generate bold ideas, make quick prototypes, and get feedback, so they leave with new skills, a shared way of working, and ideas they can act on.
Every program is custom designed. Some groups want design thinking training that helps people learn the process and apply it in their own work. Others want a design thinking workshop focused on making progress on a real challenge. More and more, organizations want people who can lead and facilitate design thinking with their own teams. Tell us about your group and your goals and we will design a workshop, bootcamp, or multi-session program for you.
Design Thinking Training, Real-Challenge Workshops, and Facilitation Skills
These three kinds of sessions often blend together. In every case, participants learn by doing rather than listening to a presentation about design thinking.
Design thinking training: learn it and apply it
The focus is building capability. Participants learn a simple design thinking process, practice the core tools and mindsets, and apply them to their own roles, teams, and projects. This works well for leadership development programs, professional development, L&D initiatives, and organizations that want design thinking to become part of how people work every day.
Design thinking workshops: make progress on a real challenge
The focus is the challenge. The group uses design thinking to generate and develop ideas for a specific opportunity, and learns the process along the way. Challenges can be:
- Internal: building a culture of innovation, applying design thinking in a team’s unique work, improving employee experience, redesigning a process, service, or program
- External: new or better products, services, and experiences for clients, customers, members, students, or patients
Leading and facilitating design thinking: grow a culture of innovation
Many organizations now want more than participants who have tried design thinking. They want managers, L&D professionals, HR and culture leaders, and change champions who can lead design thinking with their own teams and facilitate it across the organization. In these sessions, people experience design thinking as participants and also learn how to guide others through it: framing challenges, running activities, encouraging participation, and moving groups from ideas to action. This is how design thinking spreads beyond one workshop and becomes part of a culture of innovation. Learn more in leading a culture of innovation with design thinking facilitation.
What a Design Thinking Workshop Can Include
We tailor the activities to your group, goals, and time. A session often moves through the stages below, with more or less depth depending on whether the emphasis is training, a real challenge, or both.
- Framing the challenge as a focused “How might we” question
- Empathy and insight. Participants often interview each other, with peers standing in for the users they are designing for. When the challenge is internal, colleagues in the room may be the real users. For external challenges, teams can bring customer insights, gather interviews before the session, or plan them as a next step.
- Making sense of what they learned with tools like personas, empathy maps, and journey maps
- Idea generation using structured brainstorming methods to create many ideas and select the most promising
- Rapid prototyping with sketches, storyboards, role plays, or simple models
- Feedback and iteration by sharing prototypes with peers or users and improving them
- Next actions so the learning and the ideas continue after the workshop
- Facilitation debriefs when the goal is leading design thinking, so participants understand why each activity works and how to run it with their own teams
We can also weave AI into design thinking throughout the session, using tools like ChatGPT to help synthesize insights, expand idea options, and draft prototypes while keeping real human insight at the center.
Watch this video to get an idea of what our design thinking workshops look like.
Design Thinking Workshop Formats
These are common starting points. We adjust the length, depth, and structure to fit your group.
| Format | Typical length | Often used for |
|---|---|---|
| Interactive design thinking session or keynote workshop | 60 to 90 minutes, onsite or virtual | Conferences, leadership meetings, and groups new to design thinking |
| Design thinking workshop | Half day or full day | Learning the process by applying it to a real challenge |
| Design thinking bootcamp | One to two days | Project teams, leadership programs, and innovation kickoffs |
| Multi-session training program | A series over weeks or months | Building lasting capability, with an optional design thinking certificate |
| Virtual design thinking training | Live online sessions with digital whiteboards such as Miro or MURAL | Distributed and global teams |
| Design thinking leadership and facilitation workshop | Half day to multi-day, onsite or virtual | Managers, L&D, HR, and culture leaders who will lead design thinking in their teams and organizations |
| Facilitator certification | Online program with live coaching | Internal trainers and consultants who want to design and lead their own design thinking workshops |
Design Thinking Programs for Organizations, Conferences, and Partners
We design design thinking experiences in several settings:
- For your organization: custom workshops, bootcamps, and training programs for teams, leaders, or company-wide initiatives
- For conferences and associations: interactive keynote workshops and full pre-conference workshops, like our design thinking day for CultureCon
- For companies that serve customers or members: certificate programs you can offer to your own audience, like the design thinking certificate program created for Adobe to deliver to learning professionals at the Adobe Learning Summit
What Participants Gain
Different organizations see different results depending on where they start and what they want from the program. Innovative companies learn new techniques for working together, generating ideas, prototyping, and thinking about the innovation process. Organizations that might not see themselves as innovative discover that innovation has a place in every company and that everyone can innovate within their role. Participants typically gain:
- A simple, repeatable design thinking process they can use again
- Hands-on practice with human-centered design tools and techniques
- A design thinking mindset that is more empathetic, user-centered, creative, and collaborative
- Ideas, concepts, or prototypes developed during the session
- Confidence to keep using design thinking with others, spreading the learning deeper into the organization
Who Design Thinking Training Is For
Design thinking is for anyone with a learning and growth mindset who wants a new way to approach challenges and create something new. We design sessions for anyone in your organization, and we specialize in highly collaborative designs that get people connecting and creating in small groups and one-on-one.
- Cross-functional and product teams developing new products, services, or processes
- HR, L&D, and culture leaders building a culture of innovation or redesigning employee experience
- Leadership development programs for high-potential and senior leaders
- Engineering, manufacturing, and technical teams (see design thinking workshops for engineering and design firms)
- Consulting and professional services firms that want to bring design thinking to their clients
- Universities and colleges engaging faculty, staff, and students
- Associations and conferences looking for an interactive session or pre-conference workshop
We have worked with more than 100 organizations on design thinking workshops and innovation training. Here is a small sample.
Why Organizations Use Design Thinking
To thrive, organizations need positive change and forward movement, and innovation is how that change happens. The design thinking approach to innovation helps teams respond to change by designing for and with the people they create products, services, and programs for. This human-centered process begins with understanding people’s needs so the team can define the real problem before generating solutions. Teams may do user research, persona creation, and journey mapping to build empathy. Then they act on what they learn by prototyping ideas to test whether they solve a real problem.
“By using design thinking, you make decisions based on what future customers really want instead of relying only on historical data or making risky bets based on instinct instead of evidence.” Tim Brown, IDEO
Design Thinking Frameworks We Use
There are many design thinking processes with similar stages. We make design thinking simple, understandable, and actionable by focusing on the common elements your team can use again and again, and we choose the framework that fits your organization. Here are a few examples.
Innovation Step-by-Step
Innovation Step-by-Step: How to Create & Develop Ideas for your Challenge uses a simple three-stage design thinking framework:
- Challenge: Clarify the design challenge with focused questions for your users or customers
- Ideas: Generate many ideas for your design with your users or customers
- Action: Validate, communicate, and launch your innovation with your users or customers
These three stages break down into seven steps. Groups can also get access to our online course with demonstrations of the process and a workbook to keep applying it to their own projects.
Stanford d.school Design Thinking Process
Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. Many organizations already know this model, and our steps to design thinking guide explains each stage.
IDEO Human-Centered Design
Hear (Inspiration), Create (Ideation), and Deliver (Implementation).
Whichever model your organization uses, we get participants started with the basics and a project that fits, while they build collaboration skills and connections along the way.
Example Design Thinking Training Programs
These titles and descriptions come from design thinking programs we have led for groups. Ideally, we want to hear from you and create the right experience for your group. We use design thinking to design the program itself, and we enjoy customizing these programs or creating completely new ones for unique challenges.
Innovate with Design Thinking for Your Business
Learn simple approaches to apply creativity with customers and users to innovate more effectively for many purposes: new products, services, business models, marketing, employee experience, and organizational culture. Gain tools, techniques, and real experience with design thinking for gathering customer insights, creative problem solving, and developing and communicating solutions people want.
- Mindset: Access the attitude that keeps you learning, growing, and taking innovative action for your organization.
- Process: Learn the Innovation Step-by-Step approach and other methods for challenges in your work.
- Action: Begin your own innovation project and start with an acorn-sized action that could grow.
Design Thinking for Innovation
Learn what design thinking is and why it is a powerful approach for business success. Discover your own innovation mindset, practice design thinking activities, and gain empathy and insight into who your customers are and what they need.
Objectives: develop a mindset for design thinking and innovation; apply the methodology to your own work; use new tools and techniques; collaborate with colleagues on new solutions to business challenges.
Activities can include: customer or stakeholder persona development, a Stanford d.school design thinking process demo, design thinking mindset stories and metaphors, rapid interviews of colleagues, idea generation, and concept development and validation.
Enact Your Innovative Mindset to Grow a Culture of Innovation
Build your innovative mindset and grow a culture of innovation at work. Learn the step-by-step innovation process and agile methods to overcome challenges, then put the process to use with an innovation project activity.
Human-Centered Design for Problem Solving
Put empathy, experimentation, and iteration into practice to develop innovative solutions and build relationships with professionals in your field. By the end of the day, participants have broadened their network, identified actionable solutions, and strengthened their problem-solving skills with a human-centered approach that prioritizes the needs of end users.
Creative Problem Solving for Today’s Challenges with Design Thinking (Virtual)
Collaborate in small groups to apply design thinking principles to the challenges facing your organization. This fast-paced virtual workshop builds a deeper understanding of your organization’s issues and the tools to approach them with empathy, experimentation, and iteration, using techniques that work both online and in person.
Collaborative Leadership for Real-World Design Thinking
An in-person workshop for leaders that removes barriers and promotes collaboration through creative sharing and problem solving. Leaders approach challenges with a fresh mindset, generate many ideas, learn how to select and promote the best ones, and develop action plans to implement in the organization.
Innovating Culture with Design Thinking (CultureCon Pre-Conference Workshop)
Since the inaugural 2018 conference, we have designed an interactive design thinking experience for CultureCon (now WorkPossible). Culture leaders from different organizations explore real culture challenges through storytelling, play, reflection, rapid ideation, and prototyping, and leave with ideas and facilitation tools to take back to work. Each year the session is designed fresh around the people in the room. Read the innovating culture with design thinking workshop case study.
“We experienced design thinking in action, through play, improvisation, and a strong bias toward action. We practiced the mindsets and methods that make innovation real and human-centered. Participants co-created solutions, prototyped ideas, and walked away with actionable options for innovating culture in our workplaces.”
Jennifer, CultureCon Pre-Conference Workshop Participant
Adobe Learning Summit Design Thinking Certificate Program
We created a design thinking certificate program for Adobe to offer the learning and development professionals attending its Adobe Learning Summit in Las Vegas. Participants took part in a live, hands-on design thinking workshop at the conference, continued with online design thinking courses and resources, and earned a certificate. We can create a similar blend of live workshops, online learning, projects, and certification for your organization.
“Stellar workshop by Darin Eich, Ph.D. on Design Thinking where he really got us looking at things in a new way. Our group may even have come up with a ground breaking application prototype.”
Monica, Instructional Design Project Manager, Adobe Learning Summit Participant
“Followed up from ALS and completed Adobe Learning Summit Design Thinking Certificate Program. Thanks, Darin Eich, Ph.D. Significant stack of resources and learning pathway.”
Hugh, Director of Digital Learning, Adobe Learning Summit Participant
What Clients Say About Our Design Thinking Workshops
“Darin’s Design Thinking for Innovation Workshop was an engaging, interactive, and creative learning experience for our management consultants. Our team is interested in helping our clients innovate and better understand their customers. Darin helped customize a workshop that was appropriate for our group, industry, and learning objectives. Through the various activities he facilitated, we were able to practice and cultivate the framework of Design Thinking while also building a toolkit for ourselves that we can leverage for future use. Our consultants now feel confident bringing these methodologies and approaches to our clients.”
Michael, Management Consulting Firm
“With his deep knowledge, energetic presentation style and pleasant personality he managed to overachieve all goals and expectations. Based on this experience the participants decided, that the ‘Design Thinking Method’ will be introduced to Brose globally. We definitely will continue to work with Darin.”
Markus, Human Resources Development, Global Automotive Supplier
“Darin takes the principles of Design Thinking and makes all the steps relatable. When I saw him conduct active workshops at the CCMA (Consumer Cooperative Management Association) Conference and at CultureCon, he guided participants to apply Design Thinking principles to their own real world problems so they walked away with ideas and possible solutions to their problems – not someone else’s.”
Libby, University of Wisconsin
“We were seeking for someone that could facilitate and provide some tools for a design thinking session, but his was beyond our expectations. The energy is still in the air. You gave us the greatest gift which was planting the seed among our team, that it is possible to break the status quo and be creative.”
HR Leader, Global Medical Technology Company
“After meeting with Darin to identify the content, structure, and outcomes for our audience of learners, we piloted our first course collaboration in fall 2017. That one-day course easily filled to capacity and was a resounding success. Building upon that win and the feedback of our customers, we brainstormed a year-long series concept taking the learner through the individual, team, organizational, and transformational stages of design thinking for innovation.”
Christine, Program Director, Engineering Professional Development
“Darin’s approach takes the mystery out of how to think like an innovator. The results were breakthrough in nature. Solid innovative product and process concepts were developed by each team, which will now lead to formal funding and project assignments.”
Steve, Senior Vice President, Quality & Engineering, Manufacturing Company
“The results exceeded our expectations. Our CIO expected 50-70% of the ideas generated would be almost useless and we had probably a 90% idea success rate. At the end of the event, I had a large number of attendees say this was ‘the best leadership offsite meeting they’ve ever had.'”
Michael, Chief of Staff to the CIO, Global Technology Company
“I would 100% recommend Darin Eich! He is the best facilitator I have ever witnessed! He has conducted innovation workshops and consulting with us. He has positively influenced our entire company culture in a big way. The only thing you will regret about hiring Darin for your 3 hour workshop is that you wished you had booked him for more time!”
Chris, Fortune 500 Insurance Company
Read more on our client testimonials page.
Your Design Thinking Facilitator
InnovationTraining.org founder Darin Eich, Ph.D., designs and facilitates most of our workshops. He has helped more than 100 organizations, from Silicon Valley companies to universities like Oxford, use design thinking workshops to build a mindset and culture of innovation. Darin is the author of Innovation Step-by-Step and The Design Thinking Mindset, and earned his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Wisconsin. We can also connect you with our global network of design thinking facilitators for specific needs or locations.
If you want to learn to design and facilitate your own design thinking workshops, see our design thinking facilitator training certificate program.
How We Customize Your Design Thinking Workshop
We work to make each workshop relevant to the organization and participants through research, simplification, conversation, real examples, and hands-on projects.
- Conversation. We learn about your participants, goals, culture, and the challenge or skills you want to focus on.
- Design. We create the agenda, activities, examples, and materials for your group, using design thinking to design the session itself.
- Facilitation. An interactive, hands-on session onsite or online.
- Follow-through. Depending on your needs, we can include a visual journal workbook, design thinking toolkits, books, online courses from Innovation Learning, and other design thinking resources to help participants keep applying what they learned.
Design Thinking Training FAQ
What makes your design thinking training hands-on?
Most of the time is spent doing the work in small groups. Participants practice empathy, ideation, and prototyping on a real challenge, often with peers acting as the users they design for, with short explanations of each method along the way.
Do we work on an internal or an external challenge?
Either one. Many groups work on internal challenges such as building a culture of innovation or applying design thinking to their own work. Others focus on external challenges for clients, customers, or other stakeholders. We help you choose a challenge that fits your goals.
How long is a design thinking workshop?
It depends on your goals. Interactive sessions can run 60 to 90 minutes, many teams choose a half-day or full-day workshop, bootcamps can run one to two days, and training programs can span several sessions over months.
Can design thinking training be done virtually?
Yes. Virtual design thinking workshops use video breakouts and digital whiteboards such as Miro or MURAL, with activities designed for online collaboration.
What is the difference between a design thinking workshop and a design thinking course?
A workshop is a live, facilitated session where a group applies design thinking together. A course or program adds depth over time, often combining several workshops with online learning and a certificate.
Can you train our people to lead and facilitate design thinking themselves?
Yes, and this is one of the most requested goals today. We can design a live workshop that develops managers, L&D, HR, and culture leaders as design thinking leaders and facilitators. For individuals who want deeper preparation, the Train the Trainer: Innovation and Design Thinking Facilitator Program includes online modules, live coaching, and a certificate.
How do we get started?
Contact us with a little about your group, goals, and timing. We will set up a conversation and suggest options.
Plan a Design Thinking Workshop for Your Group
Contact us or email [email protected] to learn more about our design thinking training workshops and custom innovation and leadership programs. We deliver design thinking workshops, courses, and bootcamps onsite or virtually, and can provide a design thinking certificate for participants or kick off a larger initiative.