Go Beyond traditional problem solving:
So what is Design Thinking? Good question!
Definition:
It’s a very human-centred, iterative approach for creative problem solving and innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate what’s desirable from a human point of view, technologically feasible and economically viable. (Thanks IDEO for that overview – you’re awesome).
Simon’s Twist:
Simon’s Design Thinking Twist:
Building On The Above, Design Thinking Is About Connecting With Real People, Rapid Experimentation, Getting Your Hands Dirty And Making Stuff That You Can Quickly Test (Ideas Don’t Live In A PowerPoint).
It’s a complete shift from the straight-to-solution type of problem-solving that’s so common. Whilst it may seem productive to go straight to solution, often it’s the wrong solution or not designed for the people who have the problem.
What makes Design Thinking different is truly understanding the people you are solving the problem for and then massively expanding your thinking on how to solve that problem.
So what makes my design thinking courses different? Well, I’m a bit different (in a good, design type of way.) You can read more in my bio here. Throughout my 20-year career, I’ve always had a foot in both the creative/design and corporate worlds. As such, I have a real-world understanding of design and design thinking. It’s not just Post-it notes on a wall. As a professional artist and designer, I understand that Design Thinking is really Design Doing. It’s an action word.
As such, my workshops are very hands-on and we learn by doing. We design, we create, we test, we experiment, we connect with real people and most importantly, stretch ourselves to do things differently and embrace our very human traits of imagination, creativity and curiosity. That leads to outstanding solutions to real-world problems.
And did I mention, it’s enjoyable? The serious stuff of great outcomes and great solutions and enjoyment are not counter-intuitive.
There are five hands-on stages that bring Human Centred Design to Life.
These are:
1 Empathy
Once you spend time in other people’s shoes, you can see things you wouldn’t have imagined. The empathy stage is a deep dive into people’s thinking, emotions and behaviours whose problems you are solving.
2 Define
“Innovation starts with a problem, not an idea. It’s crucial to clearly define the problem you’re trying to solve before attempting to solve it. Be a curious cat and keep asking, “why?
3 Ideate
Great stimulation in = great ideas out. In the ideation stage, you go really wide in your thinking and leverage as many different approaches, tools and frameworks (not just post-it notes) before you go to a solution.
4 Prototype
Get real with your idea and mock it up. Build it, act it, make it visual but whatever you do, create something tangible (or a minimum viable product) that people can interact with.
5 Test
Share your idea. Observe, be open, gather feedback and different perspectives. Iterate quickly and embrace surprises and things you had previously overlooked. This is the space of great learning and rapid iteration.
CRUCIAL STAGES MANY OVERLOOK
I also like to add three essential stages that many Design Thinking workshops miss. Without these, Design Thinking is just a process or methodology that anyone can tear to pieces.
1 Dance with your ogre
This is where innovation often stops before it even begins! So acknowledge the monster that says you’re not creative. Get laughter happening, have some fun, and be ready for the challenge.
2 Get your Language Right
Many great ideas and products are killed by small words. Language drives thinking, which drives behaviour and behaviour drives results. Replace the words “no” and “but” with “yes” and “and”.
3 Repeat
The process of design and innovation is never-ending. So you need a never-ending curiosity and energy to make great stuff happen. “Repeat” is the new mantra for a culture of design and innovation.
Curious to know more? Watch below
Transforming ideas into reality.
I understand you may have some reservations about using design thinking and human-centred design. When we start to do things differently, that change can feel uncomfortable. There is always a hesitancy about another ‘new’ way of operating, built up by many years of change and other rollouts across your organisation.
There are many (I’d say about 90% of people I work with) who genuinely believe they don’t have a creative bone in their body, and anything to do with creativity or innovation is someone else’s job.
It’s possible products and services launched before weren’t that awesome. Or likely they’ve shared ideas and were laughed down (killing any originality and creativity on the spot).
How do we do that?
Awakening Your Team’s Creativity Through Collaboration.
Design thinking isn’t just about a style of thinking. It’s a way of working, creating and collaborating with people at its heart. As such, it drives behaviour change and improved outcomes across many different areas. If you’re looking to shift things up, here are just a few things you will be able to learn through Simon’s design thinking workshops:
Happy Design Thinking Clients
Design Thinking projects we have collaborated on
With a powerful kit bag of methodologies and design tools and an open and expansive mindset, Human Centred Design can be applied to all sorts of areas where you would like fresh thinking and innovative solutions.
Our Packages
Introduction To Design Thinking: 90 Mins – 3 Hours
High on interaction and collaboration, delegates will get an understanding of how to apply design thinking in your organisation and deep dive into 1-3 key areas of the design thinking methodology. If you’re looking to build quick skills in empathy, rapid prototyping and iteration, getting curious about the problems you need to solve or taking your creativity and ideation to the next level, this design thinking workshop is a great way to kick off that process.
Tailor-made for a conference or offsite setting, it’s a perfect way to introduce your team to a new way of collaborating and problem solving that delivers tangible results and participants leave with ideas and approaches that can be immediately applied at work.
Design Thinking Immersion: 1-2 Days (2 days is the best outcome)
These sessions are a great mix of learning, doing and building real, tangible solutions as we work on real problems you want to solve. This creates a tremendous ROI for your organisation. You will leave with tangible, tested prototypes and a path forward to implement these ideas in your organisation.
This Design Thinking course is delivered with a 70:20:10 approach to learning.
- 70% of the learning comes from hands-on application (the doing of design thinking)
- 20% of the learning comes from peers and collaboration
- 10% comes from the front of the room
As such, the programs are highly interactive as participants learn by doing, further implementing the mindset, behaviours and methodologies to use a human-centred process to solve problems at work.
Support and regular check-ins are provided post-program to ensure momentum and that solutions are being developed and implemented.
Bespoke Design Sprint: partnerships in action
Complex challenges need more than a quick fix. Our Design Sprints can run across multiple days or weeks, tailored to your project and pace. We don’t just facilitate a workshop. We act as a trusted advisor and creative partner, supporting your team through research, empathy, problem framing, ideation, prototyping, and live customer testing.
By combining the best of human-centred design practices with sketching, journey mapping, strategy, systems thinking and storytelling, we create the conditions for your people to reflect, adapt, and build solutions that endure. With so much already on your plate, this is about more than facilitation; it’s about walking alongside you to navigate complexity, bring a fresh perspective, and spark thinking that moves beyond business as usual. We focus on building capability, sustaining momentum, and turning early ideas into tangible outcomes.
When challenges are too big for a shorter workshop, we provide the structure, creativity, and ongoing support to help your organisation test, refine, and deliver meaningful results.
Design Thinking Train The Trainer: 2-4 Days & Follow Up Sessions
This is about building the skills, behaviours, mindset and methodologies to run Design Thinking workshops throughout your organisation. This Design Thinking course is highly practical and hands-on and you will learn by doing, spending time as both a facilitator and a participant.
Each stage of empathy, define, ideate, prototype and test and the activations to bring these to life are debriefed for learning and insights on how it feels to be in the audience and to facilitate.
You leave with a tried and tested design thinking facilitator’s toolkit, a framework for delivering Design Thinking Workshops from preparation through to post-event follow up and a tailored personal development plan.
Importantly, you will have built your creative confidence so you can coach others in developing theirs, which is essential for developing outstanding solutions with design thinking.
With Our Unique and tailor-made Design Thinking Platforms, workshops can be delivered online, face-to-face or a mixture of both.
This training can also be run in conjunction with Creative Problem Solving and How to Run an Innovation Hackathon workshops.
Testimonials
Got some questions? We have the answers
Workshop Locations
I deliver in-person workshops all over Australia, wherever you are AND with our fantastic, purpose-built design thinking platforms, we offer the flexibility to interact online at a time and place that works, even if you can’t travel.
Some of the workshops I have run for organisations are:
So in summary, I deliver design thinking workshops all over Australia, wherever you are AND with our fantastic, purpose built design thinking platforms, we can deliver online design thinking workshops and sprints no matter where you are.
