Design Thinking Champion Program
– A Design Thinking education course for Executives
August 2023 – August 2024
The Situation
Our team, Design Strategy, was responsible for Design Thinking asset creation and education. We recognized a gap in the internal employee market we serve – Executives needing to advocate for Collaboration and Design Thinking adoption. We recognize that effecting change most efficiently means enabling practitioners, and creating advocates from leadership.
How might we create a design-minded education program for executives (VP+) so that we can influence design thinking adoption from the top?
My Role
Lead research and content exploration, drafting outlines and prototypes of program flow. Lead and facilitate working and feedback sessions from multi-disciplinary leaders. Create collaborative activities illustrating intended lessons, for both in-person and remote workshop formats. Prototype agenda to accommodate in-person and remote formats – each with different needs. Draft copy, content, and voiceover for education program. Coach / enable fellow teammates on how to facilitate the program. Lead and facilitate 6 Champion programs (3 remote, 3 in-person).
Becoming a Design Thinking Champion will enable you to...
Advocate for design thinking at the executive level.
Create sustainable conditions for human-centered practices to thrive within their organization.
Includes:
- Relevant tools and techniques to address strategic problems
- Identify signature projects
- Learn who in your team would benefit from design thinking education
Programing and Format
- Remote: 3 consecutive days of 2.5 hr sessions, multi-disciplinary participants collaborating in Miro
- In-person: 1 full-day with healthy breaks, multi-disciplinary participants collaborating on physical activities
Course Progression
Of the 6 chapters to embody Champion, there are 3 discreet segments, and the flow is quite simple. Looking outward, looking inward, then looking forward.
Looking Outward – Chapter 1 & 2
In the first segment, we generally discuss design thinking in the marketplace, comparing experiences and definitions of 'good user experience' from the participants to establish a baseline. We dive into levels of influence we have at Genesys and how influence can be effected from different levels of seniority and intervention.
Looking Inward – Chapter 3 & 4
In these sections we dive into DiSC profiles and context DiSC generates when comparing 2 profiles. We worked with HR to ensure this content covers all necessary points that HR teaches when issuing training certifications.
We created a scenario to walk participants through the steps of leveraging DiSC data to approach collaboration, which is very possible for daily life given the large number of senior leaders required to complete a DiSC profile within Genesys.
This forced practice and discussion consistently encourages participants to feel safe and supported, growing rapport with one another, and thus offer thoughtful advice to seekers with open ears.
Looking Forward – Chapter 5 & 6
For the end of the program, the heaviness lightens as we turn participants' attention to their own day-to-day work, helping them compare and classify their many responsibilities, in order to make sense of the mess. Using one complex problem as an example, we complete a problem reframing exercise, helping participants find the human at the core of the problem, break it down into something simpler, and ideate on how to leverage their team's unique skills to tackle the problem area.
“Often, design at scale can only come when you have an executive champion who’s opening up space for these conversations.
I’d like to think that we can just have a scrappy, startup, bottoms-up approach to get scale to happen, but often, you need both.”
— Dan Makoski, Chief Design Officer, United Health Group