Design Thinking Skills Development and Mentorship for Innovation

ENTIRE-MTU-006

€20,000 
*This cost can be fully discounted for SMEs (under De Minimis Aid rules) and public sector organisations in the EU through the ENTIRE EDIH which has been funded by the European Commission Recovery and Resilience Fund. 

Hybrid (online and in person)  

This service aims to support SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) and PSOs (Public Sector Organisations) by offering Design Thinking skills development and mentorship for Innovation.  
 
The service provides a comprehensive series of Design Thinking workshops and mentorship sessions that will equip SMEs and PSOs with the Design Thinking toolkit consisting of the theory, process, and mindset as an enabler to drive innovation in their businesses.  
 
The objectives of Design Thinking workshops and mentorship sessions will be to visibly demonstrate how user experience researchers and designers approach problems, where proven Design Thinking methods are applied for understanding customer needs, analysing and framing the problem, idea generation, analysing ideas, rapid prototyping, and where ideas can be competently tested, translated, and validated into viable solutions. By sharing and making Design Thinking processes more accessible to SMEs and PSOs who have diverse expertise, it is hoped they can gain the necessary tools and skillsets, which will contribute to improving their problem-solving and innovation processes, which will contribute to their new products or services.   
 
Through the Design Thinking workshops and mentorship session, a user experience research team with expertise in Design Thinking will work with the SME or PSO on their business idea using the Design Thinking process, methods, and theory. 

The SME or PSO will meet with a User Experience Researcher with expertise in Design Thinking theory and processes, who will provide Design Thinking training and mentorship over a 10 week duration. 

A Design Thinking foundational workshop will be delivered initially, which will cover the theory, process, methods and mindset. This will then be followed by a series of individual Design Thinking session modules and mentoring sessions which is tailored and focused on the business idea. The Design Thinking session modules which encompass the Design Thinking processes will be structured as delivered over the 10 weeks of the training programme.  

The Design Thinking workshops will be hosted at a User Experience Workshop lab. The mentorship sessions can be delivered online using video conference tools (MS Teams or Zoom) and Miro, an online collaboration and whiteboard platform.   

The SME or PSO will be provided with prior access to individual Miro project boards as it will be used as an online collaborative platform to support our provision of mentorship and training on Design Thinking theory. process and methods, which will cover user research, analysis, ideation, prototyping and validation activities.  

The service process comprises of – 

• Design Thinking Workshop (0.5 Day) 
• Introduction to Design Thinking Theory, Process & Activities  (Week 1) 
  Note: This will be a Co-located Group workshop hosted at a UX lab facilitated by two User Experience Researchers. 
• Online Mentoring Session on Design Thinking (7 Days) 
  Note: 5 Sessions with 1.5 hrs per participating company spread over the 10-week programme. 
• Mentoring & Design Thinking Sessions 
  • Session 1 – Lean UX Canvas (Week 2) 
  • Session 2 – Empathy Methods in Design Thinking (user & stakeholder interviews) (Week 4) 
  • Session 3 – Define Methods in Design Thinking (Define the problem & user needs (Week 6) 
  • Session 4 – Ideation and Prototyping Methods in Design Thinking (Week 8) 
  • Session 5 – Testing Methods in Design Thinking (Week 10)  

• Design Thinking Review & Report (0.5 Day) 
• A review session of the Design Thinking modules with SME or PSO, such as where we reflect on companies skills development and performance. We review the activities and outputs associated with the business ideas.
• Provision of a Recommendations Report

Both public and private organisations can consider this service.