How To Run a Design Thinking Workshop (2-hour Live Training)

Main ideas, concepts, and lessons (with workshop methodology)

Video purpose

• Demonstrates how to run a complete Design Thinking workshop “from start to finish.”
• Shows real workshop dynamics with 9 participants in Berlin who did not know Design Thinking beforehand.
• Promotes free workshop resources: a slide deck and an exercise guide (links in the comments).

Core workshop structure (Design Thinking framework)

Design Thinking is presented as:

• Human-centered and collaborative
• Creative, iterative, and practical
• Involves 5 stages (not strictly linear; it loops based on learning)

Five stages (with what happens in each)

1. Empathize

   • Understand users’ explicit and implicit needs.
   • Create understanding through personas and empathy mapping.

2. Define

   • Synthesize insights into a clear, well-defined problem.
   • Use a Point of View (POV) statement and then reframe it.

3. Ideate

   • Generate many possible solutions quickly.
   • Emphasize structured creativity using ideation exercises.

4. Prototype

   • Turn ideas into tangible representations to test and learn.
   • Emphasize fail early and fail often with inexpensive prototypes.
   • Prototypes can be physical, digital, or “ad-like” mockups for feedback.

5. Test

   • Test prototypes with users (or simulated users).
   • Use feedback to decide what to iterate or loop back on.

Methodology + exercise-by-exercise instructions

0) Workshop kickoff (facilitator steps)

• Start with a strong introduction:
  • Facilitators introduce themselves and the team
  • Share the agenda
  • Do expectation setting with participants

1) Icebreaker: “My First Job”

Goal

• Light-hearted way to break barriers and create connection.

Materials / prep

• Sticky notes

Timing

• Not specified as a single number; run as a group activity.

Participant instructions (what to write on stickies)

• On a sticky note, write:
  • Your name
  • Your first job
  • What you learned from it

Facilitator instructions

• Demonstrate first how to do the exercise before participants start.
• Have participants share with their team.

2) Creative confidence (mindset training)

Main lesson

• Creativity isn’t equivalent to being “good at art.”
• People can be creative when they build creative confidence.

Key definition given

• Creative confidence = ability to take on problems with no clear answers, tolerate unfinished work, participate even if you might not be good at it, and try + fail.

Activity to demonstrate risk/uncertainty tolerance

• Timed drawing of a portrait/neighbor’s face with a short timebox (stressful but revealing).
• Debrief focuses on feelings:
  • Stress, excitement, freedom, being out of comfort zone, time pressure

3) Teach what Design Thinking is

Definition

• Human-centered collaborative problem-solving approach
• Creative, iterative, practical
• Helps design solutions for specific people by continually considering needs.

Additional thinking modes

• Divergent thinking: generate many ideas
• Convergent thinking: refine and narrow to best options
• The process alternates between these modes throughout stages.

4) Empathize exercise: User persona creation + Empathy Map

Persona creation

• Personas are “made-up characters” representing real users.
• Include: name, age, job, hobbies, pains/problems, and needs/wants.

Example used

• Persona “Kathy”, 67, arthritis in hands
  • Hobbies: knitting and cooking
  • Needs: get through the day without pain

Empathy Map exercise instructions

Materials

• Empathy map template (at least the quadrants; in this workshop expanded fields)
  • Standard fields mentioned: Do / Think / Say / Feel
  • Their template added: Jobs / Pains / Games
• Sticky notes (implied by the exercise style)

Step-by-step

1. Prepare materials
   • Create an empathy map template.
2. Select target user
   • Choose a user segment or hypothetical persona (they used Kathy).
3. Write user goal in the middle
   • Example used: an easy-to-use tool for delicate tasks like pinning documents to a board.
4. Explain how to fill each field
   • Do/Think/Say/Feel (and Jobs/Pains/Gains/Game fields in their version)
5. Solo assumption capture
   • Participants work alone for ~3 minutes
   • Write assumptions/insights into each field on sticky notes.
6. Team synthesis
   • Teams discuss for ~7 minutes
   • Look for patterns and connections.
   • Place sticky notes onto the shared empathy map.

Sharing/backstory step

• Facilitator asks groups to narrate “the story” behind their Kathy variants (how they interpreted jobs/pains/needs).

5) Define stage: POV + “How Might We”

POV statement purpose

• Reframe insights into a unique, concise reframing grounded in user needs and insights.

POV structure (conceptual example)

• “The user needs an easy-to-use tool to help with delicate tasks…”
• In this workshop, it’s narrowed to pinning pins/documents for Kathy.

How Might We (HMW) transformation

• Convert the POV/problem into a solvable question.
• Example reframing:
  • “How might we create a tool that helps Kathy complete delicate tasks pain-free?”

Facilitator guidance (important lesson)

In real projects, you often don’t start with a known challenge—you discover it first via research/empathy. Today’s workshop is a compressed version, so they “pre-choose” the challenge to fit the schedule.

6) Ideation stage: Sketching + “Crazy Eights”

Goal

• Generate maximum innovation potential quickly.

Extra mindset/demo

• Timed sketching of familiar objects (door/baby/house) to show:
  • You can visualize and communicate ideas
  • Sketching success isn’t about artistic skill

Crazy Eights rules (as run)

Setup

• Each participant gets an A4 page and folds it into 8 equal frames.

Timing

• 8 ideas in 8 minutes (described with a 1-minute per frame rhythm)

Instructions

• Sketch solutions to the challenge (specifically for pin pickup/pinning).
• Emphasize:
  • Quantity over “quality” (idea throughput)
  • Use a short timebox per frame
  • If stuck: “start moving the pen” (draw something, even a line)
  • Don’t overthink—skip unfinished ideas and move to the next panel

Sharing within teams

• Each person selects one sketch they think best addresses the challenge.
• Present briefly to team members.

Second sketching iteration

• Teams pick promising ideas and participants re-sketch (more effort) to refine.
• Then teams chat and decide what to prototype together.

7) Prototype stage

Prototyping purpose

• Make ideas tangible to test with empathy, explore feasibility, and validate hypotheses.

Key principles

• Fail early and fail often
• Prototypes can look “ugly,” be partial, and represent main value.
• Avoid spending lots of time/cost too early until there is evidence the concept matters.

Prototype types (examples given)

• Physical prototypes
• Digital prototypes (often nonfunctional but realistic in look/feel)
• “Ad”/sales-deck style mock prototypes to test interest

Prototype building instructions (as run)

• Teams use selected sketches and available materials.
• Build prototype in ~20 minutes.
• Present prototypes to facilitators/others (without full demonstrations yet).

Prototypes created (examples)

• Magnetic “magnet glove” concept with a “pickup station” and auto-reloading pins
• “Pin gun” style concept
• Strap/bowl-like holder concept where pins appear automatically (no manual removal)

8) Test stage

Purpose

• Test with users using prototypes (simulated “arthritic hands” in this workshop).

How testing is simulated

• Participants wear oven mitts / arthritic-hand simulation so mobility is limited.

Testing procedure

1. Each group nominates testers from another group.
2. Tester uses the prototype to perform the target action:
   • Pick up a pin and stick it into the station/board
   • Remove/iterate if needed (removal sometimes becomes an issue)
3. Tester provides feedback on:
   • Comfort, clarity, usability, visibility, ease of grasp/release, etc.

Feedback capture lesson

• Facilitator encourages note-taking (post-its) so teams can iterate later.

Iteration loop reminder

• Design thinking is not linear: testing may send you back to prototype/ideate.

9) Debrief + reflection (key learning wrap-up)

Team debrief questions (explicitly stated)

• What worked well?
• What didn’t work well?
• What could be improved?

Major meta-lesson emphasized

• Don’t get too attached to ideas during prototyping/testing.
• Teams can become overly invested (“we can make the station work… just add more complexity”).
• Feedback may require discarding, simplifying, or iterating—especially if the user doesn’t like it.

Closing reflection

• Participants share takeaways including:
  • Building creative confidence
  • Time pressure freeing flow
  • Creativity unlocked by environment/team
  • Benefits of small wins and structured exercises
  • Fun competitiveness turning back into collaboration

Additional components

• Break and logistics
  • A 15-minute break with snacks/coffee
• End-of-day
  • “Goodie bags” as a closing reward, plus a playful “Mrs. Claus” moment

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Speakers / sources featured

Named speakers/facilitators (appearing to lead the workshop)

• AJ (mentioned in the opening as part of “AJ and Smart Style”)
• Smart Style (workshop presenters/brand)
• Rebecca (participant; also speaks during icebreaker)
• Dom (participant; helps facilitate segments in the exercise debrief and presents concepts)
• Tim (facilitator/explainer during Define/How Might We and prototype/testing explanations)
• Chris (participant; contributes during early exercises and wrap-up)
• Dory (likely facilitator/participant; gives book recommendation: Creative Confidence)
• Nicola (participant; gives feedback during wrap-up)
• Peter (participant; mentioned in wrap-up reflections)
• Ellie (support during workshop break/transition and is thanked)

Other people/groups

• Nine workshop participants (unidentified individually except for those named above)

Source material referenced

• Book: Creative Confidence (recommended by Dory)