Design Thinking in Practice

Immerse yourself in design thinking practices and processes

Develop practical solutions to complex challenges

The Design Thinking in Practice course offered at the UCT GSB, with the globally-renowned Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking (d-school), will equip you with the tools to work differently in your organisation. This three-day immersive course uses design-led innovation as an approach to develop practical solutions to complex problems. The course is run from the d-school's unique innovation studio at the UCT Graduate School of Business as well as at the UCT GSB’s training facility in Sandton, Johannesburg. The studio is designed to facilitate design thinking training and practice – characterised by human centeredness, collaboration and creativity, and promotes rapid, iterative solution generation.

Explore. Create. Prototype. Test.

The practice of design thinking develops both an understanding, and the value proposition, of a human-centred approach to creating solutions – which are relevant, effective and suitable to the context in which they are applied.

Course participants work in multi-disciplinary teams with each team facilitated by a professional design thinking coach. The course pushes participants to develop their understanding of a challenge and the perspectives that frame it – by providing structured time to explore, create, prototype and test potential solutions in fast iterative cycles.

The hasso plattner school of design thinking (d-school)

The Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking at the University of Cape Town (d-school) is a place where creative intelligence is unlocked, and where future-ready leadership is developed.

Students from all disciplines and industry and government executives come together at the d-school to learn to work collaboratively in diverse and inclusive multi-disciplinary teams on real world challenges and to develop human-centred innovative solutions.

Who Will Benefit From This Course?

You will benefit highly from this course if:

• You are a leader, innovator, manager or entrepreneur who wants to make a difference
• Your business or organisation wants to develop a culture of design-led innovation
• Your business needs to adopt new ways of thinking, new strategies and solutions
• You are interested in learning how to work in, or manage, multidisciplinary innovative teams
• You want to develop human-centred solutions to complex challenges

What Will I Gain From This Course?

Delegates on the Design Thinking in Practice course will gain:

• The ability to work with the fundamentals of the design thinking process and its key tools and techniques
• Experience of the different elements of design thinking – such as empathy, user-insights, understanding context, collaborative ideation, prototyping and evaluation
• Insight into human-centred problem solving, and the value of understanding the context in which solutions are implemented
• An ability to work in multidisciplinary, diverse teams on transversal projects, and develop techniques to communicate across disciplines
• Confidence in creative thinking
• An understanding of the practice of low-cost experimentation and prototyping to test ideas early
• An understanding of how design thinking can be practically applied in a wide range of settings, from personal to global, and across disciplines and sectors