Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people start seeing and solving problems like a designer.
Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.
In this self-paced, online course, Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve, you will learn to create more effective solutions by understanding the problem you are trying to solve.
Creating effective solutions begins with understanding the problem we are trying to solve. Is this problem worth solving? Where should we look to understand our problem? What’s happening inside this problem? How do we define the problem? How do we adjust problem framing as we go? During the course, you will learn to answer these questions and apply them to your work.
Ask Like a Designer
In Ask Like a Designer, I share design ideas, methods, frameworks, templates, and a question-fueled approach to design-driven innovation. Ask Like a Designer is geared toward action. Each article gives you things to start using today. I hope to help you find new ways to see and solve problems like a designer. Cheers ~ Dawan
011 // Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 2 — Telling Well
A transformation story is what every new product, service, or system we create needs to escape from the status quo’s gravity and give it a shot at finding a stable orbit. The struggle to tell stories is part of the sensemaking dance that produces our innovations and...
010 // Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 1 — Crafting Well
Every new product, service, or system we create and offer needs a transformation story. The story fuels our creation’s escape from the status quo’s gravity and gives it a shot at finding a stable orbit. The struggle to tell stories is part of the sensemaking dance...
009 // The 30-Minute Solution Matrix: How to Think and Solve Under Pressure
How do you think and solve like a designer when it’s an emergency or a crisis and fast design is your only option? What do you do when you need a solution now and inaction is more dangerous than flawed action? One way to focus and move quickly is to find a quiet...
008 // Three Little Words for Better (Business) Relationships
Love isn’t one of the words. Let’s get that out of the way. Love happens, but none of the words are love. Our relationships’ strength isn’t determined by how much we love or like, but by the quality of our listening. Think about three people who make you feel great...
007 // The Innovation Saboteur’s Handbook
You’re a nice person. You mean well most of the time, but you’re only human. You have urges, impulses, and needs. Not all of them are pretty, but that’s natural. When we’re trying to create something new, we all get a little twitchy, right? A little voice starts...
006 // Designing Facilitation: Create events, workshops and meetings that solve problems, save money, and protect your reputation
You’re creating and leading a call, meeting, workshop, convening, conference or other event. As the facilitator, your job is the purposeful orchestration of human interaction. Voluntold or otherwise, you’re responsible for making the event worth the cost of all the...
005 // The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions
“What problem are you trying to solve?” is a powerful question. Learn how phrasing your answer well supports healthy thinking about innovation, fuels team collaboration, and focuses change leadership. You’ll see how playing with your answer helps you find magic in the innovation journey mess.
004 // Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance
Before we can work well we must live well. Living well is the foundation of high performance. It doesn’t happen accidentally. It’s a choice. The trick is that we don’t directly choose to live well, we choose to design and use a system for living well and peak...
003 // There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking
What do we lose by seeking and tackling problems worth solving? Why? What is a better approach to closing gaps between the world we have and the world we want? This article’s title was almost, “Questions Worth Asking and How to Choose Among Them.” It’s a good title....
002 // Design, and One Question to Rule Them All
The one question to rule them all: What problem are you trying to solve? I find myself asking this question more than any other. I ask myself. I ask my students. I ask my clients. I ask my family. I ask others to ask it. Some people balk at the word problem. For them,...
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Learn New Ways to Think and Solve Like a Designer
Courses — Learn design thinking online with Design Thinking 101 Learning. Advanced course offerings coming soon.
Training — We create learning experiences for individuals and teams that are crafted to achieve performance gains.
Webinars — We regularly offer webinars about design-driven innovation like the Innovation Smart Start Webinar.