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Design Thinking

Design thinking is a human-centered approach to solving problems by understanding people, defining the real need, exploring possibilities, testing ideas, and refining solutions based on feedback.

Design Thinking

Start with people and the problem — not the first solution.

Design thinking is a human-centered approach to understanding problems, exploring possibilities, testing ideas, and improving solutions through feedback.

In learning design, it can help teams look beyond “build a course” and uncover what learners and the organization actually need.

Design Thinking Is More Than a Five-Step Process

The value comes from how the team approaches the problem: curious, learner-centered, collaborative, experimental, and willing to revise assumptions.

✦
Design Thinking Understand + explore + learn
→
Empathy Understand the people affected by the problem
Curiosity Question assumptions instead of jumping to an answer
Experimentation Test ideas before investing heavily in a solution
Iteration Use feedback to improve the idea as you learn
Design thinking encourages teams to stay focused on the problem long enough to avoid solving the wrong one.

The Common Five-Part Design Thinking Process

These stages provide a useful structure, but they are not always completed once or in a perfectly straight line.

1
Empathize Understand people, context, needs, and frustrations
2
Define Frame the real problem worth solving
3
Ideate Explore multiple possible approaches
4
Prototype Make an idea tangible enough to examine
5
Test Gather feedback and learn what needs to change
Teams may move backward, repeat a stage, or combine stages as new information changes their understanding.

Better Solutions Often Start With Better Questions

In learning projects, design thinking can help shift the conversation away from a predetermined deliverable and toward the underlying need.

Instead of:

“What should we put in the course?”

Ask: What are people struggling to do today?
Instead of:

“How long should the training be?”

Ask: What support do people need at the moment of performance?
Instead of:

“What interaction should we add?”

Ask: What should learners practice, decide, or apply?
Design thinking helps challenge the assumption that training — or a particular type of training — is automatically the answer.

Test the Idea Before You Build the Whole Experience

A prototype does not need to be polished. It only needs enough detail to help someone react to the idea and reveal what works, what does not, and what is still unclear.

Sketch Make the Idea Visible

Draft a flow, storyboard, wireframe, sample interaction, mockup, or small proof of concept.

→
Test Get Real Reactions

Let learners, SMEs, clients, or other stakeholders experience enough of the idea to respond meaningfully.

→
Learn Refine the Direction

Use what you learn to revise, simplify, expand, or sometimes abandon the original idea.

Early prototypes make change cheaper because the team can learn before too much time has been invested in development.

Design Thinking Can Strengthen Learning Design Decisions

The process is especially useful when the request is vague, the problem is complex, or stakeholders have already assumed they know what the solution should be.

In practice
What might design thinking change?

It may confirm the original training idea — or reveal that learners need practice, workflow support, better tools, clearer communication, or a different solution.

✓
Audience analysis Learn directly from the people experiencing the problem.
✓
Solution strategy Explore multiple approaches before selecting one.
✓
Prototyping Test course flows, scenarios, interactions, or support tools early.
✓
Iteration Improve the solution based on evidence rather than preference alone.
Design thinking complements instructional design by adding a deliberate human-centered problem-solving lens.

Before You Commit to the Solution

Use design thinking as a checkpoint for whether the solution is grounded in what you have learned about the people, problem, and context.

Final question
Are we solving the right problem for the right people?

A polished solution is still the wrong solution if it does not address the real need.

✓
People were understood Decisions are based on learner and stakeholder realities.
✓
The problem was defined The team can clearly explain what it is trying to improve.
✓
Alternatives were explored The first idea was not automatically treated as the final answer.
✓
Feedback shaped the solution Testing and iteration informed the direction before full build.
Design thinking is less about following five boxes in order and more about learning your way toward a better solution.

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