Join a community of learners, do-ers and teachers. Journey through a Design Thinking experience, apply it in the real world, and go forth and teach others the methodology.

Crash Course Requirements:

• This is a paired activity, so there must be an even number of participants.
• Internet connection, a large screen or projector with sound.
• Prototyping materials (arts & crafts supplies).
• Print outs of handouts supplied.

Facilitator roles:

• Coordinate a group of participants and meeting space. There must be a minimum of 2 people, but no maximum for the number or participants.
• Present Opening Remarks on WHAT Design Thinking is to you, and why this is an important exercise for the group. There are NO wrong answers here.
• Facilitate and document the Crash Course debrief.
• Help your team move from learning design thinking to doing design thinking by visiting “Chart your own course” — It may help you to review the various mixtapes ahead of time so that you have a hunch as to what direction your team might want to take.

Step-by-step Instructions:

1. Set up the room and materials.
   • Space should be configured to allow for participants to pair up near one another easily.
   • Check the AV before the meeting: test play and buffer the video; test the audio in the room.
   • Have enough prototyping materials available (candy is always a nice add).
   • Please print the following documents for each participant:
     • dgift worksheet (11″x17″)

[Get it in German, Japanese, Spanish, Basque or French here.]

• d.modes // d.mindsets (8.5″x11″)

1. Read the playbook.
   

[The playbook and video in Japanese can be found here.]

1. Play the video and follow the prompts.
   • Play upbeat music during all steps while participants work, and turn it down to give instruction.
   • Be assertive about keeping the timing tight. Follow the gong!

If you just ran the d.gift crash course, we hope you and your team found it to be a valuable experience, and you’re excited about doing more design thinking. If so, you are likely asking yourself how to maintain the momentum and integrate a design approach into your work.

Well, guess what?

WE MADE YOU A MIXTAPE

(Three actually. We stayed up all night!)

Each is a different way to advance your project — think of them as a soundtrack for your next journey!

Choose one of them to help you immediately bring design thinking into your real-life challenges. Each mixtape will guide you through half a day of design thinking work. Plan to advance your project more in this half day than you might in a typical week.

In the spirit of bias-toward-action, get started now while you’ve still got your dancing shoes on.

Start here:

Think about a challenge you and your team are facing.
Ask yourself what you need to do more of to advance this project.
Then choose one of these three mixtapes:

• UNDERSTAND mixtape: Discovering insights via human engagement
• EXPERIMENT mixtape: Advancing your solution via prototyping
• IDEATE mixtape: Generating unexpected ideas via reframing your challenge

More information: Which mixtape should I choose? What project should I work on?

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These resources are free for you to use and share – and we hope you do!

To view a copy of this license, click here.