Design Thinking Resources
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Articles on Each Phase of Design Thinking
- Frame a Question
Why Leadership is Not About Having All the Answers
A conversation with chair of IDEO Tim Brown on his evolving thoughts on creative leadership and his focus on asking better questions.
- Gather Inspiration
6 Tips From IDEO Designers on How to Unlock Insightful Conversations
Interviewing techniques from IDEO design researchers.
- Generate Ideas
10 Activities to Generate Better Ideas
Creative and inclusive exercises to help you and your team practice a divergent mindset and generate lots of great new ideas.
- Make Ideas Tangible
Why Everyone Should Prototype (Not Just Designers)
A conversation with IDEO U instructor Chris Nyffeler on the value of prototyping, how to create low-fidelity prototypes for digital products and services, and the role of technology in design.
- Test to Learn
Build Confidence in Your Strategy with Small Tests
An interview with IDEO's global director of strategy Jennifer Riel on three types of strategic tests and advice for choosing the right test.
- Share the Story
How to Be a Better Presenter
A conversation with IDEO Portfolio Director Dav Rauch on how to tap into “the storytelling reflex,” and why it’s so important to prepare your audience before diving into a presentation.
Case Studies: The Impact of Design Thinking
- Financial Services
A New Employment Venture to Increase Customer Engagement and Financial Security
Designing a digital platform that matches workers who need extra money with employers who need to fill extra shifts.
- Food
Designing Waste Out of the Food System
Equipping food industry players with the design principles and support to cut waste further.
- Automotive
Beyond Cars: Designing Smarter Mobility
Prototyping experiments that reframe a car company’s place in a rapidly changing world of mobility.
- Technology
Helping a Technology Brand Connect with China’s Young Consumer
Creating a concept store centered around interactive experiences for consumers.
- Healthcare
This Startup Revolutionized an Industry Through Design
Launching a nationwide venture that redefines and simplifies how customers engage with their pharmacy.
- Education
Designing a School System from the Ground Up
Scaling an entire network of schools for the growing Peruvian middle class.
- Public Sector
A New Way to Vote for the People of Los Angeles
Designing an intuitive, accessible voting experience and ballot machine for every type of voter.
- Service Design
Transforming the Banking Experience
Creating a satisfying banking experience for Peru’s bank-wary population.
- Business Design
How a Legacy Phone Book Company Reinvented Itself
Transitioning from makers of the first phone book to digital services and beyond.
- User Experience Design
Creating an Out-of-This-World STEM Learning Experience
Helping Verizon expand access to STEM by designing an experience that students love and has educational rigor.
- Experience Design
Empowering Women to Prevent HIV
Redesign the HIV prevention experience to increase uptake and adherence among young women in South Africa and beyond.
- Product Design
Designing the First All-in-One, Wearable Breast Pump
Collaborating with the startup team at Willow that reimagined the breast pumping experience.
- Organizational Change
Preparing an Industrial Leader for the Digital Future
Building a customer-centered culture of innovation and lay the groundwork for a new generation of digital products and services.
- Culture
Invigorating a Company Culture from Within
Helping a global pharmaceutical company home in on a core purpose that unifies employees and aligns their passion with a corporate strategy.
Design Thinking Resource Library
Here you’ll find everything from free design thinking toolkits to online design thinking courses to help you apply these skills and mindsets across your work, team, and organization.
- TOOLKIT
IDEO's Design Thinking Website
A website from IDEO introducing design thinking, how it came to be, how it is being used, and steps and tools for mastering it. - TOOLKIT
Design Kit From IDEO.org
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design is a step-by-step guide that will get you solving problems like a designer. - TOOLKIT
IDEO Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit
This toolkit contains the process and methods of design along with the Designer’s Workbook, adapted specifically for the context of K-12 education. - TOOLKIT
Stanford d.school Resources
Activities, tools, and how-tos from d.school classes and workshops for you to explore. - ONLINE CERTIFICATE
Foundations in Design Thinking Certificate
Learn the core skills and mindsets of design thinking - ONLINE COURSE
Insights for Innovation
Learn to use insights to turn customer needs into human-centered solutions - ONLINE COURSE
From Ideas to Action
Learn to prototype, experiment, and iterate to move your ideas forward - ARTICLE
Harvard Business Review: Design for Action
Applying design thinking principles to managing the intangible challenges involved in getting people to engage with and adopt innovative new ideas and experiences. - ARTICLE
Harvard Business Review: Design Thinking
Solving complex problems through a human-centered, creative, iterative, and practical approach to finding the best ideas and ultimate solutions. - ARTICLE
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Design Thinking for Social Innovation
Through close collaboration with consumers, design thinking enables high-impact solutions to social problems to bubble up from below rather than being imposed from outside the specific community. - ARTICLE
The Development of Design Sensibilities
Effective design thinking entails more than applying design methods. To produce the best outcomes, organizations need to develop—and trust—peoples’ design sensibilities. - RESEARCH
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science: Prototypes as Tools for Behavioral and Organizational Change
A design-based approach to help organizations change work behaviors. - RESEARCH
Journal of Learning Sciences: Educating and Measuring Choice
Teaching design thinking strategies may support educators' aim to equip students with learning strategies they can apply when approaching new problems on their own. - RESEARCH
Going Deeper, Seeing Further
Enhancing ethnographic interpretations to reveal more meaningful opportunities for design. - BOOK
Change by Design, Tim Brown
How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation - BOOK
The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelley
Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm - BOOK
Creative Confidence, David Kelley and Tom Kelley
Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All - BOOK
The Design of Business, Roger Martin
Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage - BOOK
The Ten Faces of Innovation, Tom Kelley
IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization - PODCAST
IDEO U Creative Confidence Series
Conversations on leadership and design thinking - PODCAST
99% Invisible
About all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about—the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world.Description Here - PODCAST
Designing for Humanity, by SYPartners
Designing a future that’s made for all of us—and the best in us. - PODCAST
Creative Mornings
Talks from CreativeMornings—a breakfast lecture series for the global creative community. - PODCAST
Work of Fiction, by NOBL collective
An organizational design collective that helps leaders align company culture to strategy discuss fictional leaders and organizations from movies and TV: What works? What doesn’t? - ONLINE CERTIFICATE
Advanced Design Thinking Certificate
Deepen your design thinking skills and practice - ONLINE COURSE
Hello Design Thinking
An introduction to the foundational concepts and tools of design thinking - ONLINE COURSES
Storytelling for Influence
Craft a narrative to motivate and inspire - ONLINE COURSE
Unlocking Creativity
Exercises to overcome the common barriers to creativity - ONLINE COURSE
Designing a Business
Build and test new entrepreneurial ventures - ONLINE COURSE
Human-Centered Service Design
Design the moments that matter - ONLINE COURSE
Prototyping for Digital Experiences
Low-fidelity prototyping methods for digital products and services
More Guides
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Design Thinking Overview
Learn how we define design thinking, why it’s valuable, and our design thinking framework.
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Innovation Resources
Learn why creativity is essential for innovation and better understand the business case for building a creative and innovative team and organization.
- guide
Brainstorming Resources
Steps for how to plan a brainstorming session, ideation activities, common brainstorming challenges, and a brainstorming resource library.
