The document reflects on a 6-week Design Thinking course. It discusses what the author expected to learn (a new problem-solving approach, design patterns, cognition/metacognition, theory, and real examples) and what was actually learned (a new "thinking by doing" approach, empathy, prototyping, that doing is a way of thinking, and exciting solutions from real examples). Key takeaways were that doing is a way of thinking, empathy helps obtain better solutions, and prototypes are meant to fail and provide learning. The author discusses applying Design Thinking at work redesigning processes, at home with family complaints, and in personal and community problems.

1. Reflections from DTAL
6 weeks of Design Thinking

2. What I expected?
 A new thinking approach to solve problems
 Design and Design Patterns
 Cognition and Metacognition
 Lots of theory to supplement the learning
 Working on real examples
 A lot of learning

3. What I got?
 A new thinking doing approach to solve problems
 Design and Design Patterns Empathy and Immersion
 Cognition and Metacognition Pretotyping and Testing
 Lots of theory to supplement the learning Doing is a
way of thinking, just that we are not used to it
 Working on real examples + Exciting solutions
 A lot of learning + A lot of doing

4. 3 Key Takeaways
 Doing is a way of thinking, get used to it.
 Empathy is a state of mind, continuously being in that
state helps obtain better solutions.
 Prototypes are meant to fail, take the learning from the
failure and move on.

5. Design Thinking Process
Good
Enough?
Empathize Ideate TestPrototypeDesign
Immerse in the
environment to
understand the
problem 1st
hand
Iterate a few times to get
to the right solution
YES
NO
Immerse Productize

6. DT at Work -1
 My work as an ERP consultant involves redesigning
Business Processes
 Design Thinking and Pretotyping can save a lot of
rework in my projects by eliminating wrong
assumptions early. Some time can be saved from the
build phase and only what is really aligned with the
need of the customer shall be built.

7. DT at Work -2
 HR Policies at my workplace are usually
unidirectional; i.e. HRD decides on modifications or
introduction of HR policies without testing the waters.
 With Design Thinking, HRD can eliminate potentially
detrimental policies before they are operationalized.

8. DT at Family
 Complaints from spouse and other family members
are often about some of my habits. I change some of
it, but the changes never seem to be good enough.
 With Design Thinking, I shall empathize and identify a
modification. Then I’ll test with my family members to
validate if that solution would work. I’d make changes
only when it is validated to be working

9. DT in Personal Life
 A lot of clutter in life is about not being able to
complete tasks. Most of these are design challenges.
For example, unread books, space problems,
scheduling problems etc.
 With Design thinking the daily problems can be
viewed with a new perspective and fixed in a few
iterative cycles.

10. DT in Community
 After working on the Job Seeker’s challenge during
the DTAL course, I feel that we can solve many of the
big problems in our community by applying Design
Thinking.
 No problem is big or complex if we can rightly apply
Design Thinking for a few iterations

11. Reflection
 Design Thinking can be applied in all walks of life. I
can clearly see that there are multiple problems in my
life that could be solved by applying Design Thinking.
 Products, Processes and even Corporate Policies can
be designed with Design Thinking.
 Spaces at home and relationships can also be altered
by applying Design Thinking.
 I think it was a very valuable course for me and will
have a lasting impact on my life.

12. Thanks
Abby Singh