Scaling and democratizing design by creating and launching a design thinking training and certification program.
In order to continue on our design maturity growth, the company needed to become a user-driven organization. To do that, I lead the development and launch of a design thinking training curriculum and certification program.
OVERVIEWThe Problem Statement
As a result of our success, the design team was experiencing more and more project, staffing, and design as a service requests due to the lack of design thinking expertise across the organization resulting in our inability to scale and become a user-driven organization.
The Objective
Create a design thinking training curriculum and certification program to empower and enable all teams across the organization, not just designers, to utilize user-centered design and design methodologies to solve complex problems.
The Results
A scalable solution to becoming a user-driven organization
An iterative approach to creating an efficient and effective program
An entire design team trained and certified in design thinking
135+ interns trained and certified in design thinking and able to apply their learnings if hired to join the team
4 teams requesting design thinking training for their teams in the first month of our program rollout
Thousands of dollars saved in training and development that would have typically been outsourced to a 3rd party
My Role
As the Engagement Director, I was the lead on this project. My responsibilities included:
Establishing the design strategy and project plan
Leading the designers assigned to this project: this included Senior Design Strategists, a Principal Visual Designer, and a UX Writer
Creating all supporting training materials for our design thinking coaches
Selecting and training design thinking coaches
Collecting and analyzing feedback
THE PROCESSThe team developed a design thinking toolkit, training curriculum, workbook, and certification program to democratize and scale design by training teammates across the organization on how to use and apply design thinking tools and methods in their businesses.
Design Thinking Toolkit
The first step consisted of creating a Design Thinking toolkit. The Design Thinking Toolkit includes 40+ design tools and methodologies. There are tools for each phase of Key's 5-part foundational design framework. The toolkit is a resource for teams across Key to empower and enable them to utilize user-centered design and design methodologies. The creation of the toolkit followed our 5-step design thinking process and was built and released iteratively.
Design Thinking Training Curriculum
Next, the team developed a foundations-level design thinking training curriculum that balanced both theory and hands-on activities to get participants comfortable with using the tools and methods from the design thinking toolkit.
To test out our training curriculum we partnered with the Retail Internship Program Manager to train 135+ interns in design thinking and help them apply their learnings in their end-of-internship project.
The training included a series of three 90-minute design thinking workshops focused on the 5-step design thinking process.
Interns were assigned to a team to complete their project and a cohort with a Design Studio Coach. Each coach facilitated the 3 workshops for their cohort and was available throughout the 4 weeks to assist with any questions.
Each workshop combined an overview of the design thinking tools and methods with interactive activities to practice using them. Following each workshop, each team had a week to put their learnings into practice by utilizing the tools and methods learned during the workshop.
The program was successful and helped us identify additional opportunities for improvements including the creation of a design thinking training workbook and different levels of certifications.
“Thank you to the Design Studio for your support in executing what was, hands down, our most effective and engaging intern capstone project to date!”
Retail Internship Program Manager
“This is the first year we had the Design Studio come in to help and I can really tell by the quality of these presentations. Past capstones have never been at this level.”
Consumer Banker
Design Thinking Training Workbook
Based on learnings from the Retail Internship Program, the team then focused on creating a physical training workbook for participants to have in front of them during the training workshops. The workbook once again leveraged the tools and methods from the design thinking toolkit but incorporated a fun and playful look and feel to help engage participants during our training workshops.
Design Thinking Certification
Finally, the team then focused on building out two additional levels of training with corresponding certifications. These certifications are available to any Key employee who completes the Studio-led Design Thinking training.
THE IMPACTThe combination of our design thinking toolkit, training, workbook, and certification has helped us towards our goal of becoming a user-driven organization by providing virtually any employee with the tools and methods they need to solve their problems no matter what they are.
Within the first month of releasing our design thinking training and certification program, already 5 teams had approached us to get their teams trained.
Having the training run internally by the design team has helped the organization save thousands of dollars in training and development that would have typically been outsourced to a 3rd party.