Design Thinking Program Curriculum

The Design Thinking Executive Program meets high academic standards, with a challenging interdisciplinary curriculum designed to prepare you to analyze, create, and deliver unique experiences. Roll up your sleeves to solve real-world challenges and use innovative practices developed by top companies.

Module 1

Module 2

Module 3

Introduction to ​
​Design Thinking

Designing for Empathy 

Introduction to Visualization ​

• Define Design Thinking as an effective approach to creative problem-solving.
• Understand how human-centered design and methodology influence Design Thinking.
• Review of practices and case studies of Design Thinking in the real world.

• Identify effective approaches and tools for research.
• Design conversations and interviews that honor stakeholders.
• Frame problem statements that facilitate problem-solving.

• Align the right visualizations to the right Design Thinking tools.
• Learn the visualization tools that best fit specific challenges.
• Explore the use of visualization tools in real-life scenarios.

Module 4

Module 5

Module 6

Persona and Journey
Mapping Design

Ideation in the Design
Thinking Process

Prototyping

• Create personas that describe stakeholder characteristics.
• Build journey maps that help define critical moments of truth.
• Identify the right tools for measuring success in Customer Experience.

• Develop creative processes for developing new ideas.
• Understand mind-mapping and brainstorming approaches.
• Learn best practices for ideation workshops. 

• Understand low and high-fidelity prototyping.
• Design approaches for bringing ideas to life.
• Discuss prototyping approaches and tools.

Module 7

Module 8

Capstone Project

Validation

Design Thinking Implementation

Your Design Thinking
​Portfolio

• Identify methods for researching and validating outcomes.
• Evaluate recommendations for stakeholder collaboration and participation.
• Develop considerations for design validation.

• Develop processes for deployment and launch.
• Explore collaboration methods with stakeholders and success partners.
• Design plans for applying Design Thinking at your organization.

• Completed project from beginning to end.
• Customize templates and practices you can employ at your organization.
• Evaluate distinctive and measurable outcomes.
• ​Continue mentoring after the program ends.