innovation
capability development

We help teams unlock their creative potential

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what we offer

We have customised workshops for different sectors, business functions and hierarchies. As part of the workshop, the participants learn about Design Thinking and Creative Problem Solving through interactive case studies, apply Design Thinking on a practice challenge and towards the end, prepare a roadmap for adopting Design Thinking principles in their work. After the workshop, you can expect the participants to be

  • More curious about root causes of problems and seek different stakeholder perspectives
  • Confident in exploring creative ideas and, collaborate effectively to build solutions
  • Agile and experimental in their approach

Learning Journeys are a blend of our consulting and capability building offerings. This model is ideal for organizations looking to build real solutions to their challenges while developing creative problem solving skills in their teams. These are customized modules, usually spanning over 6 to 8 weeks with 3 workshops interspersed with on-ground group work mentored by experienced practitioners.

Like is said "It takes a village to raise a child", so does it take a whole organization to nurture innovation. We help organizations (re)design their processes (project management, resource allocation etc), policies (employee assessment, rewards et al) and structures (reporting, functions/departments etc.), thereby developing a conducive environment for user centered innovation. Organizations can expect to achieve improved customer centricity, a clear structured approach to innovation, and a measurable growth in new ideas and experiments.
what to expect

Industry/Function Contextualization

We believe the way Design Thinking can add value to a technology company is very different from how it would play out for a retail company or a social impact organisation. And similarly it varies across functions like engineering, marketing, operations etc. We place heavy emphasis on contextualising Design Thinking for different sectors and business functions.

Diverse Facilitator Backgrounds

Our workshops are always conducted by a set of two to three facilitators, from mixed backgrounds like design strategy, business and engineering, and human psychology.

High Engagement Learning Experience

We maintain that Design Thinking cannot be instructionally ‘taught’, so we craft hands-on learning experiences based on 3H model- Head (intellectual or conceptual understanding), Heart (excitement or emotional connect with the subject), Hands (tools and techniques to build hands-on confidence).

industries impacted

IT Sector

With growing commoditization and digital proliferation, IT organizations are facing an existential challenge. They are looking for innovation and differentiation to transform into solution providers from being service providers.

In this scenario, Design Thinking can help IT organizations with:

  • Sales Excellence
  • Culture of Experimentation
  • Increased User-Centricity
In our workshop 'Design Thinking for Customer Centred IT', the IT engineers learn the skills of empathy and immersive user research which helps them come up to speed with live projects and become rapidly productive. Additionally, they learn to collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop new innovative solutions to technical challenges, and finally, they learn the rigor and nuances of usability-testing and concept validation to launch projects with faster go-live and reduced risk.
Under the traditional waterfall development cycle, the approach to project management was comparatively linear. With the adoption of methodologies like Agile and Dev-ops, project flows become more iterative with higher levels of ambiguity, and begin to resemble creative design projects from a management perspective. Our workshop 'Design Thinking for Innovation Management' gives IT managers a hands-on experience of managing such high-risk projects, right from the stage of need gathering, solution architecture to delivery and deployment.
Technology industry is rapidly trying to adopt design. However, there is often limited understanding of the design process, and dynamics of design projects. Our workshop 'Design Thinking for Technology Strategy' offers senior leaders such as delivery heads and sales heads a hands-on experience of the design process. Based on this experience, they review their organization structures and project workflows to smoothly transform them into a design-led technology company, that can achieve higher customer trust and establish thought leadership in the market.

Corporate

We enable managers at every level to thrive in a VUCA world and experience economy.

A blend of skill-sets and behaviours that help you unlock your potential

  • Experimental mindset: comfort and ability to regularly try, fail, and improve
  • Imagination: going beyond best practices to create new solutions
  • User Centricity: quick sensing of evolving user expectations and competition
Our flagship workshop 'Design Thinking for Creative Problem Solving' has been designed for Management trainees and fresh graduates from B-schools. They learn the skills of empathy and immersive user research which helps them come up to speed with live projects and become rapidly productive. Additionally, they learn to collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop new innovative solutions to business challenges in want for a fresh perspective, and finally, they learn the rigor and nuances of user-testing and concept validation to launch projects with reduced time-to-market and risk.
When business problems are well defined, project management is all about setting up processes, rigorous planning and monitored execution. However, with complex and ill-defined problems, the demands from project management change. In today's economy where customer expectations and business trends change rapidly, project managers have to manage the increasing amount of ambiguity and unknown factors in their role. Our workshop 'Design Thinking for Innovation Management' simulates this dynamic real-world environment where they learn to sense the market pulse and respond quickly and appropriately.
In volatile business environments, the strategy is no longer about predicting market trends, stocking up products or offering services to cater to those predicted market needs. In such a fast-paced environment, the strategy is about setting up delivery systems (products and services) which are flexible and agile, which can sense the dynamic market needs and respond quickly by re-organizing themselves. Our workshop 'Design Thinking for Adaptive Strategy' introduces the concepts of Adaptive Enterprise and Design Driven Innovation Strategy for senior leadership.

Academia

There is growing consensus that theory and specific skills based education is outdated. 21st century workforce needs creative thinkers who can work collaboratively in multi-disciplinary teams to develop new innovative solutions to complex business, social, and environmental challenges. Design Thinking is a systematic approach to develop creative problem solving skills in students across fields like engineering, management, design and social sciences.

Social Impact

Design Thinking enables the social impact sector in getting a better bang (impact) for their buck. By enabling the project & community managers to generate smarter, creative alternatives & quickly validate them; we ensure that NGOs deliver a much higher impact even as they use they use infra, human resources, finances as before.

Start-ups

Failure rate of start-ups is a concern for investors and founders alike. In the current high-tech enabled networked economy, number of start-ups emerging and failing is rapidly going up. User centered design or Design Thinking helps start-ups identify real user pain points, build relevant solutions and find sustainable business models. Leading incubators like Google ventures, Y-combinator and startups like Airbnb have already embraced Design Thinking at a large scale.

Public Sector

In Design Thinking, the user is at the heart of the search for solutions. It’s only natural that governments use it to shape programs and services" World over, governments are using Design Thinking to build more effective and user-centric public services. DesignSingapore Council, Design Council UK are two leading examples, with inspiring work across healthcare, law and order, education et al. TinkerLabs is championing the use of DT in government organizations and PSUs in India, to enable inclusion and innovation at scale.