Category: Design Thinking

We’ve said it before: You, your learners, and your stakeholders are the experts on your learning needs. That’s why CoDesign℠, our learning design experience inspired by design thinking, invites all of these folks into the learning design process. It’s learning, co-designed by learners. (See what we did there?)

CoDesign isn’t just a great way to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your learning solutions—it’s also a lot of fun! When Shakespeare said, “The play’s the thing,” he might well have been talking about a CoDesign session. But setting everyone up to play well requires great casting, cuing, and direction. 

In the webinar, Want To Create Learner-Centric Training Programs That Delight Your Stakeholders? Discover Design Thinking!, our star practitioners shared a detailed overview of the design thinking process and how it can help your team build a learning solution that shines. 

Our expert cast included:

• Dani Howarth, Facilitation Team Lead, SweetRush
• Andrei Bonilla, Creative Director, SweetRush
• John Cleave, Senior Learning Engineer, SweetRush
• Judi Kling, Senior Learning Experience Designer, SweetRush
• Guest star Jeanne Morris, Vice President of Education at the Society for Human Resource Management 

In this presentation, they shared a behind-the-scenes view on:

• How design thinking contributes to better learning design outcomes
• Ways that collaborative technology can support virtual learning co-creation
• How collaborative, human-centered design enhances each element of learning design
• How to assess your project’s readiness for a successful CoDesign

As always, our audience played a major part in the show, and their questions kept us thinking long after the final act. This encore performance covers everything we didn’t get to answer live—from use cases to ideation etiquette.

Q1. Why do you recommend CoDesign to your client-partners?

Dani: There is always a benefit to hearing firsthand from learners! That is really the critical piece. There are many other benefits, including alignment on the program constraints and requirements, expedited design phase, and collaboration and camaraderie with our client-partners.

Getting all of the right people (including learners) in the same virtual room at the same time ensures that we understand the learner and business needs from the very beginning. Getting these needs right early helps to ensure that the rest of our work is successful. It also helps shave up to 34 business days from our project timelines!

Q2. How does CoDesign make learning solutions stronger? 

John: They’re built from data, not from assumptions. Numerous times, we’ve gone into a CoDesign experience with an initial vision for the training, only to have that vision completely change in the face of the realities of the situation we gather in our sessions. If we had gone the more traditional route, we would have missed the mark. But the CoDesign experience allowed us to leap beyond our assumptions to get to a better solution.

Judy: A CoDesign experience kicks off with upfront consideration and integration of instructional design, creative design, and technical requirements. This allows us to determine a much more realistic time estimate for developing the solution.

Q3. What makes a project a good fit for CoDesign?

John: CoDesign is most successful with teams that are prepared and eager to collaborate. It’s a good fit if your stakeholders are excited for the possibilities, your team is eager to dig in with ours, and your learners have the time and commitment to participate. 

The CoDesign experience is not a good fit if you come into it with a vision of the solution already locked into your mind. It works best if you let yourself remain open to the solutions that the experience will reveal. 

Q4. SweetRush quickly shifted from live CoDesign to virtual due to COVID. What did you gain in terms of supporting co-creation using collaborative technology?

John: Shifting to virtual helped broaden the pool of collaborators. It’s that much easier for you to bring in participants from across your organization and for us to loop in the subject matter experts (SMEs).

And often, a virtual space can be a safer space for collaboration. Participants who might be more reserved in face-to-face meetings feel freer to open up in a virtual setting. Also, getting together virtually gives us more flexibility in how we match people up for group work. We can group the participants who share a creative and collaborative style, making things proceed that much more smoothly. 

Q5. What if the “How Might We” (HMW) question is too big and complex?

The HMW is a lot like the audience suggestion in an improv performance: It ignites the team’s imagination and inspires them to generate ideas. (See below for some recent examples.) 

Dani: In most design thinking models, the HMW is usually formed during the second step of the process: Define. But in CoDesign, we frame our HMW question before we ever meet for that first collaborative session—because the reality is that our client-partners never arrive with a blank slate. They always have a business objective in mind for the engagement.

The broader the HMW, the more ideas that can be generated. After all, it’s meant to spark creative discussions! We tell our client-partners that it’s always adjustable, so it’s OK if we uncover things during the process and need to tweak the HMW.

Q6. Who should be invited to participate in CoDesign? 

Jeanne: One of the great things about the CoDesign process for us is that we’re reimagining one of the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) oldest and most popular premier products. So this design thinking process allowed us to take out our judgments and personal feelings. And we brought together this diverse group of folks in a virtual environment, where we could let go of our ownership over what was and instead think collaboratively about what could be. 

John: Jeanne, it sounds as if SHRM had the advantage of having the key decision-makers who were either directly involved with the project or close to it. When we’ve faced challenges is when we have a senior executive—somebody with a lot of opinions but not a lot of time—who flits into the fourth session or so and then changes all of the dynamics. They say, “No, that’s not right; we need to do this other thing.” 

Then, all of a sudden, all of this work that you’ve carefully constructed needs to pivot. To prevent those 11th-hour surprises, I’d recommend that if you have somebody who’s going to have a very strong opinion, get them involved in the CoDesign process very early. Have them participate—or at least be checked in—every step of the way. 

Q7. What’s the best way to approach a team member who is shutting down others’ ideas in a Play, or Ideation, session?

Dani: It’s a buildup to the ideation session: Start with setting ground rules, including being open to new ideas. Also, the small group work in breakout rooms helps build trust and relationships. The small groups work so well because we consider each person’s creative style and personality before matching them up! In short, it takes a keen awareness of group dynamics—and purposeful steering by the facilitator throughout the CoDesign experience.

Q8. How can we help participants who are having a difficult time sharing their thoughts? 

Dani: The small breakout groups and purposeful groupings (see above, Q7) really help with this challenge! We make sure to include a SweetRush team member in each group, and the feedback we’ve received is that the client participants were most open when the groups were smaller. 

Virtual sessions also enable participants to ask questions or share their thoughts—for example, by raising a virtual hand or writing questions on a virtual sticky note. We even have an activity where everyone changes a sticky note to a different color if they want to know more about someone’s idea. 

Jeanne: Our people didn’t experience too many challenges. Everyone had fun—even the team members we expected to be shy. After our sessions, people were emailing me to say, “Thanks for including me! I had a great time, and I’m glad I’m part of this process.” It was all very positive for us.

Q9. Can you share more about the prototypes you create? I’m curious about the level of fidelity; are they more like storyboards, outlines, or true prototypes?

Andrei: The fidelity of the prototypes changes from client to client and project to project. The important part is what you want to focus on. If you’re still focusing on your concept, then high-fidelity prototypes work best. But if everyone is clear on the concept, and it’s time to start focusing on the steps, low-fidelity is the way to go. You can start having more fun by creating marks and more visually appealing things. (See above for an insiders’ look at our low- and high-fidelity prototypes.) 

John: In some cases, you’ll be focusing on the interaction and the interface, so you’ll use low-fidelity wireframes to show what the learner is going to see. But there are other times when you don’t want to worry about the individual experiences. You want to worry about the collection of experiences. What is the sequence of experiences that will lead people to become lifelong learners? So, as Andrei said, you pick the right way to prototype based on the needs of the particular project.

We hope these habits and hacks will help your team get your own design thinking show on the road. And we promise that, as you continue to connect with your learners, your learning designs will be nothing less than heroic. (No, we’re not being dramatic!). 

Want to re-watch the first act? Check out the webinar recording. 

Prefer the director’s cut? Flip to Chapter 4 of our eBook on human-centered life and learning.

High-profile and high-impact training initiatives are a significant investment for your organization. Leverage the design thinking process to create learner-centric blended learning programs that deliver optimal ROI!

Every year, organizations spend billions of dollars on employee onboarding, sales training, and leadership training—all high-profile programs with a wide reach—and they’re expecting to get a significant return on their investment. No pressure, L&D!

But the truth is, pressure from leadership is no greater than the pressure we put on ourselves as learning professionals. We want our learning programs to be the right solution to address business needs and performance objectives—and to make an authentic, emotional connection with learners. 

The Trend of Blended Learning

We have more tools, technology, and techniques than ever before to accomplish these goals. And rather than thinking in silos about delivery modalities (e.g., instructor-led training versus eLearning), we’re getting more and more creative in how we combine them. 

Blended learning experiences—learning journeys—can engage learners in different ways, fire up cognition, fit into their busy workdays, and provide time for reflection. We can tailor a program to include context setting, demonstration, practice, self-reflection, social learning, coaching, and performance support. In other words, we can craft a holistic program that delivers value at every step in the learning process. 

Our goals are to speed adoption and application on the job, maximize retention, and make learners feel good about their own growth and development!

The question then becomes, with so many options available to create custom learning programs, how do you know if you’re designing the right solution for your organization, audience, and objectives? If not, you’re wasting your time and money.

The Blind Leading the Blind

Typically, when a new learning solution design is needed, project teams come together, including stakeholders, L&D professionals, and SMEs. And along with their relevant expertise and positive intent, they bring something else: their bias. Everyone at the table thinks they know what the best solution is from their perspective.

Some rely on their experience being in the learner’s seat, but it may have been quite a while ago. “Back when I was a new manager in the ’90s…”

Some want to push and pioneer new technology. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we made this a mobile app?”

Everyone believes they know what learners want and need. But do they really?

Lauren Granahan, Director of Organizational Effectiveness and codeveloper of SweetRush CoDesign℠ (more on that soon), compares this typical solution design process to the children’s fable of the six blind men and the elephant:

Six blind men have an opportunity to meet an elephant. They’re excited because they’ve heard a lot about the creatures but have never encountered one in person. When they’re brought to the elephant, each man approaches from a different direction. The first man touches the trunk and says, “An elephant is like a giant snake.” The second man touches the body and says, “An elephant is like a wall.” The third touches the legs and says, “An elephant is like a tree.” And this continues, with each man forming a different conclusion. Each is correct and simultaneously wrong. 

How does this apply to learning solution design? Each of the project team members naturally wants to make conclusions about what’s right for the learners (and the organization), but each has only a fraction of the information.

At SweetRush we saw an opportunity to elevate our learning solution design approach—not only for blended learning solutions but all solutions. We started integrating design thinking in our process, and the gains have far exceeded our initial goal to “see the elephant.” 

Design thinking—and SweetRush’s version for learning experience design, which we call CoDesign—enables:

• Deep understanding and empathy for the learner audience
• Alignment on audience needs
• Alignment on program outcomes, performance objectives, and mental model shifts
• Alignment on program constraints
• Alignment on program (or component) design
• Alignment on implementation and adoption (change management)
• Expedited design phases
• Collaboration and camaraderie in the project team (which can help later during those inevitable “bumps in the road”)

Design thinking (CoDesign) turned out to be disruptive, eye-opening, and extraordinarily effective.

Let’s find out why.

Building Empathy for Your Audience: The First Step in Design Thinking

It’s true for product development, it’s true for advertising and marketing, and it’s true for learning: If you want to know how to reach and connect with your audience, you need to build empathy for them and understand them. That happens to be the first stage of design thinking.

Each step of the process includes tailored activities that provoke deep thought and consideration as the team explores ideas and comes together to align on the best ones. 

The first step, which we call “Connect,” tends to be the most eye-opening in the design thinking process. We use a variety of activities to gain a deep understanding of learners. Some activities happen live in the design thinking session—for example, a “talk show” interview with learners. Some are a hybrid of prework and live experience. One of the activities we particularly love for redesigning programs is having learners write “love letters” and “breakup letters” to the existing program. Writing happens before CoDesign, and letters are read and discussed during the session. People get very creative with these letters!

Understanding Constraints for Blended Learning: Design Thinking’s Second Step

Our ultimate goal is to create a learning solution design that’s optimal for both the learners and the organization. So it’s important to understand program constraints, which we explore in this step, “Define.” These might include anything from budget and timeline to the learning environment to the time learners have available for training. Getting these on the wall (or on a virtual whiteboard) early means that as we move to the next steps of design and start dreaming up ideas, we have a tether to the reality of what works for the organization.

“This is also when we are exploring the mental model shifts that we want learners to make as a result of learning and the performance objectives,” Lauren says. “We ensure that we have appropriately framed the challenge (the ‘how might we’) for ideation as well.”

The Define step can also help us mitigate risk and anticipate change management needs related to the learning program. In an activity called “Kill the Program,” we brainstorm the reasons a program might fail—from adoption to implementation. We then determine what we can influence through our solution design or other methods, such as communications, manager support, systems or procedural changes, and so on.

Ideating and Prototyping a Blended Learning Program: The Next Steps of Design Thinking

We now have empathy for our learners and a better understanding of their needs, and we understand the organizational constraints. Now it’s time for the magic to happen! During these next steps, which we call “Play” and “Sketch,” we generate ideas about what our blended learning program should look and feel like. Learners are a critical part of the team generating these ideas.

It’s completely normal for everyone in the room to be experiencing different feelings as we step into this stage. Some will be excited and geared-up idea machines, while some may be a little uneasy about translating all the information gathered into something concrete. An experienced design thinking facilitator can help all parties show up and be the best contributors they can be—this takes careful preparation and the ability to “read the room” and adjust on the fly. 

The beauty of design thinking is that the process allows people to stretch their imaginations and then come back to gain consensus, and this happens multiple times. Each time, new ideas are added to the mix and then validated against the understanding and constraints gathered in the initial steps.

Testing and Validating with the Actual Learners: Wrapping Up the Design Thinking Process

The Sketch step resulted in a prototype. Now in our final “Align” step, that prototype gets tested. A prototype can be anything from a sketch on paper to a video storyboard to a functional mock-up of an eLearning course. The idea is to present something that the audience (learners) can react to and provide feedback on. 

“It’s important to emphasize that the learners have been along for the ride throughout the CoDesign process. At this stage, they’re being leveraged as testers for the prototype we create,” Lauren says.

And in our experience, there will definitely be things to tweak. But overall, the design thinking steps set us up for success in designing a solution that learners connect with.

From Solution Design to Launching Your Blended Learning Program

The Align step validates the team’s work during CoDesign, and it solidifies buy-in and sets the team up with a clear path forward for blended learning design and development. The design thinking process overall can also yield great insights that can help with implementation and launch—for example, themes that resonate with learners that can be integrated into marketing communications. 

Greater empathy, level setting on constraints, learner-centric solutions, validation, and buy-in. Reduce blind spots and bias, and maximize your time and money! What new blended learning program or redesign do you have coming up that could benefit from design thinking? 

Interested in learning more about design thinking for learning? Watch this webinar!

If you’ve ever been frustrated by poorly designed training that didn’t consider your needs as a learner, trust us, there’s a better way. Enter design thinking for learning, which we call CoDesign. 

Let’s face it—company-sanctioned learning has a bad reputation. Yes, I work for SweetRush—the top eLearning company in the world—and I just wrote that. While I have spent my career thinking about ways to overcome this reputation, I too am put in the learner seat sometimes; and, frankly, most of the stuff out there sucks. 

My Own Experience with Corporate Compliance Training

Due to a change in the law, I had the…pleasure…of sitting through an hour-long sexual harassment module recently. It was an off-the-shelf program produced by…well, not SweetRush. During each of those 60 minutes, I felt the acute pain of an adult learner in the corporate world today. I kept asking myself, “Who thought this would hold my attention?” “Am I actually learning anything from this?” and, a sadder question, “Did the learning designer even care to ask these questions?” 

As learners, a few things are known: Compliance training isn’t negotiable; task-based learning and professional development are important for us to be effective and grow in our careers. But, what if I told you that YOU can be a learning hero and help design learning experiences that hit the mark for you and your peers? What if you had a say in what that learning looks, sounds, and feels like? What if it were tailored to you and your peers, and drew you in and made you actually want to do it? 

I invite you to be a learning hero. 

The Design Thinking Methodology

At SweetRush, we’re integrating the design thinking methodology with learning design, which we call CoDesign. This is a new way to use design thinking, which traditionally is used for product and software development. No matter the end product you have in mind, the key thing to know about design thinking is that it puts a magnifying glass on users before doing any design. 

Through the use of various activities, designers empathize with the user’s world, e.g., what they care about and what their lives are like, in order to truly understand what would work for them. Then, they begin designing, often alongside those users, and engage the users in testing their early ideas and prototypes, getting their feedback, and integrating it into revised ideas that are tested again. 

Bottom line, it’s an iterative process that starts with a foundation of deep understanding of the user and continues with the user engaged in the design, which produces an end result that’s actually useful! 

Applying Design Thinking in Learning and Development

Now let’s talk about how we’re using design thinking to achieve better learning design. Surprisingly, most learning designers skip right to design, taking the word of stakeholders or leaders in the organization for what will “work” for the learner audience without taking the time to ask the actual learners. 

This is where you and your cape come in! Let’s say we are about to start designing a learning experience to help you gain new leadership skills. Rather than taking the word of others about what you like and who you are, what if we invited you and a cross-section of your peers (other leaders) to join a design thinking event? 

We’ll deeply get to know you and your colleagues—what you enjoy doing in your off time, how you like to learn, and what you know already about specific leadership topics. With that information, we can then work together to design something that you’ll actually learn from and enjoy. 

You’ll remain engaged in that process and, when the program is actually ready, and you and your peers sit down to learn, you’ll be the learning hero who deserves the kudos because…it won’t suck. It’ll be designed with the learner in mind, all thanks to you and your hero colleagues. 

Grab your cape and come CoDesign with us and, together, we can work to change the reputation of company-sanctioned learning!

Read more about CoDesign, SweetRush’s approach to design thinking for learning:

• Design Thinking: Creating Authentic Learner-Centric Solutions
• Using Design Thinking to Create New Hire Onboarding