HarvardSEED: Introducing Design Thinking to China’s Social Innovators

Category
Professional Trainings
About This Project

 

Sharing a new problem-solving approach with China’s young emerging social innovators.

 

Harvard SEED for Social Innovation is committed to building a community of China’s young social innovators, discovering, training, and connecting these emerging leaders. The commissioned TYTHE’s expertise to provide an “introduction to design thinking” at its annual summit in Boston, recognizing this skill as one of the most impactful ways to spur creativity, promote entrepreneurship, and approach problem solving.

 

OUR STRATEGY

 

To introduce students to the design thinking methodology, TYTHEdesign led SEED through day-long interactive workshops in both the Spring and Fall of 2016. Participants used a mock case study to practice, using empathy, participatory decision-making, prototyping, and rapid brainstorming to solve a large-scale challenge. The workshop incorporated both individual and group activities, designed to both familiarize students with the design thinking and brainstorming both collaboratively and at an individual level.

 

THE OUTCOME

 

A clear path forward

Armed with the tools, techniques, and problem solving approaches to tackle their largest challenges, the workshop equipped students to further pursue their personal social entrepreneurship endeavors.

 

Hands-on design thinking experience

Students gained direct experience using this rapid brainstorming and problem-solving technique, preparing the team to identify innovative, feasible, and impactful opportunities in their own work. The workshop convened fellows and built the group’s energy, deepening their understanding of how design thinking can foster innovative, strategic mindsets within their own team.

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“We’ve gained so many positive feedbacks from our fellows. During our camp’s final Demo day, we’re pleased to see most fellows applied what they’ve learned from Kris immediately to their projects. Even when we were doing reflection, the word Design Thinking showed up most frequently. The way the instructor explained design thinking was really approachable. Kristina was an experienced and skilled lecturer who used both successful and failed examples of her own work that inspired without overwhelming or intimidating. Thank you for redefining this word and made it tightly link to collaboration, creativity and compassion. – Yi Wang, Harvard SEED

 


 

Client: HarvardSEED for Social Innovation

 

Collaborators: Kristina Drury

 

Year: 2016