Design Sprint

What is Design Thinking

Google the words Design Sprint and a whole world opens up. The design sprint approach builds on principles of design thinking pioneered in the late 70s. David Kelley, Founder of IDEO leads the Stanford d.school where design thinking principles are used to create a human centric approach to solving grand challenges. Start with a full understanding of the problem. Next allows individuals to create their own ‘divergent’ solutions. Follow up with discussions on each individual solution and iterate to group-level convergence that considers the best ideas towards an optimal solution. You are not done – finally create a prototype, test and validate.

At IU Indianapolis, we are fortunate to have faculty experts who can lead such design sprints. Last week Professor Pamela Napier from the Herron School of Art + Design, assisted by Interim Dean of Herron, Aaron Ganci, led us through a design sprint. Participants (around 50) worked to create programs/pathways/curriculum to help students consider multiple options for the choice of a major.

The Challenge

The major that seemed the best option when you were in middle or high school may not be the one that you eventually decide to pursue. Few of us can claim to know the career we wanted to be in when we were freshman. Additionally, as the future of work continues to evolve, we know that students graduating today will have to change careers multiple times during their working lives. Research by the Gallup organization also finds that only 30% of college graduates are in jobs related to their majors. While we would like to believe that everyone knows the career we want to pursue, it is unlikely that all freshman entering college know exactly what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Changing your mind about careers can be expensive but they are more expensive when done later in life.

How might we help students consider multiple structured pathways so they can pivot if their first choice did not work out?

More importantly, how might we help them understand that these changes do not mean failure. If anything knowing when to pivot is a sign of maturity.

The Highlight

The design sprint session’s highlight was the student panel that joined us and assessed the strengths and weaknesses of every solution proposed. Nearly every solution included programming related to Bridge Week and the First Year Seminar (FYS). There was convergence around the idea that removing the stigma surrounding such changes has to be an important part of the solution. To this end students welcomed any celebratory gesture that could be wrapped around a switch of majors. They also welcomed credentialling clusters of courses that would confer a certificate related to the courses a student completed but that did not transfer to the new major. Career coaching in the second semester of FYS was also well received.

Next, the Implementation

Not only was this a productive session, the format of the design sprint encouraged a collaborative, and inclusive spirit – it is a format that is worth adopting to solve our biggest challenges. Thank you Pamela and Aaron. On to an Implementation Plan that builds on these solutions.