Design Thinking Tools and Templates
help project teams innovate and think outside the box with Design Thinking
Thank you for checking out our collection of downloadable Design Thinking tools and templates.
Design Thinking is a creative problem-solving approach that encourages the use of deep dive interviewing and other ethnographic research tools to understand the problem through the eyes and experiences of the customer.
By framing the problem, the Design team purposely places themselves in the shoes of the customers and employs empathy to create better and more human-centered products, services, and processes.
The Design Thinking process has been popularized by key thought leaders such as IDEO, the Stanford d.school, and countless authors.
In our experience, Design Thinking helps people to reach their fullest potential by apply empathy to understand who they are serving, and how best to exceed that person’s needs.
If you want to learn more about Design Thinking, please visit our Design Thinking Certification.
Downloadable Design Thinking Tools and Templates
Design Sprint
A common framework for applying Design Thinking to solve a problem is use of a Design Sprint. The Design Sprint seeks to solve big problems in a rapid fashion, over a week's timeline.
Challenge Statement
Inspire the team to solve the problem by framing the challenge using a Challenge Statement.
Team Canvas
Get everyone on the same page. Whether it is a project team or a committee, everyone needs to know what the goal is and why the work is important
Customer Journey Map
View your processes through the eyes of your customers to better understand their experiences.
Deep Dive Interview
Deep Dive Interviewing engages customers in conversation and storytelling to get to the heart of the customer's experience.
Fly on the Wall Observation
Exercise the power of observation to understand how operators and customers interact.
Empathy Mapping
Unpack the customer's story - what was said, what actions occurred, and go further to assess what the customer was thinking and feeling.
Customer Personas
View your processes through the eyes of your customers to better understand their experiences.
Extreme Users
The User Needs Statement is an actionable problem statement that summarizes who the user is, what the user’s specific needs is, and why that needs is important.
User Needs Statement
The User Needs Statement is an actionable problem statement that summarizes who the user is, what the user’s specific needs is, and why that needs is important.
How Might We Statement
The How Might We (HMW) questions are short challenge questions that are representative of the user’s needs.
WINS Matrix
The WINS Matrix allows the Design Team to prioritize their ideas based on fit with the customer's needs and How Might We Statements.
Customer's Radar
The Customer's Radar diagram helps to arrange the customer's priorities, goals, and motivations by level of importance.
Customer 2x2
Brainstorming sessions help individuals and/or teams generate a list of creative ideas.
Brainstorming and Mind Mapping
Brainstorming and mind mapping helps individuals and/or teams generate and organize a list of creative ideas.
Thumbnail Sketching
As they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Using thumbnail sketches, illustrate your ideas and seek feedback.
Resources Coming Soon
StoryBoards and Polling Posters
Polling Posters are used to illustrate the Designer's concept, while combining 'dot-voting' to collect votes on key features and top ideas.
Resources Coming Soon
Rapid, Rough Prototyping
Prototyping takes concepts from paper to reality. Using simple materials, the Designer creates a mock-up of what the solution will look like.
Resources Coming Soon
Cross Selling
During the Test Drive, the customer will interact with the new product or service, while verbalizing their experience.
Resources Coming Soon
Test Drive
During the Test Drive, the customer will interact with the new product or service, while verbalizing their experience.
Resources Coming Soon
Feedback Grid
The Feedback Grid helps the team to capture constructive feedback once they have presented their ideas, using storytelling.
Additional resources coming soon. Until then, enjoy the free PDF template.
Business Case Canvas
The Business Case Canvas helps you to convey why the project should be selected and prioritized, all on one page.
Service Blueprint
This ideal state exercise creates a forward looking process that paints a picture for how things will ideally work in the future.
Additional resources coming soon. Until then, enjoy the free PDF template.
Minimum Viable Product
The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or Service (MVS) is a summary of the Design Team's recommendation, prototyping results, and next steps.
Additional resources coming soon. Until then, enjoy the free PDF template.
Learn the core concepts of design thinking through the Design Thinking Foundations class.
This course will help expose the learner to various design thinking tools and mental models – all with the emphasis on innovating through creative problem-solving.
We are excited about the opportunity to partner. Check out our list of game change services.
Service Offerings
For a list of the services that the Green Dot Group provides, please reference the attached Service Offerings List.
If you don’t see something you are looking for, please reach out to us.
Want to learn more about more about process improvement tools and templates, then click here.
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