CSI:Lab - Lesson Plan & Facilitator Guide 

 
​Purpose & Preparation 
 

Purpose  Unlock your creative potential and use Google’s road-tested innovation framework to understand user needs, think 10x and start 
  experimenting to power innovation.​ ​These materials are adapted from the CSI:Lab program developed by Google’s People 
  Development team​. 
 
 
Originally used by architects like Bryan Lawson, engineers like L. Bruce Archer, and even political scientists like Herbert Simon​, 
 
“design thinking” has come to be a process that can be applied to any complex problem. Stanford Professors Rolf Faste and David 
  Kelley, who later founded the design consultancy IDEO, were among the first to broadly teach and apply this design approach to 
  problem solving. This approach has been used to brainstorm solutions for societal issues like g ​ etting kids to eat healthy school 
  lunches​ as well as to help ​well-established companies redefine their place​ in a fast-changing industry. Today, design thinking is 
  taught as a formal course at places like ​Stanford’s d.school​, the ​HPI School of Design Thinking​,​ and ​Harvard University​. 
   
  The CSI:Lab (Creative Skills for Innovation) workshop gives people the mindset, process and tools to accelerate innovation and to 
  find out what it takes to get from ill-defined problems to well-designed solutions. Attendees work through a complex challenge to 
come up with new approaches and potential solutions. After the session, participants will also have the resources to apply their 
 
innovation skills to future projects and challenges. 
 
Learn by designing: As you apply our innovation process to your challenge, this course will: 
● Equip you with a “designer’s mindset” to cultivate essential design-thinking skills. 
● Explore a step-by-step framework to innovation. Learn how to use your time effectively while being immersed in hands-on 
activities. 
● Give you the chance to practice being a user-centered, prototype-driven innovator! 
 
 

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Preparation  4 Hours (time is flexible to your needs and customization —  sessions may be extended to 1 or 2 full days). 
Flexible group size. However, standard size is 5 to 30 (sessions bigger than 30 generally require more than one facilitator).  
 
Room setup: 
● A large (training) room (think studio), depending on size of tables.  
● Ideally, flexible furniture to adapt room easily to team activities (e.g., interviewing, brainstorming, prototyping, presenting). 
● Group the participants around tables (ideally in squares).  
 
Facilitator prework: ​Use this doc as a framework to help you come up with the challenge statement for your design thinking 
session: ​How to frame a design challenge​.  
 
For each group: 
● 2 x Flipcharts or Whiteboard 
● Prototyping Materials 
● Markers 
● Post-it notepads 
● Pens and Pencils 
  
Materials required: 
Facilitator must have: 
● Laptop​ (facilitator only, not students) 
● Projector 
● Presentation slides 
● External speakers (for video volume) 
● Timer: Google Search “Timer” 

 
 
   

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Detailed Lesson Plan (for a 2-3 hour session) 

 
Timing  Slide  Speaker Notes with Slides 

8min    Welcome 
   
[Feel free to PLAY​ ​upbeat MUSIC while participants are entering the room.] 
 
 
Manage participants’ expectations: 
● If anybody is here to just “listen” and “watch” how innovation and creativity works, I have to disappoint you. 
We are not going to t​ alk​ about innovation and creativity, we are going to do it! 
 
● Innovating is best learned by doing, and our Lab immerses you in an experiential learning environment. 
● CSI:Lab is here to make you an innovator, a designer, a creator, by walking you through a full 
design-thinking circle and letting you experience the “live” innovation process. 

8min  Exercise: Rock, Paper, Scissors Warm up Exercise 

● Today we want our heads, hearts, and hands to all be energized. 
● I promise all the exercises we do today have a meaning, even if they are not immediately obvious. 
● Does everyone know how to play the game, rock, paper, scissors? 
○ [Explain what each means and how to play] 
  ■ Rules:  
● Each person finds a partner. 
● One, two, shoot!​ On three, ​expose your rock, paper or scissors. 
● When you lose, you become the biggest fan of the person who beat you - shout out 
their name in support! 
● The winner must find a new person to challenge until there is a champion. 
● [Encourage shouting, chanting, cheering, etc.] 
■ Purpose of the warm up: Make others shine and support their ideas. 
■ If you lose, you can still be on the winning team! Support others, even if you fail in the 
beginning.  

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● Stand up and begin! 
[Turn on upbeat MUSIC] 
 
Debrief: 
● Think about the last time you went to a meeting and shared an idea that wasn’t accepted. This happens to 
everyone. 
● There are several different ways you can respond to this: 
○ You could mope and undermine the idea that was chosen. 
○ Or, even if your idea wasn’t the one chosen, you can still be on the winning team and fully support 
the winning idea. You all work for the same company after all. 
● Today we’re going to be generating many ideas. Your idea might not be chosen, but it’s your job to fully 
support the idea that is chosen. 
● We’ll touch more on the rules of engagement later on (such as “Yes, And...”), but it’s important to start off 
open-minded and positive. 

2min    Intro to Design Thinking 

 
Ask participants: 
● Where or when are you most innovative? Where do you get your best ideas?  
● We’ve asked this question to over 12,000 people and less than 1% said ‘at work.’ 
 
  Explain: 
● Cultivating a more innovative culture is not as easy as simply installing more showers in the office.  
● We believe innovation is not an event, but a mindset, which can be learned and developed.​ It’s about 
changing habits and behaviours when understanding and defining problems, brainstorming, and 
problem-solving. 
● It’s also called “​ design thinking”.  
 

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3min     
The 3 Key Principles of our design thinking approach @ Google 
 
Most importantly, at Google, there are three key principles to design thinking, which is how we view and define the 
process at Google. 
 
 
1. First principle is to “focus on the user”.  
● One of the most important aspects of Google’s innovation process is the focus on people. And so this is 
where we start: with people, with users. 
 
2. Second principle is to “think 10x”. 
● Just reflect for a moment on the huge difference between a 10% improvement and a 10x improvement. 
This step challenges us to come up with ideas not just 10% better but 10x better than the status quo.  
 
3. Third principle is to adopt the ‘launch and iterate’ philosophy of being “prototype-driven” .  
● This is the phase where we test out the idea and get real data about whether or not it makes sense to move 
it forward, kill it, or tweak it. 
 
[Optional - some history around design thinking] 
● This approach has been used to brainstorm solutions for societal issues like​ ​getting kids to eat healthy 
school lunches​ as well as to help w ​ ell-established companies redefine their place​ in a fast-changing 
industry. Today, design thinking is taught as a formal course at places like ​Stanford’s d.school​, the​ ​HPI 
School of Design Thinking​, and H ​ arvard University​. 
● Our focus is on creating innova​tors​ rather than any particular innova​tion​. 
● It is not a static process, but an approach to creative problem-solving.  
● Each team and individual develops their own process as they work on a problem, adapting and adding to it 
as they go.  
● The key element is being mindful of the process and how you work, not just what your outcome is.  
● Regardless of the steps you take, the elements underlying the process are the mindsets of empathy, an 
attitude of prototyping, collaboration, iteration and feedback. 
● Since the founding of the d.school, the methods have really spread a lot! Examples to come later. 
● In this session, we are n ​ ot​ going to go over the theory behind these methods, but we will use them.  

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The Challenge 
 
[Introduce challenge(s) and explain why we keep it as a broad, high-level statement to begin.]  
● This is your overarching, high-level challenge for today. It is important to learn the process from the 
 
beginning and to not be too focused and biased towards a specific project.  
● The challenge should create momentum — it should be revealing, aspirational, empowering, and change 
people’s lives (e.g. Google’s mission - to organize the world’s information and make it universally 
accessible and useful. 
● Remember: our focus is on creating innovators rather than any particular innovation. 
● The reason why we choose a challenge (that is not closely related to your work or a project you are doing), 
is because we want to provide you a safe area, where you can experiment and learn the process and the 
techniques of a Design Thinker, without worrying too much about previous work or project members.  
 
● ​ ow to frame a design challenge  
Supporting doc: H

30sec    Focus on the User - Intro 

 
Now let’s move into the first principle of our design thinking process today: F
​ ocus on the User.  

1min    As Larry Page regularly mentions “focus on the users and all else will follow”. 

2min    ● This is a human-centered approach that is user-focused and user-centred.  

● It seems brave and agile, but it’s in line with human behaviour and evolution; it keeps you ahead of the 
game. 

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● This Venn diagram shows how technology, user and $$ fit together for success - focus ​first​ on the user and 
this will lead to the right solution (instead of focusing first on $$) 
● The A​ ndroid One​ phone is an example of this. Android focused first on the ​needs​ of Indian users (cheaper  
smartphone). 
  ● [Feel free to mention other examples] 

30sec    This is called Empathy. T

​ he first crucial mindset in CSI:Lab & design thinking.  

2min    First, a story: 

● A father installed a mobile above his son’s crib that looked like this ​[image on slide]​. Over time he was 
surprised that his son didn’t show more interest in cars and trucks given all the time spent looking at the 
mobile. 
● Then, one day, he actually laid down in the crib and looked at the mobile from his son’s perspective.  
● [Ask: What did he see?] 
 

2min    ● And this is what he saw ​[image on slide]​.  

● This experience helped him understand how vitally important it is to take the perspective of anyone you’re 
trying to help. 

15min  from:  Empathy Exercise 

● Help the participants truly understand how to get empathy from an interview, by practicing empathetic 
listening. 
● The exercise is easy, and involves just a few steps: 
○ Audience forms pairs, generally ask for them to work with someone they haven’t worked with 

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 before. 
○ In each pair, find a way for them to decide who is going to speak first (doesn’t matter who!) 
○ 2min: Person A talks about a key challenge they are currently facing (could be at work, or personal). 
Person B listens. 
  ○ 1min: Person B reflects back to Person A what they heard. 
  ○ 1min: Person A is able to offer feedback on Person B’s interpretation. 
to:  ○ Pairs switch, run the exercise again. 
 
Total time: 5min to explain, 10min for exercise. 
 
Debrief: 
● Ask the audience how it went, what they felt. They will generally field the answers you need —e.g., they find 
  it hard to just sit and listen without coming up with solutions for the other person’s problems 
● Make sure to touch on: 
○ Empathy requires you checking assumptions and ideas at the door. 
○ Feedback helps you hone in on speaker’s reality. 

2min    The Interview 

● In order to better understand our users, we need to conduct user research.  
● There are many ways to do this: observation, simulation, forums, studies, field studies, and/or interviews. 
● Interviews are the method we are choosing to focus on in this lab today. 
 

1min    Interviews = Empathy 

 
Time to put the empathy exercise into practice! 

3min    Interviewers, here are a few tips to keep in mind: 

● Seek out specific stories and examples: ​“Tell me about a time...” 
● Ask open-ended questions: ​”walk me through”​ i​ nstead of​ “​ do you...” or “have you...” 
● Encourage elaboration: 
○ Probe deeper: ​Your favorite question should be​ “why?” 
   

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 ■ If you ask 5 times, you’ll drill down to the core problem which might lead to a totally 
different solution later 
■ Doctor diagnosis example: 
● I have a headache. (Why?) 
● I ran into the door. (Why?) 
● My wife slammed the door at me. (Why?) 
● We have relationship issues. (Why?) 
○ Asking “why?” this many times may feel a little uncomfortable, but that’s okay. It’s worth it. 
 
Others: 
● Don’t say ‘usually’:​ don’t let them get away with generalities. Ask “what’s...” 
○ E.g., “What exactly did you eat yesterday?” 
● 20/80 rule 
○ The user should be talking 80% of the time. Ask your question, then listen! 
 
Remember this quote: 
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."​ (Henry Ford) 

1min    Encourage Elaboration 

 
People often signal with their body, their tone, or their choice of words when there’s something beneath the surface 
of what they’re speaking about. A good interviewer is constantly on the lookout for these signals. When he spots 
one, he’ll encourage the interviewee to elaborate. Sometimes, these elaborations won’t lead anywhere significant. 
  Maybe the interviewee doesn’t remember why first grade was so amazing; it’s often in probing that an interviewee 
gets to the meatiest content.  

2min    Always a good idea to create sample questions on the challenge that you can share with your participants for 
inspiration. 

1min    Interview Roles 

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There are three roles to assign among your teammates. Assign roles now. 
 
 
 

5min    Now take 5 minutes to write down potential questions to ask your user. 
 
[advance to next slide so students can reference interview tips while working on questions] 

15-    Conduct interviews for 15-20 mins. 

20min   

5min    Debrief the interviews 

2min    Definition Introduction 

 
● Now we have a great foundation to think about the challenge from a user’s perspective. 

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● Now you (hopefully) have a better understanding of “what the user is about?” and “what there needs are?” 
● Data makes no sense unless you talk through it and synthesize it, which is the next stage. 
● We’re going to move into the d
​ efinition stage  
 

10min  The Empathy Map 

 
Meaningful innovation is grounded in a deep understanding of the user for whom you are designing.  
● We all interpret things differently. And we want to gain a deeper level of understanding of our users and 
draw out unexpected insights to eventually reach a shared understanding. 
  ● What is the user saying, doing, thinking, feeling,? Synthesizing is the act of making sense what we have 
learned during the Interview stage. 
● One tool that we use to synthesize this data is called an empathy map - it helps us understand who our user 
is, what their needs are, and what additional insights we can take away. 
 
SAY: What are some quotes and defining words your user said? 
DO: What actions and behaviors did you notice? 
THINK: What might your user be thinking? What does this tell you about his or her beliefs? 
FEEL: What emotions might your subject be feeling? 
 
● [Introduce Empathy Map model, which is adapted from ​Dave Gray of XPLANE​] 
 
Now take 10 minutes to fill out the empathy map. 

15min  One other tool that we use to synthesize this data is through building “Inferences” - it helps us understand facts 
(what actually happened) and inferences (what does this actually mean). 
● Left side: Facts (objective) → what actually happened? 
● Right side: Inferences (subjective) → what meaning do we collectively make about the user? (Inferences) 
[Talk through each side] 
 
● Your small group has an opportunity to draw an inference map. 
● Stick your notes from the user interviews in the facts. 
● Write new sticky notes to build inferences. 

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 ● Get on your feet; crowd around the whiteboard; and complete the map as a team. 
● This exercise helps us understand what the user is really about. 
 
You will have 15 minutes to do so. 
 
Example: Some teams decide to display them at the office and add new sticky notes when fresh insights come up. 
 
Example: Pull up one sleeve on your shirt. Tell participants: It’s a fact that I have a short sleeve and a long sleeve. 
Let’s make some inferences: Ask participants to build inferences why you have one sleeve shorter and one longer 
(e.g. hide your watch, have a stain, too hot on one arm, etc.) 

1min  Definition - A Point of View (POV)  

 
● Now, let’s assemble our User, Needs, Insights: it’s time to create a Point of View statement. In essence, a 
POV is a way of succinctly articulating what you have learned about your user to later focus your 
  brainstorm on those needs. 
  ● One important thing to remember about a POV is that it shouldn’t be an idea for a solution. Rather, it is a 
statement of a problem that you can solve in 1,000 ways. 

2min     
POV - Good Example 
 
● Let’s take a look at this example of a POV, in which we can easily understand who our user is, what he 
needs, and why he feels that way: 
  ● Jose is a busy manager who wants to eat healthier but doesn’t want to feel like he’s on a diet. 
● The additional details we learn about our user from this statement will be helpful guides in our brainstorm, 
allowing us to create a better solution uniquely for Jose. 

2min    POV - Here’s how not to do it. 

 
● Now let’s take a look at another example of a POV: 
● Jose needs more healthy menu options to have a better eating experience at Google. 
● What’s wrong with the statement above?  
○ We don’t get any information about who Jose is. Does he have all the time in the world to workout, 
 
or is he cramming it into an already busy day? 

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 ○ He wants to have a better experience at Google...but why? How? We need more information to 
identify possible, viable solutions for him. 

5mins    ● You’ve now seen a few good examples of POVs, it’s time to create your own! Use this mad-lib style formula 
and in your teams, drop in the information from your User, Needs, Insights chart to craft a statement. You’ll 
have 5 mins. 

30sec    Framing a Problem 

 
● We introduced the POV as a statement which “fuels brainstorms”. But how are we actually going to create 
the fuel for our brainstorm? We translate the POV statement into one or several “How Might We...” (HMW) 
problem statements. 
  ● HMWs fall out of your POV as seeds for ideation. You want to create a seed that is broad enough so you 
have a wide range of solutions, but narrow enough that you have some helpful boundaries. It should be 
noted, the proper scope of the seed will vary with the project and how much progress you have made in 
your project work. 

1min     
● For example, between the too narrow “How might we create a food tracking app to encourage healthy 
eating?” and the too broad “How might we help people eat more healthy?”, somewhere in the middle might 
be the proper scope. 

1min  Some good examples: 

● How might we make eating healthy more convenient? 
● How might we make unhealthy eating less convenient?  
● How might we make the feeling of dieting desirable? 
   
 

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5min    ● As a small group, come up with a few different HMWs, based on your POV statement. Remember that we 
are s
​ till​ not in solution land! These HMW questions are just various ways for you to frame the challenge 
that you’ve been addressing.  
 
● You’ll have 5 minutes: 
○ Everyone stand around a whiteboard.  
  ○ Have a marker ready to write.  
○ Remember to take the user perspective and use what you learned from the interviews to inform 
your ideas. 
● When you’ve generated a few HMW statements, pick one for your brainstorm. 

10-15  No Slide  BREAK 

mins  [Play music] 

    Brainstorming 

2min    Brainstorm - Warm up 

 
Draw your neighbor warmup: 
● In order to get right back into the creative, childlike mindset, let’s do a quick activity. 
● Draw your neighbor in 1 minute without looking at them. 
 
  [Facilitator to listen out for “I’m a terrible drawer, I can’t draw”, etc from participants] 
 
[After 1 minute is up, ask them to hand over their drawing to the person they drew. Listen out for, “I’m so sorry!” etc, 
from participants.] 
 
Purpose of exercise: 
● Be confident in your creativity and feel comfortable to share unfinished work - don’t apologize to anyone for 
your interpretation of and perception on things or situations. When children draw trains or cars or houses - 
when they create their own interpretation of these things - we don’t ever tell them “that’s a terrible car, or a 

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 terribly drawn house - do it again”. Imagine how crushed a small child would be if you told them they were 
not good at drawing or being creative. Sadly, this does happen and we slowly convince ourselves we “can’t 
draw” or “aren’t creative” when we reach adulthood.  
● Be confidently, childlike. We were all children once - everyone has the ability to be creative! 
● Try something new and do it!  

2min    Brainstorm - Rules of Engagement 

 
Transition to brainstorming: 
● I want to direct your attention to something really important. Notice that we’ve now been here over an hour 
and haven’t brainstormed any potential solutions yet. And that’s a good thing! 
● It’s natural for teams to jump to solutions too quickly. The danger, of course, is that the solutions are out of 
  sync with real user needs.  
○ Now that we’re working with the user perspective in mind, our idea generation job will be much 
easier and more accurate.   
● Here’s our goal: Generate 30 10x ideas in 10 minutes for the How Might We questions generated based on 
the original “Challenge”!  
 

1min    Before we get started, let’s go over some helpful tips to get into a brainstorming mindset:  
 
 
● The most appropriate response to someone’s idea is​ “yes, and” 
○ Many companies have a “no, but” culture 
○ That doesn’t help the brainstorm move forward - we want BIG ideas and this comes from “yes, 
and”. Don’t shut down others’ ideas - you’ll be surprised by how seemingly crazy ideas can generate 
 
solid outcomes. 
 

1min    ● Go for ​quantity, not quality​ (at least in this first pass) 
○ The more ideas you generate, the better % chance you have of hitting gold.  

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1min    ● Headline it: D
​ on’t get into the weeds 
○ Remember, you’re not going to have much time: 30 ideas in 10 minutes. 
○ If you go into too much detail with any one idea, then you won’t be able to generate as many new 
ideas. 
○ So stay at the headline level.  

1min    ● Be as​ visual​ as possible 

○ Draw pictures or diagrams of your ideas. 
○ Images can often communicate more about your idea than words alone. 
○ Visuals reduce confusion, miscommunication, or misinterpretation (e.g. A “house” might look and 
mean something else to different people in different circumstances and cultures.) 

1min    ● Encourage​ big ideas  

○ This is what “thinking 10x” is all about.  
○ At Google, we use the phrase “uncomfortably excited,” which means to come up with ideas so 
world-changing and inspiring that you’re excited about them, but at the same time so big, complex,  
 
and ambitious that you feel uncomfortable because you’re not quite sure how you’re going to pull it 
off. 
 

1min    ● Don’t judge y​ our ideas or others  

○ Save the judging for later. 
○ Capture all ideas without censor.  
● Relax​ your inner bodyguard 
○ We all have interior voices that try to keep us safe and prevent us from looking silly in front of our 
colleagues.  
  ○ Well, turn that voice off for now and don’t worry about looking stupid!  
○ Keep a child’s or beginner’s mind. 
● Be really​ curious​ about everything 
○ Revisit perspectives you may have written off. 
○ Try to see the challenge from fresh angles. 
○ Pretend like you’re not an expert.  

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 ○ We want to create a safe environment.  
○ Help everyone feel safe and valuable. 

16min    Group Brainstorm 

● Stand up! ​There is no brainstorming while you are sitting. People are more creative when they’re standing. 
● Capture e​ ach idea on sticky notes, and post it to the wall. 
● Don’t launch into a full explanation of the idea, just give the headline to the group. 
● You have 15 mins. 
 
  [Turn on upbeat MUSIC] 

8min    Individual Brainstorm 

[Handout sheet of paper to all participants] 
● Get ready for some sophisticated origami!  
● Fold your sheet of paper three times.  
● You should get eight boxes. 
  ● Your objective is to fill in each box with an idea in just 5 minutes.  
● Again, I encourage you to be visual and draw pictures and diagrams in addition to or instead of  
 
just words. 
● Options: 
○ You can integrate/synthesize several ideas into one. 
○ You can generate new ideas that the group didn’t consider.  
● You have 5 mins. 
● Now turn the paper over and select the idea you’re most excited about. 
○ Use the whole page and sketch out the ideas with some images and details. 
○ This will be the idea you present to your other small group teammates.  

5 mins    Brainstorm - Vote 

 
● Introduce/show your top idea to your team members 
○ 1 minute per person 
○ Don’t discuss  
● Vote on your favorite idea 
  ○ Everyone will have two stickers  
○ You can only put one sticker on your idea  
○ Remember rock, paper, scissors - it doesn’t matter which idea wins - we will support it  

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 ● 5 mins   

5 mins  No Slide  BREAK 

[Play music] 

1min    Prototype - Intro 

 
It’s time to move to another core CSI:Lab mindset: Being P
​ rototype-driven.  

1min    ● Now that we’ve generated a whole bunch of ideas, it’s time to determine which of them is worth pursuing 
further. And to do this, we prototype. 
● Many types of problem-solving involve thinking or calculating your way towards solutions. Prototyping is a 
way of b​ uilding​ your way towards solutions. 

3min  So what is a prototype? 

 
A prototype is an early version of a tool/service/idea that has two important functions: 
● Outing Assumptions​: You don’t know what you don’t know. When tested, a good prototype can help reveal 
  that to you. Maybe there’s a seemingly insignificant feature of your product that, when used, breaks the 
whole experience for your users. Maybe you thought users would do one thing with your product, but when 
playing with your prototype, they do something entirely different. 
● Answering Questions​: Every prototype asks specific questions. A good prototype will offer answers. 

2min    ● Why is it so important to o​ ut assumptions​ and a ​ nswer questions​ through a prototype? 

● The prototyping effect is all about failing fast, learning from your failures, and trying something (else) again. 
Very simply, it states that the more ideas you try, and the more “failures” you experience, the more 
successes you’ll enjoy. If you try fewer ideas, and fail less, you’ll get fewer successes. In the long run this is 
helpful because, by failing more, and fast, you can try out more ideas without having to sink too much 
money into R&D. 
 

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 ● So the moral of the story? When prototyping, just keep trying things! Don’t talk too much about one idea, or 
keep trying to make one work if it’s not. Move on and try something else.  

2min   
In addition to outing assumptions, prototypes ask (and hopefully help answer) questions. 
 
There are two basic genres of questions that prototypes ask: 
  ● Do people want it?​ These are questions that help you validate if the idea you have is worth pursuing or not. 
Prototyping here saves you LOTS of money and time - better to find out if people don’t want a product 
before you invest time/money in building it. 
● How should it work?​ Prototypes can also help you determine h ​ ow​ a product/idea/service should function.  

1min    So how do you actually build a prototype? There are two ways: 
● Fake it​ -- How can you quickly fake the functionality or appearance of an idea so you can more quickly 
validate it? 
● Make it​ -- How can you quickly, cheaply, or partially make a product to answer some fundamental questions 
about the design or the needs it’s addressing? 

30sec  ● So let’s talk about these two forms of prototyping with an example. Suppose you had the idea of 
manufacturing floating workspaces. 
● You could either secure startup capital, invest heavily in the idea, manufacture some floating desks and 
then see if there’s a market for them, or you could prototype the idea first. 
 

30sec  ● How could you f​ ake​ the idea? 

● Maybe one of the central questions you have is, ​“Do people even like working in high spaces?”  
 

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  ● To test this idea, you could simply put a desk on top of a tall building and see what happens. 
● Importantly, with this prototype, you’re not even building a balloon. You’re testing a small, but important 
aspect of your idea. 

30sec   
● How could you m ​ ake​ the idea? 
● Maybe another question you have is: ​“How much helium is required to lift a person?” 
● You could quickly prototype your way towards an answer to this question with a visit to your local party 
  store. 
● The point is, you could run both of these prototypes very quickly and cheaply. And doing so would give you 
a WHOLE lot of info about whether or not your idea is a good one to pursue, and if so, how to make it work. 

1min  ● What are some e ​ xamples​ of how prototyping has been used in the development of actual products? 
● Jeff Hawkings, the co-founder of the Palm Pilot, was determined to create a portable computer that, unlike 
the available options in the mid 90s, people would actually use. One of the first questions that Jeff wanted 
to answer was how big to make it. Maybe, he thought, it should be small enough to fit in a shirt pocket.  
  ● To test this idea, he cut a block of wood that would fit in his pocket, and walked around with it for months, 
pretending it actually worked. What he learned in testing this prototype was that, yes, the size worked. By 
validating his idea with a quick, ​fake it​ prototype, Hawkings was able to produce the blockbuster success of 
the Palm Pilot. 

1min  ● In the late 1980s, McDonalds considered adding some Italian options to their fast-food menu. They had no 
idea, though, if there was even any demand for them.  
● Their solution? They faked it. Rather than spend months in a food lab designing the entree and rolling it out 
across their stores (without even knowing if people would eat it…) they simply added the item to their menu 
  and watched to see if anyone would order it. (If someone did, they’d let the customer know that they were 
fresh out.) 
● What they’d find? No one wanted McSpaghetti. So they abandoned the idea.  

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1min  An example of M
​ aking it 
 
● An electronics store wanted to figure out a way to sell more electronics. One idea was that people might be 
more eager to buy new stuff if they got money for selling their old stuff back to the store. To test this idea, 
  Best Buy set up a pop-up shop in the parking lot of one of their stores. They would give you money for your 
old electronics and then see if you’d spend that money in the store.  
● The prototype validated the idea, and they built this out into a highly successful service that is now a core 
part of Best Buy’s business model. 

1min   
Another example of ​Making it ​[T
​ ED Talk​ ​for reference] 
 
● The Google Glass team wondered whether users would want to navigate the Glass software using hand 
  gestures. In 45 minutes, they built a functional prototype that offered users the very experience they wanted 
to learn more about.  
● Here’s how it worked. A user would stand in front of a whiteboard on which a slide deck was projected. The 
user would wear hair bands around her wrists, which were attached to a set of cables. When she’d move 
her hands to the side, it’d apply tension to the cable. 

1min  ● Behind the whiteboard was a simple mechanism comprised of 2 chopsticks, 2 pencils, some tape and a 
presentation clicker. When a user would extend her arm, the tension would pull on the chopstick which 
would in turn depress a button on the clicker. One hand would advance the deck a slide, one hand would 
move it back. 
  ● What did they learn? Through this simply prototype, the Glass team learned about the ergonomics and 
social awkwardness of hand gesture navigation, and ultimately, decided against building out this 
technology.  
● These are not lessons they could have gotten quickly through focus-groups or research, prototyping got 
them the answers they needed quickly.  

6min  ● Get in groups of 2-3 and come up with some ways of prototyping the following ideas and questions. You 
have 5 min. 
 
[At end of 6 min, have groups report out some prototyping idea for each topic]  
 

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5min  ● Now let’s return to the ideas you brainstormed. Before we prototype the one idea your group decided on, 
think about the questions that you’re hoping that your prototype will answer. 
● In your groups, come up with 4-5 questions for the idea you want to prototype. Star the most important 1-2 
points you want to address in your prototype. 
 

20 mins  No Slide   
 
Prototype - Action time! 
[Show available materials for lo-fi prototyping.]  
● Create the roughest and most rapid form to get your ideas across! You have 20 minutes. Please use all the 
materials provided. 
● Your prototype can take a range of forms (e.g., you can roleplay a service, use paper for screens of an app, 
use pipe cleaners or paper bags to create a rough object). 

3mins    Test 
● Now we are at the last stage of the design thinking framework: ​Testing.  
● This is a very important phase in the process, where we can test our ideas with users and iterate on them 
based on users’ feedback.  
● There are usually lots of iteration cycles between prototyping and testing (Glass is an example of this).  
 

30sec    ● Find your original user and get some feedback on your prototype 
 

8min    Tracking Feedback 

 
On a blank piece of paper, draw the following chart 
 

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 As your user engages with your prototype, track the following: 
● What’s working well? 
● What does your user wish were different? 
● What new ideas does this spark for you? 
 
● What new or lingering questions do you have? 
 
Two rules:  
 
● Remember the 20/80 rule: ​Let the user speak for 80% of the time and introduce the prototype 20% of the 
time. 
○ You’re not pitching ideas, just explain how it works then let the tester talk. 
○ Capture notes from your tester. 
● We prototype as if we’re right; we test as if we’re wrong. 
○ Celebrate failure - learn and share, and go back to the process. 

10 mins  Takeaways - “Steal It” 

 
● [Recap process] ​As we come to the end of the session, let’s review the framework and process we used 
today... 
  ● A couple things that help put this framework into practice... 
 

    Always focus on ​human values​: focus on the user. They can help you build something meaningful and useful. 

    Have a​ bias toward action ​so you can move quickly. 

● Time is not an excuse - look what we achieved today in 3-4 hrs! 

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    Invite p ​ ifferent perspectives. 

​ eople from diverse backgrounds ​ to help you see d

    Get ​experimental and experiential.  

    ​ indful of process​ - know where you are in the process and where you’re going. 
Be m

    Show, don’t tell​ - much more powerful; don’t be afraid to use random materials to bring your ideas to life.  

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    Collaborate across boundaries  

5 mins    End 
● To summarize, design thinking is user-centered, prototype driven innovation.”  
● Everyone is creative and has the potential to become an innovator. 
● “Action planning” - What will you take away from this session? 
● Take 2 minutes and write down what you want to take away by responding to three prompts via sticky note: 
○ I like . . .  
  ○ I wish . . .  
○ What if . . . 
● One person at a time reads out stickies as they stick them on flip chart sheets  
 
 
 

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