Recommendations for implementing Design Thinking training during COVID-19

Currently, people around the world are practicing social distancing due to the recent COVID-19 developments. This guide is designed to help you carrying out the activities of this training in a safe environment which respects the current regulations regarding COVID-19 emergency. We suggest that you review these recommendations as a team before beginning the learning tracks.

Some of the instruction sheets and worksheets in the learning tracks will encourage you to go out into the real world and design solutions tailored to the needs of the people you are designing for. However, your team will need to be adaptive and find creative ways to conduct interviews and build prototypes in accordance with the social distancing guidelines for COVID-19. Each activity presented in this training can either be conducted remotely (using a digital collaboration tool) or has a digital alternative (as opposed to a face-to-face setting).

We hope the recommendations below will help you succeed in practicing Design Thinking, and gain useful tips for your team’s transition to online collaboration.

If, for any reason, your team is not able to meet face to face, you will most likely need to use tools to work with your team members remotely. Here are tools that other teams have found helpful for facilitating virtual collaboration:

• To plan meetings: When2Meet, Doodle, Meeting Planner;
• To hold virtual discussions and video calls with your team, you can use: Slack, Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp, Facebook Messengers; and
• To collaborate virtually, you can use a tool like Google Docs, Miro, or Padlet for ‘whiteboarding’, or taking notes and sketching your ideas in real-time. For example, instead of sticky notes, you can use Miro for organising and synthesising your research findings with remote team members.

Miro

Some of the tools require you to visualise and connect ideas as a team. A great way of doing this is by using an online platform like Miro.

Miro is an online collaborative whiteboard platform that allows teams to:

• Build and develop ideas with team members as if you were in the same room, anywhere, anytime;
• Co-create and align with cross-functional stakeholders on a collaborative, online whiteboard; and
• Explain your design processes with visual mapping and diagramming.

By using Miro, you will be able to visually collaborate any time anywhere across your team!

How might we design a virtual meeting that feels as engaging as an in-person meeting? Get inspiration from IDEO: 4 Ways to Work Together When We Can’t Be Together.

Here are a few strategies for productive meetings:

• View everyone in gallery view: On Skype and Zoom, you can select the ‘gallery view’ icon to view all participants at the same time;
• Leave room for silence: After every question, pause for several seconds — even if it feels uncomfortable. Many people need time to collect their thoughts;
• Be respectful of your teammates: In this blog post, Seth Godin shares tips for virtual meetings. At the same time, understand that your teammates may be struggling with caregiving responsibilities, mental health, loss of income, and other invisible burdens; and
• Make time for emotional connection: Connect with your teammates through a discussion prompt or activity. You can discuss serious topics — like “How have you transitioned to working from home?” or “What made you feel happy today?” — or participate in quick and fun energisers.

“Constraints can breed a lot of innovation,” said Charles Hayes, a managing director of IDEO’s studios in Asia. “As designers, how do we design our way through this?” (Source)

Some of the tools require you to interact with people outside your team. Before doing so, ask yourself these questions:

• Do the stakeholders and people you are designing your solutions for have reliable access to the internet, voice calls, or text messages?
• Do the stakeholders and people you are designing your solutions for understand how to use software like Zoom, WhatsApp, or Skype?
• How can you creatively make progress on building and testing a prototype while observing social distancing?

*Refer to your national government for the latest guidance.

We know that many people access the internet through their school, workplace, or other institutions that may be closed right now. Many others have unreliable electricity.

If you have limited access to the internet, we recommend these steps:

• Download all of the tools when you have a reliable connection and complete all of the readings and worksheets offline; and
• Try to reduce the amount of data needed by reducing the size of the files you share and using voice calls instead of video calls.