Certificate in Design Thinking
16 Sep 2022 — 20 Jan 2023
What is Design Thinking?
Learn valuable design methodologies and strategies that will transform your approach to problem solving and innovation.
Design thinking can transform the way organisations develop products, services, processes and strategy. Many companies now use design thinking methodologies to help them overcome key business challenges ever present in today’s fast-paced technology and data driven environment.
Design thinking can be used as an innovative approach:
- for problem solving and management strategy;
- to create customer-centric products and services;
- to anticipate and respond to new trends and technologies;
- to design experiences and interactions;
- to develop systemised solutions.
Design thinking combines what is desirable from a human point of view with what is technologically feasible and economically viable. Design thinking has become a crucial business tool and mindset that enables companies (and their employees) to think creatively beyond traditional logical and analytical approaches. You will learn to drive innovation, and help companies become more agile and responsive to change so they can maintain their competitiveness.
What topics will I study?
The course may include a range of topics such as:
Origins of design thinking | Writing a design brief | Competitor analysis | Creative leadership, vision + values | Brainstorming + ideation | Audience/customer profiling | Customer journeys + empathy experiments | Synthesis + insights | Visualisation methodologies | Storytelling | Prototyping + iteration | Design metrics, evaluation, validation + testing.
What will I do on this course?
You will learn through a series of on-campus lectures, workshops, exercises and projects. The course will incorporate practical methods for design research, brainstorming and idea generation, visualisation, mapping, charting, recording and documentation. Practical exercises and projects will provide you with the opportunity to develop critical thinking, creative problem solving, and visualisation methodologies.
You will complete two practical and written assignments during the course. The first assignment is a group assignment and the second is an individual assignment. You will be required to work on project assignments with your assigned group and individually outside of the specified course dates.
Future Careers
This course will enhance your career opportunities in any current or future role by providing you with vital design thinking skills in creative problem solving, visualisation techniques and innovation strategies.
For recent graduates, this course will provide a competitive edge for entering the workplace. For professionals, the course is ideal for anyone working in a team or project-driven environment that is customer-focused. The skills you will learn are applicable to product/service ideation, development or improvement, or for startups and R&D teams who may be developing new and innovative offerings.
Graduates and participants from the course have come from a wide range of private and public sector organisations and companies including:
ESB, Google, Deloitte, Accenture, Trinity College Dublin, Dell, UCD, Publicis, IBEC, Silvercloud Health, Dynamo Design, Dublin City Council, Epsilon, South County Dublin Partnership, Johnson Controls, Click n’ Go, AIB, Bulgari, RTÉ, NUI Galway, Group M, Aer Lingus.
Dates + Times
The course will be delivered on campus over 4 days (Fridays) from 10am to 4.30pm:
- Friday, 16th September 2022
- Friday, 14th October 2022
- Friday, 2nd December 2022
- Friday, 20th January 2023
What are the Entry Requirements?
This course is suitable for professionals and graduates who have an Undergraduate qualification of 2nd Class Honours or higher at Honours Degree level.
Applicants without a Level 8 qualification may be considered based on their prior experience and learning through our RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) process.
Testimonials
Rosemary Clancy
Engagement Strategy Director, Oracle EMEA.
“As part of my work on the course, I identified an opportunity for a new function within our organization and built a team to meet the needs of our internal customers. I would highly recommend the course for leaders looking to innovate within their organization or careers.”
Lorraine Bowen
Head of Innovation & Impact, The Entrepreneurs Academy.
“The course proved to be an excellent way to increase the appetite for Innovation across our organisation. We collaboratively tackled a project that has been a challenge for our organisation for a couple of years using low risk ‘experiments’ that led to great solutions.”
Terri McCarthy
Head of Customer Experience, Insights and Analytics, Allianz
“A number of us at Allianz completed the Design Thinking course and I found it great to get a range of people from across the business, access the same framework. The focus on ensuring you are framing the problem correctly, ideating widely and ensuring you are testing your solutions with consumers can be applied across any part of the business. On top of that, it was great fun and also great to activate your more creative side with both group work and individual assignments.”
How do I apply?
Application is now closed for this course. Next intake: September 2023.
