“This project is funded by the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission/National Agencies cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”

Design Thinking Workshop:

Destilleriet ALS and

Business College Syd

InnovatiVET – Erasmus + Strategic partnership VET Project Project no. 2017-1-DK01-KA202-034250

Introduction

Background Business College Syd (BC Syd) is VET school located in Sønderborg, Denmark, specializing in business studies

(e.g., retail, office administration, marketing and purchasing and logistics). An important part to many of the

study lines at BC Syd is to develop entrepreneurial and innovative skills, so that students can obtain better

industry-related skills when finishing their study programs.

Purpose of Experiment Using a Design Thinking (DT) methodology, Erhvervsakademi Sydvest (EASV) offered BC Syd students a

workshop to help develop their repertoire of 21st century skills (e.g. creativity, collaboration,

communication, critical thinking, social skills). The methodology was a combination of the Double-Diamond

Model (Design Council, 2019) and the Educational Laboratory’s Toolkit (UDDX, 2015). The novelty effect of

the experiment was not limited to only the combining of the two methodologies, but also to include a case-

company, in order to spur industrial currency and work-based learning. The case company was a local

distillery, Destilleriet ALS, who are about to launch a new line of GIN’s.

The students were then tasked with creating an innovative marketing concept and campaign for the case-

company.

Information about Experiment

Participants - 1 Facilitator from EASV (Anders Karkov)

- 1 teacher from BC Syd (Carina Pedersen)

- 1 representative from Destilleriet Als (Krestian Mussmann)

- 40 students from BC Syd

Time and Place 14th of November 2019, 08:15 – 13:30, at BC Syd (Sdr. Landevej 30,6400 Sønderborg, Denmark)

Equipment/Materials (if relevant) Sticky notes, paper, pens, white boards, Meeting room, projector, laptop

Procedure The agenda of the day was as following:

08:15 Welcome and practical information

08:30 Destilleriet Als – Presentation of the task

09:15 Break

09:30 First Diamond: Problem definition and Research

10:30 Break

10:45 Second Diamond: Problem solving and Development

11:30 Lunch break

12:00 Development of Solution

13:00 Presentation of concept/campaign (Idea Pitch)

13:30 Conclusions for the workshop

The workshop was structured by means of the Double-Diamond model (Design Council, 2019):

1. Discover:

Students were (in teams) first asked to ‘discover’ each other by means of a meet and greet. This was done to

identify talents, strengths and weaknesses of each team member. They were then asked to brainstorm about

the topic at hand: Gin. They were asked to brainstorm individually by means of post-it notes (1 idea per post-

it). Afterwards, each team member would then present their post-it notes to the team. The ideas were then

clustered into similar categories. Once categorized, the clusters were named by an overlying header/theme.

2. Define:

Once the post-it notes were clustered and a theme was given, the students were then asked to brainstorm

about the case-company Destilleriet Als. More specifically, to answer questions such as “What does

Destilleriet Als mean to you?” and “What challenges does Destilleriet Als currently have in reaching their

users/consumers?”. The point of this task was to progress the students into the second phase of the first

diamond: Define.

The students were then asked to pair the themes to the most relevant challenges faced by Destilleriet Als. In

other words, the students were made to identify the most significant and relevant problems and themes in

order to eventually define the actual problem statement of Destilleriet Als (and not just to solve the task at

hand).

The students were then asked to prioritise the most significant theme by means of the bulls-eye model and

the organize-storm tool (UDDX, 2015).

Once the most pertinent theme was chosen, the students were then asked to profile Destilleriet Als’

consumers by answering a series of relevant questions (e.g., what are the characteristics and traits of the

consumer? What are their wishes?). The case-company representative stood ready to assist with any

questions the students might have had at this point.

With the most important theme selected, as well as a sketched profile of the consumer, the students were

then asked to formulate a “How might we” problem statement.

3. Develop:

The students were now asked to transform their main theme into a specific product or experience. Essentially

– how do we address the “How might we” question. Here, the students were then asked to create post-it

notes on how to solve the “how might we” question (one post-it note per solution). Once again, the post-it

notes were organized into themes and given headlines. This would then allow the students to host an ‘idea

bazaar’ within their group. The students can walk around their work space, read the ideas and pick three

themes that they want to continue working with.

Once their favourite themes were chosen, the organize-storm tool (UDDX, 2015) was used once again to

refine the chosen themes. Once refined, they must be prioritized once again by means of the bulls-eye tool

(UDDX, 2015). The objective here is to end up with 1-2 themes on which to focus on the next step:

pretotyping.

The students were then asked (individually) to pretotype the chosen theme by means of the storyboard

template (UDDX, 2015). The storyboard serves as a visualization on how the group can achieve ‘building’ a

product which can answer the “how might we” question and lead to the final phase: Deliver.

4. Deliver:

With a visualization (storyboard) of how to achieve the product which can answer the “how might we”

question complete, the students were then asked to use the circular writing tool (UDDX, 2015), in order to

ensure that all team members worked with each other’s solutions, and that they therefore wouldn’t only

champion their own solution. The benefit of circular writing was that the students received different

perspectives on your initial idea through feedback, thereby ensuring an iterative learning process.

The final three tools (value attribution tool, frame typography tool, reflection logbook) in the deliver phase

was then tested by the teacher in their following class in order to ensure the students wouldn’t burn out and

lose interest in the process.

For a more detailed description of the models used in our workshop, please visit InnovatiVET’s website

(www.innovativet.eu) and find the Creative Problem Solving and Design Thinking Toolkit.

Results

Discussion of results The students had created three working concepts by the end of the workshop:

1) A retail concept for Destillertiet Als’ Gin line, where a bottom-up approach (ergo inspiration from the

consumer and not the company) for a viral marketing campaign.

2) A seasonal approach to expanding Destilleriet Als’ gin products – an example was producing different

tastes depending on the season (and only sell them in that season), such as pumpkin gin in the fall.

3) A push-marketing campaign focused on female consumers, where a well-known Danish celebrity

would instill an exclusive membership-feel to the case-company’s Gin (think: George Clooney and

Nespresso).

The three parties involved were very impressed with the results within the given time-frame. The overall

feedback given was that the DT approach allowed “great freedom under guidance” to pursue creative and

innovative solutions for a real company. Rather than just having a good idea, the students were required to

produce an output which the case-company could use.

What did the case-company think? “In connection with the workshop at BCSyd, I experienced a well-designed process that was quickly understood by the participants. It was clear that the topic was interesting to the participants and there was a general good understanding of what the workshop should end with.” Krestian Muusmann, Destilleriet Als

What did the teacher think? “As a lecturer in the field of innovation, I have experienced many workshops related to divergent and convergent thinking. However, I have never before experienced a workshop with such great enthusiasm and hard work, as the one held by Anders Karkov from EASV. The method of going through different phases in an innovation process in a fast pace, as well as using sticky notes in the amount used, clearly showed more creative and motivated students. There is a clear benefit for the students in regard to future projects, where a creative mindset is needed. I give my full support to the methods used in the workshop.” Carina Pedersen, Business College Syd

What did the students think? “Hard and intensive day” “Interested in learning more on the subject – especially the theories and approaches behind the tools” “Good understanding of the process and its value!” BCSyd students at Workshop

Recommendations for VET - Involving a case-company was tantamount to success, as this brought a ‘seriousness’ to the

workshop.

o Case company must also actively partake in the workshop to ensure that students’

recommendations are taken seriously, as well as encouraging better solutions (especially in

the first half of the diamond as this helps in problem identification).

- Take care in balancing a theoretical introduction with a very practical-oriented workshop. Some

students want to know the theory and science behind the tools they are using before they start

working with them, whereas some just prefer to work immediately with the tools given, no questions

asked.

- Facilitator role is incredibly important to success of the workshop: When aiming at building creative

skills, failure is frequent and often, so motivation, encouragement and feedback are tantamount to

success for the students. Having an external facilitator (as was in our case) was also beneficial, as this

also ensured that the students could not rely on knowing the teacher.

- Some areas in the double-diamond may seem counterintuitive and repetitive, but it is important to

trust the process as it was designed with great care to ensure the best possible way to answer the

“how might we” question. Try not to chop and select the parts you find most interesting.

Recommendations for future experiments - It was a very intense period to create a workshop in 1 day (with regards to VET students’ workload).

Future experiments should consider two full days, where the first diamond could be done during day

one, and the second diamond during day two.

- Important to recap and summarize with the students on what has just been done, before moving on

to other parts of the double-diamond model. There are many tools to be used in this process, so it is

advisable to allow time for recap sessions, so that the students don’t feel that they have overlooked

something important.

- 1 facilitator for 40 students was a challenge. Consider using several facilitators when reaching more

than 20 students.

References Design Council. (2019). The Design Process: What is the Double Diamond? Retrieved August 14, 2019, from

https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/design-process-what-double-diamond

UDDX. (2015). Værktøjskasse til uddannelseseksperimenter. Copenhagen, Denmark.

Photos from the Experiment