Design Thinking for Leaders: Design Resources

Developed by IDEO, this toolkit is provides educators with “a creative process that helps you design meaningful solutions in the classroom, at your school, and in your community.” It includes effective practices, as well as agendas for implementing design thinking routines into your professional development.

The Design School at Stanford is at the forefront of developing and sharing design thinking methodologies in fields that vary from engineering, medicine, business, law, the humanities, sciences, to education. Through their site, they offer virtual crash courses on design thinking, networks of like-minded partners, and a blog called Whiteboard..

We know not everyone can make a trip to the d.school to experience how we teach design thinking. So, we created this online version of one of our most frequently sought after learning tools. Using the video, handouts, and facilitation tips below, we will take you step by step through the process of hosting or participating in a 90 minute design challenge.

The D School’s K12 Lab Network specifically supports the use of design thinking in K12 schools. Their model is to “inspire and develop the creative confidence of educators and support edu innovators catalyzing new models for teaching and learning.” On this site you can find tools and resources (such a the Curriculum Resources) , network partners, and projects such as School Retool, the Shadow a Student Challenge, the Design Thinking in Schools Map that lists schools who use design thinking within the curriculum.

Ideo is a human centered design firm that provides a variety of resources on design thinking for free. This design kit includes a treasure trove of resources on how you can use design thinking to solve challenges. With a focus on mindsets, methods, and case studies, you can learn effective practices to implement design thinking as a solution in your school.

Lean product design is an approach to building products that encompasses a set of ideas about collaboration, design, and project management. Doing lean product design means fundamentally changing your focus from outputs (for example, features, functionality, colors) to outcomes (the changes in user behavior you want to see).

Want to lead your own PD session on human centered design? This resource created by Acumen in partnership with Ideo is a great tool to learn more. Also check out Acumen’s virtual courses on prototyping.

The Design Sprint Kit is an open-source resource for design leaders, product owners, developers or anyone who is learning about or running Design Sprints. Whether you are new to Design Sprints and gaining buy in for your first Sprint, or an experienced Sprint facilitator looking for new methods, this site will help you learn, plan, and contribute to the Design Sprint Methodology.

Published by Syracuse University's online Master of Science in Library and Information Science program. The resource provides a definition for design thinking, lays out the design thinking process, and provides examples of problems solved through design thinking.

Interested in using design thinking as a structure for learning? This book and accompanying website provides a variety of resources, lessons, and effective instructional practices for using design thinking with students.

These lesson plans, found in the Education section of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, outline Common Core-aligned lessons that implement design thinking.

"Equity-Centered Community Design, created by Creative Reaction Lab, is a unique creative problem solving process based on equity, humility-building, integrating history and healing practices, addressing power dynamics, and co-creating with the community. This design process focuses on a community’s culture and needs so that they can gain tools to dismantle systemic oppression and create a future with equity for all. Creative Reaction Lab’s goal is to share equity-centered design to achieve sustained community health, economic opportunities, and social and cultural solidarity for all."

"So often we operate under the assumption that our intention to work in the public interest makes our work inherently good, but this is not enough. We need to be more reflective about what we hope to achieve, and more honest about what we actually achieve. So how might we move beyond focusing on only process or product to address outcomes? How do we hold up new voices and perspectives that can help us innovate around equity? How might the profession deliver on the promise of design engagement as a tool in the fight for social justice?"

"Merging the consciousness of racial equity work with the power of design methodologies. Move like water, break rock."

"We inspire + develop the creative confidence of educators + support innovators catalyzing powerful models for teaching and learning."

"A compilation of exercises, frameworks, and thoughts that serve to advance the design field’s relationship with systems that perpetuate oppression."

CityBridge Education is a public charity dedicated to incubating and supporting new schools and new school models that transform education for students in Washington, DC. In collaboration with national partners and funders, they support educators through an innovation portfolio that includes Breakthrough Schools DC, School Retool, and the Education Innovation Fellowship.

“LEAP Innovations is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that connects innovation and education to reinvent our one-size-fits-all system and transform the way kids learn. We bring together educators and innovators to discover, pilot and scale personalized learning technologies and innovative practices in the classroom and beyond. LEAP serves as a national hub for a new, collaborative ecosystem of the best and brightest education innovators, digital entrepreneurs, and thought leaders, committed to reinventing education in our country.”

“Next Generation Learning Challenges supports the educators who are reimagining public education—from helping them take what they know about learning and apply it to school design, to issuing challenge grants that enable practitioners to completely redesign their schools.”

This education design lab “work(s) with entrepreneurial leaders and practitioners within K12 and Higher Education to design, build and implement new learning models and help catalyze the enabling systems that prepare students for success in the future.”

“Driving innovation in American education – a place that’s resisted change for decades – takes a diverse set of people who take the work seriously without taking themselves too seriously. We’ve built charter schools. We’ve run EdTech companies. We’ve built houses and organized communities. We do as much as we can with as small of a team as possible.”