The Design Thinking Process
Students of Design Thinking seek innovative
solutions sought by real world partners. The latter
can be large, globally active corporations as well
as small and medium-size businesses, public
institutions and non-Government Organisations
(NGOs). The issues or problems cover all areas of
society and include health, energy, mobility, safety,
education, finance, logistics and sustainability. The
results are viable and useful such as an improved
vacuum cleaner, new security checks at an airport
and a portable baby incubator.
GENOVASI
In Malaysia, the only Design Thinking school
is called Genovasi, an initiative under Agensi
Inovasi Malaysia (AIM). The school in Petaling
Jaya was created in collaboration with the HPI
School of Design Thinking which helped develop
its programmes and conduct trainers’ workshops
and assessments. Genovasi opened its doors in
2013 and aims to promote a culture of innovation
through its education and training programmes.
According to Genovasi, students will be exposed
to the five major phases in design thinking.
1. Emphatise. Become keen people watchers
by talking to people about what they are
doing, ask questions and reflect.
2. Define. Becoming aware of people’s needs
and developing insights.
3. Ideate. Brainstorming a myriad of ideas
and suspending judgement
4. Prototype. This is a rough and rapid portion
of design process. A prototype can be a
model or a cardboard box which can convey
an idea quickly.
5. Test. This is to learn what works and what
doesn’t and then iterate. This means going
back to the prototype and modifying it
based on feedback.
Design Thinking can be applied to anything
that needs to be optimised for human interaction.
One can even design-think the way one leads,
manages, creates and innovate. It cuts across
all industries and situations, in a personal or
professional capacity.
Some examples of Design Thinking application
include:
●●
Product design and redesign
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Service design and redesign
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Business model redesign
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Organisational design
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Event experience
●●
Social innovation
Participants who enrol in Genovasi’s 10-day
Innovation Ambassador Development Programme
(IADP) learn the core design thinking methodology.
Course fees are fully sponsored by AIM for
qualified applicants. This programme is open to
University students and aspiring entrepreneurs up
to the age of 35.
To under stand the Design Thinking
me tho dolog y, s tudent s c ollab or ate in
multidisciplinary teams of four to six to work on
different challenges posed by top Malaysian
companies who are the school’s project partners.
Some of Genovasi’s project partners have been
Teach for Malaysia, Jabatan Kerja Raya, Sunway
Group and Maxis.
Genovasi partners with organisations (both
profit and non-profit) who will work with them in
designing a product or a service that addresses
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