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Prototype Instead of Debating: Design Thinking, Part 2 with Susie Wise
Description
Susie Wise, K-12 Lab Network director at the Stanford d.school, explains the design thinking process for school leaders: empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. In part 2 of her interview, she shows how design thinking in education replaces long planning and debate with small experiments you can run in days.
Wise's example is a school lunchroom. Observe lunch, ask a student why it took so long to find a seat, keep asking why, and the problem turns from furniture into friendship. Jethro Jones then describes his own lunch line, where trying a few ideas got kids through the line with food in under 10 minutes.
What you'll learn
- Work through empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test quickly, and repeat the whole cycle several times if you have the time.
- Ask a student why about something you observed, keep digging until you reach a story with feeling, then write a how might we question.
- Keep generating ideas separate from choosing among them, and answer each idea with yes and instead of yes but.
- Settle a stalemate by running each side's idea for a day or two and comparing the results.
- Practice hacking on small annoyances outside school, then pick the smallest school change that gives you a quick win.
Chapters
- 0:00 The five steps of design thinking
- 5:06 Prototype and test to learn if you are on track
- 7:51 Empathy questions: keep asking why
- 13:04 Fear of what students might tell you
- 16:02 End endless debate by running prototypes
- 17:54 Jethro's lunch line fixed by trying ideas
- 19:53 Low-risk hacks, quick wins and one thing to do
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Questions this episode answers
What are the steps of the design thinking process in schools?
Wise teaches five steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. You start by understanding the people involved, frame the problem, generate many ideas, then try a small version to learn whether you are on the right track. She says to do it rapidly and repeat it.
How do you stop a team from debating a school problem forever?
Wise says that when people keep arguing for their own idea, it is time to prototype. Run both ideas for a couple of days and watch what happens. Her example is a lunchroom layout that took 15 minutes longer and frustrated everyone, which settled the debate.
What if a principal is afraid of what students will say when asked why?
Wise says it is still worth hearing, and you do not have to solve everything at once. If it is trauma, you want to know right away. If you cannot handle it now, hold onto it and ask what the smallest next step could be.
About Susie Wise
K-12 Lab Network director at the Stanford d.school and co-founder of Urban Montessori Charter School in Oakland, with a PhD in learning sciences from Stanford.
Links and resources