IB 407 · Smith GLS · Step 1 of 3
Human-Centered Design & Leadership
An intensive design sprint in London. You learn human-centered design by doing it: interview real people on the street, find the need, brainstorm, build rough prototypes, test them and tell the story, while learning to lead a team through work that has no clear answer yet.
Who this is for
Smith Global Leadership Scholars from every Haslam major: finance, accounting, supply chain, management, HR, business analytics, economics, marketing and international business. Taught in London. The topics are written as open resources, so anyone learning human-centered design is welcome to use them.
How each topic page works
Each topic explains the idea in plain language, then gives you an interactive tool to try it on a realistic example. Put it to work connects the topic to the real deliverable in this course, and Go deeper points to the sources. Every topic ends with a team activity we run in class.
Topics
Topic 01
What Is Human-Centered Design?
The HCD process, the IDEO mindsets and creative confidence, with a self-check that shows which mindset to practice first.
Lab: HCD Mindset Self-Check · Team activity
Topic 02
Frame the Challenge: Problems, Questions and Secondary Research
Sort your problem into gravity, anchor, technical or adaptive, then tune a design question and plan secondary research.
Lab: Problem Sorter and Challenge Tuner · Team activity
Topic 03
Empathy Fieldwork and Observation
Observe with AEIOU, interview for stories, and find extreme users, with a logger that spots gaps and patterns in your notes.
Lab: AEIOU Observation Logger · Team activity
Topic 04
Need-Finding: Seeing What People Need
Separate needs from solutions, find latent needs, and write need statements with a builder that rejects solutions in disguise.
Lab: Need Statement Builder · Team activity
Topic 05
Synthesis: From Stories to Insights
Download your fieldwork, find themes, and write three-sentence insights with a builder that flags data, observations and wishes posing as insights.
Lab: Insight Statement Builder · Team activity
Topic 06
Define: How Might We Questions
Write How Might We questions from your point of view, with a checker that flags questions that are too broad or too narrow.
Lab: HMW Scope Checker · Team activity
Topic 07
Ideation That Goes Somewhere
Run a brainstorm with real rules, push from safe to wild ideas, bundle them into concepts and vote on what to prototype.
Lab: Brainstorm Facilitator · Team activity
Topic 08
Prototype and Test
Plan a round of testing with a rough prototype, set keep, change and kill signals, and log what real users do.
Lab: Prototype Test Planner · Team activity
Topic 09
Storytelling and the Final Presentation
Build your final presentation as an eight-beat story from empathy to prototype, with checks on evidence, testing and timing.
Lab: Story Arc Builder · Team activity
Topic 10
Leading Through Design
Map your team onto the Ten Faces roles, spot what is missing, and pick the leadership move that fits what your team faces now.
Lab: Team Role and Leadership Move Planner · Team activity
Dates, deadlines and grades are in Canvas.