Enroll in the Design Thinking Program Today!
Online, 8 Modules
Course Access Dates: Enroll Anytime (Self-Paced)
Live Instructor Sessions: Optional Corporate Programs
Platform(s): Canvas LMS
Self-Paced Course Access: $4,995 (contact program manager for discount options)
About the Program
Innovation in business has become essential, requiring bold strategies and fresh perspectives that adapt to evolving challenges. The goal to solve your customers' unmet needs lives at the heart of successful product development. Employing design thinking methods and mindsets will help to promote a human-centered approach. The Design Thinking Program guides designers and non-designers to work through complex challenges and create innovative solutions. When you effectively leverage the design thinking framework and embrace human insights, you can quickly and efficiently create better products and experiences for your customers.
The Design Thinking Program is designed by industry experts for professionals seeking a practical framework for this fast-growing discipline. From empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, testing, and validating - get ready to roll-up your sleeves and apply your new skills in this hands-on, interactive course. Learn to work collaboratively to solve complex problems while combining creative and analytical methodology. Develop deep insights, understand human behavior, articulate design needs, prototype solutions, and test and validate in an iterate-based process.
Program Curriculum
Each module builds your skills and helps you develop your strategies. Gather the Design Thinking Ultimate Toolkit of more than 60 workbooks, eBooks, team-focused activities, templates, prototyping tools, assessments, planning guides, customizable presentations, and culture posters. All to help YOU on your road to success!
Enjoy this fast-paced course that puts your customer at the center of every product and process you create.
Module 1 - Introduction to Design Thinking
Learn a practical definition of Design Thinking and how it's used to solve business, technology, and social problems across industries.
- Define design thinking as an effective approach to creative problem-solving.
- Understand how human-centered design and methodology influence design thinking.
- Review real-world practices and case studies.
Module 2 - Designing for Empathy
Understand and apply empathy in business environments to discover the value of empathy-based research and elicitation.
- Identify effective approaches and tools for research.
- Design conversations and interviews that honor stakeholders.
- Frame statements that facilitate problem-solving.
Module 3 - Introduction to Visualization
Discover the most common visualization tools in design thinking and the best methods for collaborating to explore and understand ideas.
- Align the right visualizations to the right design thinking tools.
- Learn the visualization tools that best fit specific challenges.
- Explore the use of visualization tools in real-life scenarios.
Module 4 - Your Customers, Their Journey
Understand the importance of customer experience-based visualizations. Explore how they help define customer attributes and their experiences with your products, services and stakeholders.
- Create personas that describe stakeholder characteristics.
- Build journey maps that help define critical moments of truth.
- Identify the right tools for success measurement in customer experience.
Module 5 - Ideation in the Design Thinking Process
Discover the concept of ideation as a process for developing, communicating and synthesizing prescriptive ideas to others to solve the right problem.
- Develop creative processes for developing new ideas.
- Understand mind-mapping and brainstorming approaches.
- Learn best practices for ideation workshops.
Module 6 - Prototyping Approaches & Tools
Uncover potential approaches for prototyping concepts, products and services that solve problems.
- Understand low and high-fidelity prototyping.
- Design approaches for bringing ideas to life.
- Discuss prototyping approaches and tools.
Module 7 - Validation & Testing
Leverage previous module knowledge of ideation and prototype design to help design thinkers properly test and validate ideas and prototypes.
- Identify methods for researching and validating outcomes.
- Evaluate recommendations for stakeholder collaboration and participation.
- Develop considerations for design validation.
Module 8 - Implementation & Application
Create a plan for implementing design thinking principles and tools at your organization and for aligning with the ROI of internal projects and stakeholders.
- Develop processes for deployment and launch.
- Explore collaboration methods with stakeholders and success partners.
- Design plans for applying design thinking at your organization.
Capstone Project: Your Design Thinking Portfolio
Program Instructors & Content Experts
Carol Buehrens
Carol’s passion for improving customer experience has resulted in numerous awards, including the prestigious “CX Innovation Award” from the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), ICW Group CEO Award, the Liberty Mutual Star Award, and is listed in the World's Top 30 Customer Service Professionals.
A Founding Member and Expert Panel Member of the international Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA), Carol is also an active member of the San Diego Customer Experience Special Interest Group (CX SIG), and Professor at California State University Fullerton and University of California San Diego.
Lisa Perrine, Ed.D.
After earning an undergraduate design degree, she began her career building prototypes for a small product design studio. In 1991 she became the CEO of Cibola Systems, and completed her MBA studies at Pepperdine University shortly thereafter. More recently Lisa earned a doctorate degree in Organizational Leadership at Pepperdine where her research focused on multidisciplinary teams.
Coaching Design Thinking workshops and courses is a special joy for Lisa. Many of these assist nonprofit and civic organizations with specific design challenges. Her courses have been approved for certification renewal units by several trade organizations, including the American Institute of Architects, International Interior Design Association, and AVIXA.
Cibola’s team is committed to supporting the underserved and vulnerable. Lisa has served on the governing boards of the Orange County United Way, the Girl Scouts of Orange County, St. Joseph Hoag Health and Mission Hospital. Her colleagues and she also volunteer our professional services for many Southern California charities.
Michael Truett
Stephene Klein
Outside of academia, Stephene has consistently made a global impact. She is a Gold Medalist, Storytelling Writing Award Winner (2024), and the recipient of the Global Vision Award for Brand Strategy (2023). She was also the featured cover story of South Florida Magazine (2021), and has etched her place in the global business echelons. Her dynamic role at Zschool, saw her spearhead over 500+ Advisory Board meetings, annually, shaping the strategic direction for over 10,000 CxOs and senior executives worldwide.
With 20+ years of award-winning business development and engagement marketing experience, coupled with 15+ years of senior leadership roles, Stephene consistently drives sustainable revenue growth for leading global companies. Her extensive experience across multiple domains, including sales, marketing, and partnerships, and her well-established global network, position her as a catalyst for success in complex business environments.
Tiffany Craft
A pioneer in the social media space, Tiffany has been at the forefront of building impactful partnerships within online communities. She excels in fostering collaborations with retail, media and entertainment providers and leveraging user-generated content to enhance brand visibility and engagement. These initiatives have cultivated authentic, loyal audiences while setting new standards for digital marketing.
Tiffany's strategic vision is complemented by her creativity and data-driven approach to advertising. Her ability to merge traditional media with cutting-edge digital strategies has resulted in award-winning campaigns that resonate globally. She believes that strategic AI integration is also essential for organizations to unlock new efficiencies, gain actionable insights, and maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly data-driven world.
Beyond her professional achievements, Tiffany is dedicated to mentoring future leaders and advancing inclusion within a broad range of industry sectors. As a sought-after speaker, she frequently shares her insights on global marketing trends, digital transformation, and the evolving role of partnerships in building communities.
"As Vice President of Advisory Experience at Zschool, I lead a team of advisors, who are actively collaborating with faculty in shaping curriculum across multiple disciplines, ensuring it reflects the latest trends and best practices in organizational leadership. By incorporating diverse areas of expertise, we create a comprehensive learning experience that equips future leaders with the skills necessary to drive innovation and impact within their organizations."
With her passion for innovation and proven leadership, Tiffany continues to redefine success in international business and marketing, making her a trailblazer in the industry.
What others say about the Design Thinking Program...
- Monika D., Solution Architect
- Andrew W., Project Manager
- Matt F., Director of Operations
Zschool Provides Impactful Professional Education Courses
At Zschool, we collaborate with universities and corporations to coordinate, develop, refine, market, and facilitate exceptional professional education programs. We combine the academic rigor of a university with the real-world practicality necessary to generate a return on investment.
As a full-service educational partner, we deliver exceptional, highly engaging curriculum to professionals, across a variety of industries. We bring together educational programs and fortune 500 corporations for a unique partnership that provides mutual benefit and growth.
Our mission is to provide the best learning experiences possible! We don’t take our mission lightly. At Zschool, we work hard everyday to make sure our offerings are current, relevant and incorporate the best frameworks - and also superior participant experiences. We strive to set our programs apart from others. We believe that learning should be engaging, thought-provoking, hands-on, and awesome - thereby fostering loyal advocates.
Our Core Values
Honesty
We feel the classroom should be a safe haven to open up and be honest with each other. We don’t teach theory - we impart practical advice and authentic learnings. Instructors provide the “real-scoop” on the interworking of organizations, delivering both their successes and failures, supplying deep insights from real experiences. Imparting this type of information allows participants to understand roadblocks they themselves may encounter, along with authentic strategies to overcome and succeed.
Focus
Our focus and passion is what brings us to triumph. We sweat the details to make sure your participants receive unsurpassed executive, leadership and business education. We make sure participants have great experiences and audit classes to confirm up-to-date materials, participant engagement, and a cohesive flow of teaching. We provide tools to support participant learnings and focus on your brand to ensure that all class materials reflect highly on your image.
Encouragement
Teaching and mentoring takes more than standing up and regurgitating facts. It takes thoughtful encouragement - encouraging participants to overcome the fear of learning and changing behaviors. We feel this is a critical component and believe this characteristic is key to our leadership.
Compassion
When we define compassion, we include empathy, caring, kindness and true concern for others. By seeing the need of others, and by standing in their shoes, we provide amazing learning experiences that are unique and considerate for each participant. We consider compassion as the foundational nature of the very best teachers, and we settle for nothing less.
Passion Leads to Beautiful Things
Our Guiding Principles
- Our idea from day one has been to create and provide amazing courses.
- We strive for uncompromised, sincere, caring, and exceptional services (as close to perfection as possible).
- Mutual benefiting partnerships is very important to us, and we focus on creating value-added partnerships between our Zschool expert staff, and our large corporate network.
- We want to earn the right to be a "beloved company," known for providing exceptional education experiences and for being a valued partner.
- We take our mission seriously, "to provide the best learning experiences possible". We live our corporate values, "Honesty, Focus, Encouragement, Compassion." We feel that by doing this, we will become better citizens and contributors to the community.
Who should attend these programs?
We also have specialized courses that are geared towards Law Enforcement and First Responder Teams.
Are there any prerequisites or work experience required?
When can I start?
How long will it take to complete a program?
Fast-Track Courses consist of four modules and are designed to be completed within a 4-hour timeline. Although it may take you longer if you choose to review optional materials found on the Helpful Resources Pages. These materials can also be reviewed after completion of the course, as long as your course access is still permitting.
Mastery-Track Courses consist of eight modules, with each module containing 2-4 hours of coursework. We suggest completing at least one module per week, finishing in eight weeks. Overall, your total time spent can vary between 24-32 hours (depending on the projects you pick to work on). Although it may take you longer if you choose to review optional materials found on the Helpful Resources Pages. These materials can also be reviewed after completion of the course, as long as your course access is still permitting.
What's the online learning experience like?
You'll enjoy the freedom and flexibility of a self-paced course as you work through the online certificate programs. Unlike other online courses comprised solely of reading and tests, your online learning experience Includes:
- Learn by doing approach.
- Easy-to-use learning platform.
- Short video presentations that can be replayed and revisited as needed.
- Engaging activities and exercises that reinforce your new skills, and are downloadable for multi-purpose use.
- Knowledge challenges to test your learning.
- Interactive discussions with your peers.
- Professional plans of action to take back to your organization.
- An official university-backed certificate after completion.
- Inbox access to instructors and teacher aides.
- Helpful templates, eBooks, workbooks, posters and more, all included!
What type of technology and skills do I need for the online class?
For online courses, certain skills and up-to-date technology are needed to successfully complete the programs. This includes:
- Computer or tablet with Internet access
- Up to date browser, such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.
- Microsoft Word or equivalent
- Microsoft Excel or equivalent
- Microsoft PowerPoint or equivalent
- Adobe PDF Reader
Do I receive academic credit?
Is there an application fee?
What is the cost of the programs?
- Fast-Track Programs cost $450 per person
- Mastery-Track Programs cost $4,995 per person - Group discounts are available for teams of three or more individuals.
The price includes all course materials and access to the Executive Education Online Learning Portal. Our Learning Management System (LMS) is called "Canvas".