Design thinking careers are everywhere. If you are an educator, it is essential that you prepare students for their future. It is likely their future career may require them to be design thinkers.
Design thinking is a model used by organizations when performing creative problem-solving. It has five steps including emphasize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. It is a non-linear process that transitions to and from each stage. Its simplicity and flexibility means that it has become an integral part of product development, service initiatives, creative endeavors, policy improvement, and business strategies.
Design thinkers work in every field. You will find design thinking careers in architecture, software development, game design, engineering, healthcare, marketing, and education. Given its importance, educators should teach the design thinking model to students.
If you are still in doubt check out recent job postings from all around the world. The following text is taken right from the ad! Want to find more examples? Use the search word design thinking jobs on Indeed or Monster.
Product Designer
INDEED JOB LISTING
Key Responsibilities:
- Define specific product needs based on user insights.
- Create and develop design concepts and specifications that optimize the emotional and functional experience of a product, software, device, or service.
- Produce visual designs from concept through delivery and sustainment, and support interaction designs for hardware and/or software-based experiences.
- Create and communicate compelling product stories and narratives for different audiences.
Additional or Preferred Qualifications: experience using design thinking to solve problems
Innovation and Design Thinking Consultant
MONSTER JOB LISTING
Key Responsibilities:
- Understand client challenges & desired state they want achieve.
- Design solutions to achieve desired objectives using the design thinking approach.
- Set up of technology tools such as Mentimeter, etc.
- End-to-end project management of sessions, leveraging experience of project management methodologies.
- Develop and manage credentials and other materials for stakeholder engagement purposes.
Requirements: experience with innovation and design thinking
Design Thinking Specialist
JOB LISTING
Key Responsibilities:
- Create, organize and facilitate Design Thinking workshops with cross functional teams.
- Clearly articulate the value and business benefits of implementing Design Thinking.
- Work with cross-functional teams to understand the end to end customer experience.
- Lead the creation and launch of the Design Thinking Toolkit.
- Support product owners with experience-based roadmap planning.
- Support the UX Research team in the design, planning, and execution of research.
Requirements: capabilities in design thinking practice
Design Thinking and TechnoKids
Design thinking is a creative problem-solving approach valued by employeers. Since TechnoKids applies a project-based approach to learning, many of our curriculum units follow a design thinking framework. This helps learners develop the soft skills they will need in the future including empathy, logic, curiousity, flexibility, and open-mindedness.
For example, in TechnoRace students flow in and out of the five phases of design thinking. Throughout the activities they empathize with the user to create a game that players will enjoy and has the correct difficulty level. At the start of the project, they define a plan and ideate to develop a fun storyline. Next, they sketch a prototype of the game board. Then they transform their concept into a racing game. The game requires ongoing testing to refine the code and enhance the user experience.