1 - Getting Started ~5 mins
In this lesson you will run design thinking as a cycle, not a list. This course uses four stages: clarifying, ideating, developing and implementing. Four stages in a neat row can be memorised off a slide. That is not the work. The work is putting your own community issue from your Community Issue Investigation through those stages once, then being forced back to an earlier stage and changing something. That return is the only evidence that you can actually iterate.
Have your Community Issue Investigation open. If you do not have it, write one sentence now naming who is affected, where, and what gap shows up, and use that as your clarifying input for the sprint.
2 - Key Terms ~5 mins
Five terms you will use constantly in this lesson and in the collaborative task that follows. This course model runs four stages as a cycle; iteration is the skill that makes the cycle real. Read each row carefully before you touch the board.
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Clarifying: defining what the problem is and whose problem it is | Your first pass starts here: one clear problem statement drawn from your community issue, not a vague topic | Rewriting 'teenagers have nowhere to go' as '14–17-year-olds in our town have no free, supervised indoor space after 6pm on weeknights' |
| Ideating: generating many responses without judging them yet | Quantity before quality. You list ideas fast; you do not argue about them until developing | A group listing thirty ideas for a community space in twelve minutes, including ones that sound silly at first |
| Developing: making one or two ideas real enough to test | Pick the strongest idea and pin down what it is, who it serves, and what it would take | Turning 'a youth hub' into a two-evening drop-in with a venue type, a supervisor role, and a rough first-month cost |
| Implementing: concrete next steps a stakeholder would recognise | Not a finished project: three credible first moves someone local could act on | Email the parish hall, draft a one-page pitch for the youth officer, survey ten peers this week |
| Iteration: returning to an earlier stage because a later one taught you something | Your second pass is the proof. Naming four stages is easy; changing your work because developing exposed a flaw is the skill | Discovering in developing that nobody would use the idea, so returning to clarifying and rewriting whose problem you are solving |
3 - Two-pass Mini Sprint ~35 mins
Phase 1: the cycle board. Put the four stages into order on the cycle board. Notice the last arrow: it goes back around. That is not decoration. When a later stage exposes a flaw, you return. Answer the return prompt on the board.
When the cycle is ordered and you have answered the return prompt, close the board and open your document.
Phase 2: Design Thinking Stages document. Open a document called Design Thinking Stages in your Strand 2.1 portfolio folder. Work on the community issue you investigated earlier. If you do not have that investigation, paste a short stem first (3–4 sentences): name the place, who is affected, when the gap shows up, and what is missing, then use that as clarifying input.
Pass one (about 12 minutes). Write one short block for each stage, in order:
- Clarifying: the problem in one or two sentences, and who is affected
- Ideating: at least five possible responses, listed fast, none crossed out yet
- Developing: pick one idea and make it real enough to test: what it is, who it serves, what it would take
- Implementing: three concrete next steps a community stakeholder could recognise as a start
Pass two (about 12 minutes). You must go back. Choose either clarifying or ideating. Write: which stage you returned to, what the later stage taught you that forced the return, and what is different the second time through. A second pass that changes nothing is not iteration.
Save the document. This is Strand 2.1 evidence that you can run the cycle and iterate; you will draw on it when you form groups and clarify a shared community issue for the collaborative task, and later when you select evidence for Portfolio in Action.
The four stages of design thinking
4 - Think About It ~10 mins
Talk these through with the person beside you, then decide whether your portfolio entry still needs a sharper second-pass line before you leave.
- If someone only read your first pass, what would they actually see: four headings, or a real problem and a response you could test?
- What did the later stage teach you that your first clarifying statement had wrong, vague, or missing, and how does that show up in the second pass?
If you want a short portfolio note later, add two lines under your Design Thinking Stages entry on which return felt most useful and why.
5 - What You Covered ~5 mins
Today you ran design thinking as a living cycle, not a four-box poster.
- You ordered clarifying, ideating, developing and implementing, including the return arrow that makes it a cycle
- You ran a first pass of all four stages on your own community issue
- You forced a second pass by returning to clarifying or ideating, and recorded what changed
- You saved Design Thinking Stages in your Strand 2.1 portfolio folder as evidence of iteration
Next lessons build from this: forming groups, then clarifying a shared community issue together for the collaborative task.
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