Design Thinking for Learning Solutions Training Course

Course overview

Learning teams are frequently asked to solve performance problems with courses before they have established what employees, managers, and customers actually need. The result is often a polished programme that addresses symptoms rather than barriers: a sales curriculum built without observing sales calls, a compliance module that ignores workflow constraints, or onboarding that reflects HR policy rather than the new starter experience. This course equips L&D professionals to use design thinking to investigate the real problem, test assumptions early, and make learning investments more evidence-led.

Participants work through a structured learning-solution design process: empathising with target users, defining performance and experience problems, generating solution concepts, building low-fidelity prototypes, testing them with stakeholders, and iterating against evidence. They learn to conduct contextual interviews, create learner personas and journey maps, write point-of-view statements and “How Might We” questions, prioritise ideas with feasibility–viability–desirability criteria, and connect prototype decisions to measurable business and capability outcomes. The course also addresses when learning is not the right intervention and how to recommend performance support, process changes, manager actions, or technology improvements instead.

Instructor-led demonstrations are combined with a sustained workshop based on a realistic L&D brief or a participant’s own workplace challenge. Teams use Miro and structured research templates to analyse evidence, map the learner experience, and test a prototype with peer stakeholders. Each participant leaves with a documented design-thinking case file: a validated problem statement, research plan, learner journey map, opportunity backlog, prototype, test findings, and a 90-day implementation plan. The course is particularly valuable for professionals responsible for commissioning, designing, or improving learning solutions where adoption, relevance, and measurable transfer matter.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Conduct contextual learner interviews using an interview guide and evidence-capture template
• Create learner personas and journey maps from qualitative research findings
• Define a performance-focused point-of-view statement and “How Might We” design question
• Distinguish learning needs from process, resource, incentive, and manager-support barriers
• Generate and prioritise solution concepts using desirability, feasibility, and viability criteria
• Build a low-fidelity learning or performance-support prototype in Miro or Articulate Storyline 360
• Plan and facilitate a usability test that captures observable user feedback
• Produce an evidence-based learning-solution design brief and 90-day implementation plan

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Learning and Development Managers — who need a repeatable method for approving solutions based on user evidence rather than requests alone
• Instructional Designers — who must translate performance challenges into tested learner-centred experiences
• Learning Experience Designers — who design journeys, digital learning, and performance support across employee touchpoints
• Talent Development Specialists — who need to improve the relevance and adoption of capability programmes
• HR Business Partners — who diagnose people issues and must determine whether training is the appropriate response
• Organisational Development Practitioners — who shape change interventions that depend on employee behaviour and experience

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience of designing, commissioning, facilitating, or evaluating workplace learning interventions, and should understand basic concepts such as learning objectives, target audiences, stakeholder requirements, and evaluation measures. Familiarity with a learning management system, authoring tool, or virtual whiteboard is helpful but not essential. Bring a current or recent L&D challenge if possible, such as weak onboarding adoption, inconsistent manager capability, or low transfer after training. No prior design-thinking qualification, graphic design capability, coding knowledge, or advanced research-statistics experience is required.

Training methodology

The five days alternate concise instructor-led method sessions with applied design studio work. Participants analyse an L&D case, practise interview questioning and synthesis, and use Miro to build personas, journey maps, opportunity statements, and prototype flows. Small groups conduct structured critique sessions and simulated usability tests, with the instructor challenging assumptions about whether training is the correct intervention. Examples cover onboarding, manager development, compliance, and systems adoption. The final day converts the prototype into a documented recommendation, measurement approach, and implementation plan for workplace use.

Course outline

Day 1: Diagnosing the right learning challenge

• Design thinking principles for workplace learning
• Performance consulting versus training-order taking
• Business outcomes, performance outcomes, and learning outcomes
• Stakeholder ecosystem mapping
• Assumption mapping and risk identification
• Learner research ethics and informed participation
• Contextual interview guide design

Workshop: Participants convert a vague training request into a researchable performance challenge and produce a stakeholder map and interview guide.

Day 2: Empathising with learners in context

• Contextual inquiry and workplace observation
• Semi-structured interview techniques
• Jobs-to-be-Done analysis for learners
• Affinity mapping qualitative evidence
• Evidence-based learner persona creation
• Learner journey mapping across workflow stages
• Pain points, moments of truth, and support gaps

Workshop: Teams synthesise interview evidence from a learning case and produce an evidence-backed persona and end-to-end learner journey map.

Day 3: Framing opportunities and generating solutions

• Point-of-view problem statements
• How Might We question formulation
• Root-cause analysis with the five whys
• Learning, performance support, and process intervention options
• Divergent ideation techniques for L&D
• Concept sketching and storyboarding
• Desirability, feasibility, and viability prioritisation

Workshop: Participants create an opportunity backlog, generate solution concepts, and select one concept using a feasibility–viability–desirability matrix.

Day 4: Prototyping and testing learning experiences

• Prototype fidelity selection
• Miro learning-journey and service-blueprint prototypes
• Articulate Storyline 360 interaction mock-ups
• Performance-support prototype patterns
• Usability test scenario design
• Think-aloud testing protocol
• Feedback capture and iteration decisions

Workshop: Teams build a testable low-fidelity learning or performance-support prototype and run a structured usability test with peer participants.

Day 5: Making the case and planning implementation

• Interpreting usability-test findings
• Prototype iteration and decision logging
• Learning-solution design brief structure
• Measurement hypotheses and leading indicators
• Experience API learning-data considerations
• Stakeholder presentation and recommendation framing
• Ninety-day pilot and implementation planning

Workshop: Each participant presents a revised solution concept and produces a design brief, evidence summary, measurement plan, and 90-day action plan.

Tools & standards covered

Miro, Microsoft Forms, Articulate Storyline 360, Experience API (xAPI)

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions