Design Thinking is used to tackle complex, human-centred challenges, and teams get the best outcomes when they understand how to apply it with clarity and confidence.

Effective Design Thinking practitioners need more than what’s covered in most guides. They need to recognise how each phase connects, which behaviours support success, and how to respond when things go off track.

If you're a facilitator tasked with training others to use Design Thinking so they can use it later in a real-world problem-solving context, this guide is for you. We’ll show you how to create experiential training sessions that give the theoretical framework and help participants to experience it in a way that leads to lasting learning.

You’ll learn how to:

• Help participants to understand when to apply Design Thinking, and when to not

• Help participants to understand what an effective Design Thinking workshop looks like

• Help participants to spot behaviours and name dynamics that will help them 

• Help participants to self-diagnose when and why a session isn't working

• Use experiential learning activities to help participants become better Design Thinking practitioners

• Use experiential learning activities to bring each stage of Design Thinking to life

• Structure your Design Thinking training with impactful experiential learning activities and engaging session flows 

After reading, you’ll be able to design and deliver Design Thinking training that’s practical and engaging, and which leads to ingrained learning. You’ll give participants the tools and confidence they need to apply the model effectively in their own real-world sessions.

What is Design Thinking (DT)?

While you’re likely familiar with Design Thinking, here’s a quick refresher on key concepts your participants will need to know. 

The goals:

• To understand the needs of the people the design is for

• To generate ideas for a solution, 

• To test the ideas quickly

Hallmarks:

• Empathising with users

• Rapid prototyping and iteration

• Collaboration across disciplines

• Willingness to challenge assumptions

• Emphasis on action

Stages:

1. Empathise: understand the users and their needs through observation, engagement, and immersion

2. Define: gather insights to clearly articulate the problem to be solved

3. Ideate: generate a wide range of possible solutions, without narrowing the focus too soon

4. Prototype: create simple, testable versions of potential solutions

5. Test: try out prototypes with users, gather feedback, and refine

Note: Design Thinking is non-linear in practice meaning practitioners can jump ahead, loop back, repeat stages, or work on multiple alongside each other

Further Reading

This post is for facilitators looking to strengthen their Design Thinking training. If you want to learn more about the approach itself, there are many comprehensive resources available including:

• Design Thinking Defined by IDEO. An organisation credited with defining the approach

• What is Design Thinking & Why Is It Beneficial? By IDEOU, affiliated with the above

• What is Design Thinking? By IxDF

Facilitation Aspirations for Design Thinking Training Sessions

As a facilitator, your role is to create the conditions where participants can develop the confidence, behaviours, and mindset needed to use Design Thinking effectively. Having clear facilitation goals helps you focus on what participants take away from a session.

Here are some facilitation aspirations for Design Thinking training sessions:

• Ground discussions in real-life experience: it’s easy for groups to default to abstract ideas, hypothetical examples, or generic business-speak, especially if they don’t feel fully invested. A great session helps people connect the framework to their lived experience, which leads to more practical, relevant outcomes.

• Encourage balanced contributions: uneven participation is one of the most common challenges in group work. Whether caused by personality dynamics or varying confidence levels, certain voices can dominate while others hold back. Design Thinking works best with diverse thought, so it’s important to create space for quieter voices.

• Foster confident, motivated learners: participants often arrive with varying levels of confidence. Some may be afraid of contributing ideas in case they get it “wrong”. A successful workshop nurtures a sense of psychological safety where experimentation is encouraged and curiosity is rewarded.

Helping Participants to Understand Design Thinking

Your role is to help participants understand the model, its uses, when to apply it, and the signs that Design Thinking workshops are running well. 

Understanding When to Apply Design Thinking and When to Not

In your training, two key things to help participants understand are:

1. Design Thinking is a tool to be used, not an automatic solution to a problem

2. It’s a powerful approach to problem solving, but not always the right one

In terms of when to use Design Thinking, the approach is best suited to open-ended, human-centred problems where the solution isn’t clear and success depends on a deep understanding of user needs. Ensure participants understand the properties of a problem that lends itself well to Design Thinking:

• Ambiguous or not yet well‑defined, with the group needing to explore, clarify, and frame it before moving toward solutions

• Human experience, emotions, or behaviours are central to the challenge, and understanding users is essential for success

• Innovation, creativity, or fresh perspectives are required, rather than optimisation of an existing process

• Multiple viable solutions may exist, and the aim is to explore possibilities rather than confirm a single correct answer

• Assumptions need to be surfaced and tested, because the current understanding of the problem or user may be incomplete or flawed

• Collaboration across roles or disciplines is valuable, and divergent viewpoints can strengthen the outcome

• Iterative learning is expected, with room for prototyping, testing, and refining ideas based on feedback

And in terms of when not to use it:

• The problem is already well-defined, with clear criteria for success

• Efficiency, consistency, or compliance is more important than innovation

• The solution depends on technical accuracy rather than human experience

Helping participants understand when not to use Design Thinking gives them a better sense of its real value and reduces the risk of the model being misapplied or misunderstood.

Understanding What an Effective Design Thinking Workshop Looks Like - With Behaviours 

As a facilitator, one of your main goals is to help participants understand what “good” looks like when they apply Design Thinking in the real world. That means moving beyond theory and giving them a lived experience of the behaviours, mindsets, and group dynamics that support effective workshops.

Design Thinking is about more than generating creative ideas. The goal is to transform how people approach challenges, engage with users, and navigate ambiguity. A successful session leads toward solutions that are thoughtful and grounded, and which respond to real needs.

By the end of your training, your participants should be able to recognise these signs of a well-run Design Thinking session when they take part in one later:

• Energy and engagement: participants are curious, enthusiastic, and willing to experiment

• Good communication: they ask sharp questions, listen attentively, and stay open to uncertainty

• Balanced contributions: everyone feels confident contributing, and dominant voices make space for quieter ones

• Exploratory thinking: participants shift from fixed ideas to wider, more divergent exploration

• Collaboration over competition: ideas are built together, with shared ownership of outcomes

• Team outcomes: solutions reflect real user insights, not just internal assumptions

Helping your participants identify, name, and aim for these characteristics will make them more adaptable and effective when they later run or take part in Design Thinking sessions themselves.

Self-diagnosing When and Why a Session Isn't Working

Your participants need to develop the ability to identify when things are going off track. In your training, help them to identify these patterns:

• Energy drops early on: participants may not fully understand the need for the empathy or problem-framing stages, or may be rushing toward solution mode out of habit 

• Things feel rushed or unbalanced: the group may feel pressure to “get through” the process instead of engaging meaningfully

• Ideas are safe and familiar: the group may be anchoring on existing solutions or assumptions rather than generating ideas through genuine user understanding

• One or two voices dominate: team dynamics may be blocking balanced contributions, limiting divergent thinking and collective ownership

• Feedback is avoided or surface-level: participants may be uncomfortable testing assumptions or challenging each other, leading to weaker iteration and refinement

Framing these as learning cues instead of failures helps participants to reflect, adjust, and grow. 

Experiential Learning Activities to Help Facilitators Teach Design Thinking Through Experience

This section includes experiential learning activities that will help you to teach the model experientially. Theyweren’t designed specifically for Design Thinking but map naturally to its stages and are effective in helping participants understand and internalise the required mindset. Each will help you to teach the principles of Design Thinking in ways that are engaging and memorable.

Over the Bridge - from MTa Team Kit

In this activity participants have to design a wheeled vehicle and a method of getting it across a river, under competition conditions and with limited resources. The task unfolds in distinct phases: planning, ordering materials, and construction, with plenty of opportunities to spot miscommunication, assumption-making, and group dynamics in action.

• Best for: exploring the full Design Thinking experience (Empathise through to Test)

• When to use: this activity works best when introducing the full Design Thinking process. It’s useful for helping participants understand how the stages connect, where iteration matters, and how assumptions and team dynamics can shape outcomes.

• Pain points addressed: poor problem framing, skipping empathy, weak team collaboration

• Why it works: Over the Bridge mirrors an end-to-end cycle of Design Thinking, including time for ideation, prototyping, and real-time testing. The optional inclusion of ‘customer’ criteria helps teams confront real-world complexity and ambiguity.

• Example facilitator prompt: at what point did you realise you were making assumptions about the customer’s needs, the materials, or the task, and how did that affect your design choices?

The Hoist - from MTa Insights

In this three-part activity, teams first design a hoist, then instruct another team to build it based solely on their directions, before ultimately watching their design come to life. It reveals how clarity, motivation, and collaboration influence successful implementation.

• Best for: teaching the Test stage, with a focus on developing communication and collaboration 

• When to use: when teaching the challenges of handoff and execution in the Design Thinking process. It’s useful for showing what can go wrong when ideas are passed between people or teams without shared understanding or motivation.

• Pain points addressed: poor communication, lack of clarity in later stages, disengagement

• Why it works: participants design a solution, then hand it off to another team to build, mirroring what often happens between design, dev, and delivery teams. Highlights breakdowns in instruction and knowledge transfer, along with the emotional impact of watching others build ‘your’ idea - great for building shared ownership.

• Example facilitator prompt: what did you notice when another team built your design? What matched your expectations, what didn’t, and what does that show you about how clearly your ideas were communicated?

Artifacts - from MTa Insights

Teams are asked to design striking ornaments for a customer, but only after negotiating a short, high-stakes Q&A session to uncover the customer’s real needs. They must then pitch their creations back, balancing creativity with constraints like shipping requirements and flat-pack design.

• Best for: Empathise, Define and Ideate stages

• When to use: to help participants practise early-stage Design Thinking, especially questioning and interpretation. It’s ideal for reinforcing the importance of listening, not assuming, and designing for real user needs. Also to help participants practice user-centred questioning and improve their ability to frame problems effectively.

• Pain points addressed: assumption-led thinking, weak user understanding, superficial research

• Why it works: teams must interview a customer to uncover needs, then design and present solutions based on what they learn - this creates perfect opportunities for participants to practice user-centred inquiry and value proposition design under pressure.

• Example facilitator prompt: which customer insights shaped your final design the most, and which insights did you wish you’d asked about once you started creating solutions?

Sample Session Flow for Teaching Design Thinking Through Experiential Learning

While there is no one-size-fits-all flow for a Design Thinking training session, we have created two example flows designed to help facilitators teach the model. Each allows participants to experience the process, reflect on its application, and build the confidence to use it themselves.

Option 1: Introduction to Design Thinking (half-day)

Facilitation goal: to help participants build a better understanding of  DT and explore each phase of the model through guided experiential learning

• Welcome + intro to Design Thinking (15 mins)

• Experiential activity: Over the Bridge (90 mins including debrief)

• Break + reflection (15 mins)

• Mini framework recap: mapping activity phases to DT stages (20 mins)

• Discussion: Applying the mindset at work (20 mins)

Option 2: Focused Skill Development (90–120 mins)

Facilitation goal: to deepen and reinforce specific skills like empathy or testing through targeted activities

• Welcome + intro (10 mins)

• Experiential activity: Artifacts or The Hoist (25–45 mins)

• Small group review (20 mins)

• Discussion: How this relates to our work (15 mins)

• Wrap-up and next steps (10 mins)

These flows are flexible, modular, and ideal for building out full-day workshops or short interventions depending on your audience and objectives. 

Notes for planning your sessions: placing activities early gives participants a chance to experience the model in action before deconstructing it together. Also feel free to expand or shrink sections depending on how familiar your group already is with Design Thinking, or based on the level of depth of analysis you want to reach.How to Effectively Review Design Thinking Training Sessions

Facilitated reflection is where much of the deep learning happens in Design Thinking training. While the activities may reveal insights or challenge participant assumptions, structured review allows participants to  surface insights, connect them to Design Thinking concepts, and consider how they might apply in real contexts.

A good review process should do three things:

1. Surface what happened: encourage participants to describe how the activity unfolded, including decisions, behaviours, and outcomes

2. Interpret the experience: help the group explore how the activity mirrors challenges in real-world Design Thinking, and what their reactions reveal about their current mindset

3. Apply the learning: prompt participants to think about how the insights relate to their own role in future DT sessions

Review Questions to Help Participants Internalise Design Thinking

• How were user needs identified and used (or ignored) in the process?

• What assumptions were made, and how did they affect the outcome?

• To what extent did everyone contribute to the outcome? What helped or hindered that?

• Where did the group diverge or converge? What was the impact?

• What would you do differently next time?

• Which part of the activity best reflected the stage of the process you found most difficult and why?

• What Design Thinking principle felt hardest to apply in the moment? What might help next time?

• How would you explain the role of empathy (or iteration, or prototyping) to someone who hadn’t experienced this?

Teaching Design Thinking with Confidence

Design Thinking is a powerful tool for tackling complex, human-centred challenges, but it only works when people understand how to properly us it. As a facilitator, your role is to build that understanding, and by using experiential learning to teach the mindset, stages, and behaviours that underpin the process you can help participants move beyond theory into confident, practical application.

Our experiential learning activities are designed to make your job easier, and your training more impactful. Whether you're introducing the full model or focusing on a specific phase, our activities let participants live the learning, and carry it forward beyond the training session. 

Next steps:

• Explore MTa Insights and the MTa Team Kit, where the recommended activities can be found

• Explore our problem-solving resource

• Get in touch for tailored advice on how to achieve your goals

• Read our other posts on facilitating training sessions for other models and frameworks