Designing as Performance: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice in Design Thinking Education

The adoption of Design Thinking as an innovation method has grown from traditional design circles to a broader range of industries and professions looking to become more innovative. The growth seen in industry has also influenced a rise in Design Thinking research and education with a strong focus on team-based design. In the last 10 years, design research programs have yielded a rigorously vetted body of new knowledge in the study of team interactions in high performing teams. Despite research-informed and data-driven insights, the impact of these outcomes in the realm of Design Thinking education remains marginal, and the development and application of new DT methods, tools, and frameworks often lack a rigorous empirical foundation. In an effort towards bridging the gap between research and practice, this chapter presents new research-based training methods for team-based design. These training packages are built on the research outcomes from the Stanford Center for Design Research and the Hasso Plattner Design Thinking Research Program, as well as contemporary work in cognitive science. The training packages take the form of performative patterns (Edelman et al. Design thinking research. Springer International, Cham, 2020). Performative patterns are micro-interactions that can be articulated into warm-ups, drills, and exercises for training purposes. Findings from this research demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach for both students of Design Thinking practice, and coaches.