Location : T-Works

Duration : 4 Hours

Objective

The Design Thinking Workshop for the Startup Cohort at T-Works, Hyderabad, was designed to sensitize founders and startup teams to the strategic value of design thinking in solving complex, ambiguous, and multi-stakeholder business challenges. The core objective was to cultivate a design thinking mindset rooted in empathy, experimentation, and iterative learning while equipping participants with a structured understanding of the end-to-end process. The session aimed to bridge theory and practice, enabling entrepreneurs from diverse sectors such as pharma, automation, automobile, IT, and technology to integrate human-centered innovation into their product, service, and business model development efforts.

Execution

The 3–4 hour intensive workshop was facilitated by Dr. David Dunne, Prof. Munwar Khan, and Prof. Mrudul Chilmulwar for a cohort of 45 startup participants. The session combined conceptual grounding with experiential learning. Participants were introduced to the principles and stages of design thinking through curated case studies, interactive discussions, and real-world examples. They were then organized into collaborative teams to apply tools such as user need identification, opportunity mapping, ideation frameworks, concept evaluation matrices, rapid prototyping, and testing simulations. The workshop culminated in solution presentations, fostering peer learning and critical feedback, and ensuring that participants not only understood the framework but actively practiced it in a startup-relevant context.