Lesson Series

Design Thinking Foundations

This course provides you and your team with the key foundations in design thinking to better solve problems and seize opportunities.
What you are going to learn

Design Thinking & Human-Centered Design

We'll lead you through all five stages of the Design Thinking process, teaching how the various steps fit together and why and how they work. You’ll learn tips and tricks for using Design Thinking across your work.
Throughout this course you will:
  • Define key design thinking methods
  • Practice facilitating key design thinking methods in your work
  • Chart a plan for further design thinking growth
  • Connect with a larger design thinking community

Who Should Attend?

Startup founders

who want to learn the power of Design Thinking

Executives

who want to level up their design thinking facilitation skill

Team leaders and managers

who want to build products based on customer insights

What People are Saying

"As a venture-backed direct-to-consumer company, what we learn through customer experience directly evolves who we are growing into for current and new customers. As we mature to more retail presence in an unprecedented time of disruption and opportunity, every team member must be empowered with the vulnerability to iterate and actively listen for how to be present. Design thinking and facilitation taught by Voltage Control punctuates that kind of learning perfectly."
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Siya M.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT QUIP

"Anyone that can construct a sequence of conversations to lead others is a metaskill. Anyone who participates in meetings or owns an agenda would benefit from this. It is a whirlwind, but you are among others who are in charge of making an impact. This is a practical, hands-on deep dive for managers, entrepreneurs, and leaders who can change their culture by leading meetings like a pro.
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Mark T.

HEAD OF SERVICES AT MURAL

About Erik
Erik believes that a deep empathy and caring, rooted in human-centered design, systems thinking, and futures thinking best supports partners in finding their solutions. Erik is passionate about supporting clients imagining innovative approaches to complex organizational challenges. 

​Trained as an educator, designer, researcher, and change agent, he brings significant teaching, design, mentoring, professional learning and development, organizational change, and research experiences from across secondary, higher education, non-profit, and industry contexts. Whether working with individuals, teams, or organizations, he helps people design lasting growth and innovation. Prior to working with Voltage Control, he co-founded Michigan State University’s Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology, an internal design consultancy focused on learning experience design, innovation, and organizational transformation.

He earned his B.A. in English Literature from Western Washington University, M.A.T. in Secondary English Education from Brown University, and Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education.
About Douglas
Douglas Ferguson is an entrepreneur and human-centered technologist with over 20 years of experience. He is the founder and president of Voltage Control, an Austin-based facilitation agency that specializes in helping teams work better together through participatory decision making and design inspired facilitation techniques. He has helped transform teams from U.S. SOCOM, the Air Force, Adobe, Dropbox, Fidelity, Vrbo, Liberty Mutual, Humana, and SAIC.

Douglas is a thought leader and master facilitator of Design Sprints, Innovation Acceleration, Team Alignment, Meeting Systems, Culture Transitions, and Change Transformations. He is also the author of three books: Beyond the Prototype, How to Remix Anything (co-authored), and Start Within (co-authored).

Motivated by a mission to rid the world of horrible meetings and offer meaningful meetings in their place, Voltage Control is calling upon fellow facilitators to transform meeting and innovation culture. From free weekly community meetups to Control the Room–the annual facilitator summit, Voltage Control is building a community of facilitators to change the world.
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