Desklight conducted a facilitator training with a handful of CU staff who would each lead a small cohort of CU staff outside of the workshop sessions. Over the course of four months, Desklight guided the approximately 50 participants through the HCD process, mindsets, and select methods through applied learning using studio-school pedagogy.

Participants directly applied learnings to real and immediately relevant work based on a problem frame that each cohort developed. These applied learnings included the fundamentals of the HCD methodology, problem framing and qualitative research principles, data collection and synthesis, and ideation. In our approach, we placed great emphasis on peer-to-peer learning through sharing and collaboration during and between workshop sessions. In the true sense of HCD, we also encouraged participants to iterate based on learnings and failing forward without doing harm.

At the end, each cohort presented on their problem frame, key learnings from stakeholder interviews, and initial ideas on how to address the challenge. The institution is continuing to synthesize the collective research findings, and plans are in place for the launch of a pitch event where teams will compete to secure funding to develop and test their prototype solutions.

Our Contributions Included

• Facilitators training
• Workshop design and facilitation