Design Thinking
Toolkit

Active tools · 2025–26

Live classroom instruments for the full DT process — from brief to venture.

Define
01
Brief Interrogator

Systematically dismantle a design brief before you touch the problem. Finds hidden assumptions, vague constraints, and missing context — before they derail the project.

Pre-sprint · 10 min
Define
02
Reframe Engine

Push students beyond rephrasing into genuine reframing. Applies 5 lenses — user, metric, constraint, timeframe, stakeholder — to crack open problem statements.

15–20 min · In-class
Research
03
Signal vs. Noise

Sort interview quotes by DT signal type: latent need, pain point, workaround behaviour, belief, design opportunity, or noise. Trains students to read data instead of just collecting it.

Post-fieldwork · 20 min
Test
04
Assumption Stress-Tester

Students input startup assumptions and receive simultaneous adversarial feedback from 4 AI personas: market skeptic, devil's advocate, cynical customer, and constructive coach.

Prototype phase · 20–30 min
Venture
05
Pivot or Persist

For founders at inflection points. Diagnoses whether a pivot is driven by market evidence or the desire to escape discomfort. Brutal, structured, honest.

Venture track · 15 min
Reflection
06
DT Autopsy

Five named DT failure modes with structured post-mortem analysis. Used at end-of-sprint to help teams identify where their process broke down.

End-of-sprint · 30 min