Design Research Course

About the course

Are you really listening? When we're trying to tackle a complex problem, engaging with people is the single most important activity - whether they be people experiencing the problem, your own team, or partners. The problem is, most people don't really know how to have a deep conversation that untangles what's happening underneath the surface and why.

This course breaks down Design Research to help you really listen to people and inspire action towards a better future. In 4 weeks, we will teach you the fundamentals of Design Research, and help you engage with people confidently to understand the problem you're tackling.

The course will be made up of a series of live sessions and group work, designed to balance theory and practice and get you to engage confidently.

By the end of the course, you will have learned how to:

• Deeply understand a problem you’re passionate about

• Design a research strategy that applies a research method of your choosing

• Recruit people through your networks and social media.

• Conduct and facilitate qualitative research that is empathetic and helpful

• Share your findings and recommendations in an impactful, actionable, useful way

Course Format

This course is hands-on and fully immersive. Expect a mix of activities to support learning-by-doing that are complemented with academic rigour and grounded in the reality of working with diverse communities. 

By the end of the course, you’ll have designed, facilitated and presented a research study and a system for understanding people's needs and mindsets. We'll have one live session each week for 4 weeks. They'll be on Tuesdays, 1930 - 2100 EST. Each session will have 60-90 mins of core teaching and interactive exercises, followed by an open Q&A. If you can't make the live sessions, don't worry - we'll upload the Zoom recording on the same day.