From Ideas to Action

Learn to prototype, experiment, and iterate to move your ideas forward
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From Ideas to Action is a deep dive into the design thinking skills of ideation, prototyping, and iteration. This 5-week course will teach you how to frame your ideas as experiments and bring others in on your vision of the future. Use experimentation to learn from failure and move from incremental to radical innovation.

Course Outcomes
  • Turn your ideas into real products and services through a repeatable process of ideation, prototyping, and iteration. 
  • Consistently generate more and better ideas by using IDEO’s approach to brainstorming and ideation.
  • Uncover insight into your customers’ wants and needs by using rough and rapid prototypes to gather feedback. 
  • Lower your risk by running small experiments to learn from failure in a controlled environment. 
  • Create a culture of experimentation on your team and expand your capacity for innovation. 
Part of Certificate Programs
Foundations in Design Thinking Certificate Advanced Design Thinking Certificate
Course Themes
Brainstorming Prototyping Experimentation
Format Online Cohort Course
Start Date
Quantity
Duration 5 Weeks
Time 4 Hours/Week
Price
$599
$599
Download Syllabus Download Syllabus
Download Syllabus

What You'll Learn

Week 1: Introduction

See how insights help spark ideas, and get an introduction to three approaches that will take you from ideas to action: ideation, prototyping, and iteration.
Watch a sneak peek
  • From Ideas to Action – IDEO Prototyping Example
     
3 Video Lessons
  • From Ideas to Action—Ideate, Prototype, and Iterate Your Way Forward
     
  • Design Thinking & Insights—Understanding the role of insights
     
  • Meet Your Instructor—Brendan Boyle
     
1 Assignment

  • Choose Your Challenge—We’ve crafted a series of project challenges for you to choose from, all designed to be the right size and scope for this course. You'll practice your selected challenge during the course and later you can bring your learning into your own work.

1 Discussion
  • What do you want to take away from this course?

Week 2: The Art of Ideating

Go beyond brainstorming—learn techniques for coming up with an abundance of innovative ideas.
5 Video Lessons
  • What is Ideation?—Getting comfortable with divergent thinking
  • Ideation Methods—Ways to generate ideas
  • Brainstorm Rules—Leading your own brainstorm
  • Observe Experts Brainstorming—See an IDEO team in action
  • Converging After Idea Generation—How to make choices and move forward
1 Assignment

  • Ideate—Plan an ideation session, ideate with two to four people, and choose your top ideas. To get the most out of this assignment, we suggest that you involve others. That means you might not complete this in one sitting.

3 Discussions
  • Keep a playful mindset and share your thirty circles activity.
  • What were some key takeaways from leading a brainstorm? Get visual if you can.
  • Reflect on your ideation session. What were some of the challenges you faced? What strategies did you use to overcome these challenges?

Week 3: Rapid Prototyping

Learn how to make your ideas tangible so you can work through the kinks, gather feedback, and get to better solutions faster.
5 Video Lessons
  • Why Prototype—Make your ideas tangible and shareable
  • Types of Prototypes—Anything can be prototyped
  • Show Me Your Prototype—Predict what became of early prototypes
  • 3 Steps for Prototyping—Build, share, and reflect
  • Tinfoil Hats in Action—IDEOers tackle the challenge
1 Assignment

  • Prototype—Plan, build, and share your prototype. To get the most out of this assignment, we suggest that you involve two to four people. That means you might not complete this in one sitting.

3 Discussions
  • When was a time you failed at something? Allow yourself to be vulnerable—what did you learn from your mistake?
  • Share your tinfoil hat prototype and comment on your fellow learner’s prototypes with ideas to build on their designs.
  • What about prototyping felt uncomfortable? Which aspects of your prototype were people drawn to?

Week 4: Iterate Your Way Forward

Practice improving your ideas through multiple rounds of ideation and prototyping.
3 Video Lessons
  • Why We Iterate—Fail early to succeed sooner
  • 4 Steps to Iterate—Managing risk and refining your ideas
  • School Lunch Activity—A closer look at school lunch and iteration
1 Assignment

  • Iterate—This assignment will get you thinking critically about what you've done so far and what you still need to do. You will list questions that will help you iterate, prioritize those questions, ideate again (and again), and plan for the future.

1 Discussion
  • How has your plan for future prototyping shifted in surprising ways? What helped you get there?

Week 5: Conclusion

Hear advice from Brendan on pursuing your ideas, building your creative confidence, and planning for the future.
1 Video Lesson
  • Course Conclusion—Play, build and experiment
1 Assignment

  • Final Project—Create a pitch summarizing your key takeaways and highlighting your plans for the future.

2 Discussions
  • What does creative confidence mean to you, and how might the skills and perspective from this course get you that much closer to bringing your ideas to life?
  • What was your creative confidence before and after the course? Really think about how or why it changed. Did your creative confidence change during the course? How and why? What was the most revealing moment for you?

Meet Your Instructors

Brendan Boyle

Partner at IDEO & Founder of IDEO Play Lab

Brendan has led design teams to invent and license hundreds of consumer products. He consults with companies about including space for play and innovation, wrote a course for Stanford’s d.School, and co-authored The Klutz Book of Inventions. He holds degrees in design and mechanical engineering.

More About Brendan
More From Brendan Boyle
IDEO Play Lab
Design for Play
Inc.
6 Ways to Integrate Play Into the Workplace

Brendan Boyle

Partner at IDEO & Founder of IDEO Play Lab

Brendan Boyle believes that play is the key to innovation. This philosophy guides his work as a toy inventor, consulting associate professor at Stanford University’s d.School, and Partner at IDEO. He founded the Toy Lab to explore kid-centered solutions to the challenge of boredom. Under his leadership, the Toy Lab has invented and licensed hundreds of toys and archetypes, including the best-selling app Elmo Calls with Sesame Street.

Brendan also consults with companies about redesigning their organizational behavior to include space for play, wrote the course From Play to Innovation offered at Stanford’s d.School, and co-authored the award-winning encyclopedia of never-before-seen inventions, The Klutz Book of Inventions. Brendan holds an M.S. in the Joint Program for Design from Stanford University, as well as a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University. A much requested speaker, Brendan is known for his interactive talks that stress the joy of innovation.

Collaborate with a Global Community

Work with Expert Coaches

Our teaching team has extensive applied industry knowledge. They'll help deepen your understanding and application of the course content by facilitating written discussions, live video moments, and assignment feedback.

Expand Your Network

Join virtual live discussion groups for deeper conversation, reflection, and connection led by teaching team members and available multiple times a week across time zones.

Receive Feedback

Gain tips, techniques, and a downloadable feedback guide; and share and receive feedback on assignments from peers.

Learn more about the IDEO U Learning Experience

Loved by Learners Across the Globe

Taylor Williams
Taylor Owner & Creative Director Guts & Glory Creative Consulting
Alexandra Meisner
Alexandra Business Analyst TELUS Communications
Pearce Herchenrader
Pearce Product Manager The Working Group
Katelyn Engelking
Katelyn Marketing Operations Analyst Quorum Software
From Ideas to Action
Cohort Course

“In running my own business, I've become selective about what courses I choose. IDEO U has kinda blown me away. It's accessible and tangible, but also challenging. It's pushed me to do my future work differently, but also to *think about myself* in my work differently.”

Taylor Gainesville, FL
From Ideas to Action
Cohort Course

“IDEO U courses are very effective in teaching design thinking in a way that is digestible and practical. Learning to apply these methods to a real-world challenge really provides a sense of completion, and makes it easier for me to speak to what I've learned.”

Alexandra Vancouver, BC, Canada
From Ideas to Action
Cohort Course

“The art of coming up with new ideas and being able to effectively communicate those ideas is incredibly important in my field. As a new product manager, I really struggled to find resources to help me learn effectively, and I was able to put what I learned here into practice right away.”

Pearce Canada
From Ideas to Action
Cohort Course

“These are key skills and concepts that are important to every industry, job function and team structure. Being able to think outside the box, incorporate feedback and apply it in a meaningful way to solve a challenge is such a wonderful skill to have and build off of.”

Katelyn Houston, TX

Go Deeper with Certificate Programs

From Ideas to Action is part of two certificate programs:

View Certificate Programs

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Enroll As a Team

The practice and application of design thinking, innovation, and creativity is highly collaborative and team based—which is why we believe that learning is better together. Take a course as a team and develop new skills and mindsets, have deeper discussion during course kickoff and debrief sessions, and build a shared understanding.

How to Enroll as a Team