The DTTT team are IBM-certified Design Thinking practitioners. We use interactive workshops that engage participants and facilitate collaboration. This article summarises our workshop series with Dolomiti Paganella between January to March 2023.
The DTTT team conducted a 5-week training programme of interactive workshops for Dolomiti Paganella. The workshops aimed to help the Italian DMO solve their key challenge of improving communication flow with local tourism operators. Design thinking was used to transform this broad challenge into specific solutions. The three principles of user focus, restless reinvention, and diverse empowered teams acted as the cornerstone of the approach.
Each workshop started with an informative overview of the key concepts related to the session, before these were then applied to the DMOs specific objectives through co-creation and informed and structured discussions.
The Dolomiti Paganella team discussed the challenges faced regarding their relationship with operators and agreed their most pressing issues to tackle. Framing these conclusions as a concise written statement helps focus the design thinking process and is central for identifying the project's intent. This is required to outline the problem and why it needs to be solved, as well as the benefits that will be generated, which is essential for achieving a successful outcome.
After writing the problem statement, the DTTT team inspired inquisitiveness through the 5 Whys process to identify the root cause of the lack of engagement from tourism operators. This led to the realisation that operators in fact struggle to find sufficient information because there are too many communication channels.
The 2nd workshop focused on empathising with users to ensure any solution developed will be user-centric and consider all stakeholders needs and their daily realities. To this effect, desk research and engaging with sponsor users can give a representative overview of new perspectives and overcome incorrect assumptions. This people-focused process is necessary for obtaining user buy-in and is necessary for shaping and implementing the most appropriate solution.
As part of this process, the DTTT team engaged with the DMO to help map out their current relationships with tourism operators and obtain a more detailed understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their communication strategy. As a result, Dolomiti Pagenella realised the need for a clearer communication tool - with operators having dedicated points of reference and an understanding of where to find recent information.
During this important session, the learnings from the first two workshops were used to inform the key objectives and goals to improve communication flow. This was informed through the development of user outcome statements to generate a better view of the desired outcomes.
The DMO were also helped through the process of retrospectively analysing their organisation's strengths and weaknesses to inform the best approach to take in the next phases of the design thinking process. This means the destination can leverage their assets in the ideation process.
The ideation workshop was focused on brainstorming, initially through open ideation. Here, it is necessary to encourage everyone's involvement. This was facilitated through participants diverging and writing their own ideas on post-it notes. Following this, participants converged to share their thoughts and visually cluster them by theme. This type of approach encourages a cooperative environment whereby it's possible to build upon all of the ideas as a group.
Since it's important to get all thoughts out into the open, the brainstorming process aimed to prioritise quantity over quality. Hence, the DMO was encouraged to be creative and use absurd ideation to develop potential solutions to a range of unlikely scenarios, such as the lack of Internet connections or extreme budgetary constraints to consider new perspectives and abstract thoughts that might otherwise be overlooked.
Upon deciding the best solutions, the short - and long-term benefits for Dolomiti Pagenella and the tourism operators in the region were clearly delineated. This creates a checkpoint to demonstrate that the project remains on scope and that the solution adequately addresses user needs and overcomes the problem statement.
The final phase of the process is prototyping and testing solutions. This facilitates a quick and inexpensive way to pilot the solutions developed. In this phase, sponsor users who provide feedback are fundamental to the end result. This gives the ability to reflect on the likely outcomes and consider how to fine-tune the idea and achieve the desired outcome.
Flexibility is required throughout the process! Design thinking shouldn't be considered as only a linear process, but instead a loop of constant reflections through 'observing', 'reflecting' and 'making'.
Design thinking can be used to solve any challenge. It is a mindset that can inspire conscious thought, creativity and collaboration.
The workshop series with Dolomiti Paganella helped break down a large challenge into small and manageable chunks. The workshops successfully helped the DMO to "think and work in more creative ways". This was highlighted by the participants who believed that such an approach was the "only way to reduce complexity" and that the "huge challenge, doesn't seem so hard any more".
By inspiring curiosity, the DMO also highlighted how the "sessions helped to focus minds on the problem and find solutions in a quick and creative way". A central aspect of the feedback was that the design thinking approach helped all members of the Dolomiti Paganella team to share and discuss their differing perspectives as well as to become more empathetic towards stakeholders and empower them.
Enquire about how the IBM-certified Design Thinkers at the DTTT can help your organisation
The DTTT team conducted a 5-week training programme of interactive workshops for Dolomiti Paganella. The workshops aimed to help the Italian DMO solve their key challenge of improving communication flow with local tourism operators. Design thinking was used to transform this broad challenge into specific solutions. The three principles of user focus, restless reinvention, and diverse empowered teams acted as the cornerstone of the approach.
Each workshop started with an informative overview of the key concepts related to the session, before these were then applied to the DMOs specific objectives through co-creation and informed and structured discussions.
The Dolomiti Paganella team discussed the challenges faced regarding their relationship with operators and agreed their most pressing issues to tackle. Framing these conclusions as a concise written statement helps focus the design thinking process and is central for identifying the project's intent. This is required to outline the problem and why it needs to be solved, as well as the benefits that will be generated, which is essential for achieving a successful outcome.
After writing the problem statement, the DTTT team inspired inquisitiveness through the 5 Whys process to identify the root cause of the lack of engagement from tourism operators. This led to the realisation that operators in fact struggle to find sufficient information because there are too many communication channels.
The 2nd workshop focused on empathising with users to ensure any solution developed will be user-centric and consider all stakeholders needs and their daily realities. To this effect, desk research and engaging with sponsor users can give a representative overview of new perspectives and overcome incorrect assumptions. This people-focused process is necessary for obtaining user buy-in and is necessary for shaping and implementing the most appropriate solution.
As part of this process, the DTTT team engaged with the DMO to help map out their current relationships with tourism operators and obtain a more detailed understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their communication strategy. As a result, Dolomiti Pagenella realised the need for a clearer communication tool - with operators having dedicated points of reference and an understanding of where to find recent information.
During this important session, the learnings from the first two workshops were used to inform the key objectives and goals to improve communication flow. This was informed through the development of user outcome statements to generate a better view of the desired outcomes.
The DMO were also helped through the process of retrospectively analysing their organisation's strengths and weaknesses to inform the best approach to take in the next phases of the design thinking process. This means the destination can leverage their assets in the ideation process.
The ideation workshop was focused on brainstorming, initially through open ideation. Here, it is necessary to encourage everyone's involvement. This was facilitated through participants diverging and writing their own ideas on post-it notes. Following this, participants converged to share their thoughts and visually cluster them by theme. This type of approach encourages a cooperative environment whereby it's possible to build upon all of the ideas as a group.
Since it's important to get all thoughts out into the open, the brainstorming process aimed to prioritise quantity over quality. Hence, the DMO was encouraged to be creative and use absurd ideation to develop potential solutions to a range of unlikely scenarios, such as the lack of Internet connections or extreme budgetary constraints to consider new perspectives and abstract thoughts that might otherwise be overlooked.
Upon deciding the best solutions, the short - and long-term benefits for Dolomiti Pagenella and the tourism operators in the region were clearly delineated. This creates a checkpoint to demonstrate that the project remains on scope and that the solution adequately addresses user needs and overcomes the problem statement.
The final phase of the process is prototyping and testing solutions. This facilitates a quick and inexpensive way to pilot the solutions developed. In this phase, sponsor users who provide feedback are fundamental to the end result. This gives the ability to reflect on the likely outcomes and consider how to fine-tune the idea and achieve the desired outcome.
Flexibility is required throughout the process! Design thinking shouldn't be considered as only a linear process, but instead a loop of constant reflections through 'observing', 'reflecting' and 'making'.
Design thinking can be used to solve any challenge. It is a mindset that can inspire conscious thought, creativity and collaboration.
The workshop series with Dolomiti Paganella helped break down a large challenge into small and manageable chunks. The workshops successfully helped the DMO to "think and work in more creative ways". This was highlighted by the participants who believed that such an approach was the "only way to reduce complexity" and that the "huge challenge, doesn't seem so hard any more".
By inspiring curiosity, the DMO also highlighted how the "sessions helped to focus minds on the problem and find solutions in a quick and creative way". A central aspect of the feedback was that the design thinking approach helped all members of the Dolomiti Paganella team to share and discuss their differing perspectives as well as to become more empathetic towards stakeholders and empower them.
Enquire about how the IBM-certified Design Thinkers at the DTTT can help your organisation
The DTTT team conducted a 5-week training programme of interactive workshops for Dolomiti Paganella. Design thinking was used to transform this broad challenge into specific solutions. The three principles of user focus, restless reinvention, and diverse empowered teams acted as the cornerstone of the approach.
The DTTT team conducted a 5-week training programme of interactive workshops for Dolomiti Paganella. Design thinking was used to transform this broad challenge into specific solutions. The three principles of user focus, restless reinvention, and diverse empowered teams acted as the cornerstone of the approach.
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