Students begin their projects by working through two phases of the design thinking process: empathize and define. 

Students conduct interviews directly with the people affected by a problem to understand their needs and insights. The stories that come out of these empathy interviews provide a real and concrete human context that informs the potential direction of projects. Students use this context to create problem statements that help them define the challenges within a particular problem,so there is a more specific and compelling focus in their projects—a problem they cannot refuse to solve. This also helps them identify actionable insights that define how they should move forward in their efforts. Alumni Advice: Empathy & Community Partnerships

Students also generate empathy and definition through research beyond the interviews they conduct. This may include interaction with mentors and experts who can guide them through their project development process. Later in the process, these mentors and experts can offer insights, feedback, and expertise to help refine projects. This approach to problem-solving, supported by experts, enables students to engage in more innovative solution finding that is defined by real-world perspectives.

In the next phase of their projects, students synthesize the information and insights they have generated into a question to focus their projects. These questions are often structured using the stem “how might we _____?” They should also help students think about their problem from different perspectives. For example, the question “How might we help football teams detect early signs of concussion?” offers a different and more specific focus  than “How might we prevent concussions in football?” or “How might we make football a safer sport?” Once a specific question is developed, students use it to brainstorm solutions.

In the ideation phase of design thinking, the goal is for students to brainstorm creative ideas that may lead to a solution for the problem they have identified. This phase empowers students to explore a wide range of ideas and encourages divergent thinking for innovation. Students are challenged to adopt a counterintuitive approach to ideation by choosing quantity over quality and considering extremes in their imagination. As they grow comfortable with the process, students gain more confidence in their creativity and their sense of agency increases.

As students ideate, they are also encouraged to adopt the spirit of an entrepreneur and think about the potential scale of the solutions they are considering. This focus on impact adds another dimension of real-world problem-solving to the student learning experience. Thinking about how a solution affects greater numbers of people helps students understand some of the complexities of social change. 

At the end of this phase, students work together to choose one promising idea to prototype and build out as a solution. Students pitch their idea at an “Idea Review” and receive feedback from industry volunteers, including engineers, product designers, and entrepreneurs at top tech companies. With this additional insight in hand, students work with their teammates to build their prototypes.

To make their ideas a reality, the next phase of Project Invent’s design thinking process involves prototyping and testing. Using a variety of materials, including electronics and computer code, students create a preliminary version of a solution for the problem they have been working on. This prototype is based on ideas that the group engineers into a tangible form, so that it can be tested with a user audience of people for whom the solution was designed. 

During testing, students gather feedback by letting the user audience actually interact with their prototype. As they iterate in their development process, students incorporate this real-world advice and criticism to refine their solutions. Learning to use feedback rather than react to it helps students develop resilience and optimism as changemakers.

Once they have received feedback about their prototype, students make adjustments to their designs and begin to create a plan to build their invention. This phase also requires students to research technologies that may be of use in their projects. 

As students build out their inventions, they collaborate with their team to transform their ideas into tangible creations. Together, students must manage their time, adapt to various constraints, and maintain their focus on solving the problem they started with.

Throughout projects, students reflect on their efforts, both as a team and as individuals, to develop their metacognitive skills. At the end of projects, students showcase and celebrate their work by pitching inventions at a “demo day” or demonstration of learning. Project Invent Demo Day X This opportunity to share knowledge also fosters self-esteem and public speaking skills.

In a pitch, students tell the story of their invention and its potential impact on the world. Students structure their pitches around the problem they are trying to address and use different rhetorical approaches such as data and personal stories to appeal to the emotions of their audience. The better students can articulate the story of their invention, the better they can demonstrate what they have learned through their participation in Project Invent. To support students in preparing their pitch, student teams are assigned to work with an industry volunteer for at least two “pitch coaching” sessions. These sessions help students build confidence and improve presentation skills leading up to presenting at Demo Day. Alumni Advice: Pitching & Business Plans