Assignment: Unleash your Design Thinking Powers!

It's time to put your entrepreneurial thinking into practice. In this assignment, you will begin using Design Thinking to identify a real problem faced by a community you care about.

What is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is a human-centered problem-solving approach that emphasizes empathy, creativity, and collaboration. Originally developed in the world of industrial design, it has become one of the most popular methods for developing innovative solutions to complex challenges.

The key belief behind Design Thinking: understanding the needs and experiences of people is the key to creating effective solutions.

Your Task

Think about a community you belong to or care about. This could be:

Your school or classmates
Your neighbourhood
A cultural or heritage group
A group of people who share a common interest or challenge

Step 1 — Choose your community

Select a specific community. Remember: a community is a group of individuals who share something in common — a history, a goal, or a geographic location.

Step 2 — Identify a problem or opportunity

What challenge does this community face? What need goes unfulfilled? Think about:

What frustrates people in this community?
What service or resource is missing?
What could be improved?

Step 3 — Write about it

Write a short response (1–3 paragraphs) that:

Describes the community you chose
Explains the problem or opportunity you identified
Proposes an initial idea for how you might address it

There are no wrong answers here. The goal is to start observing your world with an entrepreneurial eye. Check out how Aisha, Jacob, and Jenny tackled this activity for inspiration!