Professional Development Day

PMIUNY Annual Professional Development Day (PDD)

Introduction to Design Thinking

IN-PERSON & VIRTUAL CLASSROOM EVENT

ABOUT THE COURSE

Innovation is the cornerstone of highly successful companies, especially those that continue to be successful over the years and decades. Design thinking practices fuel this continual innovation, as they are the critical links from inspiration to delivery, concept to showroom floor, and start-up to global business. Design thinking is a structured approach to promoting innovation and creative problem-solving. It is not a new approach. It has been around for centuries, as the art, architecture, and inventions of mankind illustrate. By examining the steps to achieving great design and maximum utility of product, design thinking approaches provide a framework in which to develop new solutions to problems and new products to sell.

This highly interactive course is designed to help participants think like designers to generate innovation, and to help teams to produce more innovation and creativity. Since design thinking is based on doing rather than thinking, we participants are challenged to apply the techniques, in the classroom, to create new ideas and solutions to a case study project.

Who Should Attend

Anyone who is interested in improving personal skills for enabling innovation.

What You Will Learn

At the end of this program, you will be able to:
Explain the underlying principles and value of using Design Thinking for innovation
Describe the basic concepts of the Stanford Model for Design Thinking
Evaluate a set of basic Design Thinking techniques for application to your projects
Apply tools, techniques, and skills aligned with the 5 stages of the Stanford Model
Drive innovation through Design Thinking at some level in your work environment

EVENT DETAILS

Annual Professional Development Day (PDD) 2026

PDUs: 8 Hours (8) PDUs Introduction to Design Thinking

Location: Crowne Plaza Hotel | 660 Albany-Shaker Road, Albany, NY 12211

Date: Monday, May 4, 2026

Time: 8:30 A.M. EDT - 4:30 P.M. EDT

Contact: Karen Huggins

Email: pdprofessionaldevelopmentday@pmiuny.org

Group discount information for 5 or more employees available upon request, contact Karen directly.

Click here to download printable version of the 2026 PDD flyer (PDF)

Pre-Requisites

None

Who Should Attend

Anyone who is interested in improving personal skills for enabling innovation.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Foundation Concepts

Risky projects
Problems and solutions
The Design Thinking difference
Design Thinking skills and abilities
Design Thinking mindset
Design Thinking frameworks

Stages of Design Thinking

Problems and solutions
The Design Thinking difference
Design Thinking skills and abilities
Design Thinking mindset
Design Thinking frameworks

General Practices

Team Formation
Visualization
Improvisation
Personization

Emphasize Practices

Overview of Empathize techniques
Observation
Engagement
Interviews

Define Practices

Overview of Define practices
Unpacking techniques
Defining the customer techniques
Integrating the Define experience

Ideate Practices

Overview of Ideate practices
Reusable techniques for the Ideate stage
New Ideate techniques to explore

Empathize Practices

Overview of Empathize techniques
Observation
Engagement
Interviews

Prototype & Test Practices

Overview of Prototype practices
Examples of prototypes
Overview of Testing practices
Forms of testing techniques

Adopt and Adapt Design Thinking

Overview of Design Thinking implementation
Design Thinking implementation challenges
Success in implementing Design Thinking

Summary and Next Steps

Workshop summary
Next steps: Personal Action Plans

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About The Trainer

Guy Grindborg has trained and coached professionals in most areas within Project, Program, and Portfolio Management, PMP Certification, MoP Certification, and Leadership Skills.

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Click here to download printable version of the 2026 PDD flyer (PDF)