Shifting Together: How we learned to reframe problems in 2 days

by Andreia Pais da Cunha & Sayef Md Uddin

We usually associate Design Thinking with sticky notes and frenetic brainstorming, but our two‑day course with Katja Tschimmel showed us it is a deliberate mindset. It helps us reframe situations, look at problems from different angles, and explore possibilities we don’t see at first or never, and we need others to show it. 

From the very first exercise, Katja encouraged us to shift perspectives and put empathy into action. A pencil became a set of possibilities, and a photograph by Marcilio Gazzinelli opened space for “What if?”. Our personal stories shaped a shared persona, Ahmed, whose struggles with time and anxiety guided our ideation. “How might we help Ahmed…” pushed us to explore curiosity instead of right answers. Doug Dietz’s MRI redesign shown in class is one example of how empathy and storytelling can transform resistance into engagement, showing how reframing constraints can lead to beautiful products. 

Diving into Ahmed’s persona might have been the core of this course for us. His struggles of time management and anxiety become our own. Through empathy exercises, creative reframing, and “How Might We” questions, we saw how human struggles can shape new design solutions. We were not only trying to solve Ahmed’s problem; we were redefining what the problem actually was. Our journey moved from brainwriting to sketching to imagining a service ecosystem around a scheduling app for Ahmed and his family.

The course readings we explored were key turners and seem to be the extent of these 2 days. For example, Idris Mootee described Design Thinking as a strategic mindset rather than a process, a balance of logic and intuition, structure and chaos. This is similar to the ambiguity and exploration we experienced in each exercise. Buchanan’s idea of wicked problems aligns with our process of solving Ahmed’s problem. The author pointed out how new ideas often come from small shifts in point of view, something we practiced constantly through Katja’s suggestions of placements and reframing activities. Kolko’s emphasis on fast experimentation connected to our prototyping sessions, where mistakes became essential to improve our service proposal to the end.

Across the two days, we saw Design Thinking appear in user engagement, sketching, imagining services, planning for uncertainty, and even in everyday examples Katja shared from a gourmet chef and its creation process. Her reminder that creativity becomes “valuable” only when society recognizes it also made us reflect on how ideas sometimes arrive early yet still hold future potential. 

Looking back, we realized we had lived the principles we later read about: reframing, experimenting, collaborating, and learning through action. We can truly say we left gratefully tired and a new awareness of experimentation, collaboration, and reframing. 

Key insight

Bibliography

Mootee, Idris. Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation : What They Can’t Teach You at Business or Design School, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/laurea/detail.action?docID=1358566. Created from laurea on 2026-09-13 13:17:49.

Buchanan, R., 1992. Wicked Problems in Design Thinking. Design Issues, 8(2), pp.5–21. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511637 (Accessed: 11 April 2008).

Kolko, J. (2015) Design thinking comes of age. The approach, once used primarily in product design, is now infusing corporate culture.Links to an external site. Harvard Business Review September 2015, 66-71.

Tschimmel, Katja. Design Thinking Model Evolution 6.2 (2012-2017). 

Figures

All images were created using original photographs taken during the course and then edited with ChatGPT.

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Comments

3 responses to “Shifting Together: How we learned to reframe problems in 2 days”

  1. Kirsti Avatar
    Kirsti

    I had actually forgotten Katja’s point about creativity becoming valuable only when society recognizes it until I read your post. It is interesting how different things seem to stick with different people, and reading your reflection brought this one back to me. Thanks for that! 🙂

    It also reminded me of something I recently read in Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality. He talks about starting with what you want to achieve rather than immediately limiting an idea based on what seems realistic or possible. I think there is an interesting connection between the two ideas. If we evaluate ideas too quickly based on what is possible or valuable right now, we may dismiss something before we have really explored its potential.

    Reply
  2. olukayodeadebiyi7ee6e04ba8 Avatar
    olukayodeadebiyi7ee6e04ba8

    Hi Andreia and Sayef,

    Thank you for sharing this reflection. Reading it, I kept thinking about how much of Design Thinking actually comes down to empathy, even in the parts that do not immediately look like empathy exercises.

    Kirsti and I noticed something similar, although ours started even before the masterclass. We came to the topic with quite different perspectives. I was fairly cautious about handing decisions over to AI, while Kirsti was more open to its possibilities. Working through that difference became a kind of empathy exercise in itself. We had to genuinely understand where the other person was coming from before we could ask better questions together. By the time we reached the shoe exercise and later developed our persona, we had already practised one of the hardest parts: stepping outside our own perspective.

    That is probably why your point about redefining Ahmed’s problem, rather than simply solving the one you started with, resonated with me. It shows how empathy can actually change our understanding of the problem itself.

    Your scheduling app also made me wonder whether the idea could have value beyond families, perhaps among friends or other support networks as well. Have you been tempted to develop or test the idea further in real life?

    Reply
  3. Md Shanaullah Shihab Avatar
    Md Shanaullah Shihab

    Hi Andreia and Sayef,

    I really enjoyed reading your reflection on how Design Thinking helped you move from simply solving a problem to reframing what the problem actually was.

    Your experience with Ahmed’s persona particularly stood out to me because it shows how empathy can uncover needs that may not be visible at the beginning of a project.

    I also found your connection between reframing, experimentation, and collaboration very relevant. In my view, the scheduling app idea demonstrates how a simple “How Might We” question can open the door to much broader service possibilities.

    Another interesting perspective is that the process could be valuable beyond the original problem, because understanding users’ emotions and relationships may reveal opportunities for other support services as well.

    Your reflection clearly shows that Design Thinking is more about learning and exploring than immediately finding the perfect solution.

    Thanks 🤝

    Reply

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