Equipping ASEAN youth with confident creativity through design thinking
River Valley Irregulars
About client
River Valley Irregulars (RVI) is an experiential learning and talent discovery platform bringing youth, institutions and organisations together for meaningful collaboration.
Services
Workshop
Project duration
Three one-hour workshop sessions (December 2024)
Through hands-on experiences, mentorship, and tailored programmes, River Valley Irregulars (RVI) helps the youth build a foundation for sustainable growth, driving meaningful impact in their personal and professional lives.
Challenge
In December 2024, RVI gathered youths from across ASEAN to connect, learn and grow through their flagship youth programme of self-discovery, cultural exchange and tackling real-world challenges to better understand what it means to be a part of ASEAN.
RVI wanted to equip their participants with human-centred design thinking to develop their problem-solving skills, foster creativity, enhance empathy and encourage collaboration.
Solution
Design a design thinking workshop to motivate youth to create social impact
Results
Youths learn to be empathetic
Youths found out that to create solutions that people will appreciate, they need to start with empathy. They also learned to apply empathy in user interviews for insights.
Youths learn to figure out what problem to solve
Youths learned to find the right problem to solve by crafting a problem statement that’s neither too narrow or too broad, but one that is focused on people and their needs.
Youths hone their ideation chops
Youths then deep dived into the creative process of generating ideas to come up with innovative solutions before building a prototype.
Of the participants who filled out the survey form, 92% said they were satisfied with the workshop and 83% anticipate that they will apply design thinking principles in their future projects.
Participant testimonials
“I’d recommend this for those who’d like to have workshops understanding design thinking, especially those who’ve not had any background or knowledge on it. As someone who had zero knowledge, I’ve learnt a lot from this workshop!”
- Annsley Dashawna Stephen
“This 55 Minutes workshop brought so much energy into the room and brought me a better understanding of design thinking. This was great for newbies and those who have learned it alike!”
- Angelina Eng
“This workshop is interesting and fun! The work is not too hard or too simple, the difficulty is just right.”
- Luna Teng
"The workshop provided our participants with a structured yet highly engaging introduction to design thinking. Through hands-on activities, they gained a deeper understanding of empathy, problem framing, and ideation — key skills that will serve them well in their future projects."
Sheila Manokaran, Founder, River Valley Irregulars
