Design thinking is the changing the way we think about internships.
How Bureau Brand uses design thinking to change the way schools & companies in the Netherlands are thinking about interns and internships. And how Unbeaten Studio is supporting that journey.
For several years now Maarten Brand is improving internship experiences for both students and companies. With his dutch studio Bureau Brand he is changing the way companies think about their interns and internships by using design thinking. And we are happy to help him with that.
“We help businesses create great internship experiences for the talent they want to attract.”
What is the approach of Bureau Brand?
We are the only company in this field of work that looks beyond the theory (hey, here’s five tips for giving feedback, good luck!) . We always look from the specific situation at hand. Why? Ever seen two companies that are completely identical? We never have.Thats why. This approach sets us apart from other programs and initiatives in this field. It makes companies look at their people, processen and systems in a fresh light.
Design Thinking is at the core of what we do. It is the overarching guiding mindset & framework that helps our clients to discover, create and subsequently give their target audiences the things they need, when they need it, in a way that fits their wants and needs.
To help our clients create the perfect internship experience we created the ‘Stagecyclus’ (Internship cycle); a six step model that can be applied to every internship.
We lead our clients through a series of exercises that help them to come up with creative, actionable solutions. During this proces we make sure those ideas are not just cool thoughts or wild plans. We translate them to practical, actionable solutions. And no, we don’t just tell the client what to do. Solutions are discovered and created and iterated by the client themselves.
This approach is not only great for ownership (‘I made this, it is my solution’), You also don’t end up with a theoretical framework that looks great on paper, but does not work in day to day operations. Its about starting, then iterating along the way.
Why is using design thinking for internships important?
We call internships ‘the longest job interview possible’. You have to realize that internships are not just about the work you offer. It is the experience when applying and doing the internship that sets good internships apart from EPIC internships. It’s the experience what makes students love your business, or hate it.
In other words:
A ‘Mwah’ experience is not enough to build a fantastic employer brand. You need a ‘Woah!’ experience.
Giving interns as many ‘woah’ experiences as possible on all six steps of the internship cycle is proven to be one of the best long term strategies for building an effective, sustainable talent pipeline that saves you a lot of time, money and hassle. Design Thinking is the perfect mindset & framework that helps our clients to create the ‘Woah!’ experience for interns.
In our opinion Design thinking is all about ’finding the right train and getting it moving down the tracks’ in the right direction. Its also about making ideas resulting from Design Thinking actionable. You start doing the right things instead of having a five hour meeting about it. Knowing what to do for a ‘woah’ experience is what sets good internship companies apart from great internship companies.
For us, design thinking is the perfect approach to make that possible.
How Unbeaten Studio uses graphic design thinking to support Bureau Brand?
Maarten is an excellent design thinker. He is curious to understand what people moves and how they move. But design thinking is also a team sport, so we are there for Maarten to reflect, to sharpen thought patterns and questions.
Besides that we design the tools for Bureau Brand in such a way that he can do his work more efficient and in a more fun way. Recently we designed The Internship Workhsop Booklet for his clients. This booklet helps his clients run a design thinking for internships workshop smoothly.
We not only help Maarten with workshops. When Bureau Brand is executing design research in the internship & educational field we visualize the outcomes. These can be infographics, customer journeys etc.
The Graphic Design Thinking process -
Some final thoughts
The idea behind the Internship Workshop Booklet, the Internship Cycle and the workshops is to use design thinking and sprints, WITHOUT mentioning the words “design thinking”.
Why? Lets be honest: Who cares about terminology? Our clients don’t.
It’s the result that counts; It is about creating epic internship experiences for both students and companies.
Too often facilitators or consultants put too much emphasis on Design Thinking and complex terminology itself. Doing so keeps thoughts and ideas hanging around in the air without becoming tangible. It also makes design thinking look and feel an overcomplicated instrument. It is’nt.
Good design thinking puts people in action; doing the right things, at the right moment, in the right way. If that works best without using the words Design Thinking? Leave them out of the workshop.
Authors:
Maarten Brand & Jeroen Spoelstra
About Bureau Brand
At Bureau Brand we are not ’those consultant people’ telling you what to do in incomprehensible 200 page reports. We create actionable solutions based on reality, owned by the people who have to execute on those solutions.
We are more than your regular internship training firm. We see and believe that the entire environment makes the experience, not just the skills of a mentor.
About Unbeaten Studio
At Unbeaten Studio we believe in collaborating with professionals that have totally different skill sets the us. We help these professionals create impact in their market with the use of graphic design thinking.
Design thinking brings you only so far when you don’t put it in action or when you don’t visualise it properly. Merging Graphic Design and Design Thinking makes the outcomes stronger and allows us to better support design minded professionals like Maarten Brand.
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