About the Role

The Design Thinking Team supports the facilitation of design thinking sessions and activities with students and campus partners to gather feedback and insights. This role involves assisting with planning and running design thinking activities such as empathy interviews, feedback sessions, ideation activities, and prototyping exercises, followed by organizing and processing the data collected. The Design Thinking Team works collaboratively with Innovation Hub teams to understand student needs, support engaging activities, and help translate what they learn into meaningful insights for Innovation Hub partners. 

Job duties include:   

• Support the planning and facilitation of design thinking sessions and activities with students and stakeholders 
• Assist with conducting design thinking activities including empathy-based interviewing, feedback collection, collaborative ideation, and prototyping 
• Help organize and process data collected from design thinking sessions 
• Support transcription and synthesis of feedback and insights gathered from activities 
• Work collaboratively with team members to plan and execute design thinking engagements 
• Engage with campus partners and the U of T community through design thinking activities 
• Assist in transforming findings into clear insights and recommendations 
• Communicate with persuasive, plain, and accessible language and storytelling techniques that drive impact in diverse audiences 

Qualifications:   

• Interest in design thinking and human-centered design 
• Strong facilitation and conversational skills to engage diverse participants 
• Collaborative mindset and ability to work on teams and integrate diverse perspectives 
• Organizational skills to manage session logistics and data processing 
• Strong communication skills both written and oral 
• Creativity and innovative thinking 
• Desire to enhance the student experience at U of T 
• Reliability and accountability 

Assets

• Experience with facilitation or leading group activities 
• Qualitative research or data analysis skills 
• Experience with interviewing or empathy-based methods 
• Knowledge of design thinking principles or methods