MAKING BETTER DECISIONS

Tools for testing and decision-making

In terms of the number of insights you get out of a conversation, talking to just one person is infinitely better than no one. The law of diminishing returns kicks in after about five people. Make a thing, show it to five people, iterate, then find five different people to show it to.

In this course, you will learn about the importance of feedback on your solutions as you refine them as well as simple yet powerful decision-making tools for choosing directions, setting priorities, and reaching consensus in a group.

About the course

You prototype to test. The goal of testing is to improve the ideas, to get real feedback before the pilot, and to co-design with stakeholders. You actually want to get more things wrong than you get right so you learn what to change while it’s still inexpensive to make changes. You want to make small changes based on feedback, build a new model, and go back out for feedback until you are confident that the solution meets stakeholder needs. Throughout this process, many decisions need to be made in a way that is collaborative and visualizes your thought process. 

In this course, you’ll dive deep into the Test and Decide phases of the human-centred design cycle.

Modules

How to test and decide

Learn about how to maximize your ability to collect meaningful feedback from your stakeholders and considerations for decision-making along the way.   

Test and decide in practice

A hands on session where you will practice getting feedback and using several decision-making tools that you can implement right away.  Some of the tools and processes explored include Observation, Affinity Clustering and $100 Test.  

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should understand the importance of a curious mindset as you create a human-centred solution and walk away with a suite of tools to help you make decisions when you feel stuck.

What you will learn:

  • Power of testing and incremental improvements:  explore best practices around timing of feedback—an early and often mindset—and support for building this muscle.
  • Feedback tools that work: learn tools and methods that work everytime
  • How to propel forward confidently: make good decisions that the team can get behind
  • Community Child and Youth Well-being Survey Toolkit

    “Overlap’s approach help take the fear outta learning while you insert fun. I have had this sick feeling every time I had to engage with technology–but your attitude and approach take away the scariness.”

    Intro to HCD Participant

  • Community Child and Youth Well-being Survey Toolkit

    “Overlap was able to explain concepts and engage people effectively and emotionally in the learning process. From concept thinking to design, they brought an element of a new Human feelings approach that gave me a new perspective of incorporating an end-user approach to a problem versus a global approach.”

    H. B. Com, CPA, CGA, Director of Finance and Administration, KW Habilitation

  • Community Child and Youth Well-being Survey Toolkit

    “Taking (Intro to HCD) rejuvenated my enthusiasm for work at a time when I was starting to feel disconnected. Not only was it refreshing to work through Launch activities with an interdisciplinary group, it gave me ideas for engaging my own team differently. I immediately applied what I learned with noted success!”

    Educational Developer | Curriculum Development and Program Improvement Centre for Teaching & Learning | Queen’s University

  • Community Child and Youth Well-being Survey Toolkit

    “...Overlap training introduced me to a process and a wealth of tools that will take our planning to the next level. Moving to virtual training did not dampen Ryan and Nicole's enthusiasm, and their insights helped me understand how to apply these tools in my own organization. I cannot wait for my next planning session!”

    Head of Public Services Law Library, Dalhousie University

  • Community Child and Youth Well-being Survey Toolkit

    “The training at Overlap encouraged me to fall in love with the problem and understand it deeply. The iterative design process teaches that failure is valued as a necessary step to designing the best solutions. This relieves the pressure of trying to 'get it right the first time.' Using this approach in our organization has promoted a new sense of engagement in our staff team, as people feel their voices are valued in the process.”

    Extend-a-Family Waterloo Region

Upcoming Courses

Making Better Decisions 

Creative Problem Solving: 203

(Live Online Cohort)

December 6 & 8, 2022

9am-12pm EST

Sign Up

Level 200 Training Bundle

Planning to take all three of our Level 200 courses?  You can save over 15% by registering for all 3 courses at the same time with our new Intermediate Problem Solving Bundle!

Intermediate Bundle: Sign Up