Design Thinking: Discovery Tools (Coursera)

Design Thinking: Discovery Tools (Coursera)

Welcome Designers! In this course, you will learn to use the most important tools from the field of human-centered design to generate ideas: stakeholder mapping, journey mapping, personas, value-chain analysis, the job-to-be-done, ethnographic interviews, and more. Learn to connect with your customers on a human level, to get beyond what they say and observe what they do.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, the courses sees a team of design experts join Jeanne Liedtka to explore some of these critical tools that will spark your creativity and help you discover more about your potential clients.
Course 3 of 4 in the Design Thinking Specialization.

What You Will Learn

  • How to use a variety of important design thinking tools to generate ideas
  • How to connect with customers on a human level
  • How to think creatively in order to discover more about potential clients

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Stakeholder Map
This week, we'll examine the stakeholder mapping tool. This tool is especially critical as we tackle more complex problems using a design thinking methodology.

WEEK 2
Job to be Done and Ethnographic Interviews
This week, you'll learn about two important and related-tools: Job to Be Done and Ethnographic Interview Guides.

WEEK 3
Journey Map
This week, you'll learn about journey mapping, an important discovery tool. We'll show you what it is and why and how to do it.

WEEK 4
Personas
This week, we'll look at how we can use personas to find important differences that can help us surface specific sets of needs and wants.

WEEK 5
Value Chain Analysis
This week, we'll walk through the Value Chain Analysis process so that you can evaluate your value chain.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Building Fintech Startups in Emerging Markets (Coursera) Coursera
University of Cape Town

Building Fintech Startups in Emerging Markets (Coursera)

Starting a small business in an emerging market can be very rewarding. Many of entrepreneurship opportunities in emerging markets arise out of necessity, or the drive to solve a real need or a social problem. Thus emerging markets often offer huge opportunities for disruptive innovation. Entrepreneurship has contributed to economic growth and been able to respond to social problems, helping some communities prosper.

Oct 26th 2026
4 Weeks
Innovative Finance: Hacking finance to change the world (Coursera) Coursera
University of Cape Town

Innovative Finance: Hacking finance to change the world (Coursera)

To address global poverty - do we really not have enough resources or do we not have the right tools to allocate our resources? The tools of finance, when applied correctly, can be an enabler of social and environmental outcomes. This course is designed to give you the ability to build innovative financing strategies that work towards outcomes such as financial inclusion, access to energy and access to education.

Oct 26th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Vozes da Mudança Social (Coursera) Coursera
Laureate Education

Vozes da Mudança Social (Coursera)

Em tempos de instabilidade política, desequilíbrio ambiental e desigualdade social, jovens agentes de mudanças sociais estão liderando o caminho para solucionar os desafios da atualidade. O que você está fazendo para gerar mudanças positivas e sustentáveis? O programa Vozes da Mudança Social é um curso on-line, gratuito e de curta duração, elaborado e ministrado por oito jovens empreendedores.

Oct 26th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Estratégia competitiva (Coursera) Coursera
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Estratégia competitiva (Coursera)

Neste curso de seis módulos, você aprenderá como empresas e organizações se comportam em situações nas quais decisões estratégicas são interdependentes, isto é, onde minhas ações afetam os lucros da concorrência e vice-versa. Com o uso de ferramentas básicas da teoria de jogos, vamos analisar como são escolhidas pelas empresas as estratégias para ter uma vantagem competitiva.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Design Thinking and Global Startup (Coursera) Coursera
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology - KAIST

Design Thinking and Global Startup (Coursera)

This course offers a systematic engineering design methodology: Stanford Design Thinking for preparing global startup. The course empathizes the whole Stanford design thinking process, "Empathy-Define-Ideation-Prototype-Test," for building a startup with a business model that has a “customer truly need” component.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Experiencing Design: Deepening Your Design Thinking Practice (Coursera) Coursera
University of Virginia

Experiencing Design: Deepening Your Design Thinking Practice (Coursera)

How do we unlock the transformational power of design thinking? To do this, we must understand that this power lies not in what it encourages us to do, but in who it encourages us to become. We become design thinkers by experiencing design. In this course, developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, we will guide you through six key phases of the design journey - Immersion, Sensemaking, Alignment, Emergence, Imagining, and Learning in Action.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks
Design-Led Strategy: Design thinking for business strategy and entrepreneurship (Coursera) Coursera
The University of Sydney

Design-Led Strategy: Design thinking for business strategy and entrepreneurship (Coursera)

This course is for entrepreneurial managers who are looking for tools and techniques to introduce exciting, innovative products or services to market quickly and informed by high-quality customer insights. It is applicable to a range of organizations from small-medium sized enterprises through to corporates, and across a range of industrial segments.

Oct 26th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Gestão de produtos digitais: Princípios básicos modernos (Coursera) Coursera
University of Virginia

Gestão de produtos digitais: Princípios básicos modernos (Coursera)

Há pouco tempo, o trabalho do gerente de produto era avaliar dados de mercado, criar requisitos e gerenciar a transferência para vendas/marketing. Talvez você conversaria com um cliente em algum lugar e ele diria quais recursos ele quer. Mas as empresas que gerenciam produtos dessa maneira estão morrendo.

Oct 26th 2026
4 Weeks