Young Innovators Program

The Young Innovators Program meets on Mondays at 8:20 and Fridays at 8:30. 

These lessons mark the beginning of the Young Innovators project by initiating the Define phase of Design Thinking, where students explore potential challenges through observation and use a passion vs. feasibility matrix to select a problem they are passionate about solving. Students then validate their chosen problem through in-depth research, applying Constructive Doubt skills, before synthesizing their compelling facts and resources into an infographic to clearly communicate the issue to an audience.

These lessons continue exploration in the Define phase of Design Thinking, requiring students to develop empathy by categorizing users into Primary, Secondary, and Fringe groups. Students then conduct primary research, and generate open-ended questions to gather deep insights into user experiences, needs, and pain points through interviews. The lessons conclude with students creating a User Persona, which ultimately helps them refine and narrow the focus of their initial "How Might We…" question based on the user's uncovered unmet needs.

Students now have a deeper understanding of the problem they are solving and the users who they are helping. Now it’s time to start developing ideas to solve the problem! Students will use rapid brainstorming techniques to come up with potential solutions that might best solve identified user needs. Then, students will get feedback from each other in the form of critiques.

These lessons require students to plan, design, and validate their solution ideas by first mapping the user journey with a User Flow and then designing and developing a low-fidelity prototype of their solution. The lessons conclude with User Testing, where students conduct testing to determine if the user understands the solution and to find gaps and flaws for further iteration.

These lessons guide students through the steps of developing their solution's brand identity and value exchange. Students will develop a logo, tagline and determine brand colors to ensure that their brand accurately represents how they want their users to sound and feel when interacting with their solution.  In addition, students will determine how their solution will generate revenue and sustain itself over time by identifying what they provide users versus what the users will provide in exchange.

All the hard work is done, it’s almost time for students to share their projects with the world. In these lessons, students will learn what makes a great product presentation and they will prepare their final pitch!