A Designer's Mindset

Helping Students Develop a Designer’s Mindset

By Ben Edmonds; Inventor Club and Scott Tweeddale; Head of D&T St. Georges School, Harpenden.

When people who care deeply about design, innovation and education come together, exciting things happen. That is exactly what unfolded when Innovation Ben, a designer, inventor and educator with over twenty years of experience, teamed up with Scott, Head of Design and Technology at St George’s.

Ben brings the perspective of someone who has spent his career inventing, problem solving and building a philosophy that mindset is the key to navigating an uncertain future. Scott brings the perspective of a teacher and leader who has seen how design thinking and industry collaboration can transform the way students see themselves and their futures.

Their recent workshop at St George’s highlighted how powerful it can be when students are given space to think, create and experiment without fear of failure. What follows are two voices reflecting on that day. Ben shares his philosophy and why mindset is at the heart of everything he does. Scott offers his take on the workshop and the impact it had on students and staff.

Ben

A designer’s mindset gives students the confidence to explore ideas, take risks and see failure as part of the journey - skills they will carry far beyond the classroom. This is our philosophy at Inventor Club

D&T is not always at the forefront of school priorities, yet the thinking skills at its core are valuable in almost every profession. We believe this way of thinking deserves greater recognition. At the very least, design thinking strategies should be woven into the core curriculum so that every student has the opportunity to practice them until they become second nature.

I’ve lost count of the number of innovation workshops I’ve run over the last 8 years. The most memorable are always the ones where the atmosphere the teacher has created is welcoming and there is a sense of creativity and openness from the start.

My recent session at St George’s was a perfect example of this. The department, led by Scott Tweeddale, radiates an openness and warmth that encourages students to think boldly and without fear. It is a mindset that will serve them well throughout their lives.

At some point in their lives, every student, and every adult, will face problems large and small. The ability to approach those challenges without fear of getting it wrong or looking foolish can change lives.

Fear often holds people back: fear of not being good at drawing, fear of speaking in public, fear of pursuing a dream in case they fail or disappoint someone. With the right mindset, these barriers can be overcome. Given the right environment, anything can become familiar.

Design thinking helps students develop this approach. It teaches them to:

generate multiple ideas
refine them using reasoning, testing and judgement
trial and iterate their chosen solutions
communicate their thinking clearly, confidently and concisely

These are essential skills, not only for current careers but for jobs that do not even exist yet.

"How can we prepare young people for a world where the stories have not been written yet?"

In my lifetime alone, the internet has reshaped society and now artificial intelligence is doing the same. How can we prepare young people for a world where the stories have not been written yet? The technology will change, the methods will change, governments will come and go, but a growth mindset, adaptability and the ability to solve complex, open-ended problems will always be valuable. That is why it is so inspiring to work with schools where D&T is supported and celebrated. When students are encouraged to be creative and adaptable, they become more able to approach challenges in fresh, diverse ways. In our workshops, the challenge itself is less important than the approach. Often, we set students a task with no predefined outcome, just the goal of lifting something off the floor.

They are placed in teams, sometimes with people they do not know or would not usually choose to work with. They have minimal instructions, must set their own design limits through reasoning and discovery, and must be comfortable with uncertainty. Over time, we have seen nearly 50 different ways to solve this challenge, and we know there are hundreds more. This reinforces a key truth: there is never just one solution, only the connections we are willing to make.

A lot of young people today are living with a crippling fear of failure. It is no wonder when our education system often celebrates perfection: grade 9s, distinctions, best of the best. Yet innovation is inseparable from failure. If we never fail, we are probably not pushing hard enough. The difference lies in how we respond to failure. Instead of thinking, it failed, we can think: that is interesting, I wonder why that happened?

By pairing curiosity with critical thinking, reading and research, we can create a culture where failure is seen as part of discovery. Many everyday inventions were born from experiments that did not go to plan, and from people who had the right mindset to learn from those moments.

Huge thanks to Scott, St George’s and the thousands of teachers who give so much of themselves to make a difference every day.

Everything is a prototype the first time you do it. In many ways, life itself is a prototype. Let us give students the mindset to keep iterating, learning and growing, ready to take on whatever comes next.

"If we never fail, we are probably not pushing hard enough. The difference lies in how we respond to failure. Instead of thinking, it failed, we can think: that is interesting, I wonder why that happened?"

If you’re interested in exploring opportunities to work with Inventor Club then reach out to Ben here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/innovationben/

He would be happy to talk to you about the new Innovation Mindset Course he will be offering to schools.

Scott

At St George’s, we run an Activities Week for the entire school in July, focusing on fun and engaging educational experiences. Whilst the school had initially approached me to consider something specifically for Year 10, I leapt at the chance to create another day that would place our subject at the forefront of Activities Week. I proposed a workshop with Innovation Ben, whom I had the pleasure of seeing present at the Big D&T Meet 2024 conference. Building on our successful collaboration with Bloodhound for Year 7, our goal was to offer an experience that focused on real-world challenges and innovative thinking for our older students.

From the moment of his arrival, Ben demonstrated exceptional professionalism and organisation. After a 45-minute set-up to prepare the workstations, the students were welcomed. Ben began with a compelling presentation on his work and design process at Dyson, emphasising the value of design thinking and the importance of identifying user needs in the development of innovative products. Our students were hugely impressed to be working with a professional who holds numerous patents and has several successful products to his name. Ben then introduced the central challenge for the day, which served as the catalyst for a dynamic session of creativity and problem-solving.

Working effectively in teams, the students at St George’s engaged in a process of ideation, rapid model-making and prototyping, developing a wide range of inventive solutions to the given brief. The prototyping phase was particularly well received, with students showing great enthusiasm for testing various aspects of their creations. It was notable how they truly embraced the principles of iterative design, viewing setbacks not as failures but as valuable learning opportunities. Ben was fantastic at facilitating this process, expertly prompting students and providing targeted feedback to guide them through challenges. Students produced a wide range of solutions, all of which were different. The success of the day, which involved managing 90 students, was also a credit to the ten other teachers who provided invaluable support, many of whom were from outside the Design and Technology department.

After the prototyping phase concluded and the assembly hall was restored to order, each group was tasked with creating a short promotional video to pitch their product. This final activity proved to be a highly enjoyable and entertaining conclusion to the day. The students devised remarkably creative and diverse narratives to showcase their products and articulate their benefits, and the screening of their video pitches was a moment of shared celebration.

Beyond the practical skills developed, the most powerful outcomes of the day, commented on by staff and students alike, were the shifts in mindset. The workshop powerfully highlighted the importance of a growth mindset, problem-solving abilities, entrepreneurial skills and engagement with modern technologies such as Artificial intelligence (AI). It emphasised to our students that these capabilities are just as crucial for their future as strong GCSE and A-level results. The skills cultivated during the workshop directly align with the career pathways that the Design and Technology department actively showcases, which are exemplified by the achievements of our alumni. Their current roles in industry and higher education are regularly highlighted to our students.

The session provided an invaluable opportunity for students to engage with an industry professional in an accessible and stimulating manner, allowing them to forge clear connections between the day's activities and their own future aspirations. Reflecting the event's profound impact and the overwhelmingly positive feedback, we have already secured Ben's services for an expanded two-day programme next year, which will be delivered to the entire Year 10 cohort. Ben is a truly inspirational person, and I would strongly encourage as many Design and Technology teachers as possible to book a call with him, or better still, invite him to work with your students for the day.

Together, Ben and Scott show what is possible when schools and industry professionals work side by side to inspire the next generation. Their shared belief in the power of mindset and design thinking shines through in the stories from St George’s, where students were not only challenged to solve problems but also encouraged to see failure as part of the journey. The result was a day that will stay with students and staff alike, and a reminder that when creativity, curiosity and courage come together, education becomes truly transformative.