In this document you will find sets of questions to foster student reflection at each stage of a design process in collaboration with a societal partner. Use them to create group activities, coaching sessions, or individual assignments.
These targeted questions prompt students to reflect on personal relevance, analyze problems deeply, explore diverse perspectives, identify core paradoxes, and consider broader implications. This structured approach encourages critical, creative and emotional engagement with their project.
Stage 1: Pre-project Phase
1. Personal Relevance: Set your own learning goals.
The process of setting and reviewing goals involves asking questions like the ones set out below.
- What do you want to achieve? Make sure your goals are well-defined: the clearer you are about what you want to achieve, the easier it will be to identify how to achieve it
- Who or what can help you to achieve your goals? List the actions necessary to achieve your goals, and who or what might help you in executing them.
- What could hinder your progress? Identify challenges that may interfere with achieving your goals and strategies for overcoming them.
- By when do you want to achieve your goal? Give yourself a deadline by which you want to achieve your goals, so you can review progress. Make sure this is realistic and takes account of how much time you have available.
- How will you know that you have achieved your goal? Specify a concrete measure or indicator to assess your progress whether you have achieved your goal, or how far you have progressed towards it.
Use the following questions to explain your personal relevance to the project:
- What does impact mean (to you)?
- Which theme is more relevant for you and why?
- What do you find interesting about the theme?
- What would you like to figure out about the theme?
- Who is involved with the concern?
- Where does the concern take place?
- Think about the information you might need to address the concern.
- To what extent does the design sprint match reality?
Stage 2: Archaeology and History of the Project
1. Analysis of the problem in depth as well as earlier attempts to solve it
The first step of the frame creation process is to investigate in depth the apparent problem, as well as earlier attempts to solve it. This analysis is crucial, as we need to dwell deeply into the problem owner's world to understand its history. We investigate not only what happened but also what could have happened and what would have happened differently if they had chosen another path. If we didn't look at these alternative paths of action, we would run the risk of having our own perceptions caught in the same trap that led to the initial problem definition.
This first step of “archaeology” also provides insight into the role the problem owner has had in creating the problem situation, and it gives the first impression of the dynamics of the organization over time.
Use the following questions to dig deep into the history of the project:
- What historical context or background information is essential to understanding the current problem situation?
- Why do you think things happened the way they did? Do you have potential explanations?
- How could things have been different if other choices were made?
- In what ways do you think analyzing the dynamics of the organization over time contributes to a better problem understanding?
2. Build the team
Expand the draft of the route map with your group and add the different roles of the team members. The following questions could help you and your team to reflect upon your strengths:
- What is your chosen theme/subject/problem for the project?
- What do you already know about the theme/subject/problem?
- What knowledge would be useful?
- Where can I find what I need?
- Which expert(s) should be involved?
- Which experience(s) do you have with the theme/subject/problem?
- What are your expectations in researching this theme/subject/problem?
Stage 3: Perspectives
1. Exploring assumptions and perspectives
Reflect on the different perspectives emerged during the discussion with the stakeholders and within your group. After you have listened to your societal partner, you will need to scope the problem further. Don’t forget about the Archaeology of the problem, you may use these questions to guide your reflections:
- What is my view on the problem?
- How can my thoughts on the problem influence my perspective?
- How can other people’s views affect my perspective on the problem?
- Which themes are related to the problem?
- What are the possible causes of the problem?
- What are the potential consequences of the problem?
Within your group, you should concentrate on creating a field. By creating a field, you should consider all potential players, including anyone who might be connected to the problem or the solution at some point. In mapping the field of players, you concentrate on the currency, power, interests, values, and the practices and frames they bring that could push the problem in a new direction.
In the theme analysis, you should identify and seek to understand the deeper factors that underlie the needs, motivation, and experiences of the players in the broader field. Focus on selecting the themes relevant to the problem situation on the deeper level at which players in the field have much in common. Try to make the themes very explicit.
The following questions could help you reflect:
- What are the deeper factors that underline the needs of the stakeholders in this broader field?
- What are the factors that underline the stakeholders' motivations?
- What are the most relevant experiences that play a prominent role in the situation?
- What are the beliefs of your stakeholders?
- What are the values of your stakeholders?
- How do your personal values relate to those of your stakeholders?
- Who are the most important players in your field?
Stage 4: Paradox (Field Work)
1. Why is the problem hard to solve?
Once the succession of actions that led to the problem situation has been defined and there is a clear understanding of what drives the organizational behavior or the problem owner, we investigate the initial problem definition itself. Often, several issues are intertwined in a problem situation. Still, to keep the frame creation process on track, it is essential to take some time to identify the core paradox or deadlock that keeps the problem owner from moving forward.
The following questions could help you reflect:
- What makes this problem hard to solve?
- What other issues are intertwined in this problem situation?
- What are different domains embedded in the problem?
- Which is the core paradox of the problem? It has proven practical to express the paradox as a clash of rationalities in a series of “because” statements.
- Who or what is the owner of the problem?
- Who should be involved with the problem?
Stage 5: Sauna (Mid-term Reflection)
- Check point
Reflect upon the first weeks of your project, using your reflection journal to help you remember the main events, achievements and difficulties.
Revise your personal learning goals as you set them in Stage 1. You can use these questions to help your reflection:
- Do you still want to work on the same goals? Do you want to reprioritize?
- Are the goals well-defined?
- Did you reach out to those who could help you in your learning journey?
- Have you taken the appropriate action towards your goals? What can you improve?
- What challenges have you encountered? How have you overcome them?
Stage 6: Themes and Frames
- Deep factors at play
From the in-depth analysis of the broader field, common themes will emerge that can differ from those underlying the original paradox. Use these themes as a basis for the ideation of a new frame. Embrace the creative leap. Experiencing a variety of frames can be inspiring for this step. The themes emerging from different backgrounds, players, and perspectives can help you understand various implications. These implications can be written down as follows:
If the problem situation is approached as if it is..., then...
The following questions could help you reflect:
- What are the actors in the field that can leverage impact?
- What are local communities’ needs?
- How can we think of solutions that meet those needs?
Stage 7: Futures
- Thinking forward
You should investigate whether your hoped scenario can potentially lead to realistic and viable solutions
- What are enabling factors for your scenarios?
- Who is needed to make them work?
- How can these scenarios be related to the problems and values of the stakeholders?
- Which scenario do we think is most successful?
- What could be the underlying solution direction?
Stage 8: Transformation
You should perform a critical evaluation of what frames and solution directions would be feasible in the short term. Reflect on the merit of your ideas in conversation with your external partners. Do not perform a hard review of ideas as such, but rather an exploration to unearth changes that are needed both in the proposed ideas and in the practices of the stakeholders. You will need to let go of ideas that may be great in themselves, but that would require huge changes in the practices of your organization, who would have very little to gain.
Think of the meetings you had with your stakeholder:
- What is feasible?
- What steps are needed to start the change?
- Why should certain frames and ideas be weeded out?
- What are the needs of the stakeholder?
Stage 9: Sharing and Reflecting
After sharing your results and reflections with the different stakeholders involve, consider:
- What did this sharing experience bring you?
- What was the added value of it for you and for others?