Lawyers Learn ‘Design Thinking’ in Education Trend

Stanford University. Image from Shutterstock.

Lawyers are among the professionals learning “design thinking” at "d.school" at Stanford University.

The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) explains the concept in its story on the trend: “Design thinking uses close, almost anthropological observation of people to gain insight into problems that may not be articulated yet,” the story says. “For example, researchers may study the habits of shoppers waiting to pay for groceries in order to create a more efficient checkout system that maximizes last-minute purchases while keeping customers moving quickly.”

Lawyers, executives, educators, scientists and doctors are among those learning about the concept at Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, the story says. Stanford offers a three-day executive “boot camp” on design thinking at a cost of $9,500 a person.

Other schools are now offering their own design thinking programs.