An action-oriented design thinking course tied to a challenge for local impact
The Do Tank is an action-oriented design thinking course, tied to a challenge to translate learnings into local impact. In collaboration with different partners every year, the Do Tank cultivates a group of people with varied skillsets to work together on a real-world issue, from collaborative ideation to collaborative creation. They were inspired by the OpenIDEO approach of activating citizens’ idea through challenges that tackle social problems around the world. The Do Tank is an effort to encourage more physical action beyond the ideation phase. They aim to help move ideas into prototypes that can potentially be implemented with local organizations.
The Do Tank was first prototyped in Fall 2015, in partnership with OpenIDEO and NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Along with instructors from FOOSSA, NYU, IDEO, and MILES, we mocked up a curriculum that combines Design Thinking, Prototyping, Lean Startup, Future-Forecasting and Pop-up Experience as the Do Tank Educational Program. The Do Tank is an independent initiative with no official ties to The New School. However, since 2016 several New School Faculty are also part of the core faculty of this initiative.
