INTRODUCTION
The OCAD U CO Experience
The OCAD U CO Design Thinking Bootcamp is a 5-day experience where you’ll go end-to-end in a real design thinking challenge and reflect on what it means to lead a design-led movement in your team or organization.
The Design Thinking Bootcamp helps you identify, create and deliver new value to your organization. This hands on workshop will lead you through design thinking processes, taught by professionals who live, breathe, and teach design. Together we’ll explore how human-centred design thinking can help teams develop innovative solutions for complex challenges faced by organizations today.
Through this experience
You'll learn to:
- Frame future opportunities
- Understand people’s needs
- Create & Test new ideas
- Deliver / organize new value to your team and to your clients

DAY 1: FORESIGHT
Framing the Problem
Key Activities:
- Learning about tools you can use to engage your team and organization to examine future possibilities
- Trying out new techniques for uncovering hidden opportunities in your organization and sector
- Developing a mindset of eagerness to explore future opportunities, and building confidence in dealing with complexity and uncertainty.
DAY 2: PEOPLE INSIGHTS
Human Centered Design
Key Activities:
- Learning ways to examine the needs of end users.
- Trying out new techniques for uncovering unmet needs of users and other stakeholders.
- Developing a mindset of openness and curiosity. Building a newfound humbleness when learning what drives people.


DAY 3: CREATE + BUILD
Ideation and Concept Development
Key Activities:
- Learning tools to engage your team and organization in creativity sessions to develop new ideas.
- Trying new techniques that will guide you to use different creativity tools in a structured manner.
- Developing a can-do mindset. A new found pragmatism that constraints are only leading to new possibility.
DAY 4: PROTOTYPING
Experimentation
Key Activities:
- Learning tools to engage your team and organization in working sessions to examine the need of end users.
- Trying new techniques for uncovering unmet needs of users and other stakeholders.
- Developing a mindset of openness and curiosity. Building a newfound humbleness when learning what drives people.


DAY 5: VALUE GENERATION
Building a Business Case
Key Activities:
- Learning tools to engage your team and organization in sessions to identify and qualify new value.
- Trying new techniques that will guide you to use different value generation tools in a structured manner.
- Building a mindset on value generation that is systemic and inclusive, while achieving results.
Let's get you prepared
Harvard Business Review
Why Design Thinking Works
Addressing the biases and behaviors that hamper innovation.
Harvard Business Review
Design Thinking Case Study
Better Service, Faster: A Design Thinking Case Study — It involves a Winnebago.
Wired
The Future of Work
Technology is giving rise to a new workforce — one governed by creativity, flexibility and the ability to travel anywhere.
The Future of Work: Jobs and Skills in 2030
This is a long read from the UK, but a in-depth view into our topic area. If you don’t have the time to read it all, make sure to check out page 26.
Meet the OCAD U CO team

Kevin Morris, MDes
OCAD U CO

Lorraine Randell, MDes
OCAD U CO

Job Rutgers
OCAD University
How to find us
OCAD U CO is located in the Daniels Waterfront: City of the Arts Building, 130 Queens Quay East, 4th Floor (4R). The building is located on the south east corner of Lower Jarvis and Queens Quay East.
There’s a lot of construction in this area so parking is a bit scarce. You can try Impark, 178 Queens Quay East. If you’re having trouble finding a spot, you can try Loblaw on the South west corner of Lower Jarvis and Queens Quay East.
Transit from Union Station:
Transit from Union Station:
Catch the # 6 Bay Bus to SHERBOURNE on Bay St at Front St West. Travel 3 stops. The Building is still under construction so enter the lobby through the door on the right.
Contact Us
130 Queens Quay East,
East Tower, Floor 4R,
Toronto, ON M5A 0P6

Founded in 1876, OCAD U is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. OCAD U continuously builds on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinary practice, collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, members of the OCAD U community are uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.
OCAD University’s new business, OCAD U CO, is an executive training studio that uses creative problem solving to drive innovation and change. In a first for North America, we make the deep knowledge and capabilities of OCAD University available to industry leaders and their organizations. OCAD U CO is located in a stunning new facility on Toronto’s waterfront, which serves as a dedicated space for transformation.