Pressure to post perfectly.
Polished feed content raises the stakes of sharing.
Make sharing lighter.
A lower-stakes way to participate.
A practical introduction
to design thinking.
At Keio University, I introduced design thinking through reference cases and a hands-on GenAI persona sprint.
Students turned user needs into a concrete concept, refined it with feedback, and pitched a clear value proposition.
FOLLOW THE TEACHING FRAMEWORK
Empathize: begin with people’s needs and the situation around them.
PrototypeTest
Iteration: Test → Prototype. Use feedback to revise the prototype.
Find the friction.
Change the question.
An uncertain journey.
Unclear wait times, pricing, and service consistency.
A more predictable journey.
Explore the experience through rapid prototypes, iteration, and feedback.
Exploring ideas
with generative AI.
01 / THE WORKING CYCLEHUMAN JUDGMENT THROUGHOUT
Frame
Persona+Constraints
Start with a person and the conditions around the problem.
Expand
HUMAN“What if…?”
↔GENERATIVE MODELOther angles
Question assumptions.
Consider practical constraints.
Develop
- AI-augmented persona
- Rapid concepts
- Feedback & refinement
- Pitch the value proposition
Return with feedback. Revise the idea.
02 / INSIDE AN AI PERSONAILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
WHERE DID THE DETAILS COME FROM?
Only age and student status came from the prompt. The other details are generated assumptions.
THE PROMPT
“Create a persona for a 21-year-old college student.”
A short request leaves much of the person unspecified.
THE GENERATED DRAFT
NAME / GENERATEDMina
Mina
Takahashi
- AGE / FROM PROMPT
- 21
- CONTEXT / FROM PROMPT
- College student
- PROFILE / GENERATED
- Indie music lover
Cosplayer
PAIN POINT / GENERATED
“I have creative ideas, but no time or skills to visualize them.”
BACK TO HUMAN QUESTIONS
Which details need checking with real people? Which constraints would change the idea?
Mina is an illustrative AI-generated persona, not a research participant. The example is a starting point for discussion.
The aim was richer personas, broader exploration, and faster revision guided by human judgment and practical constraints. No comparative outcome measurements were reported.
Developing and presenting
ideas in class.
My contribution
I designed and delivered the lecture, selected reference cases, and guided the hands-on exercise.
The next teaching question
How can a short workshop make space for both rapid exploration and careful questioning of the assumptions behind a concept?
