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On this page, we have compiled all the questions we are frequently asked about our offers and programs. They are sorted by topic. We hope you find the answers you need.
Can't find the right answer? Then feel free to contact us directly:
Our program is driven by the following vision:
We aim to help you unlock your individual coaching potential and empower you to act as a sustainable multiplier of Design Thinking within your specific context.
We believe we can achieve this vision uniquely through the following five key aspects:
Location
At the Hasso Plattner Institute, cutting-edge research, education, and a comprehensive international network come together to provide an exceptional learning experience that is always at the forefront of innovation.
Scope and Modular Structure
Depending on your goals and time constraints, the option to book individual modules allows for high flexibility and customization. In its most extensive form, spanning 18 days, the program is one of the most comprehensive offerings on the market.
Skill Focus and High Practical Component
As knowledge and information become increasingly accessible, human skills and competencies grow in importance. Our program addresses this need by providing a diverse range of skill development opportunities through action-oriented learning and extensive practical experiences.
Personalization Focus
With a high instructor-to-participant ratio and numerous opportunities for personal, individualized feedback and peer learning, we ensure that participants gain maximum insights for themselves and their unique situations within a comprehensive curriculum.
Lifelong Masterclasses
In the spirit of lifelong learning and knowledge sharing, we offer our alumni regular one-day online masterclasses to stay connected and continue advancing their skills.
Yes, we offer customized in-house training programs for Design Thinking Coaches for groups of ten or more participants. Scale collaboration and innovation within your organization through a shared, intensive learning experience. The program aims to train a select group of employees from your organization to become Design Thinking coaches, serving as innovation multipliers within their respective departments.
The recognition of credits and grades depends on the study and examination regulations of your home university. We recommend that you check with your examination office in advance to find out whether recognition is possible.
Students from all over the world join our programs, so you’ll hear many different languages in our hallways. To make sure everyone can fully participate, the entire program is held in English. A good command of English will help you take an active part in workshops and teamwork.
For students of the HPI and the University of Potsdam, participation in all programs is free of charge.
For external students, a admission fee/participation fee applies:
If you change your mind, a refund of the fees is only possible if you cancel your registration by the deadline on the first day of the program. This applies to all programs with fees (Foundations and Global Design Thinking Workshops).
You can download the descriptions of the scope of the individual courses and the semester overviews with the planned times directly in the respective courses. Most of the courses take place on-site at the HPI d-school. You can find details in the semester overviews.
At the end, there is a final presentation and a documentation that must be submitted.
Students from all disciplines (Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD) – regardless of university or nationality – are welcome to apply. You can join either in the winter semester (October–February) or summer semester (April–August). The Global Design Thinking Workshop is offered as a 6-day program in March and September, while Wayfinder takes place as a 4-day program between May–July and November–January.
To apply, simply go to the application page of the respective program, fill in your name, contact details and student information, and answer two short questions: What motivates you to apply, and what skills do you bring? A formal letter of motivation is not required. Just be yourself – we want to get to know you.
We offer a maximum of 40 places in the Foundations program on-site each semester. In addition, a Global Design Thinking Workshop (GDTW) takes place at least once a year with a maximum of 40 participants. We offer a maximum of 18 places for our Wayfinder program.
Since our program is based on different perspectives, we seek students and graduates from all disciplines – architecture, education, IT systems engineering, and business administration to future research.
We are looking for enthusiastic people who enjoy working together in teams. You should be committed and empathetic towards both people and the tasks at hand. You should be open to new ideas and perspectives. You should have a passion for your academic field but also be curious about other disciplines and ideas.
We would like to enable you to participate equally and independently, even if you have a handicap or chronic illness. All buildings and rooms are barrier-free, and disabled-accessible sanitary facilities are available. The connection to local public transport is also largely barrier-free. We are open to individual concerns that enable and improve participation in the program.
Thinking outside your own (academic) box is part of Design Thinking training: Since innovative solutions to complex problems require different disciplines, it is an advantage if, as a problem solver, you have skills that go beyond your own area of expertise. This promotes understanding and viewing from different perspectives. We ask you to create the T-profile to gain a better insight into your professional experience, academic knowledge, personal interests, projects, and interdisciplinary skills.
There is only one rule: the vertical line should be filled with relevant information about your academic career. Competencies and activities that are not directly related to your academic training are entered on the horizontal line. How and in what form you want to design this – as text, image, diagram, or photo – is entirely up to you. What matters is that the most important information about you must fit on one page. So go ahead and show us your personal T-profile!
Students from all over the world join our programs, so you’ll hear many different languages in our hallways. To make sure everyone can fully participate, the entire program is held in English. A good command of English will help you take an active part in workshops and teamwork.
For students of the HPI and the University of Potsdam, participation in all programs is free of charge.
For external students, a admission fee/participation fee applies:
If you change your mind, a refund of the fees is only possible if you cancel your registration by the deadline on the first day of the program. This applies to all programs with fees (Foundations and Global Design Thinking Workshops).
You can download the descriptions of the scope of the individual courses and the semester overviews with the planned times directly in the respective courses. Most of the courses take place on-site at the HPI d-school. You can find details in the semester overviews.
At the end, there is a final presentation and a documentation that must be submitted.
The recognition of credits and grades depends on the study and examination regulations of your home university. We recommend that you check with your examination office in advance to find out whether recognition is possible.
We offer a methodological basic program in Design Thinking (Foundations). The program take place on-site at the HPI d-school. This eight-week methodology teaches you the essential elements and principles of Design Thinking. Our program closes the gap between different disciplines. While during your regular studies, you usually only get to know fellow students from this subject or similar areas, at the HPI d-school, you work in multidisciplinary teams.
In addition to "Foundations for Design Thinking,” we offer the Global Design Thinking Workshops (GDTW). In this program, you will experience Design Thinking as a life-centered approach and work with different teams on complex innovation problems. The program takes place over five consecutive days on-site at the HPI d-school.
In addition, we offer the “Wayfinder – Self- and Leadership Development” program. Wayfinder is a program that helps you develop your personality and career. The program is aimed at HPI students in the master's program. Based on the mindset of Design Thinking and the principles of systemic coaching and positive psychology, this program helps you to get to know yourself better, recognize your own behavioral patterns and values, and, based on this, explore, prototype, and create new options for a successful future test. The program lasts four days during the semester (on-site at the HPI d-school and remotely).
Students from all disciplines (Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD) – regardless of university or nationality – are welcome to apply. You can join either in the winter semester (October–February) or summer semester (April–August). The Global Design Thinking Workshop is offered as a 6-day program in March and September, while Wayfinder takes place as a 4-day program between May–July and November–January.
To apply, simply go to the application page of the respective program, fill in your name, contact details and student information, and answer two short questions: What motivates you to apply, and what skills do you bring? A formal letter of motivation is not required. Just be yourself – we want to get to know you.
Send us an e-mail to projects-d-school@hpi.de or call us on 0331 5509 -1347 / -3414. We are always looking for exciting projects and interesting partners.
The summer semester begins in mid-April and the winter semester in mid-October. To become a project partner, you should get in touch about three months before the start of the semester to submit a project proposal and discuss the framework conditions for a collaboration.
In the Foundations program, we offer an 8-week project partnership from mid-May to July or from mid-November to February.
The project cost contribution depends on the size of the organization or company. These project cost contributions supplement the foundation's funding for our Academic Program and are used for coaching, research trips, prototyping, and exchange platforms for students and coaches, among other things. We differentiate between large companies, SMEs, and NGOs. We are primarily interested in the project topic, which is why we try to adapt the cost contributions to the existing budgets of the partners. To discuss a project, simply contact us without obligation.
Yes, NGOs and social organizations can make a significantly reduced cost contribution or be exempted under certain conditions (e.g. statutory purpose, foundation purpose, content focus, etc.).
A design challenge is always exciting for us if the result of this project task is still open, inspiration is sought and potential is suspected in the exploration and questioning of certain target groups. When working on a topic with our students, it is always important that the target group to be reached is accessible and able to provide us with information and that the project partner provides the necessary background information and internal contacts. We are happy to support you in selecting and formulating a suitable design challenge. We look forward to hearing your suggestions and gaining an insight into the topics that are currently relevant to you!
We appreciate your willingness to collaborate creatively and engage in critical discourse. For the teams, we need your support in accessing relevant interview partners and participating in feedback meetings with the students. For this purpose, we meet on site at selected times in our innovation rooms in Potsdam or coordinate digitally. Our project language with the international teams is English. You should be open to giving partners from other organizations and companies in the current program an insight into your project. This creates mutual synergies in the innovation processes of the teams.
We offer a methodological basic program in Design Thinking (Foundations). This eight-week methodology teaches you the essential elements and principles of Design Thinking. Our program closes the gap between different disciplines. While during your regular studies, you usually only get to know fellow students from this subject or similar areas, at the HPI d-school, you work in multidisciplinary teams.
Applications for the Foundations for Design Thinking program are open to enrolled students from all academic disciplines at universities and colleges. No prior experience in Design Thinking is required, as all essential knowledge and methods will be taught during the program.
We offer a maximum of 40 places in the Foundations program. The program takes place on-site at the HPI d-school.
You can download the descriptions of the scope of the individual courses and the semester overviews with the planned times directly in the respective courses. Most of the courses take place on-site at the HPI d-school. You can find details in the semester overviews.
You can find an overview of the current courses on our page about the Design Thinking Academic Program.
Participation is free of charge for students of the Hasso-Plattner-Institut and the University of Potsdam. Enrolled Students from other universities and colleges are required to pay a processing fee of 100 €.
If you change your mind, a refund of the fees is only possible if you cancel your registration by the deadline on the first day of the program. This applies to all programs with fees (Foundations and Global Design Thinking Workshops).
As a student participant in our programs, you will not only receive a unique experience but also a digital certificate and a proof of achievement (ECTS). The Foundations program is worth 6 credit points (ECTS).
The recognition of credits and grades depends on the study and examination regulations of your home university. We recommend that you check with your examination office in advance to find out whether recognition is possible.
The program is a 100% on-site program. To receive a certificate and 6 ECTS points, regular, on-time, physical attendance on all program days is required.
Participants may have up to two (2) absences due to private or professional reasons or unexpected illness. More than two absences will result in an individual consultation with the program team. Repeated absences or lateness may lead to not receiving a certificate.
In addition to the “Foundations for Design Thinking” we offer the Global Design Thinking Workshops (GDTW). In this program you will experience Design Thinking as a life-centered approach and work with different teams on complex innovation problems. The program takes place over six days - one day online and five consecutive days on-site at the HPI d-school.
Applications for the Global Design Thinking Workshop are open to enrolled students from all academic disciplines at universities and colleges. No prior experience in Design Thinking is required, as all essential knowledge and methods will be taught during the program.
We offer a maximum of 40 places in the Global Design Thinking Workshop. The program takes place over five consecutive days on-site at the HPI d-school.
You can download the descriptions of the scope of the individual courses and the semester overviews with the planned times directly in the respective courses. Most of the courses take place on-site at the HPI d-school. You can find details in the semester overviews.
You can find an overview of the current courses on our page about the Design Thinking Academic Program.
Participation is free of charge for students of the Hasso-Plattner-Institut and the University of Potsdam. Enrolled Students from other universities and colleges are required to pay a processing fee of 100 €.
If you change your mind, a refund of the fees is only possible if you cancel your registration by the deadline on the first day of the program. This applies to all programs with fees (Foundations and Global Design Thinking Workshops).
As a student participant in our programs, you will not only receive a unique experience but also a digital certificate and a proof of achievement (ECTS). You will receive 3 credit points (ECTS) each for the Global Design Thinking Workshop.
The recognition of credits and grades depends on the study and examination regulations of your home university. We recommend that you check with your examination office in advance to find out whether recognition is possible.
We do not provide accommodation for the duration of the Global Design Thinking Workshop. However, we are happy to recommend the following options in Potsdam:
In addition to the “Foundations for Design Thinking,” we offer the “Wayfinder – Self- and Leadership Development” program. The Wayfinder is a program that develops your own personality and career further. The program is aimed at HPI students in the master's program. Based on the mindset of design thinking and the principles of systemic coaching and positive psychology, this program helps you to get to know yourself better, to recognize your own behavioral patterns and values and, based on this, to explore, prototype, and create new options for a successful future test. The program takes place four days during the semester (on-site at the HPI d-school and remotely).
The Wayfinder program is aimed at HPI students in the master's program.
We offer a maximum of 18 places for our Wayfinder program. The program takes place four days during the semester (on-site at the HPI d-school and remotely).
You can download the descriptions of the scope of the individual courses and the semester overviews with the planned times directly in the respective courses. The Wayfinder program takes place over four days within the semester (on-site at the HPI d-school and remotely). You can find details in the semester overviews.
You can find an overview of the current courses on our page about the Design Thinking Academic Program.
Participation in the Wayfinder program is free of charge.
As a student participant in our programs, you will not only receive a unique experience but also a digital certificate and a proof of achievement (ECTS). You will receive 3 graded credit points (ECTS) upon submission of an academic paper written in English or German.
The recognition of credits and grades depends on the study and examination regulations of your home university. We recommend that you check with your examination office in advance to find out whether recognition is possible.
