Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Deep Tech & Entrepreneurship
01.
The Deep Tech & Entrepreneurship Train the Trainer Programme is a fully online, two-month course designed to empower educators with the tools and mindset to bridge the gap between cutting-edge technologies and entrepreneurial education. The course combines self-paced online learning with three live webinar sessions, and awards a digital badge to participants upon successful completion.
The main objective was to design and deliver a seamless learning experience that could scale across multiple cohorts with the ambitious target of enabling 500 educators to complete the course.
Role
Supportive and cross-functional role
Tools
Thinqi platform, Zoom, Microsoft Office, Figma, Miro
Project Timeline
6 months – ongoing
Empathise / Define
Since this course was aimed at educators from diverse backgrounds, including university lecturers, startup mentors, and professionals working in Deep Tech industries, our priority at the start was to truly understand who the learners were and how they might interact with the course. I joined the team shortly before the launch of the pilot cohort, and the main focus was to ensure that the course was fully ready for delivery, with no technical errors or usability issues, and that participants were well-supported from day one.
Methods & Approches
User Personas
User Flow Mapping
Heuristic evalutation
User Persona
This persona was created to represent a typical user within the context of our service design project. It was informed by a combination of secondary research, including insights from colleagues with experience working alongside entrepreneurs, materials provided by our partner organisation on the deep tech landscape, and targeted online research.
While no direct user interviews were conducted, this persona brings together common themes and assumptions to help guide our design decisions and keep the user in focus throughout the project.
Heuristic Evaulation
Although the project was already approaching its first cohort launch, a focused heuristic review was carried out to ensure that the course content and user journey were clear, consistent, and free of errors. This included not only proofreading for spelling and grammar, but also reviewing the experience from a usability and accessibility perspective, ensuring that learners would be able to navigate the content with ease and confidence.
Flowchart Diagram
Created to understand how users would interact with the e-learning course. Based on user personas and course materials, this helped identify potential friction points, reduce errors, and improve overall user experience.
Ideate
Shaping & Evolving the learner Experience.
Following the onboarding of the pilot cohort, patterns in participant behaviour, areas of confusion, and emerging support needs were identified. As well as highlighting areas for improvement, the review also identified what worked well. Drawing on both participant feedback and internal team discussions, changes were proposed to improve the overall course structure and methods of communication. This included suggestions for enhancing the delivery of webinar sessions, streamlining how updates were shared, and making course activities more interactive and engaging for learners.
Methods & Approches
Feedback Review
Affinity Diagram
Journey Map
Affinity Map
Participant feedback was collected through various channels, including emails, webinar comments, informal conversations, and a structured survey shared with pilot testers. Responses were then grouped into common themes using an affinity diagram, helping to identify key insights that guided improvement efforts for the next cohort.
Areas for Improvement
Increase Interactivity – Participants wanted more discussions and activities during webinars.
Encourage Course Completion – Some participants struggled to finish the course.
Enhance Networking Opportunities – Users valued networking and wanted more of it.
Solution
More interactive group activities were added to webinar sessions to boost engagement and peer learning. To encourage course completion, clearer timelines, regular check-ins, and motivational reminders were introduced. Dedicated time and spaces for networking, both during sessions and on the platform, helped foster meaningful connections and a stronger sense of community.
Positive Feedback
Participants found the course valuable and engaging.
They also enjoyed the networking opportunities.
Journey map
This journey map was developed after the completion of the pilot cohort of the Deep Tech & Entrepreneurship Train the Trainer course. It draws on insights gathered from participant surveys, informal feedback, and our own reflections as a team. The aim was to better understand how educators experienced the course, identify common pain points, and highlight opportunities to improve the overall learner journey for future cohorts
Test/Define
In the Test phase, we focused on refining the course based on insights gathered from the pilot cohort, using survey responses, informal feedback, and our own observations.
As a result, we updated the course layout for better clarity and navigation, along with a number of other improvements outlined below. These changes aimed to enhance the overall learner experience, support engagement, and encourage course completion in future cohorts.
Methods & Approches
Content Refinement
Improved Communication
Interactive Enhancement
Testing
This image captures one of our live Zoom webinar sessions, where interactive elements were introduced to enhance participant engagement. In this session, Padlet was used to encourage real-time contributions, allowing attendees to respond to questions and share ideas collaboratively. These activities helped create a more dynamic learning environment and strengthened participant involvement throughout the session.
Define
This image showcases the updated layout of the e-learning platform, designed not only to enhance the participant experience but also to streamline content management for the team. The improved structure made it easier to organise, update, and deliver materials more efficiently.
Feature One
Updated the course layout for better clarity and navigation
Feature Two
Improved notification emails & communication to support progress and encourage completion
Feature Three
Made webinar sessions more interactive with group activities and discussions
Feature Four
Streamlined the onboarding process to reduce early confusion
Reflection
Key takeaways
This project was a valuable opportunity to deepen my understanding of user behaviour within an online learning environment. Applying the five stages of design thinking helped structure the process and demonstrated how effective it can be when designing and iterating with real user needs in mind.
Working with a large amount of user feedback and data challenged me to find patterns, draw insights, and translate them into practical design decisions. I also gained greater awareness of GDPR considerations, especially when dealing with learner information and survey responses.
One of the biggest lessons was around the importance of clear communication and timely updates, both in terms of course delivery and user engagement. Making small improvements to notification emails, layout, and webinar interactivity had a noticeable impact on learner experience.
Overall, this has been a continuous learning journey. We’ve now run two cohorts and are planning a third.
Participation numbers have already doubled since the first run, and we’re continuing to improve the experience with each iteration.