Karmic Design Thinking

Red — your first points are live now (no learning yet!)

Open the portal and answer — from your own login, first 10 minutes only:

A 10-year-old plays games on her tablet for hours, snacks while she plays, and rarely goes outside.

In 3 lines: what does she actually NEED? (a need, not a solution)

https://bit.ly/SIBM-KDT-2026

Hard? Good — that's the point. We learn the tool, then you redo it. 😀

Intro & Plan

Meet Your Facilitator - Bala Ramadurai

Entrepreneur, Professor, Author and Innovation Coach

Marie Curie Research Fellow at Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
PhD from Arizona State University, USA (Materials)
BTech from IIT Madras, India (Metallurgy)

Prof. Bala Ramadurai - Professor

IIT Madras, Chennai, India
Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, India

Bala Ramadurai - Author

Bala Ramadurai - Innovation Coach

Bala Ramadurai - Entrepreneur

Spirelia

Innovate with Confidence

Srishti OS — The AI-Native Innovation Platform

Spirelia Innovation Pvt. Ltd.

"Innovate with Confidence, Powered by Insight"

S R I S H T I — The AI-Native Innovation Platform

🔭

Utkarsha

Technology Forecasting
& Roadmapping

MVP LIVE

🔬

Uttishta

AI Inventor's
Assistant

IN PIPELINE

💡

Karmaja

Structured Innovation
& Idea Generation

VISION

🛡️

Narasimha

IP Capture &
Protection

VISION

⚙️

Ananta

Rapid
Prototyping

VISION

Courses Taught

Design Thinking

Human Centred Design of products and services

Innovate Like a Boss

Systematic Innovation using methodologies like TRIZ, Brainstorming

Technology Forecasting

Love to keep in touch

https://balaramadurai.net/about/

bala@balaramadurai.net

http://in.linkedin.com/in/balaramadurai

My LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/balaramadurai/

Your Intros

Short Intro of Yourself

First Name
What is your specialization or subject of your studies?
What do you aspire to do in life?
What is your favourite vegetable?

The Karmic Journey — 4 Fridays

Day	Date	Phase
1	Fri Jul 17	Empathize
2	Fri Jul 24	Analyze + Solve
3	Fri Jul 31	Test + Presentation Skills
4	Fri Aug 7	EAST Iteration 2 + Finale

Between each Friday: field work — your customers, your prototype, your portfolio.

How this course is different this year

You run your own project. Every one of you. Your grade is yours alone.
You belong to a House (one of 10 dishas) — for teamwork games, peer review and the leaderboard, not for the project.
Most grading is done by AI + your peers, so I can give 94 of you a meaningful, individual experience.
Show up, do the field work, prototype, talk to customers — the points follow.

How every Friday flows — Red → Green → Refactor

Red — first 10 minutes: try the challenge before you're taught. You'll likely miss — good.
Green — the session: learn the phase and produce the real thing.
Refactor — the close: redo the opening and watch how far you moved.

Builders will recognise this — it's TDD/BDD (test-first), the way real teams ship.

Our shared language — Given / When / Then

A behaviour, written so anyone can test it:

Given a situation, When something happens, Then this is the outcome

You already know its cousins: the CJM's Before/During/After and Analyze's If/Then/But.

You'll write your customer's pain this way, turn it into a test, then build to pass it.

What you will do

Perform field work with real customers
Build a working prototype
Maintain your individual KDT portfolio (one upload per phase)
Review your Housemates' work (and learn from theirs)
Iterate — EAST, EAST, EAST
As far as possible, no "homework" beyond the project itself

The Scoreboard — out of 100

Bucket	Marks
Project Portfolio (5 phases)	60
Live Engagement	30
Peer-review contribution	10

Absolute grading. No curve. No fighting your classmates for marks.

Portfolio — 60 (12 per phase)

Empathize · Analyze · Solve · Test · Iterate — 12 each
One individual upload per phase to the shared drive
Named: House-FirstName-LastName-Phase (e.g. Purva-Bala-Ramadurai-Empathize)
Graded by an AI evaluator on a published checklist; I moderate

Live Engagement — 30

Live outputs (22) — points come from what you produce in the room, from your login: ideas, HMW, House-vote, Q&A, micro-quiz — spread across the day
Customer depth (8) — talk to more than the minimum, show the evidence

No attendance scan. Being here is necessary; producing is what scores.

Earn badges: Empathy Ace · Conflict Cartographer · Prototype Pro · Pivot Master · Streak Keeper · Top Reviewer

How your points work

Points = individual output, logged to your account, at several moments each Friday
The day's first output is in the opening 10 min — late = miss it (Streak Keeper = catch all 4 openings)
At one random moment I'll call names live — answer in person

So: do your own work in the room and the points are automatic
A friend's phone in your bag produces nothing — there's no scan to steal 😀

If you are absent

Submit that phase's portfolio online → you still get full portfolio marks
You only forfeit that day's Live Engagement points and the chance to present
Inform the course coordinator (and copy me)

AI usage policy

Please use AI tools as necessary
Please remember that AI can make mistakes
Please check with me, if you have any doubts or questions
Please remember that AI, sometimes, behaves like a junior colleague
Please don't pass off results from AI as your own
Please cite results from AI, if you have used AI

Two Scenarios

Tiger or Rocky?

Which approach would you adopt for your idea?

90%

Tiger

Design Thinking is Human Centred Design

How do organizations innovate?

Ideas implemented should lead to sales/revenue from the customer

Ideas are meant to solve problems

Whose problems?

Not many will like untested products

A Four Step Efficient and Systematic Process called Design Thinking

Four Noble Truths

Dukkha — Acknowledge that there is suffering
Samudaya — Delve into the cause of suffering
Nirodha — Think of ways to end the suffering
Marga — Walk on the path to end the suffering

4 Phases of Design Thinking

Dukkha
Samudaya
Nirodha
Marga

Empathize
Analyze
Solve
Test

"Don't take my word, apply this for yourself"
"cycles"

What are "cycles" in an organization?

Go EAST for Design Thinking

Patient-Centric Design Thinking

Watch this - https://youtube.com/watch?v=FkJD9bYS-As

Shared Drive

bit.ly_SIBM-KDT-2026.png

https://bit.ly/SIBM-KDT-2026

Your House (one of 10 dishas)

East (Purva)
West (Pashchima)
North (Uttara)
South (Dakshina)
Northeast (Ishanya)
Northwest (Vayavya)
Southeast (Agneya)
Southwest (Nairitya)
Zenith (Urdhva)
Nadir (Adhova)

What a House is (and isn't)

~9–10 of you per House (you're assigned one)
A House is your base camp: peer review, in-class challenges, the leaderboard
A House is NOT a project team — your project and your grade are your own
Want to swap House? Email me, copy the swapping member

Your project for the course

Pick a product/service you will improve — your project, start to finish
You will submit your own portfolio at each phase
Tips:
- Pick something you feel the drive to improve
- Pick a problem with more than one possible solution
- You will need to make a working prototype by Day 2
- Make sure there's more than a market of one who benefits

Task 0: Frame your project

Write a How Might We (HMW) statement naming the existing product/service
- E.g. — How might we enhance security for a lone woman in a taxi at night? (Uber)
- E.g. — How might we be more compassionate to the elderly while delivering groceries? (Blinkit)
One slide with the HMW; target customers must be clear
Upload to the drive: House-FirstName-LastName-Task0

Time for Task 0:

Empathize

Watch this - https://youtube.com/watch?v=9_1Rt1R4xbM

Empathize is visual story telling

Customer Journey Mapping (CJM) is the tool we'll use to tell the story

Kid Mobile Case Study

The kid's persona

Name: Akanksha
Gender: Female
Location: Pune, India
Age: 10
Description: Lives in Pune with her elder brother and parents. Loves chocolates, aspires to be a badminton player, hates assignments and exams. Owns a tablet, would like a pet.

Customer Journey Map — Before

CJM — During

CJM — After

List of problem statements

The kid plays on the mobile for most of her spare time
She snacks/eats while playing on the mobile
She spends very little time playing outdoors

Customer Journey Mapping

Write the customer's activity
Write the major steps of the user experience
Split the story into 3 — Before, During and After
Mark the emotional highs and lows (😄 and 😞)

Say the pain as a test — Given / When / Then

The CJM in one testable line — current behaviour, no solutions:

Given Akanksha has free time and a tablet,
When she reaches for something to do,
Then she plays indoors for hours and skips going out 😞

This is your Red — the pain you'll later prove you fixed. Still no solutions here.

Customer interactions

Interaction tips

Appraise the customer of your intentions and the case
Give more information than you receive, initially
Ask them to use the product/service and observe
Be curious about how they use it
Ask for stories of their best and worst experiences
Give them time to be comfortable
Talk to 3 n customers (this is a minimum, not a maximum)

Since you run solo, n = 1 → minimum 3 customers. More customers = Empathy Ace badge + Customer-depth XP.

Customer Interaction Tips Video

Watch this - https://youtube.com/watch?v=KZYntTU3JW4

Task 1A: Empathize This

Field work: Interact with at least 3 customers (more is better)
Field work: Anyone not associated with SIBM
CJM: Create personas (name, gender, age, location, occupation, family)
CJM: Write the customer activity
CJM: Before / During / After, with emotions and photos of the customer
Problems: List the problem statements — no solutions, please

Task 1B: Empathize That

A short video (2–5 min) — a skit highlighting the customer's current status
Use human actors (no AI/avatars/cartoons)
Minimize dialog; use your CJM as the script
Upload the video to the drive

Refactor — redo your opening Need

Reopen the portal. Re-answer this morning's question — now that you have a CJM.

Did your first try leap to a solution?
Is your need sharper now — tied to a real emotion in the journey?

The gap between your Red and your Refactor is your learning today. 🎯

Checklist for Empathize

[ ] Customers — at least 3
[ ] CJM — persona(s) with name, gender, age, location
[ ] CJM — main activity of the customer
[ ] CJM — 3 sections: Before, During, After
[ ] CJM — emotions (smileys/sadeys present)
[ ] Problems — listed
[ ] Problems — NOT solutions
[ ] Uploaded: presentation + video

How the room works each phase

Build/field debrief at your House table
Peer-review round — review 2–3 Housemates on the checklist (earns your peer-review marks)
Roulette showcase — the wheel picks Houses; each sends its peer-voted champion to present
Everyone uploads their own portfolio; the AI grades all of them

Empathize Roulette

Showcase format

6 minutes present + 4 minutes Q&A
Audience questions earn participation XP

Criteria (portfolio, /12)

Checklist completeness (50%)
Video (15%)
Subjective quality (20%)
Customer evidence (15%)

Analyze

Red — frame a conflict before we teach you how

First 10 minutes, from your own login:

Take one problem from your CJM and write the tension two ways:

If … Then … But …
Given … When … Then …

Rough is fine — we'll sharpen it with TRIZ today, then you'll redo it.

Analyze — Conflict of Interest

Take one item from your list of problems

What would you like to improve in the system?

What stops you from achieving this improvement?

What you just framed is a…

Conflict

The Matrix

Source — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPRbIlMJI4Y

The conflicts

If: Morpheus reveals code,
then: agents hack into Zion's mainframe,
but: Zion is more important than Morpheus

If: tank pulls the plug,
then: Zion's codes will not be revealed,
but: Morpheus will die

Conflict or Contradiction Model

If: <Thing happens or Action taken>
Then: <Positive Consequence>
But: <Negative Consequence>

Same shape as Given / When / Then

If a thing happens ≈ Given/When a situation occurs
Then a good consequence ≈ Then the outcome you want
But a bad consequence = the tension your solution must resolve

Your HMW is just the Then you're aiming for — your future acceptance test.

Put on your movie critic's hat

Think of a movie or novel you really liked
Pick a scene you liked
Find the conflict the character faced
Represent it in the model (If… Then… But…)

Time left:

Conflict of Interest — Kids Mobile Case Study

If: kids are given access to too many apps
then: they have more freedom to discover new apps
but: there's no parental control over the type of apps

So the problem becomes — How might we give more freedom to kids while retaining parental control?

Task 2: Analyze

Take the problems from Empathize
For each, ask "What would you like to improve?"
Ask "What stops you from achieving this improvement?"
Frame each as a conflict (If… Then… But…)
Write each desired result as a How Might We question

Analyze — Checklist

[ ] Conflicts defined for each problem (If/Then/But)
[ ] Positive and negative consequences stated
[ ] Desired results as How-Might-We questions
[ ] All problems from Empathize covered

Solve

Silent Brainstorming

Write down all ideas for your HMW questions in a shared document
You can look at others' ideas
Keep track of the number of individual ideas
Set a target number and beat it

Time left:

Теория Решения Изобретательских Задач

:REVEAL_BACKGROUND: ../Pictures/People/Historical/Altshuller.png

TRIZ

TRIZ Philosophy

Step 1: Draft your conflict in specific terms

Step 2: Define the conflict generically

Tip — the mapping of parameters needn't be exact

Step 3: Find generic solutions from the Matrix

Step 4: Generate the specific solution for your problem

Case Study: Ideas

Separate login for parents
Physical app store with parents holding the keys
Parents hold the main objective of the game
Game save cannot happen without parental permission

Write the test first

Before you build anything next week, write 2–3 acceptance tests your prototype must pass:

Given a parent sets up the tablet, When the kid opens a new app, Then it needs a parent OK

Plain language, customer's point of view. If you can't test it, it isn't done.

This is your Red. Next week you build only enough to turn these Green.

Task — Solve

Pick the desired results (from Analyze)
Use the 4-stage TRIZ philosophy to generate ideas (an LLM may help)
Use https://www.triz40.com/TRIZ_GB.php
Combine all ideas from silent brainstorming and TRIZ into one concept
Write 2–3 acceptance tests (Given/When/Then) your prototype must pass — before building

Solve — Checklist

[ ] Ideas from silent brainstorming (8+ good, 12+ excellent)
[ ] Ideas from TRIZ methodology
[ ] Consolidated concept
[ ] 2–3 acceptance tests (Given/When/Then) written before prototyping

Criteria for evaluation — Solve (/12)

Silent brainstorming volume (15%)
TRIZ genuinely applied (20%)
Novelty of the idea (20%)
Prototypability (15%)
Acceptance tests (Given/When/Then) before prototype (15%)
Consolidated concept (15%)

Refactor — your tests are your spec

From your own login: post your 2–3 acceptance tests (Given/When/Then).

Next Friday you arrive with a prototype built to pass them — and we find out if it does. 🔴→🟢

Test

Red — will your prototype pass?

First 10 minutes, from your own login:

You wrote acceptance tests last week. Predict: how many pass when a real customer uses it?

Write the number and your shakiest test. Today we find out for real.

Stepping stones

FAILURE

ROARING SUCCESS

Prototypes

In this step

Take your prototype to the user and observe how they react
Photograph/videograph their reactions (with permission)
List the problems the customer faces with this new prototype (Test.v1 / Empathize.v2)
Run each acceptance test on a real customer — mark it PASS or FAIL

Task 4A: Test This

Consider the solutions you generated in Solve
Make a working prototype with odds and ends
Make a copy of your existing CJM
Modify the CJM to include your solution
Run your acceptance tests with a real customer; record PASS/FAIL + evidence

Task 4B: Test That — Ad

Take an advertisement you liked as inspiration
Make a digital ad (video) selling this product/service to your customer
Use human actors (no stock footage / AI avatars)
Use the AIDA principle (max 2 min)

Test — Checklist

[ ] Prototype and demo
[ ] Modified CJM
- Your CJM CANNOT be all 😀😀
- There must be some new 😳😫
[ ] Assumptions listed
[ ] User-testing evidence (real customers used it)
[ ] Each acceptance test marked PASS/FAIL, with evidence

Test — Criteria (/12)

Prototype readiness (30%)
Features list (10%)
Modified CJM with NEW pain (10%)
Assumptions (10%)
Acceptance tests run on customers, PASS/FAIL logged (25%)
Video/demo (15%)

Refactor — green or red?

From your own login: which tests went green, which stayed red?

A red test isn't failure — it's your to-do list for Iteration 2. 🔴→🟢

Presentation Skills Workshop

A guest workshop on presenting with impact

Criteria for evaluation

Clarity of delivery (20%)
Overall structure (20%)
Engagement with the audience (20%)
Time (20%)
Quality of presentation aids (20%)

EAST — Iteration 2

Red — make the failing test pass

First 10 minutes, from your own login:

Which acceptance test failed hardest in V1?

Write the Given/When/Then your V2 must now pass — that's today's mission.

In this step

Take your prototype to your customers again and observe them using it
List the new problems (Empathize.v2)
Find the conflicts in these problems (Analyze.v2)
Generate ideas to solve them (Solve.v2)
Improve the prototype (Test.v2)
Refactor: make last week's failing tests pass — and write fresh ones for the new pain
Update your portfolio and showcase

Path forward

Wash, Rinse, Repeat
EAST, EAST, EAST
Iterate as many times as you can

Red → Green, every cycle

Each EAST loop = turn a red test green, then write the next red.

That's design thinking and the way good software ships. Carry it past this course. 🚀

Iterate — Checklist (/12)

[ ] Evidence of a V2+ cycle through EAST
[ ] Real customer feedback incorporated
[ ] CJM evolved across iterations
[ ] A previously failing acceptance test now passes (red → green)
[ ] Improvements documented (what changed and why)

Finale Roulette

Final leaderboard + badges

House leaderboard winner
Individual badge roll-call
Best Pivot, Empathy Ace, Prototype Pro

Conclusion

Now What?

Search for case studies in your own domain

Learn even more by doing more projects using what you learned here

Suggested References

Karmic Design Thinking by Dr. Bala Ramadurai
Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society — Karl Ulrich
Change by Design — Tim Brown
And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared — G. Altshuller
IDEO
Stanford d.school

Meet Your Facilitator — Prof. Bala Ramadurai

https://balaramadurai.net/about/

bala@balaramadurai.net

http://in.linkedin.com/in/balaramadurai

Selfie

Karmic Design Thinking — SIBM 2026

Smile! 📸