Training from experiential learning's vision to acquire Design Thinking as a thought process

Design Thinking (DT) has grown significantly in popularity in recent years. In Software Engineering, it can have a significant impact because it facilitates a deep understanding of user needs. However, the use of DT in software solutions becomes challenging because of the wide range of DT frameworks and resources available. Moreover, there is a lack of training in DT oriented to software developers while extensive practice is needed to design and run DT workshops for software solutions. This paper contributes with a conceptual framework that combines the DT teaching-learning process with experiential learning cycles at the micro level (of each activity) and macro level (about the whole DT experience). The experiential learning cycles allow gaining meaningful learning, so our framework offers a way to acquire DT as a thought process. In particular, our framework contains a DT-applying activity as part of the DT training process, in which trainees transfer the DT gained knowledge and design their own DT solution in a single training session. Two workshops were performed using our conceptual framework, with two different modalities, face-to-face and virtual. This paper describes these workshops in detail and analyses the data collected that validate our framework with positive results.