Shopify builds tools used by millions of businesses around the world. Inside its Research & Development group, a team responsible for onboarding new staff wanted to make sure that user-centred thinking was part of how people worked from day one. They wanted new team members to understand how to listen to the people they design for, how to work through complex problems, and how to create solutions together rather than alone. So, they asked Co.school to help build a virtual training program to do exactly that.
A peer-driven cohort
The program was designed to draw out participants’ own expertise and stories, in a model of peer learning. This was to help with internal knowledge-sharing, relationship-development and capacity-building: rather than an external expert parachuting in with one-off knowledge, the team would be equipped to grow.
Virtual, across Canada
The Shopify team was spread out from Vancouver to Montreal, with folks joining the virtual, multi-day learning sessions from both corporate offices and home patios.
Videos for self-paced learning
We created pre-recorded videos that people could watch on their own time, covering three topics: co-creation (designing with people, not just for them), creativity, and leading through complexity (how to make progress on problems that don’t have one clear answer).
What participants told us
At the end of the program, participants who filled out the feedback survey agreed that:
- they felt heard and listened to
- the space felt psychologically safe
- they had enough time to reflect and think
- they had chances to speak up and contribute
- they learned new things about their teammates
- they gained new ideas from the content and frameworks
Why it matters
Design thinking is often taught as a set of steps. We wanted this program to also show what it feels like to work this way: being listened to, having time to think, and learning from the people around you. When people experience good collaboration themselves, they are more likely to bring it into the products and teams they build.
