ABOUT US
Our mission is to help our clients become the best innovators they can be, creating great products, services and experiences. Our vision is to create Responsible Revolutions. These are the ways we innovate together to meet the needs of business, people and the planet. It’s how we change the world around us for the better.
We are the Design Thinkers Academy London, a training organisation for business, specialising in collaborative innovation. We use the systematic methodology of Design Thinking, with a structured and evidenced approach to learning. We provide time and space for teams and individuals to be inspired and challenged, to learn-by-doing and finally, to strengthen their ability for creative problem solving. We organise live courses, online courses, events, lectures and personal coaching programs. We are the training arm of design consultancy DK&A and part of the Design Thinkers Academy network, founded in Amsterdam in 2011.
We have trained thousands in Design Thinking with a 99% recommendation rate for our courses.
To navigate the complexities of advancing technology and increased competition, we need to become more agile and adopt an innovation culture. Design Thinking drives us to look through the eyes of our customers.
It provides the connection between creativity and innovation. It gives us a solution-based approach to solving problems. Increasingly being adopted by some of the most successful businesses in the world, Design Thinking opens up new ways of approaching complex problems, enabling companies to serve the needs of users today and in the future.
The impact of Design Thinking in business:
- Design-led companies outperformed the S&P index by 219% over 10 years.
- McKinsey studied 300 public companies over 5 years and those that were most skilled at executing design principles achieved 32% more revenue and 52% more total returns to shareholders.
- IBM report showed that teams who used Design Thinking did better user research and thus reduced the product development and testing time by 33%, making savings of up to $1.1M.
A photographer’s studio in Amsterdam was the setting for the very first Design Thinkers Bootcamp in 2011. It was the brainchild of leading Dutch design thinkers Marjo Staring, Arne van Oosterom and Tim Schuurman. One of the coaches was David Kester, former CEO of the UK Design Council and founder of DK&A, our parent company, a strategic design consultancy that helps clients to innovate and improve the services they offer. Over the week-long Bootcamp, the four of them were delighted as 30 business executives from 15 countries became Design Thinkers. Together, they resolved to build a centre of excellence for Design Thinking in Europe. And in 2016, the Design Thinkers Academy London was born.

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David Kester
Founder & Managing Director
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Arne van Oosterom
Associate Creative Director & Coach
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Sophia Adamou
Director
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Shanna Bent
Customer Relationship Coordinator
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Susana Osório
Design Director
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Goldie Chaudhuri
Learning Designer
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Lena Nielsen
Operations Director
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Blythe Wild
Programme Coordinator
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Arushi Gupta
Strategy Associate
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Ruth Flood
Associate Research Director
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Craig Tomkins
Service & Experience Director
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Ben Crisp
Marketing & Research Manager
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Simon Gough
Service Designer & Coach
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Erlend Prendergast
Service & Experience Designer
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Ellen Davies
Head of Design Research
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Sumant Bhatia
Product and Content Manager
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Emma Bowen
Senior Graphic Designer
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Kate O’Dwyer
Finance Director
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Becky Rowe
Ethnographer & Coach
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Daniel Boettcher
Sustainability Consultant
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Joe Ferry
Brand & Experience Architect
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Rachel Smith
Visual Thinking Coach & Facilitator
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Arnoud Koning
Design Thinking Facilitator
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J. Paul Neeley
Researcher & Coach
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Broni Lloyd-Edwards
Photographer
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Kerry Tottingham
Facilitator
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Mo-Ling Chui
Strategy Consultant & Coach
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Tim Schuurman
Co-founder DTA Group & Coach
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Jeroen van der Weide
Design Thinker & Coach
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Eddie Obeng
Innovation Leader & Coach
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Yuen Yen Tsai
Facilitator
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Dave Caygill
Strategist & Coach
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Alieu Fofanah
Senior & Coach
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Philippa Rose
Service Designer & Coach
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Hattie Camp
Innovation Lead
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Catherine Collins
Service Designer and Facilitator
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Clive Grinyer
Consultant & Service Designer
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Filo
Office Support
Hometeam
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David Kester
Founder & Managing Director
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Sophia Adamou
Director
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Shanna Bent
Customer Relationship Coordinator
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Susana Osório
Design Director
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Lena Nielsen
Operations Director
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Goldie Chaudhuri
Learning Designer
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Blythe Wild
Programme Coordinator
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Craig Tomkins
Service & Experience Director
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Sumant Bhatia
Product and Content Manager
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Emma Bowen
Senior Graphic Designer
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Kate O’Dwyer
Finance Director
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View profile
Ben Crisp
Marketing & Research Manager
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View profile
Arushi Gupta
Strategy Associate
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Ellen Davies
Head of Design Research
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View profile
Erlend Prendergast
Service & Experience Designer
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Filo
Office Support
Coaches & Facilitators
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David Kester
Founder & Managing Director
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Joe Ferry
Brand & Experience Architect
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Arne van Oosterom
Associate Creative Director & Coach
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Susana Osório
Design Director
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Goldie Chaudhuri
Learning Designer
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Dave Caygill
Strategist & Coach
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Philippa Rose
Service Designer & Coach
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Yuen Yen Tsai
Facilitator
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Mo-Ling Chui
Strategy Consultant & Coach
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Simon Gough
Service Designer & Coach
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Alieu Fofanah
Senior & Coach
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J. Paul Neeley
Researcher & Coach
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Kerry Tottingham
Facilitator
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Catherine Collins
Service Designer and Facilitator
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Arnoud Koning
Design Thinking Facilitator
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Eddie Obeng
Innovation Leader & Coach
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Becky Rowe
Ethnographer & Coach
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Rachel Smith
Visual Thinking Coach & Facilitator
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View profile
Craig Tomkins
Service & Experience Director
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View profile
Ellen Davies
Head of Design Research
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View profile
Sumant Bhatia
Product and Content Manager
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View profile
Clive Grinyer
Consultant & Service Designer
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Hattie Camp
Innovation Lead
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Jeroen van der Weide
Design Thinker & Coach
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Tim Schuurman
Co-founder DTA Group & Coach

Companies graduated


The Design Thinkers Academy is all you need to start changing your company's design culture.
Miquel Mora, Technicolor
This bootcamp made me live and breath design thinking and it wouldn't have been possible without David and the eminent coaches.
Kranthi Bairi, Head of Delivery, Atos
I left this course feeling genuinely empowered to change the way we do things for the better. Thank you!
Toby Garrood, Consultant Rheumatologist at Guy's and St Thomas' (NHS Foundation Trust)

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WhatsApp | +44 (0)7552 730 231 | info@designthinkersacademy.co.uk