Collaborative Ideation: Turning Ideas into Impactful Solutions

A playful 90-minute workshop to explore practical ideation techniques to generate creative solutions

Overview

In this hands-on workshop, we'll explore practical ideation techniques to generate creative solutions that are grounded in research, user needs, and real-world constraints, and that leverage the power of collaboration.

Ideation is a key moment in the design and innovation process as this is where you start generating solutions. While it is typically envisioned as starting after research, we will explore how it starts as early when you frame the problem. Indeed, meaningful insights and generative questions are critical to generate innovative and meaningful solutions. We will also explore the power of collaboration in ideation and how to leverage it in the process.

What to Expect

• Learning about ideation principles and some tools for generating creative ideas: Individual vs. Collaborative ideation; Divergent vs. Convergent thinking; brainstorming techniques.

• Case studies

• Hands-on activity in teams to practice collaborative idea generation

Where

Nova School of Business and Economics, Carcavelos
Room: B131

Facilitator

Joana Lima Villas is Head of Design and a Senior UX Designer with over 12 years of experience building products, teams, and design systems across Web3, fintech, media, and technology. She works at the intersection of strategy and execution, focusing on scaling design, developing people, and embedding design thinking within organizations. She is passionate about leadership grounded in clarity, empathy, and collaboration. Outside of work, her three children remind her daily that curiosity and emotion are the best tools a designer can have.

Design Gym

The Design Gym is a series of fast-paced, hands-on workshops designed to help you build and expand your design toolkit. Each 90-minute session focuses on practical, in-demand skills across a range of design practices.

But it doesn’t stop there. After each workshop, participants gain access to dedicated office hours where they can get personalized feedback from the facilitators, explore how to apply their new skills to real-world projects, and develop stronger portfolios and case studies.

Whether you’re sharpening your current capabilities or breaking into new territory, the Design Gym is here to help you confidently practice, explain, and showcase your growth as a designer.

These workshops are organized by the DESIS Lab @ NOVA SBE. We partner with the students from Nova Growth Club, who focus on unleashing a new generation of future leaders, aware of the impact they want to have in their lives and knowing exactly which ways of behavior they can utilize to balance demanding work with a joyful life.

The DESIS Lab is the programming and community engagement arm of the ERA Chair in Social Innovation. We believe that to innovate with purpose and develop sustainable solutions to complex social issues requires creative collaboration and a design thinking mindset. It is part of the DESIS International network, a group of academics, researchers and students who orient their design and research activities towards social innovation. If you want to know more: https://socialinnova-chair.com/desis-lab/