Turn Design Research into a Business Superpower

This hands-on workshop will show you how design research can become your ultimate innovation superpower. You’ll learn to sharpen your empathy radar and transform everyday interactions into actionable insights to create transformative value propositions and thoughtful, sustainable solutions for society, organizations, and communities.

Through dynamic, practical exercises, we’ll explore how small observations and authentic conversations can spark big ideas: supporting you to shape innovations that truly matter, beyond the obvious and beyond the extractive.

What to Expect

Fieldwork at your fingertips → fast, practical research methods you can use anywhere to understand people and contexts deeply.

Curiosity in action → how to observe, ask better questions, and uncover hidden needs and aspirations.

From clues to strategy → turn everyday discoveries into business opportunities into value for organizations, communities, and the world.

Superpowered collaboration → an open space to exchange perspectives, foster empathy, and transform noise into actionable insight.

If you believe creativity, empathy, and human connection are the real edge in a VUCA world, come discover your superpowers.

Where

Nova School of Business and Economics - Room B130

YOUR FACILITATOR

Daniela Basílio is an Innovation Consultant, Designer, and Facilitator with 12+ years of experience helping organizations transform insights into impactful action. She has led projects for global players such as IKEA, Roche, Leroy Merlin, and Fidelidade, always with a focus on human-centered research and practical innovation.

Her belief: the right questions—asked with empathy and curiosity—are the real superpower for creating innovation that benefits everyone, where others might only see noise.

Join us to activate your human superpowers and see opportunities to make meaningful difference!

THE DESIS Lab @NOVA SBE DESIGN GYM FALL 2025

The new 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 the DESIS (DESIGN for Social Innovation and Sustainability) Lab @ NOVA SBE with the support of students' Nova Growth Club, which focus on unleashing a new generation of future leaders who are aware of the impact they want to have in their lives and know 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/