Gamification played a big role for the learning process for Design Thinking, as implemented in Playful Learning Journey with Top Talent Telkom Indonesia.

As part of developing new ways of thinking and problem-solving methods, design thinking has become popular and soon after was rapidly adopted in several world-class brands and taught at leading universities around the world. A flash information about the term “design thinking” itself, as noted by Tim Brown, CEO of innovation and design firm IDEO, on his website:

See the potential of design thinking as an innovation that drives an effective learning process, Kummara with Telkom Indonesia create Playful Learning Journey program, specially designed for Top Talent awardee – refers to Telkom selected junior employee. With 41 participants in total, this program combining game based-learning and gamification approaches, aims to equip participant with design thinking knowledge, to be able to present product innovation that supports the vision and mission of Telkom Indonesia.

Playful Learning Journey was held in 13-17 December 2021, and divided into two sessions; Synchronous Online Facilitated Game-Based Learning (OFGBL) and Asynchronous Design Thinking & Innovation. Starting with OFGBL on the first day, participants invited to play Loop, a game set in the most expansive tech company in the market.

During the game, they will role as a part of Loop Mobile innovation team who tasked to develop the best mobile phone on the market. Like a real company where the employee will separated based on their skills, in this game the player will deal with three different divisions – Understand, Ideate and Development. “Each player token will have unique skill, so it is important to place the token according to their skill to match with their area.” Eko Nugroho, CEO of Kummara, explained. “They also have to do various actions, such as research on market preferences and implement new ideas.”

Move to Asynchronous Design Thinking & Innovation session for the next three days, the participants were invited to the Telegram group and get some lesson material related to what they learned in synchronous session. Beside that, they also asked to do some challenges such as create Know-Your-Customer questions, build a Mind Map, until present their “innovation” based on their research.

This program was closed with Top Talent Sharing session in the last day, which participants allowed to share their ideas and pick what team with the best result by vote.