Nguyen Tat Thanh University Students Practice Design Thinking in Customer Needs Research

Nguyen Tat Thanh University has successfully organized a training session on “Applying Design Thinking in Customer Needs Research”, equipping students with methods for customer empathy, market research skills, and building solutions based on practical needs, contributing to enhancing the quality of startup projects.

The class was instructed by MSc. Huynh Hong Mai – Deputy Director of the Center for Innovation and Startup Incubation at Nguyen Tat Thanh University, attracting hundreds of participants in a hybrid format (both in-person and online), creating flexible conditions for students to practice and improve their market research skills.

Overview of the in-person training session at Hall A801 – Nguyen Tat Thanh University

Some images of online classes within the framework of the training program “Applying Design Thinking in Customer Needs Research”

At the class, participants were guided on how to apply design thinking, especially the customer empathy stage, in the process of forming and developing startup ideas. Through practical activities, trainees step-by-step defined target customer profiles, identified practical problems, built need hypotheses, and designed survey plans suitable for their projects.

The training content also focused on helping students transition from the approach of “thinking on behalf of the customer” to “understanding the customer through data and actual observation”. This is an important foundation for project teams to verify problems, assess the suitability of solutions, and prepare comprehensive, evidence-based market reports.

MSc. Huynh Hong Mai lecturing and guiding students through practical exercises

Additionally, trainees were instructed on how to build experimental survey plans, choose methods for information collection, analyze data, and evaluate market demands to refine product models, services, or startup solutions.

Sharing about the implementation of the project “Soul Music Center”, student Nguyen Tien Phat (NIIE Institute) stated that the team faced quite a few difficulties in accurately identifying the needs and behaviors of target customers, especially young customers whose musical preferences change rapidly. Furthermore, designing appropriate surveys and collecting actual data also required a lot of time, demanding continuous adjustments for effectiveness.

However, after participating in the training session, the team approached customer research through an empathetic lens, thereby building a more effective survey plan and gradually refining the project’s development direction. “To overcome the difficulties in grasping the rapidly changing preferences of youth and designing survey forms, the team directly applied the Empathy Map tool introduced in class. Instead of using only closed survey questions, we switched to in-depth interviews using open-ended questions, focusing on the emotional experiences and actual music-listening behaviors of young people. This approach helped us collect more authentic data, minimize trial-and-error time, and quickly adjust the survey forms to fit the research subjects,” Tien Phat shared further.

According to MSc. Huynh Hong Mai, a common limitation among students when researching the market is the mindset of “thinking on behalf of the customer”. Many teams often make assumptions about market needs based on their own perspectives or preferences rather than starting from data and actual observation. This leads to building solutions that assume the market’s path without truly hitting the customers’ pain points. “Therefore, the training session was designed to help students change their market research mindset, approach customers through empathy, and learn how to collect and analyze actual data before proposing solutions. This is also an important foundation for them to develop startup ideas in a feasible direction that truly meets market demands,” MSc. Huynh Hong Mai emphasized.

Trainees alongside their practical products during the program

Through this training session, Nguyen Tat Thanh University continues to reaffirm its orientation of accompanying students in innovation and startup activities. Equipping students with design thinking, customer research skills, and market analysis capability not only helps them refine ideas according to practical needs but also builds a solid foundation to develop feasible projects, preparing them to participate in domestic and international competitions, incubation programs, and startup ecosystems.

News: Dai Hai – Thanh Huong

Photos: Media Team