Not the HR Department, Experience Workshop!

What Would You Do If Your Employees Were Your Customers?

Let's pause and think for a moment.
The amazing people who come to work every day, struggling with projects, rushing from meeting to meeting... How "humane" are the processes we design for them?

Those long forms in recruitment, those cold performance reviews held once a year, those thick procedure manuals that no one reads...
Let's be honest, most of them are boring.

What if I told you, "Throw all of this away!"
Or at least, put a big question mark on it.
Because the future of HR lies not in procedures, but in experiences.

Just like how Apple sells not a phone, but an experience, we need to offer not just a "job", but a work experience.

The name of this revolution: Design Thinking.

Design Thinking: A Human-Centered Revolution

As Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO, says:

“Design Thinking is an approach that uses the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”

In short, it is the art of getting up from the HR chair and spending a day in the shoes of our employees.

Inspired by Einstein: The Art of Understanding Before Solving

Einstein said:

“If you give me an hour to solve a problem, I will spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solution.”

This is exactly what Design Thinking is!
It’s the endeavor to fully understand the people experiencing the problem before jumping to the solution.

The process typically consists of these 5 simple yet powerful steps:

1. Dive In with Empathy (Empathize)

Instead of saying, “Employee engagement is low,” grab a coffee and sit next to Ayşe.
Ask, “What challenges do you face the most? What would you wish were different?” Listen to the real stories.

2. Reframe the Problem (Define)

With the information you gather, discover that the real issue isn’t “low engagement,” but
“Ayşe feeling isolated in new projects and losing her motivation.”

3. Brainstorm Wild Ideas (Ideate)

Now gather the team and stick those post-its up!
There’s no such thing as a bad idea.
Even “Let’s give new starters superhero capes!” is an idea.

4. Get Your Hands Dirty (Prototype)

Find the cheapest and fastest way to bring those brilliant ideas to life.
Did you think of a new orientation program?
Immediately prepare a 5-slide presentation in PowerPoint.
Do you have an idea for a mobile app? Sketch the interface with pen and paper.
It doesn’t have to be perfect — being “good enough” is sufficient.

5. Take the Stage and Test (Test)

Take that paper prototype, bring it to Ayşe and her team.
Ask, “How does it look? Do you think this would work?”
Develop, change, or even throw away your idea based on feedback.

Remember, this is a cycle.
Failure is the most educational part of this game.

Transforming HR Processes from "Boring" Mode to "Awesome" Mode

You can inject Design Thinking into every area of HR:

Recruitment:
Instead of sending automated and soulless emails to candidates, send a short and fun video about the process.
Or spend part of the interview chatting about a project where the candidate can showcase their skills.
This is not an exam; it's a meeting journey.

Performance Evaluation:
Transform those cold annual reviews into “Development Conversations” held every three months.
Focus should be on future potential, not past mistakes.

Training and Development:
Instead of assigning the same training to everyone, let employees design their own learning paths.
Maybe one prefers to learn by listening to podcasts, another by working on projects.

As Steve Jobs said:

“You must start the experience from the product itself.”

Our product is our company culture and employee experience.
And this experience begins the moment the first application button is clicked.

So, Where Do We Start?

You don't need to plan a massive revolution.
A little spark is enough.

1. Choose the Most Boring Process:
Is it the leave request form? The expense report?
Identify the process that receives the most complaints.

2. Form a Different "Guerrilla Team":
Don’t just have HR folks. Include an engineer, a marketer, maybe even the tea server Ahmet Abi.
Diverse perspectives are treasures.

3. Talk to Those Experiencing the Process:
Ask those filling out the form how they feel.

4. Make a Tiny Change and Test It:
Removing even two unnecessary boxes from the form might create a big difference.

Design Thinking shifts HR from a control center to an experience design workshop.
Our role is not to set rules; it’s to design an environment where people enjoy working.

Our Journey in Experience Design at Keiken

What we have shared is not just a theory — at Keiken, we are experiencing this approach firsthand.
We decided to apply Design Thinking for the first time on the issue of “first day stress,” which is one of the topics we received the most feedback on.

In conversations with our new team members, we realized that on their first days, they felt “lost,” didn’t know whom to ask what, and sometimes felt estranged from the company.
We chose to understand the problem this time with empathy instead of classic orientation processes.

Our solution was neither an expensive software nor a complex process.
Just a simple yet effective prototype:
A “Welcome Box” containing a fun drawing explaining our company culture, cards saying “You can ask me this,” plenty of coffee, chocolate, and a small notebook.

We first tested this box with five new employees.
With their feedback, we renewed the design, simplified the contents, and personalized it.
Today, every new Keiken employee is welcomed with this box on their first day — and they start with a smile.

We started with a tiny step, but the positive impact it created reminded us of something big:
Listening, experimenting, and centering around people always pays off.

In 2026, we plan to apply this approach not only in our internal processes but also in our clients’ HR projects.
Design Thinking is no longer just a method for us; it is a mindset.
And in our Design Thinking training sessions where we share this perspective, we invite you to be part of this transformation.

References

• Brown, T. (2008). Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review, June 2008.

• Quote attributed to Einstein: “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” (Common quote, exact source unknown.)

• IDEO U. (2020). The Five Stages of Design Thinking. IDEO University Learning Series.

• Stanford d.school (2021). An Introduction to Design Thinking Process Guide.

• Keiken Human Resources (2025). “Onboarding Experience Prototyping – Internal Project Note.”