My academic journey began with the first lecture and practice of the Mastering Design Thinking course led by Ainur Kalimoldaeva and lecturer Tursinzada Kuangalieva.

The first lecture covered examples of successful application of design thinking in companies such as Amazon and Google. We were also introduced to the Agile methodology and the Miro tool, which are closely related to design thinking. This knowledge became the basis for further practical assignments.

After the lecture itself, I found myself thinking about: How can I apply this process to specific tasks? How can design thinking affect my critical thinking and visual perception? What practical skills can I develop by applying design thinking?

As explained to me and as I understood it: The process involves five steps: "Empathizing," "Defining," "Ideating," "Prototyping," and "Testing."

The first challange I familiarized myself with: Empathic Journal The first assignment required me to create an Empathic Journal in which I chose an issue from my daily life and documented my observations, thoughts, and feelings about that issue. This exercise laid the foundation for the Empathy phase of the design thinking process. And then I got thinking, and a lot of ideas haunted me.... (But I wanted to win all the general acceptance of my group and of course Ainur)