When we got to work with the Lab, we got your expertise on the design thinking, as well as the other colleges to work with, and learning from them, with them, bringing in the experts that you’ve brought to help us better understand our students and what the world of possibility is. It has been amazing.
How can we help?
The Lab’s superpower is to co-design and build equitable, learner-centered approaches with colleges, universities, employers, foundations, and regions.
If you need to design specifically for certain learner groups, grapple with how to adapt to the future of learning and work, or get to quick proof-points in a fast-evolving school-to-employment world, we specialize in that.
Our Services
Design, Launch, Scale Pilots
Design Challenges for Cohorts of Institutions or Partners
We work with cohorts of institutions over 1-2 years to co-create and launch new solutions to adapt to the changing needs of learners and employers
Custom Design Challenges for Institutions
We work with your faculty, administrators, and staff over 6-12 months on individual challenges to co-create new transformative solutions to drive learner success or define new markets
Make In-demand Skills More Visible + Portable
Jumpstart Strategies for Micro-credentials and Sub-degree Offerings
We support your administration and faculty in co-creating stackable micro-credentials to create more visible and actionable career pathways
Co-design with Employers to Create Data-driven Pathways
We facilitate with labor market data and local employers to help redefine and streamline learning pathways to higher paying jobs
Take a Regional Approach to Define New Credentials
We manage collaboratives to test and launch faster pathways to meet critical economic growth talent demand
Start Credentialing 21st Century Skills
We support institutions or workplaces in the intentional teaching, assessing, and credentialing for high demand 21st century skills
Training in Human-centered Design and Change Management
Example Services
Help Your Administrators, Faculty, Staff, Trustees, and Other Stakeholders Truly Understand Learner Needs
Our human-centered research team offers immersive sprints toward powerful, unique insights into the lived personal and learning experience of current and desired learner population(s)
Diagnose Your College’s True Value Proposition in a DIY Learning World
Our Lab team can help your administrators and faculty uncover your institutions key strengths and differentiators to better compete in the educational marketplace
Use Human-centered Design to Shift Mindsets About Institutional and Faculty Roles
Our Education Designers help your administrators, faculty, staff look into the future of work and learning and re-design processes and structures with the learner’s needs at the center
Set Up a Rapid Prototyping Innovation Lab for Learners and Faculty
Our Lab team can support your institution in co-designing and launching a rapid prototyping center for innovation that addresses the future of work and future of learning
Our Process
We offer a proven structured design + build process that combines cutting-edge expertise in the future of work with a decade of human-centered design experience.
We follow a four-stage process, honed over 10 years of working with over 1,000 colleges and organizations, working with you on the ground to facilitate your design team, bring in subject matter experts, and harness insights from learners, faculty, employers, and staff to optimize opportunity spaces with data-driven concepts. Our project managers stay with you through an iterative pilot and evaluation stage.

Why the Lab?
We come with:
- An innovation community of 2500 collaborators
- Deep education and employer expertise
- Micro-credentialing Expertise
- An equity lens
- A vision for the future of #AgileLearning in the age of the Learner Revolution
- A track record managing and scaling large multi-stakeholder projects
We are:
- Pioneers in human-centered design for education institutions
- A nonprofit with strong entrepreneurial skills
Featured Partners
American College of Education (ACE)
Alamo Colleges District
American University
Arizona State University
Badgr
Catholic University of America
Central New Mexico Community College
Collin College
Credly
City University of New York (CUNY)
Delgado Community College
ECMC Foundation
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Florida International University
George Mason University
Georgetown University
Goodwill San Antonio
Harper College
Ivy Tech Community College
League for Innovation in the Community College
Lumina Foundation
Miami Dade College
Michael and Susan Dell Foundation
Michigan Colleges
Minnesota State IT Center of Excellence
Monroe Community College
Northern Illinois University
Northern Virginia Community College
Pima Community College
San Antonio Works
Township High School District 211
U.S. Department of Education
United Negro College Fund (UNCF)
University of Maine System
University of North Texas
Virginia Western Community College
Walmart
Western Governors University
Interested in working with us?
To get in touch, please email us at connect@eddesignlab.org or fill out the contact form linked below with any business inquiries and we will get back to you shortly!