Become the person your team calls when they need help solving complex problems
Every organisation has a list of problems nobody can crack. Projects that keep stalling. Customers who keep complaining about the same thing. Processes everyone knows are broken but nobody has time to fix. Strategies that look good on slides and die on contact with reality.
The Certified Problem Solver programme teaches you how to walk into those problems and come out the other side with something that actually works. You'll learn the same methods used by product teams at Meralco, AXA, and the Asian Development Bank - combined with the AI tools that let a single practitioner do the work that used to take a team of five.
This isn't a theory course. By the end of six half-days, you'll have solved a real problem from your own work, tested it with real users, and earned a certificate that says you can do it again without us.
Use Case
Diagnose why a project isn't moving, reframe the real problem, and get the team unblocked in days instead of months.
Use Case
Find the exact moments where your customers are struggling - and prototype fixes before you commit a single peso of dev budget.
Use Case
Map the process as it actually runs - not as the SOP describes it - find the waste, and redesign the parts that matter.
Use Case
Validate the idea with real users before building. Stop betting the quarter on assumptions that could have been tested in a week.
Use Case
Run the kind of session people actually want to attend - structured, productive, and ending with something real on the table.
Use Case
Know which parts of your problem-solving to hand to AI, which to keep human, and how to tell when the AI is quietly wrong.
Why most "solutions" fail before they start
Research that doesn't take a research team
Turning raw findings into sharp problem statements
Beyond "ask ChatGPT for ideas"
From sketch to something testable
Graduation day
The problem solver's toolkit
Hands-on from day one - no theory-heavy lectures
Designed to fit your team's needs and schedule
Phil Smithson is the Chief Collaboration Officer of On-Off Group and a Human-Centered Design Facilitator at The World Bank Group. He has spent over a decade helping teams at Metrobank, AXA, AIA, Meralco, Cebu Pacific, ADB, and JP Morgan solve problems they'd previously given up on. His facilitation style is direct, inclusive, and allergic to corporate jargon - the same qualities that have made him a go-to for The World Bank Group's international missions in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Sri Lanka.
Phil has a software engineering background and has been working with AI tools since before the current hype cycle - which means the AI workflows he teaches actually hold up in practice. He facilitates Strategic Planning, Design Thinking, and problem-solving sessions, and has mentored leaders from public sector partners including public hospitals and Military Treatment Facilities. He speaks English, Filipino, and French.
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Vincent Bajamundi
Project Management Lead,
Tenet Global Health
Eliza Te,
Business Analyst,
Indra
Godofredo Buning, Jr,
Case Management and Engineering,
Meralco
Benjamin,
Business Analyst,
Indra
John Carlo Obo,
Integrations Team,
In1Go
This programme is designed for professionals and teams whose job involves solving problems other people depend on - in product, marketing, operations, strategy, HR, or leadership roles. It's ideal for anyone who wants to be the person their team turns to when something is stuck.
Not at all. No design experience required. No coding required - even for the AI prototyping sessions. If you can use a web browser, you can do this programme.
You'll work with Claude, ChatGPT, Idea2Prototype.com, and a handful of specialised tools for research synthesis and prototyping. We focus on workflows you can replicate on Monday morning - not the flashiest tool of the week.
A real problem from your work. It can be big or small, product or process, internal or customer-facing. By graduation you'll have applied every tool in the programme to that problem and will walk out with a tested, defensible solution.
The programme runs for six half-days, spread across six weeks. We also offer custom formats for private teams - 3 full days, alternative schedules, and specialised tracks for CX, product, operations, or government. Sessions can be conducted online or face-to-face.
Yes. Private cohorts are where this programme really shines - we can use your actual organisational challenges as the case study, customise the track, and deliver it online or face-to-face. Get in touch for a scoping conversation.
Yes - a Certified Problem Solver digital credential on completion of the graduation pitch. It's not a participation trophy; you have to actually solve something to get it.
Case Study
Case Study
