As designers utilize design thinking while moving through a design space between problem and solution, they must rely on design intelligence, precedents, and intuition in order to arrive at meaningful and inventive outcomes. Thus, instructional designers must constantly re-conceptualize their own identities and what it means to be a designer. Within instructional design, professional identity development is intimately linked to the concept of design precedents. Reflective practice appears to be a natural avenue for supporting identity development in student designers, as it challenges them to think deeply about concepts and experiences through interpretation, evaluation, and revision. The authors conducted a preliminary study examining how graduate students in instructional design use reflection to build their identity as instructional designers within a design thinking framework. While this study was preliminary in nature, it represents an important first step in exploring how instructional design students can use reflective practice to develop the foundations of their professional identity, particularly within the design thinking framework.