COURSE DESCRIPTION
Leverage the power of design thinking mindsets, methods, and tools to unlock breakthrough innovation, create new value ecosystems, create a differentiated business strategy, and solve complex business challenges. Design thinking is an iterative method that empathizes with customers’ needs and wants, co-designs new solutions and offerings, and rapidly prototypes and stress tests the solutions in the real world. Companies that thrive in a hyper-dynamic marketplace embed design thinking across every level of the organization.
COURSE FEATURES
DESIGN SPRINT
In the final four sessions of the course, students work in groups to run a design sprint that addresses a real world challenge or opportunity. The design sprint studio will apply the mindsets, process, and methods of design thinking and groups will pitch their design solutions to the class for feedback and evaluation.
CASE STUDIES
Case studies are presented throughout the course to demonstrate how design thinking is used in practice.
EXPERT GUEST LECTURES
Guest lectures by leading experts provide in-depth information and insights.
LAUNCH LAB
The optional Launch Lab follows the course and helps students get their product, service or experience designs into the real world by developing a compelling story and connecting them with the people and organizations who work in their solution areas.
MATERIALS
COURSE SYLLABUS
Session 1
The ambidextrous organization: design thinking meets business
Combine design thinking with business strategy to unlock breakthrough innovation, create new value ecosystems, and solve complex business challenges.
Session 2
Applied design thinking: the business design and testing loop
Systematically explore, shape, and test new ideas to reduce risk and rapidly iterate to a new products, services, experiences, and business models.
Session 3
Reality is broken: design thinking and human-centricity
Design thinking is intensely human-centric and utilizes specific tools to generate customer empathy and create value for the people directly impacted by an opportunity or a problem.
Session 4
Embracing chaos: managing complexity and risk with design thinking
Complexity and uncertainty are fundamental features of the business landscape. Design thinking approaches and tools are used to discover, design, and develop new value propositions inside hyper-complex and fluid business ecosystems.
Session 5
The design thinker’s rubric: understanding macro-cultures and micro-issues
Successful business models and value propositions are consciously designed for the current macro-culture and address specific issues within that culture. Design thinking tools provide visibility into customers’ needs across the cultural and jobs-to-be-done layers.
Session 7
SPECIAL TOPIC: Innovating for the experience economy
Experiences represent economic offerings distinct from products and services. Design thinking enables businesses to design and deploy highly differentiated, and profitable, experiences that create unique value and are difficult to copy.
Session 6
The invincible company: explore the future and exploit the present
Companies must continually reinvent themselves by simultaneously designing the future and exploiting the present. Innovation and execution must coexist and effective tools and systems are needed for each domain.
Session 8
Design thinking, Lean methodology, and Agile delivery
Design thinking, lean methodology, and agile delivery form an over-arching set of processes that, when correctly connected, can rapidly and successfully move an idea from discovery to delivery.
Session 9
Serious play: embracing ambiguity through low-fidelity prototyping
Building and testing light weight, inexpensive prototypes of a product, service, or experience is crucial to getting early and real-time feedback of a new idea’s desirability, feasibility, viability, and adaptability.
Session 10
Creating a culture of design innovation
A successful design and innovation culture rarely, if ever, creates itself; it must be intentionally designed and cultivated. Design thinking can be used to uncover innovation culture enablers and blockers, define and design desired behaviors, and understand and measure culture outcomes.
Session 11
SPECIAL TOPIC: Design thinking for storytelling
Every value proposition and business model tells a story. The story that it tells must be designed to connect to peoples’ fundamental needs, wants, and dreams. Design thinking can be used to create authentic stories and tell them in a way that moves people to act.
Session 12: human-centered design sprint
EMPATHIZE
Students form groups, identify and frame a real-world challenge or opportunity, and select and action a set of human-centered research methods to build empathy with a set of targeted users.
Session 13: human-centered design sprint
CO-CREATE
Students work with potential users to co-design approaches and solutions to a problem or opportunity. Students then rapidly create lo-fidelity prototypes of the new product, service, or experience.
Session 14: human-centered design sprint
PROTOTYPE & TEST
Students test their prototype in a real-world setting to gather rapid feedback, evaluate their design, and iterate the solution.
Session 15: human-centered design sprint
DESIGN SPRINT PITCHES
Design groups pitch their designs and designs are evaluated and critiqued.
Join the optional post-course Launch Lab to help get your human-centered solution into the real world.
The optional Launch Lab follows the course and provides resources to help you tell the story of your product, service, or experience design and connect with people and organizations who work in your solution area. Get resources and personalized input to:
Tell a compelling human story of your product, service, or experience
Create world-class content and a multi-channel communications strategy
Find and connect to the people and organizations who work in your solution area