Design Thinking for Business Innovation

From Idea to Global Sales – Take your Innovation to the Next Level with Design Thinking

Design Thinking for Business Innovation is an intensive program that will give you the skills to design new solutions that create value for the customer and your business. This seven-day program covers all the critical stages of innovation from idea to sales phase.

You will explore and understand the framework of Design Thinking, see it in action and learn how to practically apply it to business models in your organization.

Design Thinking for Business Innovation is a joint executive program created by Aalto EE and ESADBusiness School.

Why Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is a methodology for practical and creative approach to solve business challenges. Design Thinking methods guide towards solution-based thinking; it starts with a goal or what is to be achieved, instead of a problem. Design Thinking helps you to enhance creativity and capabilities to innovate.

Design Thinking approach and methodology can be applied to developing products, services and organizational practices.

By attending the program you will:

• Acquire a set of proven design tools to promote the early stages of innovation: capturing insights, creative thinking, ideation and prototyping
• Improve your skills to add value through customer understanding and interaction
• Develop skills for innovating in business models: from value creation to value capture and growth
• Acquire skills to better lead unique and winning innovation projects
• Increase your organization’s innovation capabilities with novel, effective approaches and methods

Contents and Schedule

The Design Thinking for Business Innovation program will be held in Helsinki, Finland and Barcelona, Spain during an intensive study period on May 23-31, 2018. The program starts with online module two weeks prior to the event days. This virtual kick-off will get you started with the program content as well as with the project assignment you will be working on during the program. The kick-off module is an integral part of the program, and will require about one working hour per week during the two weeks.

The seven program days in Helsinki and Barcelona include different kinds of sessions and activities such as

• lectures from experienced faculty members that are top experts in their own special field
• interactive discussions
• group work according the assignments given by the faculty
• learning by doing: step by step applying the design-driven innovation methods to business projects according the design thinking for business innovation process
• learning from others: experienced business practitioners from different industries or branches will present how design thinking is used in their organizations

Day 1: Discovering Design Thinking Methodology

Design Thinking and innovation

Design Thinking methodology and tools

Learning by doing: problem definition

Learning from others: practitioners take the floor

Day 2: Creating and Understanding Customer Value

Understanding what creates value for customers

Learning to use tools for assessing and improving customer value

Designing optimal value propositions

Learning by doing: creating customer insights

Learning from others: practitioners take the floor

Day 3: Developing Powerful Prototypes

• Idea generation process
• Creating concepts for potential solutions
• Designing fast prototypes
• Collecting feedback and user insights with prototypes
• Learn by doing: designing prototypes and testing

Day 4: Exploring Solutions through Experiments

• Managing projects with uncertainty
• From fast prototypes to market validation
• Designing and running entrepreneurial experiments
• Learn by doing: identifying uncertainties, designing experiment set-ups

Day 5: Designing Innovative Business Models

The importance of business models in Design Thinking innovation projects

Moving from value creation to value capture and growth

Managing perceived price and perceived value

Learning by doing: business model design

Learning from others: practitioners take the floor

Day 6: Bringing Innovations to Market

Product-market fit and traction modelling

Agile principles to accelerate learning

Scaling and growth

Learning by doing: agile learning

Project presentations

Day 7: Solving the Execution Challenge

• Implementing Design Thinking
• Graduation