UVA-BP-0550TN INNOVATION AND DESIGN THINKING Teaching ...

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4. What works? Having determined the answer to “What wows?” we are ready to translate
our ideas into actionable pilots to answer the question of “What works?”
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journey mapping
Figure 1. The design process model.
Based on these four questions and 10 tools, we have created a suggested 15-session course
outline (see Exhibit TN1), with accompanying materials and assignment questions. It can be
taught to either MBA or executive education classes. Many of the assignments include the
request that students apply what we are learning to a project they have selected. Design thinking
lends itself to that kind of action learning project. Although cases and exercises are useful in
introducing and demonstrating tools, we have found that requiring students to do project-related
work alongside these traditional techniques greatly accelerates their learning.
Suggested Course Flow
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value chain
analysis
mind
mapping
WHAT IS? WHAT IF? WHAT WOWS? WHAT WORKS?
Session 1: why design?
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rapid concept development
assumption
testing
prototyping
learning
launch
The opening session begins with an examination of what design thinking looks like in
practice. Out of a set of ten short innovation cases, we have selected two that I feel are
particularly well suited to give students a sense of what design thinkers do. The two managers,
John Haugh of Mars, Incorporated, and Jeff Semenchuk of Pfizer Inc., would not be familiar
with the nomenclature of design thinking—yet, they do naturally what we hope to teach our
student to do. Following these stories, we use the readings and videos to encourage a discussion
that explores the differences between our traditional analytic business approaches and this new
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co-creation
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