Welcome - Innovation: An Introduction to Design Thinking MGMT 2902   Innovation: An Introduction to Design Thinking
CREDIT HOURS: 3
Ever wonder how great ideas turn into innovative solutions people, organizations or communities want to adopt? In today's highly dynamic workplaces, innovation has become not only a priority, but a driving force in the pursuit of financial returns, competitive edge and social impact / social good. Moreover, employers such as Pixar, AirBnb, the Government of Canada and the United Nations, to name a few, have identified the ability to promote innovation and engage in creative practices as essential competencies for their employees and future leaders. Many of these organizations adopt an approach to innovative problem solving called Design Thinking. Design Thinking’s mindset, process and rich collection of methods emphasize the importance of keeping an understanding of people and communities at the core of problem-solving efforts. A design thinking exercise offers the promise of producing ideas and solutions that are desirable for the user (of a product or service), customer or community. This course will explore what we mean when use the word innovation and its relevance to today’s organizations and workforce. We will devote some time to understanding barriers to creativity, the impact of these barriers to innovative pursuits and how they might be overcome. Finally, we will take an in-depth look at Design Thinking – its foundations, methods, and challenges with execution. This course combines theory and application. It provides students with a hands-on practical learning experience in which they will experiment with how design thinking can be used to develop solutions to real-world problems.
FORMAT: Lecture
PREREQUISITES: At least second-year standing