Course Learning Objectives
When we are aiming to create something truly novel, there is no previous knowledge or data that we could utilize in planning for the realization of our offering. The information required to make the plan has to be created through smart experiments; experimenting with ideas in practice in a manner that generates understanding, insights and information to validate the choices that need to be made to develop a successful product, service or entirely new business.
If the target level is to create a genuinely novel offering or a new business (i.e. a complex combination of tangible and intangible elements), we face a high level of uncertainty. How will customers react to the new offering, interact with it and accept it? One cannot simply plan these complex new combinations of actions and other elements together, into a successful ensemble. The domain of actions related to experimentation is fundamentally different from the domain of words and concepts, related to planning. Just as one cannot learn to swim by reading books and making plans, neither can one create genuinely novel offerings by mere planning.
In this type of uncertain environments, we need to experiment in order to be able to plan; the experiments will create the specification. Therefore, instead of specification-driven processes, we need experimentation-driven processes. And that is where this course will focus on. From the very early phases, the students will design and execute experiments testing the physical, intangible and management aspects of their ideas. This is an opportunity to experience the hands-on, action-oriented entrepreneurial process.
The core of the course is the challenges given to the student teams by different organizations. During three months, the teams work on the brief, solving real life challenges through an experimentation-driven process. The teams produce alternative solutions to the given challenge, test these ideas in real context, and at the end of the course present conceptual propositions of possible solutions.
The course is organized in collaboration with Aalto University, Finland, and the teams at ESADE will collaborate with student teams in Aalto University.
This course seeks to assist you in:
Developing ideas that have the potential to challenge industry conventions
o Understanding that industries and conventions are above all mental constructions that can be challenged in many ways
o Learning some conceptual procedures for finding new value from any industry
o Identifying, developing, and assessing opportunities for new business
Developing your skills in moving ideas into action quickly
o Understanding that the best way of creating something genuinely novel is through iterative testing and development
o Learning to carry out practical experiments that create new learning on aspects central to the successful realization of the idea
o Learning to develop so called experimentation ideas and collect execution ideas
Developing your managerial skills
o Innovation project management
o Managing a multidisciplinary team
o Managing a dispersed development team (mixed teams)
o Managing a client relationship
Applying your previous knowledge in design thinking, innovation management and entrepreneurship
Bibliography
- Anderson, Simester, 2011, A step-by-step guide to smart business experiments, Harvard Business Review, March, pp. 98-105.
- Brown, T. 2008, Design Thinking, Harvard Bsuiness Review, June 2008, pp. 84-92.
- Davenport, T.H. 2009, How to Design Smart Business Experiments, Harvard Business Review, February, 2009, pp. 68-76.
- Gunther McGrath, Rita; MacMillan, Ian C. 1997: Discovering New Points of Differentiation. Harward Business Review July-August 1997
- Kim, W. Chan; Mauborgne Renée 2005: Blue Ocean Strategy: From theory to practice. California Management Review Spring 2005.
- Kim, W. Chan; Mauborgne Renée 1999: Creating New Market Space. Harvard Business Review January-February 1999.
- Moore, Geoffrey A. 2004: Innovating Within Established Enterprises. Harvard Business Review July-August 2004.
- Den Ouden, Elke (2012). Innovation Design. Creating Value for People, Organizations and Society. Springer: London. (Chapters 3-5.)
- Passera, S., Kärkkäinen, H., Maila, R. (2012). When, how, why prototyping? A practical framework for service development, in Proceeding of the XXIII ISPIM Conference, 16-19 June, Barcelona, Spain.
- Buchenau, M. & Fulton Suri, J. (2000) Experience Prototyping. Proceedings of the 3rd conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques,DIS, New York, USA, pp. 424-433.
