Design Thinking and Innovation

Design Thinking and Innovation is part of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Learning Track. If you’re interested in developing deeper insights and expertise, you can choose to complete three entrepreneurship and innovation courses within 18 months to earn a Certificate of Specialization.

Syllabus

Design Thinking and Innovation equips current and aspiring innovation managers with the design thinking principles and innovative problem-solving tools to solve business challenges and guide their organization’s strategy. The course features five weeks of course content and two weeks of project work, enabling you to put your learning into practice. Leaders interviewed include Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, Royal Philips CEO Frans van Houten, and T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert, among others. Participants will walk away with an innovation toolkit of frameworks and exercises for identifying business opportunities and generating possible solutions for their organization’s initiatives.

Learning requirements: In order to earn a Certificate of Completion, participants must thoughtfully complete all 7 modules (5 content weeks and 2 project weeks) by stated deadlines

Leaders interviewed:

• Stéphane Bancel, CEO, Moderna
• Sean Carney, CDO and Business Leader for Healthcare Transformation Services, Royal Philips
• Phil Gilbert, General Manager, Design, IBM
• Frans van Houten, CEO, Royal Philips
• D. R. Mehta, Founder and Chief Patron, BMVSS
• Shani Sandy, Design Executive, IBM
• Mike Sievert, CEO, T-Mobile
• Yoni Stern, Partner and SVP of Business Development, Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT)
• Christi Zuber, Managing Director and Founder, Aspen Labs

Download Syllabus

Modules	Case Studies	Takeaways	Key Exercises
Module 1: Content Week - Clarify: Empathy and Understanding	BMVSS: Changing Lives, One Jaipur Limb at a Time	Define users’ explicit pain points and latent needs Reframe the innovation context to identify the most game-changing part of the problem Analyze the organizational environment for the ideal conditions for insightful thinking	Problem Framing: Reframe problems from various perspectives (deep, emotional, broad, and dynamic) to identify new pain points and make new solutions possible
Module 2: Project Week - Clarify		Practice researching the innovation context and empathizing with users and customers Increase your ability to adopt insightful perspectives through structured tools	Project: Apply tools from Module 1 to an innovation problem of your own choosing, or a provided scenario
Module 3: Content Week - Ideate, Part 1: Tools for Generating Ideas	IBM: Design Thinking	Develop the design principles that will help you create user-focused ideas Experiment with ideation tools for breaking cognitive fixedness and generating ideas Explore structured but open-ended approaches to ideation such as alternate worlds and brainstorming	SIT’s Closed World: Divide an existing product, service, model, or strategy into components and manipulate them to break cognitive fixedness and generate ideas
Module 4: Content Week - Ideate, Part 2: User Values and Behaviors	Innovation at Insigne Health	Refine innovation ideas using design heuristics Apply research-based personas and behavior models to make innovations easier to adopt	B. J. Fogg Behavioral Model: Identify prompts to improve users’ ability and motivation to engage in a desired behavior
Module 5: Project Week - Ideate		Practice generating ideas and evaluating them against research and key insights Increase your ability to break cognitive fixedness through structured tools	Project: Apply tools from Modules 3 and 4 to your innovation problem or the provided scenario
Module 6: Content Week - Develop: An Experimentation Mindset	frog design	Combine ideas into complex innovation concepts Critique and strengthen concepts using evaluation tools Guide prototyping by creating critical questions related to a concept’s desirability, feasibility, and viability	Concept Poster: Organize all information about an innovation concept to identify critical questions for prototyping
Module 7: Content Week - Implement: Communication and Structure	Royal Philips: Designing Toward Profound Change	Assess developer and user perspectives for bias that may affect implementation Apply frameworks to strengthen communications about an innovation’s value Reflect on management skills for sustaining a culture of innovation	Stakeholder Analysis: Compare the resistance and status-quo bias of key stakeholders and develop a communication plan

The HBS Online Advantage

• World-class faculty
• Edge-of-your-seat online learning
• Global peer collaboration and networking
• Real-world projects, case-based learning

Harvard Business School Online offers a unique and highly engaging way to learn vital business concepts. Immerse yourself in real challenges faced by leading businesses, including BMVSS, IBM, Insigne Health, Frog Design, and Philips. You’ll wrestle with the issues they faced, all while engaging with fellow learners from around the world.