Following on the success in previous years, STBY again co-organised and co-lectured the third edition of this 8-week master course at the Business School of the University of Amsterdam. Together with Dr. Wietze van der Aa, we supervised 35 international business and management students who are all keen to immerse themselves in a more Design-Driven and Human-Centered approach to Business Innovation.
Among the key references for this course is the book ‘Designing for Growth’ by Jeanne Lietke & Tom Ogilvie. They introduce a useful 4-staged approach with well illustrated examples of 10 specific tools that can be used (see the visual above). The students can take inspiration from this, and also make use of a range of other references and toolkits we introduce them to our own collection.
From early February and late March 2015 the students followed an intensive programme of lectures and workshops, while working in small groups on 7 specific challenges set by Philips. The high paced and collaborative approach of the course is exceptional for university-based education. As this is what most of them will encounter in their careers after graduation, the course gives them a solid heads up. In addition to the group assignment, based on the challenge from Philips, the students also need to write an individual paper, based on a relevant selection of the associated literature.
Giddy from their final presentations at Philips, the students traveled back from Eindhoven and sent us this lovely picture. Thank you guys! Good luck with the final leg of your studies, and hope you make good use of the experiences built up during our course.