About this course: Today innovation is everyone's business. Whether you are a manager in a global corporation, an entrepreneur starting up, in a government role, or a teacher in an elementary school, everyone is expected to get lean – to do better with less. And that is why we all need design thinking. At every level in every kind of organization, design thinking provides the tools you need to become an innovative thinker and uncover creative opportunities that are there – you're just not seeing them yet. In this course, we provide an overview of design thinking and work with a model containing four key questions and several tools to help you understand design thinking as a problem solving approach. We also look at several stories from different organizations that used design thinking to uncover compelling solutions.

Created by: University of Virginia

Taught by: Jeanne M. Liedtka, United Technologies Corporation Professor of Business Administration
Darden School of Business

Level	Beginner
Commitment	5 weeks of study, 1-2 hours/week
Language	English
How To Pass	Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings	4.6 stars Average User Rating 4.6See what learners said

Syllabus

WEEK 1

What Is Design Thinking?

Welcome to the course -- we're excited you're here! We will begin by unpacking what we mean by design thinking and why it is more effective than traditional methods when the goal is innovation. By looking at the case history of The Good Kitchen, a Denmark prog...

7 videos, 2 readings

WEEK 2

Preparing Your Mind for Innovation

Design thinking is not only about process and tools, it is about people as well: about you as a design thinker and about the people you want to create value for and with. And so, before we jump into the process of using design thinking to generate and test ide...

4 videos

WEEK 3

Idea Generation

Now we will dive deeper into the design thinking process, looking at how we can use it to generate better ideas. In this module, we will look at the story of an entrepreneur, Chris Cartter, and his start-up, MeYouHealth, as they worked with Boston design firm,...

4 videos

WEEK 4

Experimentation

Having generated all of these innovative ideas, what’s next? The design thinking process now helps us to take the many ideas we have generated and figure out how to determine which ones are likely to produce the specific kinds of outcomes we want, whether thes...

5 videos

WEEK 5

Final Assignment

This module hosts materials related to your final assignment for the course. The assignment requires selecting one of the design thinking tools presented in the course, writing a reflection, and completing three peer reviews. To successfully complete the cours...

1 reading, 1 practice quiz

Graded: Reflection

FAQs

How It Works

Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.

Certificates

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Creators

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is distinctive among institutions of higher education. Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, and located on a World Heritage site in Charlottesville, the University sustains the ideal of developing, through education, leaders who are well-prepared to help shape the future of the nation. The University is public, while nourished by the strong support of its alumni. It is also selective; the students who come here have been chosen because they show the exceptional promise Jefferson envisioned.

Pricing

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