LEARNING FROM THE EXPERTS: DESIGN SCHOOL FACULTY PERSPECTIVES ON DESIGN THINKING

Panelists

2

 

Jeremy AlexisIllinois Institute of Technology (IIT)

Nathan ShedroffCalifornia College of the Arts

Moderator: Jeanne Liedtka, UVA Darden School

 

 

Question 1

3

 

What are the core lessons that you want to leave your students with about the design approach?

 

 

Start with a narrow user group and a broad activity

4

 

 

 

Button on the kiosk

Check in experience

Air Travel

Mobility

Lead UserUniversal Design:

Pick a sufficiently abstract activity: Pick a “seed” customer group:

Sketch to think, prototype to test

5

 

 

 

There are many forms of sketching: Prototyping can reduce uncertainty:

Framework: Lauren Braun  /  Paul Keck  /  John Shin  /  Stephanie Smith 2012

6

 

 

 

We learn as much by making as thinking—and different things.

Product Dev. Isn’t just another check box.

Reframing is the critical step.

Everything should be designed, including business models, strategies, and plans.

Design is fiction—but so is business.

“MAKE” is the new “THINK”

RIGHT BRAIN(EXPERIENTIAL)

LEFTBRAIN(ANALYTICAL)

7

 

 

 

No one creates great things by themselves(Everyone is needed)

Critique ≠ Testing

Design Research ≠Market Research

Critique is Necessary and Positive (when done well).

8

 

 

 

Meaning can be evoked strategically

Product experiencesand customer relationshipsare narratives.

Meaning is the Most Important Offer

Question 2

9

What do you see as the big obstacles facing non-design faculty as they introduce design thinking into the curriculum?

 

 

Case learning versus project learning

10

VS.

Develop alternatives (brainstorming and sketching)

DED

UCT

ION

INDU

CTIO

N

Frame the start

Observe and get inspired

Abstract and restate opportunity space

Make recommendations

Prove or disprove hypotheses

Generate hypotheses

You need to love ambiguity

There is no “recipe” (though there is a process).

Numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Design thinking leads you places you don’t expect (and to better solutions).

Cooperation is as important as competition.

Business Administrators won’t “get it.”

Design Thinking Disturbs Analytical Thinkers

Question 3

13

 

What advice would you give Business School faculty interested in teaching design thinking?

 

 

Question 3

14

• Develop your point of view

• Practice critique 

• Break as many rules as feasible

• Don’t teach using PPTs with bullet points   

 

Partner with others who already know the process (faculty, professionals, etc.).

Mix students from different backgrounds.

Get students to suspend their disbelief.

Find or build a “studio:” large open spaces instead of lecture halls.

Write on the walls (and everything else).

You Can’t Teach Design in a Lecture Hall

Un-teach Students Traditional Business

“The business of business is business.”“Corporations are people, my friend.”“Free Markets”“Leadership follows authority.”“The Founding Fathers were pro-business.”“You need to protect your ideas.”

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