Design Thinking for Innovation

student: Francesco Rizzi      Final Assignment

Challenge  Me and my team were contracted as design consultants for innovation by a Training Company  that offers courses for businessmen/women and entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs have  various levels of knowledge and seek the most diverse types of courses, from basic courses to  more advanced courses in order to help them start a new business or improve their current  business. The Training Company has noticed a recurring decline in demand for its courses. So  we ran some design thinking activities and we mapped different customer profiles (personas)  and what was their main concerns which was causing the decreasing search for courses. The  main problem identified was that the lessons are being given just as 20 years ago - in a  “traditional” way, but the society has changed a lot since then. So, our challenge was to change  the dynamics and methodology of the classes, the tools used and the physical space that must  change to adapt the new reality of the students (access to technology, more information but less  time to learn).    Selection  As we have gone through other design thinking activities that allowed us identify the best  solution, we realised that we were ready to test the Learning Launch tool. This tool would allows  us to quickly test whether the new idea and concept of the classroom that we designed will meet  the students’ desires.    Application  The strategy for our learning launch was trying to test a new concept of classroom, class  dynamics and instructional design. Our assumption was that a new classroom layout would  engage students in a more dynamic class.     We reorganize the classroom with whiteboards around its wall, 3 lcd televisions in which the  students could group together and research topics together and also present their findings to  other classmates. We also asked the instructor to reorganize the class content, so the studends  would be engaged in trying to solve a problem (we called it a “mission”) without a previous  content/knowledge. This would test our assumption that students would be more engaged after  trying to accomplish a task - they would probably fail, but mainly they would understand “why”  they are learning.    Insight  After running the first learning launch test, we realized that our first assumptions seemed to be  right, but we are not able to compare with a more “traditional” classroom. So we ran a second

test, this time we created the same course with two different structures: one with a more “  traditional” approach and another one with the more innovative way. Doing this, was possible to  realize what worked better in the new classroom. We also tried to change some students during  the course to observe how they would react to different contexts of classroom, and we found  that the “traditional” students scored less than others in the final assignment.    Approach  When this training company contact us to solve their problem, we gone through several design  thinking activities but their staff (teachers and coordinators) were not confident if their ideas and  assumptions would work for real. So the best way to confirm if their idea would work was to  prototype and test in a real environment. So the best way to do this was using the leaning  launch tool.


Design Thinking for Innovation student : Francesco Rizzi Final Assignment Challenge Me and my team were contracted as design consultants for innovation by a Training Company that offers courses for businessmen / women and entrepreneurs . These entrepreneurs have various levels of knowledge and seek the most diverse types of courses , from basic courses to more advanced courses in order to help them start a new business or improve their current business . The Training Company has noticed a recurring decline in demand for its courses . So we ran some design thinking activities and we mapped different customer profiles ( personas ) and what was their main concerns which was causing the decreasing search for courses . The main problem identified was that the lessons are being given just as 20 years ago - in a “ traditional ” way , but the society has changed a lot since then . So , our challenge was to change the dynamics and methodology of the classes , the tools used and the physical space that must change to adapt the new reality of the students ( access to technology , more information but less time to learn ) . Selection As we have gone through other design thinking activities that allowed us identify the best solution , we realised that we were ready to test the Learning Launch tool . This tool would allows us to quickly test whether the new idea and concept of the classroom that we designed will meet the students ’ desires . Application The strategy for our learning launch was trying to test a new concept of classroom , class dynamics and instructional design . Our assumption was that a new classroom layout would engage students in a more dynamic class . We reorganize the classroom with whiteboards around its wall , 3 lcd televisions in which the students could group together and research topics together and also present their findings to other classmates . We also asked the instructor to reorganize the class content , so the studends would be engaged in trying to solve a problem ( we called it a “ mission ” ) without a previous content / knowledge . This would test our assumption that students would be more engaged after trying to accomplish a task - they would probably fail , but mainly they would understand “ why ” they are learning . Insight After running the first learning launch test , we realized that our first assumptions seemed to be right , but we are not able to compare with a more “ traditional ” classroom . So we ran a second test , this time we created the same course with two different structures : one with a more “ traditional ” approach and another one with the more innovative way . Doing this , was possible to realize what worked better in the new classroom . We also tried to change some students during the course to observe how they would react to different contexts of classroom , and we found that the “ traditional ” students scored less than others in the final assignment . Approach When this training company contact us to solve their problem , we gone through several design thinking activities but their staff ( teachers and coordinators ) were not confident if their ideas and assumptions would work for real . So the best way to confirm if their idea would work was to prototype and test in a real environment . So the best way to do this was using the leaning launch tool .