Design Thinking and Multidisciplinary Development Projects II, 15 credits

Main field of study

Course level

Advancement level

Course offered for

• Master`s Programme in Business Administration - Strategy and Management in International Organisations

Entry requirements

Bachelor's degree 180 ECTS credits, or equivalent and at least 7,5 ECTS credits passed from Design Thinking and Multdisciplinary Development I, 15 ECTS credits, or equivalent.

English corresponding to the level of English in Swedish upper secondary education (English 6/B).

Intended learning outcomes

After completion of the course, the student should, on an advanced level, be able to:

• Plan, develop, realize, test, evaluate and deliver a product, service, system and/or process that is viable (business aspects), feasible (technical aspects) and desirable (human aspects), and to do so within predetermined timeframes.
• Collect, organize and evaluate the information necessary to diagnose a complex problem
• In multidisciplinary teams, communicate across borders, give and take feedback, coordinate multiple tasks and activities as well as prioritize between them, in order to reach common goals.
• Communicate results to a multidisciplinary audience (orally and in writing)
• Use high-resolution and more advanced prototyping methods for products and services, such as 3D printing, Arduino, A / B testing, Business Model Prototypes and Functional Prototypes.
• Introduce other people to Basic Design Thinking and coach teams and individuals in their design projects.

Course content

This course brings together multidisciplinary, international students from different parts of the university to tackle corporate partners' real-world problems using a (Stanford) Design Thinking process. The course includes how to use a Design Thinking process in product and/or service development, through challenge-based learning in a studio environment. Student teams will prototype, test and iterate in order to develop and implement innovative solutions to real world design challenges posed by corporate sponsors. The course's focus is high resolution, functional prototypes. The students will not only learn about Design Thinking but also teach it to other people as well as coaching and supporting design teams.

Teaching and working methods

The course will start with, following Stanford's process, that teams do a one-day intensive boot camp as an overview to “design thinking” accompanied with practical exercises (small design challenge, etc.). The next step is to understand the problem space and here the students will do studies of the contexts for which they will design a solution in order to understand the user. Prototypes will be focused on divergence in solutions in order to explore as much space as possible. The majority of the course be spent in a design studio and the university lab facilities.

During the project, weekly team meetings are held at a fixed day and time, so that students get continuous feedback from the teaching team. These meetings will cover topics in the actual design phase or specific project issues. At regular intervals, students deliver (semi-)formal presentations and updates to their industry partners.

Company projects will in this course enter a converging phase where high resolution prototypes increasingly zoom in on an intended final solution. When it comes to Design Thinking as a method, this course will be focused on leadership and teaching others and here the students will among other things be assigned a design team that they are to coach in practice.

Examination

The course will be examined through:

• The prototypes
• The accompanying documentation (team report)
• Team presentations
• Individual participation in coaching with accompanying written reflections

Additional, detailed information about the examinations can be found in the course’s study guide. 

Students failing an exam covering either the entire course or part of the course twice are entitled to have a new examiner appointed for the reexamination.

Students who have passed an examination may not retake it in order to improve their grades.

Grades

Other information

Planning and implementation of a course must take its starting point in the wording of the syllabus. The course evaluation included in each course must therefore take up the question how well the course agrees with the syllabus. 

The course is carried out in such a way that both men´s and women´s experience and knowledge is made visible and developed.

Department