• 052810 - STRATEGIC DESIGN

• Cotutela con mondo esterno

The course fits into the overall program curriculum pursuing some of the defined general learning goals. In particular, the course contributes to the development of the following capabilities:

• Understand context, functions, processes in a business and industrial environment and the impact of those factors on business performance
• Identify trends, technologies and key methodologies in a specific domain (specialization streams)
• Develop new ideas and solutions in business and industrial scenarios evolving over time

Nowadays, design and design management nurture the organization strategic capabilities to create innovation and the differentiation assets to create value. In the last 20 years, as matter of fact, design has been considered a strategic weapon able to create innovation leaderships, unique positioning, competitive advantages of worldwide leading global companies.

In this course, design is indeed approached: i) with a strategic worth (not just technical), where it informs the organization strategic path and the value creation dynamics; ii) related to a product-service system (and not only tangible offering), where the integration between tangible and intangible offering contributes to create value and differentiation; iii) as a set of cognitive and visualization tools useful to conceive and visualize business model innovations. 

The course is a project-based journey, aimed at developing capabilities and skills to be handle design-driven innovation, to manage design-related tradeoffs, to mold scenarios of innovation and configure new product-service systems and business models.
The goal is obtained by a set of ex-cathedra lectures, a project-based learning path, info-graphics and knowledge visualization techniques ad-hoc seminars. 

A list of readings, related to the course issues, will be provided in class at the opening of the semester.

The course aims at enabling student to:

- Understand the "soft side" of competition and organizations competitive advantages;
- Understand the “semiotic soul” of products and brands 
- Open the perspective and apply criticism to increase the range of innovation opportunities through design;
- Employ creativity to shape innovation trajectories and identify innovative scenarios;
- Understand how to (when and why) apply user analysis qualitative tools
- Use storytelling and visualization techniques to champion the innovation within and without (with stakeholders) the organization boundaries

The course has been designed around three main blocks:

- Design-thinking: in this module you will learn how to interpret and steer competitive dynamics through design lens. The module focuses especially on the following topics:

o The framework of design-driven innovation
o Competing and leading innovation through design 
o The design-thinking process
o Framing/Reframing as core aspect of design-thinking (intro)

- User analysis: in this module you will learn how to use qualitative tools to investigate user. The topics characterising the module are the following ones:

o The user observation: the context of observation; the tools of observation; rapid ethnography and shadowing. 
o The interview; the in-situ interview; photographic and recording shooting 
o The generative techniques of user activation: participatory design and co-design. 
o The representation and visualization of user derived knowledge.

- Creativity and criticism based tools: in this module you will learn how to frame (and re-frame) a design problem and generate findings and learning to proceed along the innovation process. The module will both go through the different phases, activities and methodologies needed to transform an idea into a product-service solution to be launched in the market, and describe the organizational settings and challenges a leader has to face in managing it. The specific topics covered by the modules are the following ones: 

o Problem setting, Problem finding, Problem Framing, Problem Re-Framing
o Divergent and convergent thinking 
o The product as a “narrative”
o The approach of Product-Service System (PSS) to innovation 
o The concept of design research, the abduction and the serendipity 
o The design research outside the project field: the blue-sky research
o Opportunity and Orienteering Map

Educational Process

The underlying assumption of the course is that design capabilities are transferred through project-based activities.
A project “in design culture“ represents the dynamic learning environment where students: i) try to apply tools and methodologies; ii) develop criticism; iii) test the effectiveness of concepts, constructs and methodologies; iii) interact among them and with teachers/assistants to check the applications and to configure next steps; iv) see errors and “failures” as a way to fine-tune the project and iterate learning.

Each group will be coupled with a Professor/Assistant during all the project journey. Full day workshop sessions will be organized where Professor/Assistant steer the group to accomplish some project goal and to employ specific design thinking tools to get insights and define the solution.

Because much of the learning and work towards the achievement of course objectives will occur in the class, students must: 
- Attend class regularly and contributing to class discussions; 
- Be fully prepared for class (by accomplishing the pre-assigned tasks);
- Actively participate in team projects and activities outside of class, and contribute to team learning;
- Prepare the moments of planned reviews/critics (fundamental) and workshop sessions with Professors/Assistants.

Groups

Each member of the class will be assigned by the faculty to a self-managed learning team and a Professor/Assistant. During the first three classes the professors will bring the list of students that are already registered to the course; students willing to actually take the course and participate to class will be asked to sign the document. On the basis of the final list, the professors will form the teams and publish the teams. Once teams have been composed:

• A team leader (and her email), that will be responsible for all communications with the assigned professor/assistant;
• A name and symbol/icon/image representing the team have to be chosen.

Past experience has shown that teams are effective if they:

• Schedule times and places for group meetings early in the course, and observe those meeting times: in order to underline the importance of team-works, 
• Provide time for socializing with team members: teams exclusively focusing on tasks without building interpersonal relationships tend to experience problems later on;
• Meet in a place that is appropriate to the purpose of the meeting: a cafeteria may be a good place to build social relationships, yet many groups will find that it is not the best place for working sessions requiring reflections and/or discussions;
• Ask for tutors consultation: especially to solve a group issue that seems insuperable through mutual adaptation/coordination;

Be aware that each team member will have to evaluate the contribution provided by the rest of the team to its final outputs. During the evaluation of the projects, the faculty will take into account if a team has had to accomplish its projects without the participation of someone of its assigned members. Thus, if a team experiences lack of contribution by any of the team members, the issue must be discussed with the main Professor of the section to which the team belongs.

Product-Service System Project

Requirement and Outputs

Design discipline is full of tools to analyze actual situation and to propose new course of action and solutions.
Nevertheless, the application of design and design thinking tools does not guarantee the effective accomplishment of a project and the quality of the final proposed solution.
The course will provide an inductive method in the use and application of design tools trying:

- to make emerge the “best” tools from the design problem/brief;
- to adapt the shape and logic of the tool to the real case;
- to generate better questions (and not to provide definitive answers!)
- to explore the design problem broadening the opportunities to generate lateral and radical scenarios.

During the course design tools will be organized according to three main phases:

- analysis and comprehension of weak and strong signals: where the use of the tools is oriented to increase the understanding of the actual competitive context, the design and innovation strategies of the main players, the competitive assets and “meanings” spread on the marketplace, the user behavioral and socio-cultural trends; 
- visioning and proposition of new scenarios/solutions: where the use of the tools is directed to generate new scenarios and concepts based on the opportunities/signals captured in the analytical phase; 
- storytelling and communication: where the use of the tools is addressed to create a whole narrative of the new scenarios/solutions directed to champion the idea to the bank management. 

Students own soft skills as collaborative problem solving approach, negotiation, leadership, team building; recommended the course on Leadership and Innovation and a basic knowledge about Adobe softwares like Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator.

The course has a few (3-4) main moments of presentation of the project “state of art” (the last is considered as final exam).

Reviews and Workshop sessions are mandatory and the whole team will have to participate to them. In the reviews, each team will have a scheduled time to meet face to face with the professor or the tutors of the section. During the face-to-face meeting, the team will have to report on the status of the project. The meetings are also a moment in which teams can ask questions to professor and tutor about doubts, problems and clarifications regarding the project.

In addition, several group workshop sessions are planned during the semester (see the calendar). Teams can use the four hours of the group-work sessions to work on projects either in class or outside it.
Both reviews and workshop sessions are extremely important for the accomplishment of projects requirements. It is up to each team to exploit these resources in the best way, and learning how to do it is a part of the educational process.

Evaluation

The evaluation process will be mainly based on the development of a project, conducted by a team. There will be a “team evaluation” for the project and its deliverables, and an individual evaluation based on a short oral exam at the end of the course and class participation. 
Concerning the team-based project evaluation, each delivery will have a single assessment. The final project delivery (in form of report) will be evaluated on the following criteria:

- The quality and clarity of the analysis, of the solution concept, the project plan;
- The qualitative data and evidence provided to support those analysis and insights;
- The use of appropriate tools and criticism to conceive new solutions;
- The logical structure of the report, and its effectiveness in terms of communication (language, visuals, infographics, etc.).

The final presentations will be evaluated on the following criteria:

- Content: same criteria as above for the report (with, of course, the additional capability to select key messages that can be communicated in a 5-minute presentation);
- Communication: logical structure and communication effectiveness of the video;
- Discussion: effectiveness in addressing the questions raised by the audience.

A final oral part is planned to discuss with the single team members about the project and some concepts/tools learnt during the course. 
Bonus points could be given for significant class participations or contributions to team effectiveness, being the reviews a crucial moment.