Program: Certificate
Professor: TBD
Duration: 6 Weeks
Date: TBD
Who Should Apply?: Entrepreneurs, Project Managers, Product Managers, Marketing Managers, Social Media Managers

Overview

A 6-week Design Thinking Institute offered through the Penn State Harrisburg Continuing Education program. The program is targeted to high growth founders and thriving corporate leaders and will be a catalyst for educating and sharpening the skills of innovative leaders in our region. Participants will explore new methods of thinking and participate in active learning projects and exercises to help build and sustain a culture of enterprise innovation.  

Course Highlights

Corporate/Enterprise Innovation Lab: As part of the design thinking cohort, you will have the opportunity to participate in our “Corporate innovation lab”.  We’ll take you on a tour of the region’s most innovative places and provide an opportunity to connect with leaders of high growth companies as well as meet with leaders in our innovation ecosystem including investors and economic development leaders. 

Phase 2: Customized Training Options

Coming soon: Phase 2 will offer companies options to customize their design thinking programs with industry focus in:

  • Manufacturing 
  • Agriculture Business
  • Environmental & Energy Services
  • Supply Chain Logistics & Warehousing
  • Information Technology
  • Digital Communications & Marketing
  • Healthcare
  • Municipal Services
  • Retail / Wholesale

Modules

Module

 Takeaways Exercises
  • 1. Principles of customer discovery – market analysis and ideation stage
  • The 5 stages of design thinking; defining customer needs and markets.
  • Defining your hypothesis and validating user pain points.
  • Journey mapping and customer testing techniques.
  • Customer interview guides
  • Assumption testing exercise
  • Journey mapping exercise
  • 2. Design, prototyping and testing 
  • Prototyping strategies, methods and examples
  • Design thinking sprint methods including Quality Function Deployment, Design for Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Sustainability, etc.
  • Analytic brainstorming and problem solving  
  • Design thinking sprints
  • Case study essays
  • 3. Product development & market fit
  • Principles for product development and value proposition
  • The dfe approach and product life cycles
  • Production techniques, sourcing and product testing
  • Concurrent Engineering
  • Computer-Aided Product Design
  • Dfe project exercise 
  • 4. Financial analyses and innovation
  • Types of product development
  • Calculating NPV (Net Present Value) and its impact in product development
  • Innovation and cash flow analysis process
  • Life cycle costing
  • NPV exercise
  • Cash flow and innovation exercise 
  • 5. Human centered design 
  • Understanding the human centered design process and consumer behaviors
  • Methodologies and philosophies for applied creativity in solving societal issues
  • Defining human-centered design and research methods
  • Concept paper on societal issue
  • Apply hcd to design project
  • 6. Cultivating a culture of innovation
  • Top management commitment to organizational innovation
  • Management skills for applying innovation
  • Skillsets of design thinking and shifting culture
  • The intrapreneur: creating a culture of change
  • Organizational mapping exercise on innovation project