The primary purpose of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of state-of-the-art practices in new product/service innovation, with an emphasis on the early up-front stages of the innovation process using Design Thinking methods. Topics covered include: design thinking, stage-gate and agile innovation processes, opportunity identification, perceptual mapping, qualitative and quantitative agile design research methods, customer insights, idea generation and screening, new product concept prototyping, concept testing and optimization, new product forecasting, new product branding, and business cases. A series of three group projects enables students to apply these tools to an innovation project (each group selects their project from among a list of instructor-defined innovation projects).
This course covers tech, consumer, and business-to-business products and services (with an emphasis on tech and consumer products/services), including examples from mobile apps, e-commerce, food and beverage, household consumer products, mobile devices, telecom, consumer durables, software, medical products, and financial services.
This course is particularly relevant for students interested in the following types of careers: Product Management (Tech), Brand Management, Innovation, Product Marketing Management (Tech), Marketing Strategy, Corporate Strategy, Innovation and Design Consulting, and Management Consulting.