Welcome to Design Thinking for Social Innovation
As we are faced with increasingly complex social problems, a growing number of non-profit organizations, governments and international agencies are turning to design thinking. The notion of “designing for good” has become a trend over the past decade, leveraging the tools and method of the creative problem-solving approach of Design Thinking. Design thinking, which has already attracted many companies in search of disruptive innovation, is particularly suited to addressing complex and systemic social and environmental issues with equally complex and complicated solutions.
This course will introduce participants to design thinking, a human-centered approach to social innovation to develop meaningful and sustainable solutions (products, services, communication, processes etc.).
In its approach, this course is action-based and experiential. Such an approach highlights the complexity of many social issues and the need for interconnected, systemic responses. Designing for social innovation requires taking a system approach that involves multi-disciplinary collaboration and engagement of all stakeholders including the end-users or beneficiaries.
Through multiple activities, mini-challenges and a semester-long project, it invites participants to experience the whole design innovation process (researching, ideating, prototyping, testing, communicating and implementing) with a focus on developing and sustaining social innovations.
At the end of the course, students will have learnt the importance of human-centered design in creating social innovation and engaging with different stakeholders. They will also have experimented methods to (re-) frame problems and turn them into opportunities, generate and prototype ideas while having the opportunity to develop key skills for their future career: collaboration skills, project experience and a portfolio of innovative techniques. Overall the course aims to provide participants with an environment to become creative and innovative thinkers and collaborators, and be empowered to students to lead social innovation, social entrepreneurship and innovation movements.
Design Thinking for Social Innovation is suitable for those who are interested in social innovation and/or design thinking and methods but does not require familiarity with either.
I&D statement: I hope to foster a sense of community in this class and provide an inclusive and equitable environment for all students. I consider this class a place where individuals of all backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, national origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, religious and political affiliations, and abilities will be treated with respect. It is my intent that all students’ learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength, and benefit. If this standard is not being upheld, please feel free to speak with me.
Instructor Biography
Anne-Laure Fayard is Chaired Professor in Social Innovation at NOVA School of Business and Economics and a Visiting Research Professor at NYU. She is the founder and coordinator of the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) Lab. Prior to joining NOVA SBE, Anne-Laure spent 15 years at New York University, where she was founding faculty advisor for the Design Lab @ NYU MakerSpace and Design for America of NYU. Anne-Laure was also faculty at INSEAD in Singapore and France as well as a Research Fellow at Imperial College Business School (London), Ecole des Mines (Paris) and Visiting Senior Fellow at London School of Economics.
Anne-Laure is an ethnographer of work, whose interests involve collaboration, technology, innovation and design. Her work has been published in several leading academic such as Harvard Business Review, Administrative Science Quarterly and Organization Science. She is passionate about human-centered design that she teaches, researches and practices.Institutional email: annelaure.fayard@novasbe.pt
Course structure
The course is interactive and project-based and this is reflected in its structure.
The course is organized around 4 main components:
1. In-class workshops: discussions of case studies and readings; guest speakers; hands-on activities and mini-challenges to explore specific techniques
2. Studio work: During some of our classes, we will have studio work that will give you space to work on your project while exploring further some of the techniques and tools discussed in class.
3. Individual reflections: to post on the course blog.
4. Semester group project: This is the opportunity to experiment with all the tools and methods explored in class while honing your collaborative skills.
Readings and other materials: We won’t use a textbook. There are articles, case, videos and / or podcast assigned for each session. Please check under each session.
You are supposed to have reviewed all materials (readings, case, videos or podcast) and be ready to discuss them. This material is also providing you background knowledge for the class activities.
You don’t have to produce any reflection about this material, but you always have the possibility to share your thoughts (e.g, What is interesting? Inspiring? Challenging? Or how does it connect with previous sessions or your personal experience) on Medium.
Evaluation and Grading
You will be evaluated and graded on five main areas, each with a detailed description available on the syllabus below:
• Attendance & Participation: it includes in-class and online participation.
• Individual research participation (to be posted on Teams channel)
• Three reflections (to be posted on Medium)
• Team project
• Peer review
Course set up
Be ready to fully participate on this course by joining:
- Moodle - Students must self-enrol in this moodle course after the add/drop period, using the enrolment key: ALFBB_23 (check how to do it HERE)
- TEAMS - Each team must create a repository to document their process: research, ideation, prototyping, user feedback and rationale for choosing certain solutions rather than others. For that purpose, please join our TEAMS class workspace, using the code ejm8d69 (check how to do it HERE). You can also try to join through this link.
- Medium - Students must create an account* - https://medium.com/design-thinking-for-social-innovation
Important documents for the course
We will post the class' slides here.
Some guidelines and two examples
For your project, you can look at academic research on immigration but also on dialogue, community, and perception of others. You can also explore initiatives or programs to integrate migrants or to create awareness on complicated and debated topics.
The idea for you with the secondary research is to do deep dives on the root causes of the issues, understand different perspectives and explore what has already been done (whether successful or not) to tackle these issues. Our solutions will be local but research can be global.