One important way of helping individuals developing their innovation and design skills and competencies is through teaching. I teach these skills to a variety of audiences in a variety of formats, in universities and companies, around the world. Audiences range from degree program students, to teaching faculty, to corporate executives.
DEGREE PROGRAMS
My teaching experience spans multiple disciplines, various student levels, and different course formats. I have taught courses at engineering and business schools, on undergraduate, M.Sc./MBA, and PhD levels. I have taught lecture courses with 140 students, MBA sections with 40 students, and doctoral-level research seminars with seven students. I have presented traditional lectures, led discussions in case-based classes, and coached students and teams in both industrial projects and experience-based studios. Before joining Babson as a full-time faculty member in 2008, I have taught at the University of Michigan, Northeastern University, and the MIT Sloan School of Management. The courses range in length from intensive courses over 2-3 days, to half-semester, full-semester, and year-long courses. I teach in-person, fully online, and in hybrid formats. Below you can find a sample of my recent courses.
RE-IMAGINING X (DES 7500), (MBA)
I developed this course as an MBA elective. It aims at teaching students the Human-Centered Design Process in form of Design Thinking. In contrast to product-oriented design courses where students stay in the same small teams throughout the semester, in this course the entire class works on reinventing a sector. To accomplish this, the students break into smaller teams periodically, but share their findings at design reviews, to identify new directions. New teams are then formed around these new directions.
LEADING ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTION PROJECT – LEAP (MSM 6100/6001), (MSEL)
This master-level, project-based course I co-developed for the new Masters of Science in Management in Entrepreneurial Leadership (MSEL) Program at Babson College. The course runs over two semesters, and integrates the disciplines design, entrepreneurship, and organizational behavior. Over the course of nine months, student teams go through the entire process of developing an opportunity, from market analysis and user research, to concept development, business model development, to hypothesis development and testing; the course finishes with a launch plan.
DESIGN AND SYSTEMS THINKING (DES 3600), (B. Sc.)
This course I designed as an introductory course into Design Thinking and Systems Thinking. This entry-level course serves, in part, to prepare Babson students better for the three-school course Integrated Product Design (see below). In addition to introducing theoretical concepts in Design and Systems Thinking, the course let students experience the concepts in a team project which requires weekly design reviews.
INTEGRATED PRODUCT DESIGN (MOB 3578), (B. Sc.)
This course, which I co-developed and co-teach with my co-instructors from Olin College of Engineering and Massachusetts College of Art and Design brings together students from all three schools. The students are put into cross-functional teams (business, engineering, and industrial design) to work on product development projects.
INNOVATION PROCESSES (MOB 9521), (MBA)
This master-level course I developed to fill the gap between a project-level product development course, and the strategy-level courses in innovation that Babson colleagues offer. This new course focuses on the meso-level (department, division, business unit) to explore how to structure processes in organizations such that they can produce innovation output on an ongoing basis. With help of cases and simulations, this course unpacks the role of coordination mechanisms such as rules, incentives, tools, and culture in innovation work. The topics include processes internal to the firm, as well as those that cross firm-boundaries. Students learn how to design and manage these processes that allow, enable, and support innovation to occur on an ongoing basis. T
NON-DEGREE PROGRAMS
In addition to degree program courses, I also teach on various design and innovation related topics to executive audiences. These offerings range in length from half-day sessions to week-long programs. Clients have included companies in industries such as Aerospace, Healthcare, Software, and Banking.
TEACHER TRAINING
To help more people learn about innovation, I recently began to train other faculty in teaching innovation and design to their students. These courses are designed for other educators around the world, often on the university level. A recent example is the fully online course “Innovating how we teach Innovation.”
