10/26/2017 DSGN 431: Innovation Frontiers: DESIGN INNOVATION - Segal Design Institute, Northwestern University

DSGN 431: Innovation Frontiers

Quarter Offered
Summer : Mondays 8:30-11:30am in ITW Classroom, Ford 1.350 ; Larry Keeley

Prerequisites
Open to MMM students only.

Description
In this class, students learn the emerging principles of innovation as a science so they can approach
the unfamiliar with a new level of curiosity, confidence, and courage. The course teaches how to
deconstruct anything innovative from Apples iPhone to YouTube to Wii and how to assess the
structural causes of innovation success or failure.

For example, students discover how and why India and China are breeding grounds for entirely new
innovation frontiers in order to understand why Lasik eye surgery can be profitable in India at $10 per
eye (vs. $1,200 in the U.S.) and how the seventh richest man in China got that way manufacturing
solar cell arrays to produce sustainable electricity.

Key Learning Takeaways

Master disruptive innovation as a discipline
Move beyond myths of innovation to real innovation practices that are effective
Manage innovation, whether as an entrepreneur or inside a large scale enterprise, to drive
effective outcomes between 10 and 20 times better than global norms
Diagnose innovation issues and challenges so that you know where, when, and how to plug in the
innovation capabilities that matter most
Select and use a wide array of useful ethno-methodologies to produce distinctive insights suitable
for breakthrough innovation
Select and use various data and predictive analytics to systematically understand how a category,
industry, or firm is changing, or should change
Conceive and plan future business ecosystems that work more like iTunes Store, Alibaba, Airbnb
or Uber to organize and orchestrate connected firms serving users
Seamlessly move between analysis and synthesis so that, working in a team, you author a single
bold breakthrough innovation during the course
De-risk bold innovation concepts and build deep innovation execution plans
Present your concept professionally so that it will be credible and understandable

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10/26/2017 DSGN 431: Innovation Frontiers: DESIGN INNOVATION - Segal Design Institute, Northwestern University

Key Tactical Tools

Diagnostic tools that make innovation conditions objective and clear
Innovation metrics systems so you understand how to assess and measure innovation
High protocol platform authoring tools so that your team develops a small number of big ideas,
instead of brainstorming hundreds of ideas that are abandoned
Innovation Tactics Cards so your team knows explicitly how to build and execute the
breakthrough you have authored
Deep tools to help time stage your concept anticipating how it will need to evolve
Specific systems for building breakthrough business and service models, not just technological
offerings, so that your concepts have the power to change categories

Learn more about the instructor, Larry Keeley.

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