Mastering Design Thinking

Design thinking is a powerful approach to new product development that begins with understanding unmet customer needs. It’s a human-centered design process that approaches problem-solving with understanding the user needs. Design thinking encompasses concept development, applied creativity, prototyping, and experimentation. When design thinking approaches are applied to business, the success rate for innovation has been seen to improve substantially.

Design-driven companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola, IBM, Nike, Procter & Gamble, and Whirlpool have outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 10 years by an accumulated 211% in what's called the Design Value Index—a portfolio of 16 publicly traded companies that integrate design thinking into corporate strategy. According to a 2016 report from the Design Management Institute, this marks the third consecutive year the index has shown an excess of 200% over the S&P 500.

The Mastering Design Thinking program will lead participants through a step by step, design thinking process. To be considered successful, innovations have to solve the three key dimensions of Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability.

Desirability: Is this product or service addressing a real customer need?

Feasibility: Can we develop a solution that is technically feasible and better than competitors?

Viability: Is there a viable business model around this product or service?

Learn more about the self-paced online experience.

Learn more about Emeritus technical requirements.

The recommended weekly time commitment for core content is 4-5 hours, taking into account the busy lifestyles of working professionals, with an additional 2-3 hours recommended for non-compulsory weekly extension activities, should you have the time. Each module is released weekly, allowing a flexible but structured approach to learning. You’ll be supported as you engage in individual activities and group discussions, ensuring you feel confident to submit your best work at each weekly deadline.

Upon successful completion of your course, you will earn a certificate of completion from the MIT Sloan School of Management. This course may also count toward MIT Sloan Executive Certificate requirements.

Upon completion of this program, you will be able to:

• Understand the design thinking process.
• Identify and assess opportunities through customer needs analysis.
• Create clear product specifications based on customer needs that are desirable, feasible, and viable.
• Generate and evaluate new product and service concepts through applied creativity.
• Implement a proven 4-step method for planning and executing a prototype.
• Design services for enriched customer experiences.
• Create and establish a robust product architecture.
• Evaluate the economics of product development.
• Design products and services with sustainability in mind.
• Plan and manage innovation projects effectively.

This program is for individuals and teams who want to adopt the powerful practice of design thinking in their organization. Whether entrepreneur or intrapreneur, anyone responsible for driving innovation and growth should attend, including functional and cross-functional teams.

MIT Sloan Executive Education is collaborating with online education provider EMERITUS Institute of Management to offer a portfolio of high-impact online programs. By working with EMERITUS, MIT Sloan Executive Education is able to broaden access beyond on-campus offerings in a collaborative and engaging format that stays true to the quality of MIT Sloan and MIT as a whole.

EMERITUS’ approach to learning is based on a cohort-based design to maximize peer to peer sharing and includes live teaching with world-class faculty and hands-on project based learning. In the last year, more than 7,500 students from over 120+ countries have benefited professionally from EMERITUS’ courses.