B8662: I N N O V A T E U S I N G D E S I G N T H I N K I N G

Block Week/Format: August 26th to August 30th, 2024

Professors: Gita Johar, Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business

Teaching Assistant: Eric Park SPark24@gsb.columbia.edu

Room: Geffen 540

E-mail: gvj1@columbia.edu
Office Hours: By appointment.

Note: The class is experiential and interactive with a lot of team work during class time.

Introduction

Innovation is about seeking creative solutions to challenging problems. In the world of business,
creativity is not only about being novel and original, but also about being useful to the end-user.
Does the solution solve a user problem effectively and efficiently? Does it address a customer
need? Does it do a job for the consumer, a job that needs to be done? In this course, we will learn
about the process and tools of design thinking that can help us to understand and define
consumer problems, generate ideas to solve these problems, develop concepts and prototype
solutions, and experiment and tweak these solutions.

What is design thinking? In the words of Tim Brown of IDEO: “Put simply, [design thinking] is
a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is
technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and
market opportunity.” More concretely, design thinking usually refers to:

1. A human-centered approach to solving problems, and

2. Using an iterative process to arriving at a better solution.

Human-centered refers to focusing on real people’s (usually customer’s) needs and problems—
as opposed to focusing on the problems of a demographic group or a segment. We will use
methods such as observation and depth-interviews with real, individual consumers and develop
products/services based on the insights we generate on the basis of interactions with these
consumers. This emphasis on observation and interaction rather than surveys recognizes that we

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don’t usually know what would solve our challenges and disappointments, and are therefore at a
loss to articulate it.

An iterative process refers to the notion that a solution need not be complete and elegant. Rather,
design thinking focuses on building somewhat rough product prototypes that are based on deep
customer understanding of “jobs to be done.” These prototypes are tested soon and often and
constantly evolve. Experimentation plays a big role in testing and refining potential solutions.

So, to summarize, design thinking is a creative and systematic approach for solving problems by
relying on human-centered and iterative processes.

Course objectives and approach

The course will illuminate how Design Thinking can enhance innovation activities in terms of
market impact, value creation, and speed.

The course objectives are:

1. To provide you with a strong conceptual as well as practical understanding of design
thinking.
2. To enable you to reliably come up with creative solutions to challenging problems.

More specifically, the course aims to:

1. Strengthen your individual and collaborative capabilities to identify customer needs using
indirect and qualitative research, create sound concept hypotheses, and develop a
prototype that allows for meaningful feedback in a real-world environment.
2. Help you translate broadly defined opportunities into actionable innovation possibilities
and recommendations for client organizations.

The course will use a combination of lectures (including guest lectures), videos, readings, and
assignments. The project will give you an opportunity to come up with a creative solution to
problems or challenges in a particular consumer context. For the project in this course, we will
collaborate with US Soccer and design products and services to increase youth interest in soccer.

Connection with the Marketing Core Course

This course builds on the concepts of market segmentation, targeting, positioning, new product
development, and advertising.

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Method of Evaluation

Diverse teams of four will be created by the instructors keeping in mind the usefulness of
interdisciplinary perspectives in design thinking.

Class participation/preparedness (individual): 20 points

Assignments (individual and group): 80 points

I. Depth interview and insights (pairs) 15 points

II. Design Brief Project template (group) 10 points
III. Prototype Evaluation Report (group) 10 points
IV. Final project submission (group) 30 points
V. Final project pitch presentation (group) 15 points

Evaluation and Assignments Details

Your class participation / class preparedness grade will be based on:

• Attending class and being on time- Much of the learning will occur in the course of the
discussions and assignments in class, and regular attendance is required in order to receive
credit for class participation. Excused absences must be cleared through the office of
student affairs (OSA), who will then inform me of the excused absence. In general,
reasons for excused absences include health problems, personal emergencies, and religious
observance (not interviews).

• Being prepared for class - Class preparedness will be assessed based on your comments in
class as well as on your feedback to other students. Reading the required readings and cases
for each session, and completing required assignments, is the best way to prepare for class
discussion. Evaluation of class participation is based upon the quality (not the quantity) of
your comments, as reflected by their relevance, insightfulness, and coherence. Attendance is a
necessary but not sufficient condition for participation. If you do not actively participate in
class discussions, and in your team work each day, you will receive a low participation grade
even if you attend every class.

• Your conduct and behavior in class – Out of respect for the other students in your class, it is
important for you to focus your full attention on the class for the entire class period. Most
students observe proper decorum, but it takes only one person’s behavior to distract the entire
class. Columbia Business School students have complained to the school about students who
use class time for other purposes or act in a distracting manner. Class will be conducted using
the same rules of decorum that would apply in a business meeting. Please engage fully with

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 your team and work collaboratively on the design challenge during the week, both in and out
of the classroom.

• Your contribution to the team project – Each team member is expected to fully contribute
to all aspects of the group project. Your contribution will be evaluated by your team members
and you will also be required to evaluate other team members’ contributions. At the end of the
course, you will allocate 100 points between your team members based on their contributions
to your project. This evaluation will be used as input to your class participation grade and will
also be used to weight your grade on the team project.

Details on other assignments will be presented in class. You will work on an innovation project
for US Soccer and create a pitch based on a design thinking process that we will follow in class.
The pitch deck is the final group deliverable.

Required Cases and Reading

• Design Thinking at Great Lakes: The Search for Growth (UVA-S-0248)

• frog design (HBS 5-119-040)

• Re-Framing Opportunities: Design Thinking in Action (HBS ROT206-PDF-ENG)

• Reclaim your Creative Confidence (HBS R1212K-PDF-ENG)

• Why Design Thinking Works (HBS R1805D-PDF-ENG)

• Stories that Deliver Business Insight (HBS SMR475-PDF-ENG)

• Empathy on the Edge (HBS ROT254-PDF-ENG)

• Know your Customers’ “Jobs to be Done” (HBS R1609D-PDF-ENG)

• Finding Your Innovation Sweet Spot (HBS R0303J-PDF-ENG)

• Prototyping is the Short Hand of Innovation (from The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley)

• What Design Thinking is Doing for the San Francisco Opera (HBS H02XCM-PDF-ENG)

• Get Better Customer Insights

Recommended Books

Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie, Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking ToolKit for
Managers (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011).

Jeanne Liedtka,Tim Ogilvie, and Rachel Brozenske,The Designing for Growth Field Book: A
Step-by- Step Project Guide (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014).

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Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg, Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for
Breakthrough Results (New York: Simon and Shuster, 2014).

Additional Readings

Belk, R., Fischer, E., & Kozinets, R. V. (2013). Qualitative consumer and marketing research.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Cayla, J., & Arnould, E. (2013). Ethnographic stories for market learning. Journal of
Marketing, 77(4), 1-16.

McQuarrie, E. F. (2015). The market research toolbox: a concise guide for beginners. Sage
Publications.

Burroughs, J. & Dahl, D. & Moreau, P. & Chattopadhayay, A. & Gorn, G. (2011). Facilitating
and Rewarding Creativity During New Product Development, Journal of Marketing, (75), 53-67.

Dym, C. L., Agogino, A. M., Eris, O., Frey, D. D., & Leifer, L. J. (2005). Engineering design
thinking, teaching, and learning. Journal of engineering education, 94(1), 103-120.

Faraji-Rad, Ali, Shiri Melumad and Gita V. Johar (2017), “Consumer Desire for Control as a
Barrier to New Product Adoption,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 27 (3), 347-354.

Faraji-Rad Ali, Shiri Melumad, and Gita V. Johar (2016), “When New Products should Make
Customers Feel in Control,” Harvard Business Review.

Goldenberg Jacob, David Mazursky, and Sorin Solomon (1999), "Toward Identifying the
Inventive Templates of New Products: A Channeled Ideation Approach,” Journal of Marketing
Research, 36 (May), p. 200-210.

Goldenberg Jacob and David Mazursky (1999), “The Voice of the Product: Templates of New
Product Emergence,” Innovation and Creativity Management, September Vol. 8, 3, 157-164.

Goldenberg, Jacob et al., (1999), “Creative Sparks,” Science.

Moreau, P. & Dahl, D., (2009) “Constraints and Consumer Creativity,” Tools for Innovation,
2009, Arthur M. Markman and Kristin L. Wood, (Eds.)

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 COURSE OUTLINE. DAY 1: EXPLORE
Day/ Pre-class Post-class
Session Topic In-Class Assignments Readings Assignment

Get to know your team Reclaim your

Creative
Why Design Thinking and The Design Confidence
Monday: Explore 1 Process
9:00-10:15 Why Design
Introduction to the subject of design Thinking
thinking Works

MORNING BREAK: 11:15 TO 11:30

Project Presentation by Client (Abe U.S. Soccer
Geiger, Chief Product Officer, U.S. Design
Soccer Federation) Challenge
Monday: Explore 2
10:30-11:45
Scoping the project and deciding on
target. For whom are we designing?
How will we know if we have
succeeded or failed?
LUNCH: 11:45 TO 1:00
Design Brief Team: Fill in Design Submit
Brief; Conduct filled-in
secondary research on design brief
Monday: Explore 3 the challenge on Canvas
1:00-2:15 by
Wednesday
at 9pm
(group)
AFTERNOON BREAK: 2:15 TO 2:30
Qualitative Research: Prof. Bob Stories that
Morais Deliver
Business
Challenges and tips on observation Insights
Monday: and ethnographic interviewing.
Explore 4 Write your interview script Empathy on
2:30 -4:00 the Edge

Case Studies
of Applied
Ethnography

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 Introduction to Journey Maps, Get Better
Monday
Explore 5 Empathy Maps; Instructions for Customer
4:00-4:30 Interviews Insights
Interviews/Observations Team: Write interview Submit at
scripts least four
profiles and
Pairs of students: one brief
Complete 4 interviews summary
of at least 20 minutes by 1 pm on
each by Tuesday Tuesday on
morning. Canvas (in
pairs).
Monday
Create a profile of each Bring
Explore 6
4:30 Onwards
interviewee and note printouts to
the key themes in the class on
interview. See examples Tuesday to
on Canvas. Then, write put up on
a brief summary of all your
interviews your pair inspiration
did, and note your wall.
initial insights.

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 DAY 2: EXPLORE, REFRAME AND GENERATE

Interviews/Observations Submit 4
profiles and
one
summary of
insights per
pair by 1pm
Tuesday: Explore 7 on Canvas.
9 to 1:00 Submit
transcripts
to GPT to
generate
summaries
and
themes.
Tuesday: Explore Identifying Insights Work in new teams for Great Lakes
and Reframe 1
this case Case
1 to 2:30 Great Lakes Case, Mind Maps
AFTERNOON BREAK: 2:30 TO 2:45
Synthesis and Insights Build mind maps Know your
Guest lecture: Erik Olesund, New Customers’
Tuesday: Explore
York Times “Jobs to be
and Reframe 2
2:45 to 4:00 Done”
Introduction to Jobs to be Done,
Finalizing insights
Design Criteria Re-Framing Teams
Team: Complete HMW Opportunities: submit
Tuesday: Explore Developing design criteria, How statements in the Design HMW
and Reframe 3 Might We Questions evening Thinking in statements
4:00 to 5:00 Action on Canvas
by 9am on
Wednesday

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 DAY 3: GENERATE AND PROTOTYPE

Wednesday: Feedback on HMW Questions:

Generate 1 Class discussion
9:00 to 10:15
MORNING BREAK: 10:15 TO 10:30
Ideation Each team generates Finding your
Guest Lecture: Erik Olesund, New ~40 ideas, selects most Innovation
Wednesday: York Times promising 10 by Sweet Spot
Generate 2 mapping back to design
10:30 to 11:45 Improv Workshop, Brainstorming criteria and insights

LUNCH BREAK: 11:45 TO 1:00

Concept Development and Attribute
Value Maps Team: Select 3 concepts
Wednesday:
Generate 3 Create concepts from selected ideas
and create attribute value maps for Refine concepts
1:00 to 2:15 selected concepts

AFTERNOON BREAK: 2:15 TO 2:30

Prototypes: experiential, 2D Start building Prototyping is
prototypes prototypes the Short
Wednesday:
Hand of
Prototype 1
2:30 to 3:45 Digital prototyping tools Innovation

Create one or two prototypes

AFTERNOON BREAK: 3:45 TO 4:00
Guest Lecture from U.S. Soccer What Design
Federation Thinking is
Wednesday:
Doing for the
4:00 to 5:15
San Francisco
Opera

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 DAY 4: TESTING PROTOTYPES USING EXPERIMENTS

Evaluation Research Techniques: Create interview script

Thursday:Prototype Prof. Bob Morais
3
How to frame questions and learn
9 to 10:15
from evaluation research.
MORNING BREAK: 10:15 TO 10:30
Finalize prototypes
Test 2 or 3 final
Thursday: Prototype
Prototype test set-up prototypes with other
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10:30 to 11:45 Scenes-props-roles teams. Refine
prototypes

LUNCH: 11:45 TO 1:00

Evauate prototypes Test at least two
prototypes with
Test critical assumptions and get individuals in your
Thursday: Prototype
feedback target market by the
Testing 5
end of the day. Conduct
1:00 to 2:15
Tweak prototypes based on at least two tests per
feedback prototype.

AFTERNOON BREAK: 2:15 TO 2:30

frog Design Case: Prof. Harry West frog Design
Thursday: Putting it Case
all Together Explore the entire process of design
2:30 – 4:00 and development with a focus on
meeting end users’ needs.
Evaluate prototypes Teams
Integrate Feedback submit
report on
Thursday: Protoype
Iterate on Prototype feedback
Iteration
4:00 Onwards
and
iteration
of
prototypes

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 DAY 5: PRESENTATIONS AND DESIGN THINKING IN PRACTICE

Guest Speaker: Design Thinking in

Friday: Putting it all Practice
Together
9 to 10:15

MORNING BREAK: 10:15 TO 10:30

Positioning Statement and Final Finalize pitch
Pitch format

Start putting together final pitch

outline
Friday: Putting it all
Together Work on Positioning Statement
10:30 to 11:45 while making final updates to final
prototypes

Students prepare final pitch

including final prototypes
LUNCH BREAK: 11:45 TO 1:00
Submit
Presentations by Teams and Client Each team presents for presentation
Friday: Putting it all Feedback seven minutes slides and
Together photos of
1:00 to 4:00 your
“Inspiration
Wall” on
Canvas
AFTERNOON BREAK: 4:00 TO 4:15
Inclusive Design Complete
Reflections on Design Thinking post-course
Friday: Putting it all reflection on
Together Canvas
4:15 to 5:00 Quizzes and
course
evaluations

Note: Your final assignment (detailed slide deck) is due by 9am on September 4th and your
peer review (assigning points to team mates) is due before midnight on September 4th.

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 Instructor Bio

Dr. Gita V. Johar, Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business, Columbia Business School

Gita V. Johar (PhD NYU 1993) has been on the faculty of Columbia Business School since 1992
and is currently the Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business. Dr. Johar received the Distinguished
Alumnus award from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, in 2019 and the Service to
the Doctoral Program Award from Columbia Business School in 2023. She served as the Vice
Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from 2019 to 2021, Senior Vice Dean from 2011 to
2014, and Vice Dean for Research from 2010 to 2011. At the university, Dr. Johar served as
Chair of the Faculty Steering Committee for the Columbia Global Centers | South Asia in
Mumbai from 2015 to 2019 and currently serves on the Provost’s Advisory Council for the
Enhancement of Faculty Diversity. Dr. Johar received the Columbia University Faculty Service
Award in 2024. She served as President of the Society for Consumer Psychology from 2023-
2024 and as co-editor of the premier academic journal on consumer behavior, the Journal of
Consumer Research from July 2014 to December 2017. Dr. Johar's expertise lies in consumer
psychology, focusing on consumer identity, beliefs, motivation, and persuasion as they relate to
branding, advertising, and media. Her current research examines consumer interactions with
technology, aims to understand and mitigate the effects of misinformation, and studies how to
use psychological principles to inspire consumers to combat climate change. Dr. Johar teaches
Research Methods to PhD students and electives on design thinking (Innovate using Design
Thinking), social innovation (Data Driven Design for Social Innovation), and Global Immersion
(India) to MBA and Executive MBA students.

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