In this course, several entrepreneurs who are experts in product and service design are invited as guest speakers and will talk about products and service prototypes which have succeeded in the market. After that, students in groups are required to construct hypotheses about how the entrepreneurs developed these prototypes and how they led the products to their current success, and make a presentation to the entrepreneur involved. The entrepreneurs will comment on the differences between students' ideas for improvement and products which in reality have succeeded in the market.
Product design and service design are the two major trends in engineering design, and both are necessary to realize an innovation in real life. The purpose of this course is to nurture the ability of students to do the following:
1. Understand the concept of product design and service design by applying it to real businesses
2. Build hypotheses of paths to win markets from prototypes
3. Explain what causes the gap between student hypotheses and reality by referring to entrepreneurial stories
Product design, Service design, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Prototype, Hypothesis construction
✔ Specialist skills | Intercultural skills | ✔ Communication skills | ✔ Critical thinking skills | Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
After you learn about the concept of product design and service design in a guidance session, we invite a number of entrepreneurs who have succeeded in emerging markets with new ideas in their respective fields, to talk about prototyping of their ideas. In class, you will listen to the entrepreneur's prototyping experience and then (divided into groups) work on building hypotheses about how the entrepreneur made the business model from the prototype that succeeded in the market. You will then make presentations and receive comments from the entrepreneur. Also, you will listen to an explanation of how the entrepreneur actually worked by themselves and will reconsider the difference between your hypotheses and the entrepreneurs' reality.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Guidance: what is engineering design. Product design and Service design. The concept of prototype | Understanding the concept of engineering design |
Class 2 | Case study ① Entrepreneur's presentation on prototype and group work | Understanding and talking about the guest speaker's business model |
Class 3 | Case study ① Feed back: the gap between hypotheses and the reality | Building hypotheses about how the guest speaker suceeded in the market and talk about them |
Class 4 | Case study ② Entrepreneur's presentation on prototype and group work | Understanding and talking about the guest speaker's business model |
Class 5 | Case study ② Feed back: the gap between hypotheses and the reality | Building hypotheses about how the guest speaker succeeded in the market and talk about them |
Class 6 | Case study ③ Entrepreneur's presentation on prototype and group work | Understanding and talking about the guest speaker's business model |
Class 7 | Case study ② Feed back: the gap between hypotheses and the reality | Building hypotheses about how the guest speaker succeeded in the market and talk about them |
Class 8 | Looking back on whole case studies |
Non required
Instruction manuals and course materials are provided during class.
Workshop presentation and contribution to the class discussion : 50%
Final report : 50%
Non required.