Objective

The module "Service Design Thinking" is more than a mere academic exercise - Master Students in Business Engineering (M.Sc.) and Information Engineering and Management (M.Sc.) at KIT are confronted with a real-life innovation challenge from industry.

Design Thinking approaches innovations from a human centric perspective. It always focuses on people: On costumers, users, employees, etc. Therefore, interviews and observations are two of the most important instruments in Design Thinking processes.

Throughout the whole project, Design Thinking is an iterative learning process. Thus, the whole team is moving between stages of the innovation process: Understanding the problem, re-defining the problem, need-finding, ideation, building of prototypes and – most importantly – testing with potential end-users.

In cooperation with an industry partner and partner universities from the SUGAR Network the KIT students learn and practically apply the philosophy, ideas and instruments of "Design Thinking". Over nine months, teams of eight students develop innovative solutions for concrete business problems from their respective partner company. The Design Thinking project focuses on service, process and business model innovation.

The program includes international meetings and get-togethers of the participating universities. The student teams are being accompanied by professional Design Thinking experts during these meetings. Facilitators from KIT and the company support the teams throughout the project. Travel expenses and material costs are covered by sponsors.

Funding

By industry partner

Duration

01.10.2020 - 30.06.2021 (for currently running projects / annual cycle)

Website

Please click below:

Partners (extract)

SUGAR Network

Involved DSI Researchers

Dr. Niels Feldmann