This past semester, I had the pleasure of co-teaching 40 engineering freshmen a “Principles of Design” course. It was an exciting and stressful challenge to synthesize my knowledge about successful design processes into a curriculum that helped students learn to turn their natural passion into real-world impact… especially while all-virtual.
I wanted the course to give an opinionated viewpoint based on real experiences, not just a textbook approach. Here are the topics we covered:
Design Challenge 1: Can you improve the college experience?
Week 1: You are an agent of change. Build user empathy.
Week 2: Set provocative goals. Use insights to think beyond what’s possible.
Week 3: Prototype. Learn ASAP.
Week 4: “This is a prototype of the best class ever.”
Week 5: Measuring change. Set objectives and metrics.
Week 6: Student Presentations – Prototypes, experiments, did you move your metric?
Design Challenge 2: Can you change the world?
Week 7: Reflect on your passions and impact you want to have. Find an angle to tackle.
Week 8: Ideation & brainstorming. Fall in love with the problem.
Week 9: Designers are influencers. Build coalitions. Gain buy-in.
Week 10: Develop ideas, push beyond the obvious. SCAMPER.
Week 11: Business model canvas – having sustainable impact at scale.
Week 12: Minimum Viable Product, Minimum Loveable Product. Pre-mortems.
Week 13: Look at the landscape, prior art, patents.
Week 14: Designers are storytellers. How to pitch.
Week 15: Final Presentations: how did you change the world?