BUS 250 - Design Thinking

Credits: 5
LEC hours per week: 5
As everyday systems become more interdisciplinary, the challenges facing us require more creative and nuanced approaches to problem solving. Design Thinking provides students a framework for: solving complex problems, innovation and creativity, and inclusivity in the design process. This course is built for those who will work in interdisciplinary contexts or simply desire to be more innovative.
Course Outcomes:

Apply creativity to current endeavors.
Improve quantity and quality of generated ideas.
Use creativity templates.
Develop problem-definition through analysis and systematic use of rubrics.
Practice articulating linear systems to circular systems.
Identify system elements, relationships, influencers, and entry-points where change is most likely to be positive and effective.
Mitigate unintended consequences of proposed interventions, short- and long-term, across stakeholders.
Evaluate solutions for creativity, and practicality, using sustainability assessment protocols.
Defend creative solutions.

Course Topics:

The difference between creative- and critical-thinking
How the brain works
Risk-taking
Idea-generation methods
Proper problem-definition
The role of knowledge and integrative learning in creativity
Incentivizing to produce change
Recognizing that every solution is a potential problem
Thinking bigger than the given problem: upstream problem-solving
The 2-minute elevator speech