Programs | One Year Immersive | Quarter 4 | IDSE 403
Final Studio: Concept to Lauch
IDSE 401
Business Design
IDSE 403
Studio: Concept to Launch
Course Overview
This course is the last phase of the Capstone Project. Students will conclude their design project, validating their solution through rapid experimentation and producing a high-quality prototype of their product, system, or service. Students will create appropriate contextual information to present their work and present it in an open forum.
Outcomes and Competencies
The following outcome statements articulate the competencies, abilities, and skills a student will have as a result of completing this class. Upon completing this course, students will:
Be able to visually show an end-to-end design solution for a particular humanitarian and social problem or opportunity
Illustrate a comprehensive understanding of interaction design in the context of social entrepreneurship
Understand how to design for society and culture, and be able to clearly articulate this knowledge.
Be able to design and build a feature brief and a presentation to promote the vision for the project that demonstrates the value, market need, user demand and investment opportunity of the project.
Additionally, our class’s desired focus aims for students to:
Be able to design within the constraints of time, money, resources, and technology.
Be able to design and test real world experiences.
Be able to translate user needs into actionable design decisions, and tell a compelling story about it.
Practice engaging with stakeholders through updates, facilitated sessions, and share-outs.
Be able to work within a design team; practice contributing individual strengths, lean on others for their strengths, and build hard and soft skills as needed.
Course Schedule
Class 1
In Class
Introduction and Focus
Refine the focus of the project, understand key terms, and differentiate between a pilot and rapid experimentation.
Discussions
Class introduction: A warm-up session where you get to meet your classmates and instructor.
Context setting: Dive into the course outline and what to expect over the term.
Value Proposition Canvas: Learn how to refine and align your solution’s unique value.
Out of Class
Assignment 1: Self-appraisal and peer review
As you transition from a design student to a designer in the world, it’s important to reflect regularly on what you’ve learned, what you’ve accomplished, and where you want to improve along with internalizing feedback from your peers on the value of your contributions.
Class 2
In Class
Problem and Audience Reframing
Further refine problem and audience, prioritize capabilities, and refine assumptions and outcomes.
⏰ Assignment 1 Due
Activities
Reframe problem/audience: Revisit and tighten the focus on the problem and whom you're solving it for.
Draft final solution: Begin outlining your project's final deliverable.
Class 3
In Class
Experimentation: Intro
Design and execute experiments on the product or service to refine understanding and make iterative improvements.
Discussion
Rapid experimentation: Introduce the principles of quick, effective testing.
Designing experiments
Activities
In-class refinement: Discuss CA findings and distill down identified opportunities
Out of Class
Assignment 2: Experiment Plan
In order to design effective experiments, it’s important to have rigor in the planning. Additionally, when you have limited time, resources, and money to spend, it’s critical to take efficient and calculated steps forward. At the end of this assignment, you’ll be really clear on what it is you’re trying to learn, who you should learn it from, how you’ll know when you’re successful, and what’s the fastest and easiest way to gain the confidence you need to move forward.
Homework
Expand your value proposition canvas into a business model canvas for your capstone project
Class 4
In Class
Experimentation: Planning
Create hypothesis trees, prioritize experiments, and define research methods and artifacts.
Activities
Experiment mapping: Layout a roadmap for your experimental design.
Experiment planning: Develop strategies for effective data collection.
Experiment designing: Learn how to structure your experiments, including choosing the right variables and controls, to ensure actionable outcomes.
Out of Class
Conduct at least 1 experiment
Class 5
In Class
Experimentation: Synthesizing
Run and build experiments, collect data, and iterate.
⏰ Assignment 2 Due
Discussion
Running and synthesizing experiments: A practical guide to executing and interpreting experiments.
Activities
Dedicated team time: Allocated time to work collaboratively with your team.
Out of Class
Conduct at least 1 experiment
Class 6
In Class
Experimentation: Executing
Activities
Run experiments, measure, iterate: Put your experimental plans into action.
Out of Class
Continue experiments
Prepare for Stakeholder Studio
Your upcoming class will focus on harnessing the power of external stakeholder perspectives to enhance your project. In preparation, each team should design a 30-minute stakeholder interaction exercise. This exercise should help you leverage the valuable insights your stakeholders can provide and, if possible, pre-test elements of your upcoming final presentations.
Class 7
In Class
Stakeholder Studio
Engage with external partners to enrich projects using real-world insights and feedback.
Activities
Cross-functional exercises: Engage with external stakeholders through targeted activities.
Out of Class
Continue experiments
Synthesize learnings from panel
Class 8
In Class
Revise solution based on learnings
Refine the product or service based on insights gathered and detail key scenarios.
Activities
Ideate happy path scenarios: Imagine best-case user interactions with your project.
Refine final concept capabilities and consider future needs.
Out of Class
Synthesize experiment learnings
Assignment 3: Midpoint Share-out
You're in the critical phase of your Capstone Project, having run several weeks of rapid experiments and refinement. Now, let's pause to reflect and share your insights, learnings, and the path forward. This assignment is a platform to present your evolutionary journey, engaging both in self-reflection and in collecting valuable feedback.
Class 9
In Class
Choose your own adventure
Focus on different aspects of your project as needed
Out of Class
Assignment 3: Midpoint Share-out (continued)
Class 10
In Class
Create final concept
Produce a high-fidelity concept or prototype reflecting the current vision and incorporating earlier learnings.
Activities
Working session on high-fidelity prototype: Create a polished, realistic prototype of your project.
Out of Class
Assignment 3: Midpoint Share-out (continued)
Class 11
In Class
Mid-point share out
Reflect and tell a story about where you are so you can get crisp on your purpose.
⏰ Assignment 3 Due
Activities
Mid-point share out presentation and critique: Share your progress and receive invaluable feedback.
Out of Class
Midpoint blog post
Each student must write an individual blog post on the AC4D website reflecting on their personal journey with rapid experimentation, encapsulating some of the content shared in the midpoint share-out.
Class 12
In Class
Vision evolution
Envision the capabilities of your solution evolving over time.
Activities
Evolution mapping: Chart how your solution could evolve over time.
Draft pitch deck narrative: Begin crafting the narrative for your final presentation.
Out of Class
Assignment 4: Final Capstone presentation
To create change and influence as a designer, you have to be able to execute an effective design process to formulate and validate novel ideas, communicate and share your ideas in a way that resonates with others, and then work with many different people to bring your ideas to life.
In your final presentation, you’re expected to share the process and insights that led you to the beliefs you have about the current state of your problem and audience, the opportunities you see to improve their experience, what you imagine the future could look like, the solution you propose as your best next step forward, and why you believe so strongly in it. You’re also expected to walk through at least one scenario depicting how people would experience your solution’s final concept.
Class 13
In Class
Advocacy
Develop a narrative to effectively communicate the solution, draft a persuasive pitch deck, and involve stakeholders.
Discussions
Advocacy: Learn how to champion your idea or project effectively to stakeholders.
Out of Class
Assignment 4: Final Capstone presentation (continued)
Class 14
In Class
Refine narrative
Refine the narrative and pitch deck for the final presentation.
Activities
Draft presentation run-through: A trial run of your final presentation.
Narrative refinement: Fine-tune the story you want to tell.
Out of Class
Assignment 4: Final Capstone presentation (continued)
Class 15
In Class
Penultimate Check-in
Step outside of Capstone projects and reflect on future goals and opportunities.
Activities
Declare victory: Take a product design and management approach to take control of your career.
Out of Class
Assignment 4: Final Capstone presentation (continued)
Class 16
In Class
Final Presentations
Deliver final capstone presentation: Showcase your hard work and what you've learned in a compelling presentation.
⏰ Assignment 4 Due
Activities
Presentations
Out of Class
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