Hello everyone, welcome to the course Innovation by Design. In this course, we will talk about, of course, we'll talk about innovation. We'll talk about various forms of innovation. We'll address some very specific frameworks of innovation. When we look at it from the perspective of design, what design means, and how that could influence the frameworks and practices and processes of innovation. We'll break innovation down into several types. We'll look at product innovation, we look at service innovation, brand experience innovation, business model innovation. We'll look at a range of different kinds of innovations, but before I get into details about how we go about structuring this course, I'd like to introduce myself. So my name is Prasad Boradkar. I am a professor in The Design School at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, and I've been here at ASU since the year 2000. I've been teaching in The Design School for the past 16 years, and some other things I'm involved in at ASU include teaching courses in design and in innovation, looking at culture of objects. I've taught courses in design history and materials and processes. Most of the courses have to do with some form of design and some form of innovation. I have a background in mechanical engineering, but also in industrial design. I'm originally from India, so I've done most of my education in India, but also studied at the Ohio State University in the US. In terms of my work experience, I have worked in the transportation industry. For a while, I was working in India at a company and was designing accessories for scooters and motorcycles. Currently, I'm actually working with Google in Mountain View, working on a design project at the company. But for most of the work that I do at Arizona State University involves reading and writing about design. I've written a book called Designing Things, A Critical Introduction to the Culture of Objects, where I do talk about what objects mean from a broader perspective of cultural systems. How do objects that we design become a part of our cultural organization, our cultural systems? So those are the kind of things I'm interested in, and I hope to bring some of this learning that I've done over the past few years, some of my experiences to this course called Innovation by Design. So let me give you a quick overview of how this course is structured. We have five modules in this course, and each module tackles a slightly different aspect of innovation. Clearly, the first one, Module 1, will look at, what is innovation? We'll have some definitions of innovation, and as you might know, there are several definitions for the word innovation. It is quite a hot topic right now. Most companies are really interested in making sure that they are innovative, they stay innovative, and embody innovative practices. So in that Module 1, we will look at what innovation is, how it's defined by a few key scholars in the literature. And we also look at different types of innovation, like incremental innovation, social innovation, sustainable innovation, disruptive innovation. So you might have heard these terms. We'll get into some details about what these terms mean and what innovation is and what are some of the key types of innovation right now. Once we go through that, we'll get to Module 2, and in Module 2, we'll discuss a framework of innovation. This framework, I refer to often as a comprehensive innovation framework. When companies put out new innovations into the market, into the world, they have to make sure that they don't only think of limited aspects of that innovation, that it's just a product, or it's just a new service. They have to think very holistically. They have to make sure that they reach out to the consumers in advance. They come up with a new advertising strategy, a new market, a new financial model, a new business model, they have to think of sustainability. So when new innovations get out into the world and diffuse into the world, they are successful if companies think very broadly, very holistically, very comprehensively about what that innovation means and how it becomes a part of people's lives. So this framework that we'll talk about will help you understand how big that framework is, what are its components, and how do you think of those things as you practice innovation yourself? And the other part of Module 2 is based on strategy. So okay, you have a framework, which will give you a sense for, what are some of the things I need to think about when I introduce new innovations? But strategy is more about the how, so you can think of innovation framework as the what and innovation strategy as the how. How do I go about creating a strategy that'll keep me innovative? How do I go about creating a strategy that makes sure that my company stays innovative as long as it's around? So that gets through the strategy part of innovation. That's Module 2, Framework and Strategy. And in Module 3, we'll start getting into the depths and details of that framework, so that framework has six different forms of innovation. The first two are product innovation and service innovation. So product innovation essentially refers to tangible things like pens and computers and water bottles and furniture, all those things, physical products. How do you go about innovating, and what kind of things do you think about in product innovation? We'll cover those, and then there's services innovation. Services refer to the intangible things that we do, for example, getting an education is a service that has to be innovative. Going to the doctor and getting treatment, it's a service. Buying something from a store, getting your car repaired, all those things are services. So we'll talk about service innovation and how that unfolds and how to keep services innovative. So these are the two main things we'll cover in Module 3. In Module 4, we'll talk about two more forms of innovation, and those are brand experience innovation and business model innovation. So as a company, if you put out new products and services, you have to make sure that they are well branded, that they're advertised, that there's a name and a logo. So those things will be covered in branding, but we'll also talk about the notion of an experience, right? As a company, we don't just put out products into the world. We actually allow and encourage people to have experiences. If you walk into a restaurant, what you want is not just food, you want an ambiance, you want to have a good time, you want a certain kind of music, maybe. All those things create an experience, and we'll talk about what is experience design and how brand experience innovation happens. That goes hand-in-hand with business model. So when a company creates a new business, a new product, or a new service, they have to think of revenue models. They have to think of the people involved, they have to think of a supply chain. All those aspects, the things that have to happen from a business operations, a business process perspective, those are a part of the innovation, as well. So in Module 4, we'll talk about the brand experience innovation and business model innovation. And then Module 5, which is the last module of the course, we'll get to the last two parts of innovation, and that is sustainable innovation and internal process innovation. So what we've talked about so far is very external, right? They are products, services, brands, experiences, business model, etc. What we'll do in Module 5 is we'll talk about something very important, which is how do you make sure that the innovations that go out into the world are sustainable. And what we mean here about sustainable is that they are good for society, and they're good for the environment. That in producing these new innovations, we don't harm people, and we don't harm the planet, right? So that's what sustainable innovation is all about. It's about being responsible, being a good citizen to the planet, that's what sustainable innovation is about. And then finally, we'll talk about internal process innovation, which refers to what a company can and should do to make sure that internally, it has the right kind of processes in place to make sure that it stays innovative. And it continues to be an innovative company which means things like you have to have a vision, you have to make sure that you look ahead, you have to have a growth strategy. It also means that you have to make sure that you empower your employees. You make sure that your employees have all the tools and the skills and the knowledge and the creativity and the freedom to make sure that they themselves can continue to be innovative as well. So these are the key topics that we'll cover from Module 1 through Module 5, and the way this will happen is we'll have presentations that I'll do, like this one. We'll have some guests that we'll bring onto the course that you can talk to. These are accomplished people in the world who have worked at large companies, small firms, who are designers, who are innovators. We'll learn from them. You'll have some assignments that you'll work on, some activities that'll be a part of the course. You'll have some homework to do, so we have a variety of different case studies and action items and readings. All that is woven to these five modules of the course. So the goal is to make sure that you learn and understand what innovation by design means, what is a framework for innovation, and how do you go about practicing this. Some key things to keep in mind, of course, we'll be talking about how companies innovate, but some of these learnings about innovation can be also applied to your life itself. You can train yourself to be an innovative person, train yourself to be a creative person, and these things that we'll talk about can be applicable at a personal level as well. So I hope I've given you a really good, quick overview of the course. I hope you find this exciting, and I hope the journey over the next five modules will be educational, but also entertaining. And you'll leave the course having learned something about innovation by design. Thank you, and welcome.
