General Information

• Lecturer: Prof. Dr. h.c. Hasso Plattner
• Tutors: Anja Bog, Stephan Müller, Johannes Wust, Christian Schwarz
• Schedule:
  • Introductory session: approx. 45 minutes on Tuesday, 19.10.2010, 9:15am, SNB E-9/10
  • Design thinking workshop: 30.11./1.12.2010, 9 am at D-School, SNB Hasso Plattner High-Tech Park
  • Block seminar: 14.2. - 18.2.2011, 9:15 am at D-School, HPI Main Building
  • Group work on individual schedule in December and January, meetings with tutors as needed
• 6 ECTS (graded)
• Enrollment until November 26, 2010

Introduction

This seminar will be held in a Stanford-like teaching approach. The course is composed of two interwoven parts: Technological discussions and a design project. The idea is to look into immutable concepts illustrated by real world examples. Topics related to the contents of Prof. Plattner's lecture "Trends and Concepts in the Software Industry I" will be taken up and reflected on. The participation in "Trends and Concepts in the Software Industry I" is recommended as a preparation for this seminar, but is not mandatory. From the design perspective, topics include the design thinking process, innovation and prototyping methodologies, need finding, human factors, and team dynamics. Participants experience a hands-on project embedded in the technological topics of this course. This years topic of the hands-on project, also called the design thinking challenge, is the question of how we might support the mobile manager in accessing and selecting the relevant information he needs to efficiently and effectively make decisions. The seminar schedule consists of the following:

• We start with a design thinking workshop at the beginning of December where the basics of the design thinking methodology will be taught and applied in the context of our challenge. Students will experience a fast forward move through the design thinking process thereby establishing confidence in this process to go out to real managers and conduct interviews.
• The above mentioned interviews and following brainstorming, fact finding and prototyping sessions will be scheduled individually per team and compose the second part of the seminar.
• The third and final part of the seminar comprises the block lecture with Hasso Plattner where ideas and prototypes will be tested through more interview sessions and finalized.

Please take a look at the results and impressions of our previous seminar. The slide deck of the introduction session can be found here.

Learning Experience

Participants will

• enhance their creativity while working in teams,
• get insights into and apply the design thinking methodology,
• improve their presentation skills,
• get in contact with managers of companies and establish interview skills.

Grading

During the block lecture several team presentations and discussions will be held. The grade of the seminar will be determined by

• engagement to discussions, the project and team work (20%),
• viability, feasibility, and desirability of project results (30%),
• intermediate presentations (20%), and the
• final presentation (30%).

Reading Material

Please read the general material:

• A Common Database Approach for OLTP and OLAP Using an In-Memory Column Database, by Hasso Plattner
• Book Chapter: Design Thinking by Plattner, H., Meinel, C., Weinberg, U., design THINKING – Innovation lernen, Ideenwelten öffnen. Pages 101-135 (please contact Andrea Baumgarten in order to borrow the book for seminar preparation)
• Intro to Design Thinking: A discussion of design thinking and it’s implications in the corporate world. Interview with David Burney, Vice President of Brand Communications + Design at Red Hat, a champion of design thinking.
• David Kelley on Design Thinking: Sentimental and somewhat lengthy story of how David Kelly invented Design Thinking and how IDEO applied the method successfully in the corporate world. Article, 5 pages.
• Design Thinking: Industry and Design Thinking experts talk about the importance of Design Thinking in education and business: teaching Design Thinking requires a broader education than the programs available. In most schools today, students are trained to become real experts in a relatively narrow area, but not a Design Thinker. The industry, however, really has a demand for design thinkers. Video, about 5 min.
• The art of prototyping in IT: Validating napkin drawings with users provides much more substantial feedback than validating a clickable software prototype. Here is a Java-Plug-in that helps you to convert your screens into napkin drawings
• Developing Design Thinking Capabilities by Michael Barry and Sara L. Beckmann, comprehensive discussion about what it takes to become a Design Thinker.
• About innovation and inventions, and why an invention is not necessarily an innovation.
• The world’s most innovative companies: Business Week and Boston Consulting Group selected the most innovative companies in 2006.

Some highlights of the final presentations are captured in the following video trailer: