The design brief: inquiry into the starting point in a learning journey

The paper reviews an assessment regime for its capacity to engage university learners, enabling them to design radically new business offerings. We explore the effect of the briefing approach on defining the customer/offering match. This study is framed by participatory action research, where data draws on two distinctive module deliveries: one where the design brief asks learners to generate the offering first and then shape the customer segment. The second one supplies an archetype and asks learners to define customer first and then develop the offering. Our analysis reveals that learners’ engagement with the design brief prompts an emergence of five patterns of learners’ responses, leading to conclusions that the nature of design brief elements has an impact in shaping the overall learning. Moreover, going from customer to offering appears to generate better iterations between the two, overall leading to learners’ engagement with the process not simply seeking an outcome

Exploring learning experiences of business undergraduates in Strategic Design module

The paper explores the delivery of a strategic design module within an undergraduate business education in UK. In light of the recent discourses to promote change in design education (Friedman, 2001; Cassim, 2013; Norman and Klemmer, 2014; Souleles, 2013), the learner’s journey and their decisionmaking process undertaken in the strategic design module are being investigated to highlight the potential of design process in contributing to business and management education. The paper follows participatory action research and draws on observations of learners’ engagement in a design process substantiated by insights from staff delivering on the module. The aim is to understand the nature of decisions the learners undertake in order to generate more effective learning and teaching strategies highlighting the value of strategic design. The insights gained illuminate learners recognition of the value of decisions grounded in empathy in addressing contemporary organisational challenges, whilst highlighting their avoidance of risk in decision-making and lack of perceived interconnectedness of those decisions. Thus, it is argued that the resulting awareness around decision-making can become a very useful tool in helping learners conceptualise what strategic design requires and understand their own learning experience

Exploring Business Undergraduates’ Journey and Decision-Making Processes while Immersed in Strategic Design Experience

The paper explores the delivery of a strategic design module within an undergraduate business education in UK. In light of the recent discourses to promote change in design education (Friedman, 2001; Cassim, 2013; Norman and Klemmer, 2014; Souleles, 2013), the learner’s journey and their decision-making process undertaken in the strategic design module are being investigated to highlight the potential of design process in contributing to business and management education. The paper follows participatory action research and draws on observations of learners’ engagement in a design process substantiated by insights from staff delivering on the module. The aim is to understand the nature of decisions the learners undertake in order to generate more effective learning and teaching strategies highlighting the value of strategic design. The insights gained illuminate learners recognition of the value of decisions grounded in empathy in addressing contemporary organisational challenges, whilst highlighting their avoidance of risk in decision-making and lack of perceived interconnectedness of those decisions. Thus, it is argued that the resulting awareness around decision-making can become a very useful tool in helping learners conceptualise what strategic design requires and understand their own learning experience

Redefining learning environments through design management in practice to re-imagine business education.

For global business and design management to thrive in a consensual learning environment there are various pedagogical approaches that can be applied. In particular, following designers from their native design environments in search of non-native environments can offer insights into applied pedagogy in both business and design education. Thus, this paper explores how experiencing the value of design management in practice can assist the business degree learner to overcome pre-conceived boundaries created in their native business environment and reconstruct new boundaries in order to define a new native environment and thus awaken their curiosity and enhance their learning experience. Woven throughout the study is the aim of ‘futuring’ students’ knowledge of design management to deepen intellectual curiosity, therefore encouraging the development of a learning and research culture. The paper draws on an evaluation of teaching and learning methods applied on design management modules, which are part of the BA (Hons) Global Management degree at Regent’s University London

Value of Participatory Action Research Methodology in Investigating Design Process within Undergraduate Management Education

The paper evaluates the effectiveness of participatory action research (PAR) methodology utilised in a study investigating the delivery of design management module within the context of undergraduate management education. The paper presents the benefits and challenges of PAR as a methodological choice for conducting research into a design management curriculum delivery. It draws on six research cycles between 2009 and 2014 to offer its critical analysis by comparing the key implemented changes to the curriculum delivery resulting from each cycle with formal disseminations of research findings, as points of self-refection following each cycle. Authors draw on Cunningham (2008), who asserts that ‘… action research gives us an iterative, systematic, analytic way to reflect on what we are doing in class, to evaluate our success at achieving our classroom goals, and to chart the direction of future classroom strategies based on what we have learned’ (p. 1). Thus, the authors argue that in the case of the undertaken research, the PAR methodology enabled them to conduct a self-reflective inquiry into design management module delivery in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of their own teaching practices, their understanding of those practices, and the classroom situations and experiences such practices engendered. The underlying aim of the paper is to explore the potential of PAR methodology in design research, whilst offering a contribution to recent broader debates shaping design and management education

Infusing management education with design to foster resilience, adaptability and flexibility

We reflect on the impact design education has on our management learners by equipping them with a different learning perspective; one that allows them to ‘live their learning’. We maintain that the role of learning is to be owned and internalised for learners to feel responsible for its impact and outcomes. Where such an approach to learning instils in management learners’ resilience, adaptability, and flexibility, highlighted by Harford (2011) as key in shaping the future workforce. Using an autoethnography approach we examine a Design Leadership module for its capacity to instil those characteristics through the synergy of design approach with management education catalysed by an exhibition opening event. Through observations at this event, we identify four impacts and propose that education should adopt ‘lean start-up’ principals (Ries, 2011) and become a ‘platform for experimentation’ for learners to have an impact and be in control for the next

Tilting T&L – awakening responsible design practices via the senses

This case study outlines the experience of engaging postgraduate design students in activities exploring sensorial modalities in relation to their creative processes. Situated within wider research trialling a set of teaching interventions that positively disrupt the curriculum as a mechanism for awakening learning around responsible design – this case study sets out the process and some early discoveries concerning a pair of workshops that utilise the senses as a tool for enquiry, imagination, and connection. It offers insights and reflection on methods for ‘tilting’ perspectives and practices regarding human and more-than-human awareness within design education

A Learning and Teaching Intervention to Shape Responsible Design Practices

Our paper considers a teaching intervention as a means to instigate learning around responsibility, via an understanding of impact within design practice, where the underpinning action research approach affords continuous analysis and reflection across teaching implementation. Our research focuses on a six-stage workshop undertaken by 80 students, from a range of design disciplines and levels. The four-hour workshop utilises interrogatory, disruptive and prioritising activities to interrupt and explore an existing design project. Students independently and collaboratively analyse their projects across three defined areas (overview / approach / stakeholders), by mapping, connecting and challenging the systems associated with their projects. Our analysis of collected observations and participant feedback suggest that the workshop learning environment enables students to challenge their thinking and to navigate areas of complexity, decision-making and discovery, where the findings illuminate how this prompts students to distil their objectives, define their choices and become more conceptually elastic. Significantly, our data suggests that the experience enables students to identify what matters to them versus others and to develop a clearer connection with their values, judgements and responsibilities. Whilst the workshop tasks were not affected by discipline type, we assert that the timing of the intervention within a course project does affect engagement with some workshop aspects. We have also identified that for the intervention to have a lasting impact, our further research needs to explore follow-up methods and facilitated scaffolding. We have set out to test curriculum design that supports students to consider the consequences and complexities of their design choices and the interconnectedness of the ecological and social systems their designs inhabit. We argue that this facilitated learning experience prompts a greater self-awareness, pointing to responsible design practices and the nurturing of future citizen designers

Boundaries of Unfamiliar Learning Experiences in the Innovation Journey in Business Management Education

The study investigates the effectiveness of using design mock-ups by business learners as part of their innovation journeys. It draws on learners’ experiences in a final year elective module (Managing Strategic Design) delivered on an undergraduate management degree. This module has been designed to challenge learners to develop truly innovative business opportunities, utilising design and strategic thinking. The design mock-ups are examined for their capacity to help learners to traverse disciplinary and conceptual boundaries in order to seek out innovative solutions. In design, reliance on mock-ups as teaching tools informs critical aspects of learning about the design concepts and processes, but this is not the case in business. We investigate the impact of creating such artefacts by teams as a means of mediating collaborative interaction within innovation process and for the ways, learners encounter the unfamiliar and incorporate it into their learning experiences. The methodology underpinning the investigation is that of participatory action research, where the analysis draws on the observed processes of making the mock-ups, assessment feedback on the mock-up submissions and learners’ reflection on creating the mock-ups. The current literature on innovation already acknowledges that artefacts play an important role in the innovation process. However, this study indicates that the purposeful process of making such artefacts as a way to make sense of the innovation has added value. The physical act of making combines the emotional response to the collaboration with managing the uncertainty of the innovation process. As the artefacts become conduits of the social interactions within the teams, they reveal the role they play in reframing the encountered learning boundaries into a ‘new familiar’. The authors' conclude that the process of making sense of the unfamiliar and re-creating it into the ‘new familiar’ takes place at metacognitive level. Thus, the exploration of the ways in which the creation of design mock-up assists this process of metacognitive reframing has implication for the learning environments in which it takes place

The Practical and the Creative of the Innovation Journey – Education in Action

This has been a ‘taster’ workshop of some of the approaches that the authors use in supporting students along their innovation journey. The tasks in the workshop included the initial ideation process in identifying a ‘Blue Ocean’ opportunity for a club in London, UK, followed by an investigative approach to managing some of the practical elements of creating a business as part of ideation process. The workshop concluded with a reflection on where issues arise for university students in this process considering very practical challenges such as numbers, promotion and revenue. The workshop concluded with the participants exploring ways in which lecturers can support their students in overcoming those challenges as they progress through the ideation stage of the innovation process