Towards Design Principles for Asset-Driven Design Thinking Challenges

  • Type:Masterarbeit
  • Date:immediately
  • Supervisor:

    Niels Feldmann (KSRI)

  • Motivation:

    In recent years, companies have been approaching consultancies and academics looking for advice on how to tackle a certain type of innovation challenges with Design Thinking (DT). In some of these challenges, companies want to leverage the advantages of the human-centric innovation approach DT in order to seek new ways to exploit a given asset, such as a specific material, technology, or data. More specifically, they look for a new product or service that is based on the given asset and a corresponding market, i.e. customers that perceive the product/service as attractive. We term the desired approach "Asset-driven Design Thinking" (ADDT).

    Research Goal:

    For this type of challenge following a straightforward design thinking approach does not fit. Understanding customers' needs and designing solutions to address them (standard DT) is not sufficient. Instead, customer needs and potential associated with a given asset need to be brought into contiguity. Approaches that guide innovation managers in these cases are poorly documented and under-researched. In this master thesis, we aim to address this research gap by deriving design principles for successfully conducting ADDT projects. These design principles are likely to include procedural and methodological cornerstones. The goal of the thesis is to draft and submit a scientific publication.

    Methodology:

    An initial literature review shall depict the current state of scientific knowledge related to the outlined topic. Concepts such as "technology push", "technology application selection" (TAS), or "systematic mapping" may be starting points. In-depth case studies of selected projects (e.g. NEC/ITMP case) may complement the picture. Potentially, design science research might be useful as a framework for the study.

    Partner:

    The study is carried out in collaboration with:

    EnTechnon (KIT)

    HPI - Design Thinking & Innovation Research Group

    Consultancy ITMP

    NEC Laboratories Europe

    The SUGAR Network