• Identify and analyze the value of specific entrepreneurial activities for developing opportunities into viable businesses through the application of various types of business model formats and prototyping procedures.
• Acquire knowledge, insights, and methods from a social constructionist perspective for the creation of futures and the development of organizations as well as engage in effective collaborative processes through group activities as well as reflect on engagement in collaborative processes through group activities.
• Develop prototypes of products and/or services and undertake iterative testing and revision of these prototypes through participatory design.
• Gain some facility in the use of various presentation modalities (e.g., drawing, sketching, storyboarding, improvisation and role playing) for bringing ideas into concrete realities that others can experience.

This course offers theory from social construction perspectives and utilizes various frameworks (business models and prototyping) and processes (i.e., concept and business model development and testing; feasibility processes; product and service design methods; and participatory design processes) for developing ideas and opportunities into viable businesses.  The class is taught in a studio format. Based on knowledge gained from: assigned readings, short lectures and cases, class discussions and group exercises; the class develops, modifies and refines a series of business concepts, business models, and product/service prototypes that will serve as inputs for evaluating the feasibility of a particular idea/opportunity.  Students (either alone or in teams) will be responsible for developing and refining a business model and a prototype for a specific opportunity during the term.  

Required Books to Purchase:

Roam: D. (2009).  Unfolding the Napkin.  New York: Penguin Books.  (Listed as NAPKIN in Course Schedule)

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., Smith, A. & Papadakos, T.  (2014). Value Proposition Design. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. (Listed as VPD in Course Schedule)

Latour, B. (1987).  Science in Action.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.  (List as SIA in Course Schedule)

Supplemental Books and Materials;

If you don’t have a sense of accounting and finance, then, you should read this book: 

Berman, K., & Knight, J. (2013). Financial intelligence for entrepreneurs: what you really need to know about the numbers. Harvard Business Press.

The class can’t cover all of the ways that one might use design thinking to solve problems.  A good book to widen your sense of design methods and ideas is:

Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2010). Universal principles of design: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design. Rockport publishers.