Innov201

Course Manifesto

Most of your education has rewarded fitting in. This course rewards something else: curiosity, courage, and the willingness to look a little foolish while learning.

Innovation by Design Thinking exists for a simple reason: the world does not need more people who can repeat frameworks perfectly. It needs people who can notice what others miss, work with uncertainty, and create solutions that genuinely improve human lives.

That kind of growth is rarely comfortable.

This course is not built around passive consumption. It is built around participation, experimentation, reflection, and action. You will think, discuss, build, test, fail, laugh, revise, and try again. Sometimes in that order. Sometimes not.

The way we learn here

We begin inward, then move outward.

Before we ask you to understand users, teams, organizations, or systems, we ask you to spend time understanding yourself. The course starts with genuine introspection—not as a warm-up exercise, but as the foundation for everything that follows.

From there we explore how humans connect, collaborate, create meaning, and solve problems together. Only then do we apply the tools of design thinking:

• Deep needsfinding and observation

• Synthesis and problem definition

• Open-minded ideation

• Rapid prototyping

• Testing, learning, and iterating

You will work on real challenges with no answer key. If you are looking for the one correct solution, you may find this unsettling. If you are excited by the possibility of discovering a better question, you will probably enjoy yourself.

What we care about

This course is about innovation, but it is also about being human.

We will engage with themes such as:

• Presence and attention

• Empathy and compassion

• Creativity and courage

• Purpose and meaning

• Failure and resilience

• Authenticity and values

• Well-being and mental health

Some conversations will be light. Some will be unexpectedly deep. We handle both with respect.

A few important realities

• This is not a spectator sport. You cannot meaningfully take this course while being half-present.

• You will be treated as an adult. No one will micromanage your attendance or your effort.

• Your team is not a school assignment. The responsibility you owe your teammates is real.

• Failure is expected. If none of your ideas fail, you probably did not explore widely enough.

• Fun is expected too. We laugh a lot. We build strange things. We occasionally have moments that feel more like a life conversation than a university course.

You will get much less from this course if:

• You're looking for the easiest path to a passing grade.

• You prefer memorizing frameworks rather than building, testing, and improving ideas.

• You choose to stay comfortably anonymous instead of engaging with your classmates.

• You experience constructive feedback as criticism rather than an opportunity to learn.

You will get much more from this course if:

• You're curious about yourself, other people, and the world around you.

• You are willing to try something real and imperfect rather than wait for something safe and polished.

• You are comfortable being a beginner again.

• You see your classmates as collaborators rather than competitors.

• You understand that innovation is not only about methods and tools—it is about mindset, behavior, and the courage to explore.

There is no single “right” way to be a student. People come to university with different goals, experiences, and expectations.

Our goal is simply that you enter this course with your eyes open: ready to participate, ready to experiment, and ready to discover something new about innovation—and perhaps about yourself.

What success looks like

Success here is not just producing a clever prototype.

It is learning to notice human needs more deeply. It is becoming more comfortable with uncertainty. It is discovering that creativity is not a personality trait possessed by a lucky few—it is a practice.

By the end of the course, you should be better equipped to build solutions that help people live better lives. More importantly, you should be further along in becoming a better teammate, collaborator, leader, and human being.

A final note from me

I don't teach this course because I have to.

I teach it because I believe deeply in what it can do for people. Every year I watch students surprise themselves—sometimes with an idea, sometimes with a conversation, sometimes with a version of themselves they had not met before.

I will show up fully engaged, fully prepared, and genuinely grateful to be there.

I'm asking you to do the same.

If you're ready to participate, not just attend…

Welcome.