Leading Agile Innovation

Catalog description

In this course students will work on improving their innovation skills. We will start by discussing the basic principles of agile innovation. We will then discuss those behaviors linked to innovation and creativity. Students will learn how to optimize innovation in a team setting. Students will also work on developing these skills in a 3 day innovation event (hackathon) where they will identify an unmet need and develop a solution to the opportunity build a prototype and business model around this solution and pitch this solution to a panel of investors. Students will gain a broader perspective of both the challenges (i.e. organizational and institutional) in an increasingly digital economy and opportunities (i.e. unmet customer needs and possibilities for future ventures) in this economy. Students will formulate teams to generate solutions to real-world problems. Students will learn and apply team innovation principles, business model innovation, design thinking, and product development, the class will also cover the psychology of creativity, product pitches, and the basic principles of leading innovation in a team including team demography and team processes that drive innovation. Students will then practice these skills. (MHA-EL)