Missouri State Design Thinking Program
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The Curriculum
Prepare to Excel

​​Design Thinking Program Curriculum

​The Design Thinking Executive Program meets the same high academic standards of Missouri State University, with a challenging interdisciplinary curriculum designed to prepare you to analyze, create, and deliver unique experiences. Roll up your sleeves to solve real-world challenges and use innovative practices developed by top companies.
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Module 1: Introduction to Design Thinking

Learn a practical definition of Design Thinking and its uses for solving business, technology, and social problems across many industries. 
  • Define Design Thinking as an effective approach to creative problem-solving. 
  • Understand how Human-Centered Design and methodology influence Design Thinking. 
  • Review practices and case studies of Design Thinking in the real-world. 

Module 2: Designing for Empathy

Use cases for understanding and applying empathy in business environments and the value of empathy-based research and elicitation. 
  • Identify effective approaches and tools for research. 
  • Design conversations and interviews that honor stakeholders. 
  • Frame problem statements that facilitate problem-solving. 

Module 3: Introduction to Visualization

​Discover the most common visualization tools in Design Thinking and the best methods for collaborating to understand, explore, and discover ideas. 
  • Align the right visualizations to the right Design Thinking tools. 
  • Learn the visualization tools that best fit specific challenges. 
  • Explore the use of visualization tools in real-life scenarios. 

Module 4: Persona & Journey Map Design

Discover the importance of customer experienced-based visualizations that help define their attributes and experiences with your products, services, and stakeholders. 
  • Create personas that describe stakeholder characteristics. 
  • Build journey maps that help define critical moments of truth. 
  • Identify the right tools for success in measuring Customer Experience. 

Module 5: ​Ideation in the Design Thinking Process

Learn how the concept of ideation is a process for developing, communicating, and synthesizing prescriptive ideas to others to solve the right problem. 
  • Develop creative processes for developing new ideas. 
  • Understand mind-mapping and brainstorming approaches.  
  • Learn best practices for ideation workshops. 

Module 6: ​Prototyping

Determine potential approaches for prototyping concepts, products, and services that solve problems. 
  • Understand low and high-fidelity prototyping.  
  • Design ways for bringing ideas to life.  
  • Discuss prototyping approaches and tools. 

Module 7: ​Validation

Leverage previous module knowledge of ideation and prototype design to help design thinkers properly test and validate ideas and prototypes. 
  • Identify methods for researching and validating outcomes. 
  • Evaluate recommendations for stakeholder collaboration and participation.  
  • Develop considerations for design validation. 

​Module 8: Implementation & Validation

Create a plan for implementing Design Thinking principles and tools at your organization and for aligning with the ROI of internal projects and stakeholders.  
  • Develop processes for deployment and launch.  
  • Explore collaboration methods with stakeholders and partners.  
  • Design plans for applying Design Thinking at your organization. 

​Capstone Project: Your Design Thinking Portfolio

  • Completed project, from beginning to end.
  • Custom templates and practices you can employ at your organization.
  • Outcomes that are distinctive and measurable.
  • ​Continued mentoring after the program concludes.
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​To learn more about the Missouri State University Design Thinking Program and how it helps companies and executives drive ROI schedule a call with one of our career counselors.
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Missouri State University
7253 Watson Rd.#1041
St. Louis, MO 63119
Program Location
4050 Pennsylvania Ave. Ste. 115 PMB 5861
Kansas City, MO 64111

Contact Us

Ellen Walter
Program Manager
Phone
417-708-2280
ew9233@missouristate.edu

​DESIGN THINKING PROGRAM at MSU powered by the Zschool

​The Design Thinking Certificate Program at Missouri State University trains and develops individuals to learn how to innovate using the techniques and methodologies of empathetic design.
  • Home
  • About
    • Design Thinking Difference
    • Faculty
  • Program Info
    • Curriculum
    • Upcoming Class Dates
  • Corporate Programs
  • Contact