Explore how design-led approaches help us navigate urgent global challenges—from climate resilience to digital equity—by linking creativity with systems thinking. Understand innovation not just as invention, but as a disciplined, purposeful response to change.
Innovation by Design: Principles and Practice
This is a Level 1 course from the Management and Innovation major, part of the Open Bachelor’s programme. It is worth 6 ECTS and takes place in Term 2 in Lisbon.
Course Summary
In Term 1, we focused on Change through Human-Centered Design. Building on that foundation, we now tackle a deeper question: What does innovation by design mean, and how can it be harnessed to address the most pressing challenges of our time? This course explores the Why, What, and How of innovation. We’ll delve into the evolution of innovation and its intersections with technological, economic, and societal trends. From the steam engine to artificial intelligence, from gentrification to innovation ecosystem policies, you’ll uncover why technological trends pull us toward future innovation, while policies shape the right context and timing for it.
What can we innovate? Products, processes—or even paradigms.
And how? Through a disciplined process and a perfectly orchestrated innovation journey (Spoiler: they call it Design Thinking).
Through project-based learning, you’ll embark on this journey yourself, tackling real-world innovation challenges from the public and private sector. Collaborating with peers from diverse disciplines, you’ll develop the critical thinking and decision-making skills needed to navigate the complexities of why, what, and how we can innovate—for a better future.
Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)
| Description | Mapped to Human Intelligence | |
|---|---|---|
| CLO 1 | Acquire and apply key theories and frameworks from innovation management studies to analyse real-world technological or societal transformations. | CI1 – Learning Agility |
| CLO 2 | Develop an innovation strategy in collaboration with peers, rooting it in its historical context, analyzing key drivers, and relevance to contemporary sustainability challenges. | SEI5 – Collaboration |
| CLO 3 | Reflect on the ethical and societal dimensions of innovation to develop your own perspective on its role in shaping the future. | PI5 – Adaptability |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Weighting of Course Grade | Group Assessment? | Invigilated? | CLOs Mapped | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment 1 | Presentation in pairs | 20% | Yes | Yes | CLO 1 |
| Assessment 2 | Practical – Case Study in groups | 40% | Yes | No | CLOs 1 & 2 |
| Assessment 3 | Individual Written – Reflective Assignment | 40% | No | Yes | CLOs 1, 2, 3 |
- Assessment 1 Description: 15 min presentation in class covering key theories, thinker, and debate in innovation history and critique.
- Assessment 2 Description: Teams develop an innovation strategy, presenting findings and a short written report.
- Assessment 3 Description: Students critically reflect on innovation’s ethical and societal impact, integrating course insights.
Indicative List
of Topics
Use Tidd & Bessant’s framework to understand the full spectrum of innovation—from tangible product breakthroughs to radical shifts in values and worldviews. Learn how to identify innovation opportunities across sectors and scales, from incremental tweaks to paradigm shifts.
Interrogate the myth of the lone entrepreneur by examining Mariana Mazzucato’s argument that governments often take the biggest risks in innovation. Assess how public investment, policy frameworks, and institutional design shape the direction, timing, and fairness of innovation.
Learn how to detect and decode emerging trends using Amy Webb’s tools for strategic foresight. Discover how weak signals today may shape tomorrow’s opportunities, and how innovators can anticipate disruption in technology, society, and the environment.
Understand how complex, interdependent challenges—like climate change, public health, and urban inequality—resist simple solutions. Explore how design thinking, co-creation, and iteration can help navigate uncertainty and foster more inclusive, resilient innovations.
