SEED Guide
1.4. SEED Case Studies of applied design thinking
The case studies created for the SEED course on Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Future aim to enhance awareness and critical thinking for working with design thinking approaches. The case studies explore how a variety of private companies and public entities have applied human-centered design approaches to launch new products and services on the market.
Like the SEED Sustainability Challenges and the accompanying design thinking tools, tasks, and steps, the SEED Case Studies, further readings, and discussion questions have been piloted with 50+ students in four different courses of Applied English at the Guarda Polytechnic University (IPG) School of Technology and Management. For these piloting activities, teachers, administrators, researchers, members of the local community, 2-year specialization students, BSc students, and MSc students collaborated in design thinking workshops in co-creation with glocal (global and local) stakeholders in April and May 2024. In the same period before publication, the material was fine-tuned with a final piloting activity, co-funded by the SEED Erasmus+ project, led by IPG at Reykjavik University’s Center for Research on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RUCRIE), Iceland.
This additional course material, developed to support the joint objectives of learning and practicing design thinking aimed at sustainability and entrepreneurship, is comprised of three components to enrich learning:
- ten case studies in 1-2 pages each
- a variety of further reading selections for each selected industrial or organizational area
- ten discussion questions tailored to each case study.
Teachers can use these three components in diverse combinations. Here are just a few sample lesson ideas:
The ten SEED Case Studies can be read sequentially or you can pick and choose to use them individually to warm up to other aspects of the SEED course lectures or SEED Sustainability Challenges.
The ten discussion questions that complement each case study can be summarily completed in individual practice, whether in class or as an assignment.
Teams can build their responses collaboratively and debate their results with other teams.
Teams can discuss and select their favorite question(s) for rival teams to respond to.
Teams can be asked to develop more and better questions for discussion.
Discussion of the responses can occur in a speed-dating context, where discussion partners switch in a 1-3 minute period, orchestrated by the teacher or by a student. This time-frame is valued especially as the famous elevator pitch so clearly merits practice time.
Teams can develop infographics that interpret the design thinking process for one or more of the ten SEED Case Studies.
Predictably, in contrast to working alone, teamwork has proven to be the most effective approach to using the case studies. The students had more fun thinking together and produced a greater variety of ideas than individually. Focus groups responded invariably that their training in design thinking had convinced them of the value of teamwork.
The piloting results clearly favor the memorable heated discussions and enriching development of the themes proposed.
Dedicating class time to these components is highly recommended. Note that the core activities and competences of design thinking, according to the 3i Approach to Design Thinking, are collaborating on teams, communicating, thinking critically, and enjoying creativity. Keep in mind that, as examples of design thinking in action, the ten case studies each represent opportunities to generate discussion and witness the systematic development of empathy (in the problem space) and ideas (in the solution space) of a specific wicked challenge.
As you work with these design thinking case studies, please consider the irony expressed in this recent book title: The Feeling Economy: How Artificial Intelligence is creating the Era of Empathy (Rust and Huang 2021). According to co-author Roland Rust, “As AI evolves to handle much of the thinking required in fields from manufacturing to retail to healthcare, humans will need to recalibrate and capitalize on strengths beyond pure intelligence — like intuition, empathy, creativity, emotion and people skills” (Smith 2021).