Design Thinking at HPI
Coaching at the HPI School of Design Thinking and HPI Academy, 2010–2016
From 2010 to 2016 I was a Design Thinking coach at the HPI School of Design Thinking (D-School) and the HPI Academy in Potsdam. I coached and led interdisciplinary student teams in projects with partners such as SAP, Toll Collect, Sozialhelden e.V. and VNR Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft.
Train-the-trainers at SAP
In a five-day Train-the-Trainers workshop, SAP department heads were introduced to Design Thinking so that they could pass the method on to their own teams. After exercises on interview techniques, synthesis and prototyping, the participants worked on concrete challenges from the SAP context, such as improving an internal ride-sharing portal for colleagues.
Boda Boda: mobile business models for minibuses
In a D-School project, a student team researched on site in South Africa, interviewed minibus operators and developed a mobile business model to improve the minibus service, with simpler ticket booking and optimised route planning. Project lead with Marco Eisenberg; students: Sabine De Schutter, Madeleine Gasch, Jan-Felix Schwarz and Eszter Toth.
The experience flowed into research on Lean Design Thinking, the role of roleplay in business innovation and the impact of cultural differences in Design Thinking education (DRS 2014), and into my bachelor’s course Digital Business Models.
