Design Thinking

As a framework for identifying and solving problems, Design Thinking, is a critical tool for helping entrepreneurs see the world through their customers eyes. This course will enable startups to uncover their customers’ real needs, generate ideas for solving them, and then quickly learn which of those ideas are viable in the marketplace. This course is divided into four modules. The first module, Design Thinking, will introduce startups to basic design thinking principles and enable them to construct products/services with high desirability, high feasibility, and high viability. The second module, Ecosystem Innovation, teaches startups to consider the ecosystem that already exists for their product/service and how to leverage it to enhance their offerings. Startups will learn to map the ecosystem relevant to their business and develop clear strategies around harnessing it to their benefit. The third module, Hard Conversations, teaches startups how to conduct difficult conversations with team members, vendors and other collaborators. Startups will learn how to approach conversations they have been avoiding, usually related to work styles, productivity, and collaboration and tasked with holding a real-life difficult conversation at the end of this module. The fourth module, Making Your Ideas Stick, will focus on communication skills and storytelling principles to develop a winning pitch and presentation for investors. At the end of this module, startups will apply the lessons learnt to develop a 3-4 minute pitch to succinctly present their product/idea/service.

Design Thinking: Eight (8) sessions

Ecosystem Innovation: Three (3) sessions

Hard Conversations: Five (5) sessions

Making Your Ideas Stick: Three (3) sessions

Shahid Khan

Shahid Khan is a Design Thinking coach with expertise in business solutions that enable enterprises to transform and grow revenue with cloud adoption. Since 2015, Mr Khan has been helping startups at NICL (formerly the LUMS Centre for Entrepreneurship) develop creative solutions to complex problems. He has mentored 130+ startups who have collectively raised $15M+ in funding and created 1000+ jobs. Mr Khan is a Sr. Global Director, Enterprise Transformation and Design Thinking at SAP and founding partner at Innovation Skills Institute. He holds an MS in Engineering/Marketing Management from Santa Clara University and an MS Electronics Engineering from Northrop University.