About this course
Welcome to Course 3 of Module 1 in a series of 18 courses, carefully curated within the scope of the EU-funded project Challenger. All courses are designed and developed by professionals from prestigious VET providers.
During Module 1, you will develop your entrepreneurial mindset, understand the significance of innovation, foster problem identification and ideation skills, master the design thinking process, grasp news on relevant digital tools, and develop crucial soft skills like communication, motivation, and teamwork.
This module is just the beginning of your learning journey. As the first of three modules, it lays the groundwork for further exploration and specialization in applied research in VET. By the end of this module, you will have acquired valuable insights and skills and be prepared to delve deeper into advanced topics and challenges in the subsequent modules 2 and 3.
- Module 1: Learning the basics
- Module 2: Applied Phase 1: Working on hands-on projects for business
- Module 3: Applied Phase 2: Creating your own innovations
All these courses are offered for free. Register for participation and pass the multiple-choice tests at the end of every course. You will receive a confirmation of participation in the form of a digital badge. After completing all courses for each module, you will receive an innovation certificate that will prove the experience and knowledge you have gained.
The courses are aimed at learners in VET schools, bachelor students in universities, persons interested in developing their entrepreneurial mindset, persons interested in innovation and how to put ideas into practice, teachers/educators, industry experts, and community members.
How do I find the right idea, and how should it be designed?
Coming up with ideas can be challenging and a bit too easy at the start of your innovation journey. In this course, you will learn how to generate and organize ideas and what to consider when designing your innovation.
Idea generation and creativity
When completing the exercise at the end of the lecture, you may realize you are more innovative than you think! Although this exercise may not result in a million-dollar idea at first, working further on ideas born in this easygoing way may result in serious results if done correctly. Another important thing we want to raise is that being innovative is fun! Of course, certain demands need to be taken into consideration, but the base for your innovative journey should always be passion and your own interests. That does not always mean that your innovation would create value for you personally but touches a subject you are passionate about. When you are passionate about something, you automatically have more knowledge of the subject. When you have more knowledge about a subject, it automatically becomes more inspirational and fun. You will easily overcome setbacks, and the risk of losing motivation becomes smaller. Have this in mind when you start your idea-generation process. Try to define what it is in your education that you have found the most interesting and appealing and use that as your starting point. After identifying the subject, it is time to get more specific. What problem/s will your innovation solve?
Generating ideas often becomes either too tricky or too easy, meaning you end up with too many ideas and are unsure which one to pursue further. So, let’s start with different methods to grow your idea list!
One way to get started is to let go of all pressure and prestige and brainstorm away! Write down all your ideas without having aspects such as time, cost and such things in mind. Most of your ideas will, at this stage, need a bit of sharpening before they become doable, or they are just not realistic at all, but this will help you avoid creative blocking and give you material to work from.
If this method does not work for you or sound appealing, “America’s Small Business Network” has created a list of idea generation methods that “may be better than brainstorming”—you can find it here: https://www.asbn.com/articles/6-idea-generation-methods-that-may-be-better-than-brainstorming/.
To begin with, you will focus on collaborating with a partner, such as companies or organizations that are active within your area of education, in this project. Open your mind and make a wish list of your dream collaboration partner. Start contacting representatives, starting at the top of your list. You will be surprised at how much a phone call can give you…! It is not guaranteed that your first call will give you a partnership, but contacting people in the industry you want to learn more about will most certainly give you more insight and get you further in the process in some way. This may seem time-consuming, but since you will probably go through one of your first innovation journeys, you will see that this time is well invested and will give you many new insights.
There are several ways to boost your creativity if you get stuck. Here is a list of a few tips:
- Look at what your competitors are doing! What could be improved? What are they doing right? Use that as a starting point if you have difficulty finding one!
- Discuss with your team members – or maybe even members from other teams! Give each other new ideas and insights.
- Search for inspiration in places you do not normally visit—digitally or physically. New impressions will always be good for your creativity.
If you have gotten stuck on one of your ideas, return to your brainstormed ideas list. If you are now a bit further in the process, you can probably benefit from looking at your first ideas more. You will probably look at things differently and get new ideas, which may help you find a new solution to your current idea or boost your motivation to continue developing another one from the list instead.
Design thinking
When designing your innovation, there are several aspects to consider. The first thing that comes to mind when designing is usually an appealing appearance; while that is important, it is a bit more complex. First, you should find your innovation appealing because you need to identify who it is. And is appeal really the only thing that goes into design thinking? The answer is no; functionality, material costs and environmental impact are also severely important aspects of your design. To do this effectively, you need to identify your target audience. It is the group of people who most likely will be the buyers and the users of your innovation. You will learn methods for how this can be done further along in the courses.
This group will be crucial for many of the choices you and your team will make regarding your innovation. Suppose you believe that you are part of your innovation’s target audience. In that case, it is still recommended to include other people in a reference group who may have the same need for the innovation but who see it from a different perspective and have different habits.
This will ensure that the design of your innovation helps it succeed, not the other way around.
As mentioned earlier, it is not only what the eye sees that is important when designing your product. The target audience may find the design appealing. Still, if your product’s material choices or maintenance results in a too high cost, the target audience will not be interested in investing in it anyway. When working towards companies and organizations specifically, the demands for environmental impact are usually even higher. Today, most companies and organizations have environmental goal setting, where a product that does not meet their demands will become irrelevant. You can prevent this by using materials that are environmentally friendly and manufactured close by, and have not been imported for an unnecessarily long distance.
Design thinking goes beyond your innovative design! When marketing your innovation,, you will need presentations, folders, or even social media channels. Preferably, the material you distribute in these channels will communicate the same things, even though it may be adjusted for every channel. This should also go in line with what your product communicates. It is not only about which information you put out but also which colours you use, how you formulate your information, which fonts you use, what your pictures communicate, and so on.
Course materials
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL / LINKS
https://www.simplilearn.com/design-thinking-and-innovation-article Why is design thinking important?
https://www.asbn.com/articles/6-idea-generation-methods-that-may-be-better-than-brainstorming/ “Idea generating methods that may be better than brainstorming”
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
