Design strategy is transforming how leading organizations create value and impact. Increasingly, CEOs and leaders are leveraging design strategy principles to create superior products and service experiences while maximizing impact. Design Strategy at the Iovine and Young Academy prepares students to address complex industry and society-driven challenges and develop powerful solutions focused on the intersection of human need, technological feasibility, business viability, while leveraging responsible processes.

Design Strategy at the Academy develops leaders, entrepreneurs, and strategists that excel at analyzing complex challenges and developing equitable solutions for meaningful impact. Academy students engage in key design strategy methodologies such as strategic foresight, communications strategy, and inclusive design. Learning to think across a broad spectrum of issues, students think critically across intersecting issues – from business problems and priorities, human need, and resource constraints to social, economic, and environmental issues. 

In collaboration with leading industry partners across public, private, and social sectors, students work on distinctive challenges that allow them to apply and master essential strategic skills such as: qualitative and quantitative research, analysis and synthesis, ideation, rapid prototyping, and creative approaches to implementation. 

The foundation for design strategy begins with the course Innovators Forum where student teams work to understand business and stakeholders’ needs to produce a compelling pitch for efficient and innovative solutions. Building on this foundation, students learn key methodologies through various courses including: Practice of Design, Design Research, Inclusive Design and Design Allyship, Principles of Human-Centered Design, Processes and Perspectives, and Design Strategy. The application of methodologies and the design strategy mindset is facilitated through courses such as: Industry Practicum, an application of key methodologies to a real-world problem faced by an industry sponsor; and The Garage Experience, a capstone application to a real-world problem that students identify and address themselves. 

Design Strategy at the Academy develops strategists and creative problem-solvers who can drive transformative change and decision-making at the intersection of human-centered design, business, technology, while leveraging responsible practices. Building on the Academy’s ground-breaking learning framework, students will gain:  

Human-centered research methodologies and systems-level strategies to understand and analyze complex challenges at the macro and micro level

Implementation of design strategy principles and authoring creative problem-solving toolkits to identify challenges, opportunities, potential solutions, and future scenarios.

Increase capacity to set aside assumptions, and to deeply understand and incorporate the needs, desires, behaviors, and perspectives of others 

Hands-on, immersive learning opportunities with leading industry partners on real-world projects

Craft authentic and persuasive communicative skills to present ideas, concepts, and solutions to executive stakeholders, communities, and team members

Ability to lead, manage, co-create, and collaborate across diverse, intersectional teams

Design strategy, as a practice, is industry and sector agnostic and continues to evolve with emerging technologies and ever-changing societal needs. Students are well prepared for broad and diverse career environments, from startup to big tech companies across all sectors. As consultants or design strategists for large companies, or as founders of their own mission-driven ventures, Academy graduates will be highly skilled in leading transformative, human-centered initiatives to impact the challenges they care about most.

ACAD-360 Design Strategy: Problem-Solving for Organizations

IDSN-522 Inclusive Design and Design Allyship

IDSN-523 Product Design for User Experience

Yihyun Lim

Yihyun LIm, Assistant Professor of Practice, Design Strategy

Matthew Manos

Matthew Manos, Director of Challenge-Based Learning; Associate Professor of Practice, Design Strategy

Davina Wolter

Davina Wolter, Assistant Dean, IDEA Initiatives; Associate Professor of Practice, Design

The Academy’s Design Strategy concentration develops leaders, technologists, and creative strategists to analyze complex challenges and develop equitable solutions for meaningful impact.

Design Strategy

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