Innovation Foundation

Course details

Innovation is widely perceived as something desirable, but what is it? Is it about problems – or opportunities? Are there tools (techniques or processes) that can produce innovative results on a consistent basis? Where and when should you use these tools? Is it just about new products – what about services?

If you have responsibility for finding and developing new products or services, this course will help you understand design-thinking tools that can be used in a consistent and structured manner. Whether you want solutions for new products, new services or end-of-life legacy systems, this course will help you understand how teams can develop better solutions and pitch them to your colleagues and stakeholders.

Learning Outcomes

Once you complete this course, you should be able to:

• identify and understand fundamental innovation techniques such as customer understanding, idea generation, prototyping and opportunity frameworks
• be a more effective member of innovation teams as they explore new possibilities
• apply a toolkit of basic innovation techniques to new projects in your workplace

Who could do this course (as opposed to who should)?

Personnel, from any department, who want to participate or lead in projects that challenge the status quo, refresh an existing product or service, or otherwise make change in an organisation.

Course Content

Participants will study:

• how to define innovation and where it can be used in financial services
• how to understand the customers’ point of view, and communicate their needs and desires through tools like the customer journey, interviews and persona building
• managed inspiration – seeking and finding fresh insights through cross pollination, then distilling possibilities into accessible frameworks
• improving the idea-generation ability of teams drawn from multiple disciplines and across the organisation
• early testing of emerging concepts using prototypes that prompt user participation and feedback, as well as organisational buy-in, while developing exciting new possibilities in real, practical field situations
• developing a suite of innovation tools that can be localised to the company culture, encouraging employee participation