Organizations face challenging and changing social landscapes, needing reflective and dynamic examination of how to meet customer/user needs.  Leading innovation depends on effective, data-driven changes to meet the needs of both organization and customer/user.  This certificate provides graduate students from any disciplinary background with a background in design thinking and a specialized toolkit for collecting, analyzing, and explaining human needs and behaviors that are critical to organizational success.

Certificate Objectives

Upon successful completion of this certificate, the student will be able to:

• Describe how design thinking fosters innovation and transformation.
• Identify the role of leadership in developing strategies for and managing organizational change.
• Compare and contrast different methodologies for collecting data on customer or user needs and experiences.
• Apply design thinking principles to organizational challenges.
• Assess risk, cost, and benefits from data-informed solutions to organizational challenges.

Certificate Requirements (15 semester hours)