Purpose-driven Innovation 5 credits

The graveyard of failed innovations is full of products and services nobody wanted. Meanwhile, the problems that matter most—the ones standing between us and a regenerative, just world—go unsolved or get worse as markets flood with misguided solutions. Therefore, this course tackles a critical question: How do you identify problems worth solving before you waste months or years building something that misses the mark? In this course, you will learn to combine discovery-first thinking with a (self-) critical mindset. On one hand, you will learn how to recognise, assess, and frame problems systematically through root cause analysis, interviewing, market sizing, and competitive landscape evaluation. On the other hand, we will expose you to a range of grand challenges that—if unresolved—might inhibit our future welfare. These challenges require a mindset that goes beyond spotting market gaps. One that can connect what is disconnected to break the perpetual cycle of mindless innovation. You will be asked to position yourself, define what value means to you, and start developing an entrepreneurial identity. After completing this course, you can identify challenges worth solving, analyse them, and define clear and distinct problem spaces that enable subsequent exploration of solutions. These capabilities position you to reduce entrepreneurial risk and increase your likelihood of building solutions that the world needs. <br> <br> **Connection to Research ** The course builds on research at the intersection of entrepreneurship and design, covering concepts such as problem framing, design thinking, and entrepreneurship as an artifact-centred process. You will conduct research activities into real (customer) problems. **Connection to Practice ** The course introduces you to a range of state-of-the-art frameworks and methods that are commonly used in entrepreneurial practice, such as 5-Why’s, root-cause analysis, Jobs-To-Be-Done, and customer interviewing. **Connection to Ethics, Responsibility, Sustainability (ERS) ** The course focuses on identifying and analysing economic, environmental, and social dimensions of problems. You will be asked to reflect upon your entrepreneurial identity and select problems that align with it.