Businesses Designed in Collaboration with IDEO
Go Deeper with Certificate Programs
Designing a Business is part of two certificate programs:
What You'll Get
Week 1: Introduction
Week 1: Introduction
Watch: what does a business designer do?
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What Does a Business Designer Do?
Watch a sneak peek
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Designing a Business
3 Video Lessons
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Designing a Business—New ways to think
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The Business Blueprint—Visualizing the components of your business
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Prototyping Your Business—Answer big questions with small experiments
1 Assignment
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Identify Your Business: What’s the new business or business line that you want to work on? It could be something from your current role at your company, or an idea that you are hoping to start from scratch.
3 Discussions
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What's a business that you really love? What makes it so special?
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Got a favorite business framework that you like to use? Share with the group.
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What are some of the best prototypes you've seen, participated in, or heard about? What made them so special or memorable?
Project Challenge:
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To get the most out of this course, come prepared with a customer need and an idea for a new business, product, or service. It could be something from your current role or an idea you are hoping to start from scratch. You’ll develop this business idea as you move through the course.
Week 2: Creating Value
Week 2: Creating Value
2 Video Lessons
- The Value Proposition—Designing the essence of your business
- What People Want—Prototyping an offer that stands out
2 Assignments
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Creating Value, Part 1: Build a prototype of your value proposition and test with your customers.
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Creating Value, Part 2: Build a prototype of your offer and test with your customers.
2 Discussions
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What's a company with a strong value proposition that you really love?
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Have you ever encountered a product or service from a company that varied wildly from their value proposition? How did it make you feel?
Week 3: Capturing Value
Week 3: Capturing Value
2 Video Lessons
- Capturing Value—What revenue model is right for your business?
- Building Revenue—Getting creative with revenue model and price
1 Assignment
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Capturing Value: Build a prototype of your revenue model and price and collect evidence to help you further refine how and how much your customers will pay.
2 Discussions
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What's one example of a product or service where price is being used to signal something about it's quality or availability? Is it working (are people buying it)?
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What deep functional or emotional needs do you think people pay the most for? What's an example of a business that understands this well?
Week 4: Delivering Value
Week 4: Delivering Value
2 Video Lessons
- Designing the Last Mile—Delivering value through the channel
- Getting to ‘Yes’—New ways to think about your channel
1 Assignment
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Delivering Value: Sketch a storyboard prototype that captures key moments around your channel, and collect evidence about which ideas most resonate with people.
2 Discussions
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Think back to a time when you took real pleasure in the experience of buying a product or service. What made the experience delightful?
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What do you think about when deciding whether or not to make a purchase? What tips you over the edge to 'yes?'
Week 5: Conclusion
Week 5: Conclusion
1 Video Lesson
- Parting Thoughts—Stay generative, focus on people
1 Assignment
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Conclusion: Update the narrative of your business and your Business Blueprint
1 Discussion
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What's the one thing you'll take away from this course? Maybe it's a quote or piece of advice or framework. How will you use it to design your business? Or, how have you started to use it already?
Meet Your Instructors
David Schonthal
IDEO Venture Advisor
David has been a practitioner of entrepreneurship, design, and innovation for over 20 years. He is a Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management. He currently serves as an Operating Partner at 7Wire Ventures and a Venture Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital. Additionally, he co-founded MATTER, a healthcare technology incubator, and is an advisor at IDEO-affiliated venture capital fund Design for Ventures. David earned an MBA from Northwestern University and a B.A. in International Relations from Boston University.
David Schonthal
IDEO Venture Advisor
David has been a practitioner of entrepreneurship, design, and innovation for over 20 years. He is a Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches courses on new venture creation, design thinking, healthcare innovation and creativity. He is also the Faculty Director of Kellogg's Zell Fellows Program, a venture accelerator program designed to help student entrepreneurs successfully launch or acquire new businesses. David has previously been honored on Crain's Chicago Business’ 40 Under 40 list.
David currently serves as an Operating Partner at 7Wire Ventures, a healthcare technology-focused venture capital firm and a Venture Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, a consumer and enterprise-focused fund. He is an advisor at IDEO-affiliated venture capital fund Design for Ventures (D4V) and co-founded MATTER, a healthcare technology incubator. His articles on corporate entrepreneurship, innovation, and business design have been published in Forbes, Fortune, Inc., and Harvard Business Review. David earned an MBA from Northwestern University and a B.A. in International Relations from Boston University.
Kerry O'Connor
Former Design Director and Business Designer at IDEO
At IDEO, Kerry worked on developing new and sustainable ways to monetize innovations. She co-founded Materna Medical, a medical device startup focused on maternal health, and lectures at the Stanford d.school. Kerry holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Boston University and an MBA from Stanford University.
Kerry O'Connor
Former Design Director and Business Designer at IDEO
As a leader in the Business Design discipline at IDEO, Kerry developed new and sustainable ways to monetize innovations. Her training in linguistics and anthropology gives her a unique understanding of people and the cultural context in which they live. Passionate about designing for women, Kerry co-founded Materna Medical, a medical device startup focused on maternal health. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology, with Honors, from Boston University and an MBA from Stanford University. She completed a fellowship at the d.school at Stanford, and continues to be involved there through lecturing, coaching and mentoring students.
Amy Bonsall
Former Senior Design Director of Venture Design, IDEO
Amy helped clients and design teams bring innovative new ventures to market. She is a mentor to startups in the tech and wellness worlds, and has advised at accelerators in Singapore and Brazil. Amy earned an MBA from IMD in Switzerland and holds a master's degree in electrical engineering.
Amy Bonsall
Former Senior Design Director of Venture Design, IDEO
Amy helped clients and design teams approach innovation from a holistic, go-to-market perspective, using business design to bring new ventures successfully to market. An avid supporter of digital fluency in the world of business, Amy is a mentor to startups in the tech and wellness worlds, and has previously advised at accelerators in Singapore and Brazil. Amy earned an MBA from IMD in Switzerland and holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of New Hampshire. In business and in life, Amy believes that we learn from failure. Outside of the office, she's recently been applying this principle with regularity in the ocean, as she attempts to master the art of surfing.
FAQs
We offer three types of courses: self-paced courses, cohort courses, and certificate programs. Cohort courses run on a set calendar, with fixed start and end dates. Course learning is self-paced within those dates and requires approximately 4-5 hours per week over 5 weeks. Courses consist of videos, activities, assignments, access to course teaching teams, and feedback from a global community of learners. There are also optional 1-hour video Community Conversations, held weekly by the teaching team.
All of our cohort courses are fully online, so you can take them from any time zone, anywhere in the world. With our cohort course experience, while you'll be learning alongside other learners, you'll still have the flexibility to work at the pace that fits your own schedule. There aren't mandatory live components, so you don't have to worry about having to log in at a specific time. At the same time, you'll have access to a teaching team who will answer your questions and give feedback on your assignments throughout the course.
Cohort courses run on a set calendar with fixed start and end dates. You will be learning alongside other learners, but still have the flexibility to work at a pace that fits your own schedule—there aren't mandatory live components. In cohort courses, you'll have access to a teaching team who will answer your questions and give feedback on your assignments throughout the course. Self-paced courses allow you to start, learn, and finish a course completely on your own schedule. Since courses are on-demand, there's no community experience of going through the material with other learners. In on-demand courses, there is no teaching team providing feedback on your submissions.
Upon completing a course, the certificate and digital badge for the course will automatically become available to you on your profile page within 24 hours. There, you can view your certificate, download it, and access your Credly badge. We've partnered with Credly, a leading digital credentialing platform, to provide learners with a digital badge that they can share on social media, email signatures, or add to their LinkedIn profiles or resumes.
IDEO U courses are not currently eligible for university credit.
You'll need a stable internet connection and a device (computer, tablet, or phone) with a modern web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. Some course activities may work better on a computer than a mobile device. You'll also need to be able to view videos, which requires a browser that supports HTML5 video.
Once you enroll in a course, you can access it by logging into your IDEO U account at ideou.com and clicking on your profile icon in the upper right corner. Then click on "My Courses" to see all of your enrolled courses. Click on the course you want to access to go to the course page. Your courses are always available in your account, even after the course end date.
We offer a 10-day satisfaction guarantee for our cohort courses (starting from the course start date). If you're unhappy with the course for any reason, reach out to us within 10 days of the course start date and we'll give you a full refund. To process a refund, contact us.
Yes, we do! We offer group pricing when you purchase 5 or more seats for the same course. Contact us at learner-success@ideou.com to get a quote.
Collaborate with a Global Community
Work with Expert Coaches
Our teaching team has extensive applied industry knowledge. They'll help deepen your understanding and application of the course content by facilitating written discussions, live video moments, and assignment feedback.
Expand Your Network
Join virtual live discussion groups for deeper conversation, reflection, and connection led by teaching team members and available multiple times a week across time zones.
Receive Feedback
Gain tips, techniques, and a downloadable feedback guide; and share and receive feedback on assignments from peers.
Loved by Learners Across the Globe
Designing a Business
I found the IDEO U Designing a Business course to be very relevant and useful during the launch phase of my business and will continue to use the insights gained during the course as I develop and iterate the business moving forward. I have already recommended the course to one of my clients who has enrolled and will continue to recommend it.
Designing a Business
“Simple and elegant course, but powerful impact. Just being introduced to the business blueprint was an aha, and knowing that each piece is always a working prototype. More specifically, I had no idea that channels can be made into so much more (e.g. transforming the customer experience) than just something static.”
Designing a Business
“The course is carefully designed to make the learning experience easy to understand and practical. Also the community conversations are a valuable way of sharing knowledge, getting feedback, and networking.”
Designing a Business
“The videos were informative, short, factual, and applicable to real-world examples. All the material was memorable by using case study examples. The structure of the Assignments Workbook was a great process to follow and learn; you work through sections of the blueprint, make adjustments after each lesson, and then tie it all together in the end to make a refined business plan.”
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Enroll As a Team
The practice and application of design thinking, innovation, and creativity is highly collaborative and team based—which is why we believe that learning is better together. Take a course as a team and develop new skills and mindsets, have deeper discussion during course kickoff and debrief sessions, and build a shared understanding.
