Customer-Centric Innovation

This course is a part of Managing Technology & Innovation: How to deal with disruptive change, a 6-course MicroMasters series from edX.

Addressing the needs of your customers is the core factor of managing innovation successfully. Exactly this is the task of the first stages of an innovation project. In this course, you will learn about key concepts and methods of generating customer-centric business ideas and innovative concepts.

Often, the first stages of an innovation project are called "fuzzy", as they are considered to be less structured and less predictable. After this course, you will get a different perspective: You don’t need to rely on luck. Instead you’ll be able to manage the different stages of an innovation project:

Structuring the Innovation Process & The Frontend of Innovation

What are different perspectives of structuring the innovation process?

How to manage the “fuzzy” Frontend of Innovation?

What are the most important methods of Trend Analysis and Opportunity Recognition?

Starting an Innovation Project

What is most important in the Strategy Phase?

How to start an innovation project successfully?

Market Insights, Co-Creation & Evaluation methods:

What are the key methods to gain important Market Insights?

How to gather ideas by engaging in Co-Creation activities?

How to evaluate concepts based on concept testing with customers or rapid experimentation?

Besides the online lectures you will engage in a series of individual and group exercises to deepen your understanding of the topic at hand. Real-life case studies and examples from companies will be used to help you better prepare for real-life situations in your company.

After completing this course you will improve your career qualifications as Product Manager , Engineer , Process Manager and Marketing Manager. Learners from the industries of Product Management , Engineering , Innovation Management and Customer Relationship Management already completed the course as well as Consultants and Entrepreneurs.

This course is part of the "Managing Technology & Innovation: How to deal with disruptive change" MicroMasters program designed to teach the critical skills needed to be successful in this exciting field. In order to qualify for the MicroMasters Credential, you will need to earn a Verified Certificate in each of the six courses of the RWTHx MicroMasters program.

What you'll learn

• The nature of successful innovation processes
• How to manage the “fuzzy” Frontend of Innovation from opportunity recognition to concept validation
• How to transfer trends and insights from the external environment into your business
• How to understand what customers really want by identifying latent needs