DIDACTIC PLAN

MASTER OF STRATEGIC
DESIGN LABS
2016

CONTENTS

IED

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS

IED Madrid

Master of Strategic Design Labs

IED Master

Program Leader
Introduction

Campus IED
Credits
Companies Department
MASTERS OF DESIGN AND INNOVATION
Masters of Design and Innovation
Generals Competences

Specific Competences
Objectives
Content
Unit 1 WAYS OF SEEING/WAYS OF THINKING
Unit 2 FROM RESEARCH TO IDEATION
Unit 3 PROTOTYPE & EVALUATION
Unit 4 START & GROWTH
Projects
Project Stages

Lab Space

Assessment Criteria

Methodology

Faculty

Conceptual Structure

Recommended Bibliography

Academic Structure

* The teaching program is subject to change

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

2<3

IED MADRID

IED MASTER

The IED Madrid is a Private Centre of Higher Arts Design Education that belongs to
the IED Group, an international education network in Design and Management that
is born in Italy in 1966 and nowadays counts with eleven offices distributed between
Italy, Spain and Brazil.

IED Master is IED Madrids Postgraduate School, a dynamic and innovative laboratory focusing on debate and research and providing ideal conditions in which
learning within a strategic environment: somewhere to think in the present while
designing the future.

The IED Madrid starts its activity in 1994, in the Modernist Building in the Street
Larra. And in 2006, it inaugurates the Palacio de Altamira, the former neoclassical
building from the 18th century, next to the Gran Va. Both located in the very centre
of the city. In 2015 it has opened a new space, Fab Lab IED Madrid, which is now the
biggest design Campus in Madrid.

The IED Master programmes, conceived as a form of continuous training, effectively prepare students studying design and communication for an increasingly
demanding market. Training fuses cultural context, transversal knowledge and
technical specialisation.

In 2014, we celebrated our 20th anniversary; an experience that has been translated into a wide educational offering with an innovative academic model, unique
and recognisable, which is able to adapt itself to the needs of a society constantly
evolving, which has resulted in a great number of awarded students in national
and international prestige contests, walking down the best catwalks and with real
projects that have been made in close cooperation with companies of the sector.
Since its opening, IED Madrid has formed more than 18,000 students and each year
it counts with 1,500 new students.
The IED Madrid offers Degrees in Design, Higher Level Education Cycles, Titles of
Senior Technicians in Plastic Arts and Designs, IED Diplomas, One Year Courses,
Masters, Intensive Masters, Masters of Design and Innovation, Postgraduate
Courses, Summer Courses and Junior Courses.

There is a common theme running through all courses, in that they offer students
a multidisciplinary and international vision, requiring them to undertake actual
projects hand in hand with companies and professionals from the sector.
At the IED Master Centre, we aim to train the professionals of tomorrow, whose
creative and innovative profile is nowadays an absolute must if they wish to meet
the stringent demands of the current job market.

We foster multidisciplinary knowledge in the fields of design and

communication, thus providing our students with a broader view and enhancing
their professional and personal development.
We provide in-depth specialist training in each specific professional area
through an approach to teaching that combines theory and practice and
culminates in a final project tutored by the finest professionals to be found
within the sector.
We teach with the aim of developing the necessary skills to communicate and
manage the knowledge the students acquire.visions and meanings of design in
our times.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

4<5

CAMPUS IED

CREDITS

The educational planning of all IED Master courses follows the criteria of the
European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Although only IED-specific qualifications
are issued, the IED Master credits system follows the same structure used by the
European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Credits represent the students volume
of work in meeting the objectives of the course curriculum. These objectives are
laid out in terms of the results obtained from learning and the competences that
must be effectively acquired.
The ECTS provides a satisfactory response to the following question: How long
does the student need to carry out the entrusted task/activity? Each credit represents between 25 and 30 hours of learning. The total working hours that each
credit measures include not only classroom hours -both theoretical and practicalbut also hours of study, hours spent at seminars and on work conducted individually or in a group, and work on completing exercises and reading course books.
A credit should only be awarded if the described competence or competences is
effectively attained, meaning that these must be demonstrable and measurable.
For this reason, each competence must indicate the tasks through which it should
be honed or developed (context) and the precise content/procedures in question
(knowledge/know-how).
The Campus IED Madrid is the e-learning platform IED Madrid, a practical and
intuitive online support to enhance learning the disciplines of design.
The Campus IED its a complement to combine classes with distance learning and
compatibility studies comfortably.
This training method is being implemented in many of the courses IED Madrid, a
way to promote and encourage access to information without spatial or temporal
barriers and encourage interaction between students, teachers and school.

Accordingly, a competence defines what the students will know (knowledge),

understand (capacities/aptitudes), or be able to do (skills) upon completion of the
training. Competences are the expected results of the teaching/learning process,
and all share a number of core features, in that they:

Encompass capacities, skills, knowledge, attitudes and aptitudes.

Describe the results of the learning and must, therefore, be measurable: what
a student knows or can demonstrate upon completion of his or her learning.
Are associated with the development of an activity or task.
Entail a certain degree of autonomy when being performed.
We draw a distinction between two types of competence:
General competences
Specific competences

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

6<7

COMPANIES DEPARTMENT

From IED Madrid we enable companies, organizations and institutions to be able to

find the talent they are looking for among our students.

c) Individual guidance sessions: we ease the necessary resources and tools so

that the student works their SELF concepts and defines who they are, where they
are and where they want to reach in their professional development.

We promote the relationship between the companies and the working professionals with our student body in order to contribute to the development of their creativity, innovation and competitiveness through design.

For further information: info.empresas@madrid.ied.es

We also offer custom training services for the organizations for workers, business
managers, etc. as well as the development of projects in which the personnel of the
company takes part together with our students and teachers.

d) Training in Design and Management of Creative and Innovative Projects: this

course is focused on the learning of tools, methods and techniques that allow to
structure and plan ideas in creative and innovative projects. It offers the necessary
skills to help the student to undertake and consolidate their business idea or to
carry out projects in a company (intra-entrepreneurship)

All that is brought together through:

For further information: info.empresas@madrid.ied.es
1. TALENT BANK AND PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE
2. SYSTEM OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
At the IED Talent Bank, companies and institutions can connect with our students,
who are receiving a differential training in: development of creative and innovative
projects, creation and application of trends to products and services, and works in
multidisciplinary and multicultural groups.
We offer guidance and information for our student to give support to their Professional Project, being the own student the basis, whether they decide to enter in the
labour work as freelance or if they commit to develop their business idea by making
available for them the following tools:

IED together with the foundation Fundacin Santillana has started a support
platform for the companies of the cultural and creative industries that are already
working with the aim of endorsing the rise of the expanding companies.
For further information: www.reddeindustriascreativas.com

a) Internship opportunities: it offers our students the possibility of doing extracurricular internship in companies throughout the course.
For further information: info.empresas@madrid.ied.es
b) Job opportunities: it eases the access to job offers from the companies of the
sector for our former students.
For further information: bolsa_empleo@madrid.ied.es

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

8<9

MASTERS OF DESIGN
AND INNOVATION
Intended as research laboratories platform, the Masters of Design and Innovation
have created a favourable context to enhance divergent thinking and analysing
present design approaches in different contexts: concept and art, business
strategy, production and communication.
These masters prepare professionals to overcome the challenges presented
by the global market and contemporary society. An advanced training that shapes
professionals in order to develop their work transversally in multidisciplinary
environments and lead successful projects.
Therefore, the Masters of Design and Innovation train global designers, combining
learning with a projection into the work market.
Master of Communication Design Labs Program Leader: Ugo Ceria
Master of Product Design Labs Program Leader: Clive van Heerden
Master of Strategic Design Labs Program Leader: Juan Pastor Bustamante

10 < 11

LAB SPACE

METHODOLOGY

The Masters of Design and Innovation are programmes for study, work and research, methodologically supported by project culture and learning while doing,
where the focus is on the spirit of action and participation. They cover various
activities in which individual work and team work is encouraged, as is the relationship with other disciplines, taking advantage of the exchange of knowledge, ideas,
opinions and experiences as part of a stimulating and enriching training for further
professional projection.
The content is developed on the basis of:
Seminar
The seminars represent the need to establish solid knowledge bases to ensure the
successful implementation of ideas.
Lectures and Case Studies
These activities offer students the experiences of some of the most prominent
figures in the professional realm.

At the IED Master we firmly believe in transversal training and research, and that is
why we have equipped a place for mul - tidisciplinary creation, called the MDI Lab,
where meetings, activities and experiences are promoted.

Workshops
Group activities where students have the opportunity to put into practice the
knowledge acquired during the course and experiment with new tools on the basis
of new approaches.

This space meets the students needs during the creative process. It is a labo - ratory where students from the different programmes will be able to do research, get
together and work on collective projects or on their own final thesis.

Master Classes
These classes give to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline.

Because, what is more exciting and inspiring than a space of multidisciplinary creation? In it there are all kinds of profiles and different synergies. There is a continuous
exchange of experiences, projects and ideas with a common thread: the interest for
design innovation, communication and strategy. During the training, to make easier
this activity, students should have in mind that it will be necessary to devote time to
the Lab Space and to spend this time to develop activities, work together, encourage
research or even work on prototypes or proposals.

Visits
They offer students the chance to visit a range of spaces of inspiration work and
production where projects are developed and where contacts are established with
industry professionals.

All types of profiles co-exist there and diverse synergies are created, which undoubtedly make the results of these interactions richer in nuances and have a common
link of interest in design, innovation, communication and strategy.
MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

Trips
The trips offer the opportunity to carry out practical activities and get to know a
number of institutions, design studios,advertising agencies, fairs, museums, companies, etc. providing a global view and providing an extensive network of professional and academic contacts.

12 < 13

Tutorials
Tutorials promote the best results for the thesis projects, thanks to the personalised monitoring by the tutors of the master. These professionals guide the students
during the research process, establishing their knowledge and helping them cement their ideas.
The overall structure and distribution of tutoring is organized with different approaches as follows:
a. Global vision: Program Leader and Tutor.
b. Professional Vision: Units Coordinators.
c. Conceptual Vision: supporting previous presentations.
d. Specific Vision: technical needs cover for differents professionals.

CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURE

RESEARCH
Each of the Masters of Design and Innovation provides students with a structured
theoretical and practical foundation that allows them to master the methodologies
of design and encourages research.
This training aims to stimulate intellectual activity and helps develop a growing
curiosity about troubleshooting. Throughout the research process it is important
to ask why, what, how and when. A research paper should serve society, the issues
that concern us all and, in parallel, it should favour the development of a profession
or a business.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

The answers to these questions should be part of the production of a good project,
the result of learning. Each and every one of the educational activities of the Masters, whether interdisciplinary or specific, contribute to the correct development of
the project, since it will inspire students, strengthen their arguments, support the
defence of ideas and the way they are communicated.
In this way, the insights obtained will lead to a product that has value, is effective
and reaches users properly.

PROJECT
Working on a project allows students to consolidate and make tangible the learning
experiences they have gained. With this approach the Masters of Design and Innovation, from the first moment, focus on a final thesis project. All programmes start
with a research phase and continuous learning that is not based simply on gathering ideas, logbooks, pictures and drawings, but evolves to look at how all this material can feed directly and indirectly into the progress of the thesis.
The development of the project will be led and coordinated by tutors, teachers and
occasional meetings with the ProgramLeader, to help students with the critical
selection of everything they have learnt to generate a coherent and consistent
discourse that demonstrates the professional and personal growth experienced by
each student from the first day until the end of the program.

WORK
To embed in the educational programme a broad and comprehensive view of the
professional reality is necessary for the students training to go beyond a theoretical context. Thus, the professional projection of each project is favoured, without
neglecting the feasibility thereof, whether for a company or an entrepreneurial
initiative.
The Masters of Design and Innovation provide the student with methodological and
theoretical support that is addressed during the course, generating conditions to
accompany each students professional development even after the completion of
the master.

14 < 15

ACADEMIC STRUCTURE

PROGRAM LEADER
Responsible for the vision and objectives of the program. Their presence is
concentrated in 5 meetings to evaluate, lead and guide the student in their projects
development to guarantee a satisfactory results in their final presentation.

TUTOR
The tutor is the figure that accompanies the student throughout the program in order
to enhance their trajectory, their knowledge and the proper development of their
project. Each student will receive tutor support, having the meetings one to one
further reinforcing their participation and involvement in the presentations by the
Program Leader.

Creativity Foundations and Techniques workshop with Cristina Vivares

The functions of the tutor are:

To advise, support and guide the student along his experience in the master.
Share issues, initiatives or suggestions on the definition and development of
the project.
Monitoring and guide the student throughout the research process.
Review the project in its different phases to the final presentation.

UNIT COORDINATOR
The Unit Coordinator is the professional figure that coordinates and supports unit
within the program.
The content developed is specific to the theme of the master. Its participation
is centered on the development of the unit and participation in deliveries to the
Program Leader.
The functions of the Unit Coordinator are:
Provide students specific knowledge related to their Unit and guide students in
professional development training
Coordinate the team of teachers who form their Unit in order to give coherence
and depth to the content
Advise students on their research topic that influence the final work.
Social Innovation workshop with Jorge Martnez and Tommaso Canonici

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

16 < 17

MASTER OF STRATEGIC
DESIGN LABS
Program Leader: Juan Pastor Bustamante
Tutor: Mario Moya
Tutor: Carlos Goga
Unit Coordinators: Pablo Jarauta, Asier Perez, Cesar Astudillo
and Tommaso Canonici
Didactic Coordination: Claret Pontier Lagranje
Assistants: Raquel Dalmau & Simona Bonamici
Credits: 90*
Start: January 28th 2016
Completion: December 2016 (August, summer holidays)
Schedule: from Monday to Friday
Language: English
Trips: the program includes 3 trips between 3 and 7 days to different national or
international destinations. Tickets and accommodation during the trip are included in
the price.
Certification: at the end of the course, students will receive a diploma certifying their
satisfactory completion of the course.
Attendance: the attendance to all scheduled classes and activities will be obligatory
during the course. A 16 faults of justified absences are allowed. If students exceed
the allowed number of class attendances, they will have a disciplinary punishment
and in some cases diploma could be denied.

18 < 19

PROGRAM LEADER:
JUAN PASTOR BUSTAMANTE
forums at national and international level. He teaches at the EOI Business School,
the Polytechnic University of Madrid and IED. He has written numerous articles
and is the author of the book CxI creatividad e innovacin: factores clave para la
gestin e internazionalizacin edited by ICEX.
In relation to the Master of Strategic Design Labs, Juan Pastor says:

We live at a turning of the ages in which professional profiles, organizations and

territories have to reconsider how to adapt to the new social and economic context.
It is necessary the existence of training programs adapted to this new scene. The
most demanding profile is and will be that of a professional with a high knowledge
in areas such as creativity, innovation, design, technology, and business strategy.
No organization can be competitive without having professionals who can provide
differential value in these areas both in its organizational culture and strategy.
Juan Pastor Bustamante was born in Madrid in 1969. He has spent his whole
professional life in the field of creativity and innovation from the completion of his
university studies in Learning Sciences in 1995. In 1998 he drove the Opera Prima
Foundation, a non -profit organization specialized in creativity and innovation.
From the foundation, he set up in 2000 the first Spanish website specialized in the
area that remains a reference at international level.
In 2004 he worked promoting the creation and consolidation of innovative companies
as Managing Director of Youth Development Initiative, Public Enterprise depending
on the Presidency of the Regional Government of Extremadura. Youth Initiative work
has been rewarded with 12 awards at national and international level.

In this program you will have the opportunity to travel to creative ecosystem,
learn from innovative companies, and perhaps the most important thing, to meet
people with great talent that transmit you their experience. You will realize that
the foundations of the most creative and innovative organizations are common in
all countries of the world; to master them, give you the possibility to work in any
innovative company anywhere. Organizations need creative talent and this program
is an excellent opportunity to develop it. As Program Leader I want to transmit you
this advice: Throughout our professional lives we will work for other organizations
and likely we will set up business. To be able to create, define strategy and
implement innovative projects and businesses within an organization or on our own
initiative is undoubtedly a differential value to be found in the Master of Strategic
Design Labs.

Juan Pastor is also consultant in the field of creativity and innovation working
for companies such as Telefnica , Iberdrola, Renfe, Microsoft, Indra, Sainco,
Abengoa, Novartis; for NGOs and Association of Foundations, International
Solidarity, Fair Trade organization Ideas and local, regional and national public
administrations. He was director of innovation at the Internet Barrabs consulting
and currently is CEO at Repensadores.
Pastor has carried out a hard teaching and education career in the areas of
creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and innovative companies in multiple

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

20 < 21

INTRODUCTION

SPECIFIC COMPETENCES

Current reality demands products, services and business ideas in line with the
changes and new needs of our times. Following the global economic crisis in
2007, numerous concepts are transforming the world of for-profit and nonprofit
organizations. Sharing Economy, Circular Economy, Triple Balance, Open
Innovation, Big Data, Service Design, Design Thinking, User Experience... are
concepts that are generating great interest in the business world, which therefore
leads to great opportunities for professionals who are able to understand them and
integrate them into organizations. The success of companies will depend on how
they respond to this demand and the way in which they integrate changes into their
processes, products and services.

The main competences of the program are:

Developing creative and innovative capacity.

Understanding a design conception as a strategic factor within an organization.
Activating critical and analytical thinking on the social and business reality.
Anticipating and interpreting future trends and scenarios.
Conceptualizing, developing and communicating innovative ideas.

Based on this reality, the Master of Strategic Design Labs is a program for study,
work and research which is methodologically supported by project culture and
which trains new professionals with a critical, strategic and global vision from the
point of view of design and innovation.
Our vision is to encourage a professional and entrepreneurial profile with a
differential value defined by the capacity to devise, prototype, implement and
develop innovation through design in the most competitive companies throughout
the world.

Investigating, building, prototyping and implementing projects.

Knowing how to implement innovative products, services and projects.
Integrating business, sustainability and innovation.
Managing and coordinating multidisciplinary teams.
Being able to establish professional contacts.

Through an extensive syllabus with very diverse courses of contemporary

relevance, students will be introduced to a wide range of subjects from which they
will need to extract the information and content for analysis that they need for
their theses. Students will thus leave behind the role of listener and become active
participants searching for relevant information with which to complete their final
project.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

Strengthening their identity as a professional able to work anywhere

throughout the world.

22 < 23

OBJECTIVES

The Master of Strategic Design Labs is a program for study, work and research
which is methodologically supported by project culture and the learning while
doing methodology. It trains students for starting up creative and innovative
projects and business ideas from a holistic perspective working with people, ideas,
organizations and territories.
The fundamental key of this master is the concept of creativity x innovation =
innovative organizations. Design lies in each one of these factors in this formula
as it provides uniqueness and shapes the work produced during the course. The
master is divided into five areas:

Creativity and Innovation

Design
Sustainability
Technology
Business
Its aim is to delve into these five areas and train professionals who are able to
establish a strategic vision and learn a new way of looking, thinking and rethinking
products, services and organisations. Talented professionals capable of leading
projects and proposing effective and unique initiatives at the organizations where
they work. These might be for-profit or nonprofit organizations.

Didactic Objectives
To offer students an intellectual and work framework that allows them to
formulate a project proposal.
To create a context and work tools that, based on a specific research
methodology, will help students to strengthen and articulate the ideas that they
want to work on in their Master Projects.
To create a cross-curricular discussion environment relating to the different
visions and meanings of design in our times.
To facilitate, guide and accompany students in a work path throughout the entire
unit which will shape their ideas and questions.
For students to produce a research dossier that brings together and
communicates the ideas and scenarios that they want to work on in their Master
project. This dossier will be submitted and presented to the Program Leaders
and to the Tutors and may constitute the start of their project.

The master is committed to individualized training without forgetting teamwork.

Cooperative working and co-creation are encouraged. It is as important to be
competitive as it is to cooperate. Students will work from a triple balance dynamic,
i.e., knowing how to gauge the economic, social and environmental impact of their
actions. We will lend great importance to reflection, discussion and co-creation.
We will promote working from values and from the courage to take risks to generate innovation. The final project may be carried out individually or in pairs.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

24 < 25

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

26 < 27

UNIT 1

UNIT 1
WAYS OF SEEING/WAYS OF THINKING
Unit Coordinator: Pablo Jarauta
Introduction
In the 2016 academic year, the Masters of Design and Innovation (Strategic Design
Lab, Communication Design Lab and Product Design Lab) will start with a first
cross-curricular unit which will last eight weeks, during which time students can
begin building their ideas about the different projects that they will conduct over
the course. The key objectives of this first unit consist in establishing the general
foundations to allow students to develop their ideas and transform them into the
start of a design project embedded into the other specific units of each Master.

DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES
To offer students an intellectual and work framework that allows them to
formulate a project proposal.
To create a context and work tools that, based on a specific research
methodology, will help students to strengthen and articulate the ideas that they
want to work on in their Master Projects.
To create a cross-curricular discussion environment relating to the different
visions and meanings of design in our times.
To facilitate, guide and accompany students in a work path throughout the
entire unit which will shape their ideas and questions.
For students to produce a research dossier that brings together and
communicates the ideas and scenarios that they want to work on in their Master
project. This dossier will be submitted and presented to the Program Leaders
and to the Tutors and may constitute the start of their project.

STRUCTURE
These general foundations correspond to four content blocks:
Innovation (framework from which to think)
Creativity (tool)
Design (language)
Research (research methodology)
This content structure will run across the three Masters and is aimed at producing
a research dossier bringing together the ideas and scenarios that the student
wishes to work on in developing his/her projects.

Innovation

The foundations of innovation, the basis for various innovation, business,

sustainability and other models will be offered.

Creativity

The foundations of creativity, problem-solving, design thinking, storytelling, etc.

will be offered.

Design

The subjects of design, examples, movements, trends, tools for analyzing and
interpreting the practice of design in our current sociocultural contexts will be
offered.

Research

Research is the core of this cross-curricular unit. It forms the basis for the other
concepts: innovation, creativity and design. It has its own methodology, and it is
aimed at the drafting of a research document the students will submit to their tutor
and to their Program Leader at the end of the unit and which may constitute the
start of their project.
The aim of the research process is to train students in the use of conceptual and
methodological tools that allow them to direct and develop, in a reasoned and
critical manner, design projects rooted in present and future scenarios. The aim is
to make reflection and research available to them as instruments for generating
projects, ideas and viable solutions. This content block will be guided by two
professionals who will tutor students in developing their research.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

28 < 29

DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES
Innovation

Service Design Thinking (Workshop)

Finding out the objectives, behavior, attitudes of people in order to improve the
quality of different systems and processes

Creativity

The visual Telling of Stories (Workshop)

Students will acquire the photographic competencies necessary in order to tell
an image-based story and thus communicate the ideas of their projects visually.

The foundations of innovation, the basis for various innovation, business,

sustainability and other models will be offered.

The foundations of creativity, problem-solving, design thinking, storytelling, etc.

will be offered.

Design

The subjects of design, examples, movements, trends, tools for analyzing and
interpreting the practice of design in our current sociocultural contexts will be
offered.

Research

Research is the core of this cross-curricular unit. It forms the basis for the other
concepts: innovation, creativity and design. It has its own methodology, and it is
aimed at the drafting of a research document the students will submit to their tutor
and to their Program Leader at the end of the unit and which may constitute the
start of their project.
The aim of the research process is to train students in the use of conceptual and
methodological tools that allow them to direct and develop, in a reasoned and
critical manner, design projects rooted in present and future scenarios. The aim is
to make reflection and research available to them as instruments for generating
projects, ideas and viable solutions. This content block will be guided by two
professionals who will tutor students in developing their research.

CONTENT
Creativity Foundation / How to be a Creative Problem Solving (Workshop)
The aim of this course is to have a vision of the process of creativity from a
physiological standpoint, learn about the basics of importance of creativity
and design, build and strengthen creative environments...

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

Storytelling (Workshop)
Storytelling can heal or encourage or motivate or perpetuate. Sharing stories
allows us to understand the human experience and find ways to relate to and
connect with different ways, visual, written or spoken, and it gives us a sense of
culture, history, and personal identity.
Innovation Foundations /Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid
To discuss and explore innovative business solutions and products for the worlds
4 billion poorest and underprivileged people (also known as the Base of the
Pyramid). The Base of the Pyramid represents the poorest segment of the worlds
population, a segment often excluded by markets, banks and multinationals.
Sustainability Foundations
Basic general introduction to sustainability related mainly to the design thinking.
Holistic view through systemic thinking. Check basic tools, strategies and
footprints that a actual designer need to take into account.
Business model design for Circular Economy
The objective of the sessions is to provide students with the necessary mindset
and tools to face modern challenges. Professionals, of any sector, and mostly from
Design industry, are asked to be able to manage and predict the future trends like
over-population, resources scarcity, globalization, social & environmental issues
related with business models and new form of entrepreneurship.
Design & Sustainability (Workshop)
Introduction to sustainability, the State of the World, systems thinking and
sustainable design and innovation for the students on the three tracks of the
Masters of Design and Innovation

30 < 31

 Trends for Innovation

Introduce and familiarize students with the emerging theme of Trend Studies in
a business and cultural perspective, through the analysis of case studies and
urban manifestations. In this way, the student develops important intellectual
and professional skills at the level of coolhunting, trend analysis and other fields
of activity.

Visits to points of interest

Visits will be made to exhibitions, conferences, events, places of interest, etc.

Journey Through the Ideas Shaping Our World

Exploring the different meanings of the practice of design based on a journey
through its different sociocultural and theoretical contexts. This seminar
is structured in accordance with various ideas, problems, concepts and
metaphors which place design as the task of projecting all the forms of the
world. These issues are oriented towards the new questions which appear
nowadays in contemporary scenarios and their relations with the practice of
design.

Students will make a week-long trip to the Royal Glass Factory of La Granja
(Segovia), where students may find a different context for performing various
activities relating to creativity, self-awareness, team-building, forward planning, etc.

Design Pills
These Pills comprise a series of master classes about current visions and
meanings of design.

Experiential Trip

This trip is the first of the three trips that students will make during the course
and it is of a clearly experiential nature.

Objectives:

To take students away from their daily environment and offer them a different
context in which to think, build and communicate.
To consolidate and boost the student group.
To encourage and guide the students self-awareness.
To reflect on future design scenarios.

Digital tools
Online Subjects
Students will have online contents from the Adobe suite with the aim of resolving
possible gaps in their skills in handling these digital tools.
Tool tutorials
Students will have classroom-based tutorials to strengthen their learning of the
respective digital tools.

Personal collection
The student will develop a small self-guided project about himself and how this
can be translated in small items. It is a small exercise to challenge the student
to work in the abstract and to use their hands to come to tangible results. This
work will be presented on one single day where all the students will show their
work to the teaching team of their respective tutors.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

32 < 33

UNIT 2

UNIT 2
FROM RESEARCH TO IDEATION
Unit Coordinator: Asier Prez

Introduction
In the second unit of the 2016 course of Master of Strategic Design Labs students
will begin to focus projects, gather the necessary information and synthesise it, so
as to subsequently generate ideas.
The main objectives of this unit are:

Learning debriefing and refocusing projects beyond the solution linearity

Plan the project management, the times, stages and strategic approach
Creativity based on design research (ethnographic)
Learn to research and distrust
Learn to build and dismantle
Learn tools and create new ones
These objectives correspond to the design stages of Research, Synthesis and
Ideation.
Throughout this process it is essential to be attentive beyond the linearity of the
process and the tools as focusing only between these guidelines will prevent us
from seeing other things happening around them that may be key aspects in the
project to be performed.

DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES
To offer students a process to build on, but learning to have a critical and
distrustful vision.
To carry out projects in time and resources which manage to contribute
new visions as a result of their disruptive creativity and/or innovation from a
perspective of person-centred innovation.
To learn that in ethnographic design research everything that you are looking
for and everything that you perceive is a manner of questioning what you
yourself believe.
To understand that performance of a project is a conversation for which we
need to learn how to listen and how to speak.
To learn techniques and tricks and to improve our capacity for seduction for
any of the project stages.
To be creative in the project stages as a whole and to always have a outlook
that allows us to have a vision that is critical and based on ongoing learning.

STRUCTURE
Planning
Design Research (Ethnographic)
Synthesis
Ideation

Planning

What is the starting point? How do we define it? How do we limit the project in
time and how much time do we spend on each part? How will we manage to be
stimulated throughout the project as a whole?
Debriefing focus rebriefing and Planning is a brief but necessary part.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

34 < 35

Design Research (Ethnographic)

Learning how to conduct research. The importance of good recruiting, improvising

on the go, transferring how it is done to other environments etc. Conducting
research with the pertinent techniques, as well as matching it to the project.
Cooperating in the research of colleagues both to learn from others and to put
research techniques into practice.

Synthesis

Cooling down the research and gaining distance through synthesis with various
tools and techniques.
Learning to strategically build profound insights of value. Knowing that the ideation
will be based on the synthesised aspects.

Ideation

Knowing and practicing idea generation. Learning to lead and facilitate workgroups
(whether with partners, customers or users). Going beyond the obvious and the
first thing which comes up. Being daring.

CONTENT
Creativity vs. Tools (Workshop)
It seems that its all about learning to use some tools and thats it. There is a
toolization moment (sorry for that). Tools can be blocking our creativity because
we have outsourced ours onto them. We will work on the value of creativity and
being creative (in different manners) all along the projects. Creative factor is
key, this means attitude and being wide open. Plus the knowledge of tools and
our creativity to create new tools mixing them up. Tools have to help us not to
trap us.
Strategic Thinking (Workshop)
The ability to come up with effective plans in line with an organizations
objectives within a particular economic situation. Strategic thinking goes beyond
looking at what its involves imagining what could be. Its a fresh point of view on
a market, a unique take on the future, or a capacity to imagine new answers to
old problems.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

Beyond Briefing and Corporate Biases

Which questions to ask to our client? How can we make the questions, be
provocative to go further with the request of our client. We have to widen the
spectrum and sophisticate the approach to go beyond conventional briefings and
corporate biases. Deconstructing the briefing, widening the approach and not
losing contact and trust from our client.
Design Research (Ethnography)
Ethnography is a research method where the importance of the characteristics
of a community or individual can help to understand the needs framing a
question to analysing and reporting data in order to create a service or product.
Cooling down research. Synthesis tools and techniques
Its the moment to gain distance from our very own experience and to create
diverse materials that gather key information of the research. Leaving behind
anecdotes and feelings, we analyse and build insights in different formats that
will be the building blocks on which we will generate ideas.
Ideas generation (building from the synthesis)
There are always this comments on how creative we are or we can be, if
everyone is creative or not and so on. Leaving debates for another occasion.
Creativity is something that can be trained and on what we have to keep fit and
fresh. And here its not a matter of idea generation techniques but much more
on creating great atmosphere to flourish creativity and to be excited. Ideas the
come from the environment we get to create, they are not specific to one person
but to neuronal connections made during ideation sessions.
We have to get to know ourselves and how we function to go beyond our mental
traps. Also to understand how emotional is the process and how there are
moments that we need to dump all the predictable ideas and still find the energy
and motivation to go further.
Co-creation and facilitation tricks and techniques
The students must acquire skills co-creation and the range of applications
defining as any act of collective creativity that is experienced jointly by two or
more people,focusing on the type of co-creation that occurs between companies
and the people that they serve.

36 < 37

Visit to Weiss-Heiten studio in Berln

Lean Startup
Understand the key aspects, tools, processes and mindset that distinguishes
the Lean Startup approach to product and business development from
conventional practice, also learn to use some of the tools to explore the viability
of a real startup business idea and have some knowledge of the way that
different tools help expose and evaluate different aspects of the business.
Finances, Triple Balance
The strategic map begins on the financial perspective, with the objective of
create shareholder value through financial objectives and find a balance among
social, environmental and economic aspects. Competencies Learning how to
generate environmental welfare, social economic turn profits for companies.

Sustainable Strategy
How to make a bioinspired design proposal through a practical-imaginative
exercises for defining problem and challenge.
The Challenge-Maker Day
It is an event that consists of lecture, organized by the department of business,
as a bet IED Madrid for training that contributes to professional development,
values, integration, professional ethics and social responsibility to deal with
a world in constant evolution. Competencies: learn how to face the various
uncertainties about a project, job and career, have the ability to adapt to them
and work flexibly taking advantage of this situation.

Video Editing
Tools Help you to learn and explore different possibilities in order to be selfsufficient to generate audiovisual pieces.
Personal Brand
Theoretical session on the principles of the Personal Brand applied to creative
work, the importance of knowing what makes us unique and different applied to
the communication process of a project, an initiative of a professional...
Suistainable Innovation
To dare to envision a sustainable world, by re-designing our food systems,
transport systems, energy systems, economic systems, and education systems,
but most of all, we need to re-envision how we collaborate and how we relate to
each other and the natural world.
MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

38 < 39

UNIT 3

UNIT 3
PROTOTYPE & EVALUATION
Unit Coordinator: Csar Astudillo
Introduction
This unit is about the third of these phases. Its a liminal phase, one of
confrontation, metamorphosis and uncertainty: maybe the phase in which
everything is more VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous), because its
the phase of the project in which one has to commit with one option (starting to
converge). Our response to the challenges of this phase is diversity of methods and
options. There is not a single formula for success, but a large and diverse toolbox,
and as strategic designers youll have to know your tools and choose which one to
apply in each moment, within a very diverse space of problems that we might try to
map along several dimensions.

DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES
In which phase of the project lifecycle are we: in a more generative/early phase,
on in a more evaluative/late one?
How are we managing the project: with a cascade style or an agile style?
In which type of organizational culture are we working: a prove it culture
or a try it culture?
Which design paradigm will be more useful to guide analysis and action in the
moment of collision between the idea and the target public: with the paradigm
of Human-centered Design (public as a given, adaptive idea), or with the
paradigm of Persuasive Communication (adaptive public, idea as a given)?
Which obstacles lie in the path to reality: raise capital, get the organizational
buy-in, ensure/prove adoption. potential, ensure/prove the business models
viability?

STRUCTURE
Although reality is always more chaotic, when we explain ourselves a design or
innovation project, we can narrate it as a history with four phases:

Research
Creativity
Prototyping and evaluation
Implementation and communication

Research

We observe reality under a different gaze (immersive, estranged, emphatic,

transformative).

Creativity

We come up with an idea to transform this reality.

Prototyping and evaluation

We confront our idea with reality and watch what happens in the collision. We refine
the idea to improve its potential to transform reality.

Implementation and communication

We start the mechanisms to put the idea into reality.

CONTENT
From Idea to Project to Business (Workshop)
Prepare students to pitch their ideas to entrepreneurs, investors, and
consultants, Introduce students to design thinking and business principles
to validate ideas , Evaluate students ideas with a global perspective. What
is needed to succeed in the global market place? Introduce students to the
mechanisms that run the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the United States.
Project Management
To understand, and become able to apply, the basic techniques of Project
Management, and, more importantly, to think in projects. These are meant
to be pragmatic classes, in which, instead of sophisticated techniques that are

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

40 < 41

rarely put in practice in real projects, we will talk about the everyday reality
of innovation and design projects, and the challenges they bring in terms of
administration, control, reporting, and team management. A few techniques,
many real-life project stories, and hammering down three or four basic
principles until they become second nature.

Prototyping, Evaluation and Decision-making Techniques

To learn how to materialize and idea, confront it to its potential adopters, extract
conclusions, and transform the idea accordingly. Our approach will be to merge
in a single content a diverse toolkit of ways to prototype (rapid prototyping
of digital interfaces, video prototyping, prototyping by acting, moving with a
magical thing), ways to conduct evaluative research (concept test, Customer
Development experiments, usability tests, diary studies) and ways to make
decisions within multidisciplinary groups (attractive/effort matrix, challenge
mapping, parallel design).
Early-stage prototyping and evaluation of products and services
Concept cards and concept tests. Storyboards for critical touchpoints of
a service. Video-prototypes and Acting. Early-stage evaluative research
techniques that are appropriate to use these forms of prototype as stimuli
(concept tests in a broad sense). Philosophy of early-stage evaluative research:
dont do what the user says: find out why the user says that, and then act
accordingly).
Prototyping and evaluation of Digital Interfaces
Lo-fi prototyping: Paper Prototyping. Mid-fi prototyping: Wireframes. Hi-fi
prototyping: Commercial tools for interactive prototype building (e. g. Proto.io).
Evaluation of digital interfaces: The usability test: preparation, moderation, and
observation. The approach of these classes will be responsive, mobile first.
Holistic Service prototyping and evaluation
Prototyping and evaluation techniques used in Service Design: artifact
prototyping, simulating and piloting service touchpoints. Well include
environment simulation via 3D / Virtual Reality and simulation of wearables
with the technique moving with a magical thing. Metrics acquisition (e. g. in
retail projects). Well also review a case study about prototyping and evaluation
techniques used in a real project.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

Decision-making techniques
Decision-making procedures in multi-disciplinary teams oriented to design
iterations after evaluation. Feature culling: the Attractiveness/Effort matrix.
Use of the Attractiveness/Effort matrix for the prioritization of improvement
opportunities after a Usability Test. Challenge analysis: Challenge Mapping
(Basadur). Rapid parallel design and cross-critique, for ideation of solutions for
the problems detected.
Persuasive Design and Gamification
We find this an important topic because contemporary products and services
are increasingly incorporating persuasion elements (attitude change, behavior
change, habit building). We will teach the session along three weeks (compatible
with the rest of activities).
E-Commerce
In this class youll learn the basic concepts of design strategy in e-commerce
(product findability, conversion optimization, generation of trust, service
excellence, logistics and inverse logistics), but also the most current topics:
the growing importance of m-commerce and the new patterns of reflective and
impulsive purchasing it brings, and the challenge of omnichannel retail and how
some businesses are tackling it (showrooming, ROPO, omnichannel strategies).
User Experience
Definition and understanding of the experience and the satisfaction of a user
when a product or system be use. Competencies Identify from experience
what a user feels while using any product. Learn to implement the concept of
Experience design.
The Business of Apps
Apps are today a very mature, saturated market in which the clause build it
and theyll come is utterly insufficient. To reach success, an app needs hard
work on promotion to help it acquire the critical user mass above which virality
mechanisms are enough by themselves to make the customer base grow.
Wearables and the Internet of Things
Its that the cluster of technological innovation trends around the concepts
of wearables and the Internet of things is going to transform our reality

42 < 43

in the next twenty years in such fundamental, deep ways, as the Internet has
transformed it in the last couple decades. For a start, devices not necessarily
so smart, but connected and in great numbers, will be pervasive in all kinds
of products and will transmit data about our most trivial actions with an
astounding granularity and at a marginal cost.

The Sharing Economy

In both ends of the increasingly fuzzy for-profit/non-profit continuum, the
sharing economy or access economy is proving its strength as a consolidated
trend. Lots of new products and services are appearing around he notion of
access trumps ownership. We want you to get to know success stories within
this trend and understand its common patterns, along with the changes in social
values that underlie it and which are markedly generational.
Health, Healthcare and Well-being
This class will be a repository of the innovative business trends that are being
seen in the last few years around health, healthcare, and quality of life. From
the use of gamification techniques to foster adoption of healthy habits in matters
such as nutrition and exercise, to the adoption of the principles of Service Design
in health care centers, to the beyond the pill trend that is sweeping the pharma
industry.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
In terms of the innovation diffusion curve, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
are two technological fields that have already surpassed their hype mountain, are
about to end crossing the deserted chasm of failed expectations, and very soon
will produce real offerings of products and services with a level of technological
maturity suitable for the early majority.
Attitudes for a world in transformation
We believe that acquiring a comprehensive and transformative gaze over reality is
at least as important for you as gaining competence in a series of strategic design
tools and methods. Being capable of reflection and having a good intellectual
foundation about the subject is vital. Thats why wed like to invite you to a deep
reflection through the reading of a series of texts, and a later discussion about
them. The scheme of these sessions is: we handle you a text, you read it carefully,

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

and in some days we have a debate session in which you will speak about what
you found stimulating, what you understood, where you agree or disagree with the
author Some sessions in flip the classroom format in which by the time you
come to the presential sessions, you must be prepared to be the leading voice.

Attitudes for a world in transformation:

The Cautious Prometheus Bruno Latour
Bruno Latour contemplates contemporary design as a way to transform
reality that is concerned about foreseeing and regulating the consequences of
innovation, as opposed to the modernist vision of lets create the technology and
let consequences take care of themselves. A bit of a thick text (thats the thing
with French intellectuals) but one we find seminal to building the ethos of a
strategic designer.
Attitudes for a world in transformation :
Strategic Design: Where we are now Anna Meroni
Anna Meroni, from the Istituto Tecnologico di Milano, analyzes in this text what
she understands as strategic design and which was the state of the art in 2008.
The text is still very current, and the social twist Meroni gives to strategic design
is very interesting. Besides, it contains a couple of pearls about whats the role of
the designer within organizations with an ambition to innovate.
Attitudes for a world in transformation:
The Gonzo Futurist Manifesto Justin Pickard
The British analyst Justin Pickard shows us his vision about how to manage
yourself as a futurist in a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex
and ambiguous. If we exchange his concept of killer imps (transcendent
implications) with the concept of killer innovations (or transcendent
innovations), this text becomes a survival guide for anyone who wants to
innovate. To what extent do you feel like a gonzo futurist?
User Research and Co-Creation for Disruptive Innovation
In this conference-screencast, Csar shares his opinion about the role
design research and interdisciplinary problem solving can play in innovation
processes. A candid exposition of his view on the right philosophy of work for
strategic design.

44 < 45

 Motivation, Story, and Celebration Marshall Ganz

The fields of community organization and social innovation have a lot to teach us
about how to bring ideas into reality. Marshall Ganz, professor of Organization
at Harvard, shares his vision on how storytelling can help organizations get
moving. The power of persuasion of a good change story can help defeat
organizational inertia. Did some time a good story set you in motion? Did it
contain any of these elements?
Prototyping, Evaluation and Decision-making Techniques
The only thing we will ask you is to conceive an innovating project in the field of
your preference, materialize the projects idea in any of the types of prototypes
studied in the subject, evaluate the prototype using an appropriate technique
from the ones learnt, apply any of the decision-making techniques to the results
of evaluative research, and tell us in writing your reflections about the whole
process.
Micro-entrepreneurship
This units project is not very ambitious in scope, and it is closely coupled with
its hard core subject.
Writing Techniques
It helps to Use the appropriate writing technique , in order to write a successful
thesis, and to lear to communicate in the most appropriate way ,everything
concerns a problem or series of problems in your area of research and be able
to describe what was known about it.
Personal Brand Techniques
Theoretical and practical session focused on the importance of developing a
story, a speech impact. We use videos taken from TED and extracts individual
recordings.
Integrating Sustainability into Design
The aim is to develop a critical lens through which the student can view and
appraise the materials and processes employed to design and specify products;
from cradle to grave. This includes developing the capacity of a designer to apply
critical life cycle analysis into any product designed. The course includes the
often ignored and poorly understood impact on the choices that designers have
on the natural and social environments.
MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

46 < 47

UNIT 4

UNIT 4
START & GROWTH
Unit Coordinator: Tommaso Canonici
Introduction
It is not enough simply to have a good idea in order to create a business model;
it is also necessary to demonstrate that it is a viable from an economic and
financial point of view. However, the information on human resources and the
strategic, commercial and operating proposals are also essential as the constant
technological changes of todays world mean that companies not only need to have
a good organisational structure, but they also need to identify where they are going
and where they want to get to in order to be competitive in the market.

DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES
Defining a business model.
Studying its economic viability.
Analysing the critical aspects for success, which may be technological, legal,
the resource plan etc.
Defining a sustainability model that ensures at least a return on the investment.
Defining other sustainability factors, such as the environment and social
responsibility, that will be taken into account.
Building the value proposition of the project and communicating it to
customers, stakeholders and employees (as part of its viability).
Identifying opportunities in a specific market.

STRUCTURE
Although reality is always more chaotic, when we explain ourselves a design or
innovation project, we can narrate it as a history with four phases:

Business
Technology
Strategy
Market

Business

The development of an entire new business starts with the generation and
identification of an idea. But the success of a business is often the result of
transforming that idea into opportunity. And that opportunity has to be developed
or explained through a business model that generates value for innovative
customers.

Technology

New technology is emerging and many well-established companies are taking

advantage of this new technology for businesses that helps them to become
successful and obtain a competitive advantage and improve services.

Strategy

Innovation is an element that needs to be taken into account in every process and
it is an identifier of successful companies, but we need to learn to channel and
convert innovation into profit by creating innovative strategies.

Market

Identifying which sectors the product or service fits into and defining the
characteristics of potential customers, knowing what prices and delivery terms
and what strategies the competition uses.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

48 < 49

CONTENT
Big Data
Mainly about storing, managing and transferring very large sets of data and
making it accessible for analysis for improve predictions and support decision
making.Finance for non-financial professionals and how to present your project
to an investor
Finance for non-finance professionals and how to present your project to
an investor
Introduction to basic finance concepts for entrepreneurs and financial analysis
techniques and their application in a company. The course will explore how to
present a proper financial plan to an investor, the main metrics to show and how
to make a one-page business plan.
Marketing & Strategy
Students will learn about useful aspects and instruments for decision-making
in marketing, such as the concept of sharing and value, commercial planning,
commercial research, analysing the environment, demand, consumer behaviour,
strategies for segmenting and positioning and, finally, the fundamental
variables in designing a marketing strategy: product, price, distribution and
communication.
Disruptive Innovation & Strategic Planning
With the aim of learning the features of disruptive companies and how to
become disruptive, a way of finding a gap in a low-end market which had been
ignored by traditional operators in favour of more profitable customers.
Innovation in business models
Innovation in the Business Model is one of the most effective routes for
developing a company due to the quick and profound transformation of the
business context that we are currently seeing. With the Business Model we
are referring not only to the profit equation, how to obtain revenue and what
expenses are necessary in order to generate it, but the set of interrelated
elements that are involved in generating value for customers and subsequently
obtaining a profit. In this course we will discuss innovation in the business
model and we will learn how consolidated companies and startups are
constantly reinventing how they generate value.
MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

Growth Hacking and Metrics for Entrepreneurs

How can I see if my business is working? What are the main metrics of startups?
In this subject we will review the main indicators that an entrepreneur needs
to bear in mind when setting up their business and how to make them grow
quickly. We will talk about metrics for pirates and how to optimise our business,
paying special attention to the digital world.
Leadership. How to be a great CEO?
The course aims to offer participants the tools necessary to carry out an
increasingly successful management of the work teams that they lead or
advise. Organisations increasingly require people who carry out leadership that
goes beyond formal authority in order to ensure that the people making up the
different business areas put their knowledge, commitment and passion into
what they do, thus leading to benefits for everybody, as one great team.
Commercial and Sales Planning
The aim of this course is firstly to explain how a Commercial and Sales
Department works: setting targets, planning and analysing results. Secondly,
the subject aims to provide an in-depth analysis of Commercial Negotiation.
The secret for building a community. How to generate a community? The secret
for building online and off-line tribes around your business.
Trends Technology, Management and Design
Seminar on trends in technology, management and design given by experts from
MIT Technology Review and Harvard Business Review.
Legal Matters. How to create a company?
I have an idea, and now how do I create a company? The legal arrangements for
opening your own business.
Agile Business
The secret of experimentation and agile business development. Seminar on how
to build a business in an interactive and incremental manner.

50 < 51

 Internationalization
To provide students with an overview of key dimensions of the
internationalization process in the context of an startup as economic
internationalization,export internationalization, investment and study of
international market.
Branded Content
To understand the brands as media and entertainment producers perspective.
Business Plan
Touchdown project ideas to the business environment of each case, and analyze
its viability strengths and weaknesses, thus able to formulate a solid project and
therefore feasible.To show the students how to write a professional business
plan, to be presented to investors and banks.
Investment for innovators & Venture Capital
Investment is an important asset in a project. There are different ways to
initially invest in a project, the Venture Capital is the most common. So it is
good to know how these and how they expect to receive a draft investment that
our search is successful.
Elevator Pitch
The necessary tools will be provided with theoretical and audiovisual content to
help students have a good speech and understands that sometimes it is more
important than having a detailed business plan.
Web Design/Digital Portfolio
Learn to speak the language of the web through hands-on practical experience
with the web technologies. At the end of the course each student will have
acquired a working knowledge of the various technologies that make the
function of web . Also learns the tool to make good digital portfolios.

Dossier
The main aim of this subject is to enable the student to work with graphic
elements, to become familiar with different formats and the production process.
Create a dossier of final project.
Information Design
Is a tool for the analysis, which consists in the use of graphical displays for
communication purposes maps, tables, graphs and diagrams, or a combination
of them all and will show students how they can make a large amount of data in
a creative and fun way.
Presentation Techniques
Learn how to design a presentation that accompanies an effective oral
presentation with the purpose of transmitting a series of ideas properly in visual
environments.

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

52 < 53

COMPANY GROUP PROJECT

Students will be encouraged to perform projects with companies during the

Master. Discovering the reality of companies and being able to work with a real
brief is a key aspect in a students training.
In addition, the differentiating feature of this work is that it is teamwork. We believe
that the Master has to combine individual work with teamwork. Being able to work
in a team is essential both as an employee and as an entrepreneur.
The aim is for students to discover the reality of the company and the challenges
linked both to the innovation and the strategic design of the company so as to
provide responses through consulting work. During the course students will be
able to work with one or several large and small companies linked to the Network
of Creative Industries (www.reddeindustriascreativas.com).
Carolina Botto Bar, Wayra Per Award for her JOINNUS project

Students will be regularly informed about this type of work.

For the development you will have:

Brief presentation by the Program Leader

Tutorship with the tutor
Tutorship with units coordinators
Final presentation before the panel

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

54 < 55

FINAL PROJECT

The aim of the final project, a fundamental part of the program and essential for
passing, is to draw up, research, analyze, develop and present a project as an
exercise integrating the competences, both specific and cross-curricular, acquired
during the Master, thus bringing students closer to the real world of work and the
development of a complete project. This thesis may be carried out individually or
in pairs. Students who decide to do a thesis in pairs must inform the coordinator of
the Master.
The aim of the thesis is to express the synthesis generated following a year of
learning, a sum of personal micro-experiences developed through effective
strategies and creative solutions which translate into a well-structured and
easily communicable comprehensive project that, in turn, becomes a vehicle
for integrating and consolidating the knowledge, experience, creative tools and
methodologies acquired. The thesis project can be of a for-profit or non-profit
organization or a project to be developed by a real company. The projects must not
be limited to an academic work, but it is essential that they should be initiatives that
can become a reality even though in the end they are not implemented.

The thesis of the Master of Strategic Design Labs is the result of merging
the design concept with business management, as well as promoting an
entrepreneurial culture among students so that things happen in an innovative
manner. Accordingly, each student has attempted to develop practically, based on
an idea of an innovative business model, all the knowledge acquired during the
Master. As a final objective, the thesis project must offer a coherent business or
service vision that meets a current demand, where the role of design has taken on
greater importance and is integrated into the processes.
For the development you will have:

3 Program Leader assistance

Tutorship with the tutor
Tutorship with units coordinators
Specific tutorships given by teachers or professional
Final presentation before the panel

A series of tutorials with professionals from different disciplines accompany

and guide the students during their journey to enable them to recognize and
incorporate the added value provided by each experience and to contribute to the
final enhancement of the thesis.
Students will work individually, or in a group, during the research, analysis and
development process, with the need to dedicate a large part of their time to the
Lab Time Space, where they will work full time until the final presentation before a
panel for assessment.
The thesis process will involve:

Deciding the theme

Presenting a briefing for proper development of the content of the thesis
Ongoing tutorials during the process
Specific tutorials given by teachers or professionals
Presenting documentation for the final presentation. Digital and paper format
Final presentation before the panel

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

56 < 57

PROJECT STAGES

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

PRESENTATION

The system of final assessment of the program is based on an average grade

based on the following percentages:

Meeting between students and the academic team of the course where the
Program Leader presents the program, indicates the objectives and work
dynamics to follow during the academic year.

Individual performance of activities - 50%

CREATIVITY AND RESEARCH

The first months students will focus on a process of analysis and research,
supported by seminars, visits, lectures etc... in order to provide a context for the
environment, identify the user and define the concept on which the thesis will be
developed.

Unit 1 10 %
Unit 2 10 %
Unit 3 10 %
Unit 4 10 %
Attendance 10%

ANALYSIS AND IMPLEMENTATION

Company project - 20%

The following months students should show their thesis proposal, based on the
knowledge acquired and facing it to the reality of the context where they want to
develop it. In this phase they will identify problems, doubts, needs, obstacles and
will formalize their first ideas and concepts delivering a written paper and a visual
display for its correction and validation.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

Students will check more specifically every aspect of their proposal, going
into the details of their project, filling out coherently their idea, taking care of
its effectiveness and viability. They will submit a written paper and everything
necessary for the project development along with a visual display for its correction
and validation.

Thesis project - 30%. That percentage will be the summary of the

following items:

Research and concept 20%

Development 20%
Implementation 10%
Final Presentation 50%

PROTOTYPE, COMMUNICATION AND SUBMISSION

In this phase, the thesis project prototype is made thanks to the support of qualified
professionals and companies. Through a presentation before a jury students will
defend their thesis project with a document and a visual display. This presentation
will end with a public exposition of all proposals and the publication of a book
containing the experience of one-year course.

*In the case that a student does not meet the objectives required in each presentation
the Program Leader will assess the possibility of suspending.
MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

58 < 59

FACULTY

Among others, last year took part in the Master of Strategic Design Labs:
Carlos Vivas, Business Consultant
David Standley, Graphic Designer and Consultant in Corporate Communications
Luis Marijuan, Managing Partner of the consulting Pingarrn and Partners
Manuel Quirs, Zoologist and Founder of GreenSighs
Paul Jarauta, Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Murcia
Daniel Medina, BSE in Computer Science
Nelson Pinheiro, Scientific Director of the Trends Research Center at University of Lisbon

Workshop with Studio Swine.

Eduardo Garca, Vice President of AYR Consulting Worldwide

Jaime Martn, CEO of Lantern
Maritza Guaderrama, Co-founder and CEO of Designit Madrid & Barcelona
Cristina Vivares, Permanent Company Facilitator at Neuronilla
Pablo Cano, CSO in VivaBI
Vincezo Di Mara, Expert in Social Service Innovation and Design
Pedro Moneo, Founder and CEO of Opinno
Laurent Ogel, Expert in Business Management at PRAXXIS
Claudia van Verseveld, Creative Marketing Coach and Founder of La Diferencia
Pablo Cano, Founder of Learn it
Catalina Parra, Co-founder of UEIA Technology

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

Workshop with Alberto Marcos.

60 < 61

RECOMMENDED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
La economa Long Tail. Chris Anderson
Gratis: el Futuro De Un Precio Radical. Chris Anderson
Wikinomics. Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
The design of everyday things. Donald A. Norman
Creativity Society. Richard Florida and Irene Tinagli
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires
Innovation. Tim Brown
Slideology. Nancy Duarte
What would Google do. Jeff Jarvis
Innovation to the core. Peter Skarzynski
The Element: how finding your passion changes eve. Ken Robinson
The back of the napkin. Dam Roam
Leading the Revolution. Gary Hamel
Thinkertoys. Michael Michalk
Reinvent your Business Model, before its too late. Paul Nunes and Tim Breene
Marketing Management. Philip Kotler
El mundo como proyecto. Otl Aicher
Biomimicry, innovation inspired by nature. Janine M. Benyus
El diseo como experiencia: el papel del diseo y los diseadores en el siglo XXI.
R. Cooper
Natural Capitalism. Creating the next industrial revolution. P. Hawken, A. Lovins and
H. Lovins
Information Design, MIT Press (2000). Robert Jacobson

MASTER OF STRATEGIC DESIGN LABS I DIDACTIC PLAN

62 < 63

IED Madrid
Flor Alta 8, 28004 Madrid
IED Master Madrid
Larra 14, 28004 Madrid
Fab Lab IED Madrid
Avenida Pedro Dez, 3.
28019 Madrid
T. +34 914 480 444
info@madrid.ied.es
Skype: info.iedmadrid
mastersofdesignandinnovation.com

facebook.com/iedmadrid
twitter.com/iedmadrid

IED Network: Miln, Roma, Cagliari,

Turn, Madrid, Barcelona, So Paulo,
Venecia, Florencia, Como, Ro de Janeiro