Overview
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The modern day business is a dynamic enterprise, and leading it now needs a conglomerate of essential skills, ranging from design thinking and digital transformation, to product management and IT.
This specialization covers these essential skills and concepts, and what they mean for companies and businesses. It starts with digital transformation, developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, and led by top-ranked Darden faculty and Boston Consulting Group global management experts. It then introduces design thinking, which provides you with the tools to become an innovative thinker and uncover creative opportunities at every level in every kind of organization.
The specialization then switches gears into what it takes to become a product person in today’s digital age, which is a different game relative to what product management used to be. Finally, since now more than ever, companies are investing heavily in IT, the last part of this specialization will cover major challenges within corporate IT, and how to address them with the disciplined use of design thinking.
Syllabus
Course 1: Digital Transformation
- Digital transformation is a hot topic--but what exactly is it and what does it mean for companies? In this course, developed at the Darden ... Enroll for free.
Course 2: Design Thinking for Innovation
- Today innovation is everyone's business. Whether you are a manager in a global corporation, an entrepreneur starting up, in a government ... Enroll for free.
Course 3: Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals
- Not so long ago, the job of product manager was about assessing market data, creating requirements, and managing the hand-off to ... Enroll for free.
Course 4: Customer-Centric IT Strategy
- Now more than ever, corporations are investing heavily in IT. The quality of these investments affect the daily work of millions, yet it’s ... Enroll for free.
- Digital transformation is a hot topic--but what exactly is it and what does it mean for companies? In this course, developed at the Darden ... Enroll for free.
Course 2: Design Thinking for Innovation
- Today innovation is everyone's business. Whether you are a manager in a global corporation, an entrepreneur starting up, in a government ... Enroll for free.
Course 3: Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals
- Not so long ago, the job of product manager was about assessing market data, creating requirements, and managing the hand-off to ... Enroll for free.
Course 4: Customer-Centric IT Strategy
- Now more than ever, corporations are investing heavily in IT. The quality of these investments affect the daily work of millions, yet it’s ... Enroll for free.
Courses
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Today innovation is everyone's business. Whether you are a manager in a global corporation, an entrepreneur starting up, in a government role, or a teacher in an elementary school, everyone is expected to get lean – to do better with less. And that is why we all need design thinking. At every level in every kind of organization, design thinking provides the tools you need to become an innovative thinker and uncover creative opportunities that are there – you're just not seeing them yet. In this course, developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and taught by top-ranked faculty, we provide an overview of design thinking and work with a model containing four key questions and several tools to help you understand design thinking as a problem solving approach. We also look at several stories from different organizations that used design thinking to uncover compelling solutions.
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Not so long ago, the job of product manager was about assessing market data, creating requirements, and managing the hand-off to sales/marketing. Maybe you’d talk to a customer somewhere in there and they’d tell you what features they wanted. But companies that manage product that way are dying. Being a product person today is a new game, and product managers are at the center of it. Today, particularly if your product is mostly digital, you might update it several times a day. Massive troves of data are available for making decisions and, at the same time, deep insights into customer motivation and experience are more important than ever. The job of the modern product manager is to charter a direction and create a successful working environment for all the actors involved in product success. It’s not a simple job or an easy job, but it is a meaningful job where you’ll be learning all the time. This course will help you along your learning journey and prepare you with the skills and perspective you need to: Create the actionable focus to successfully manage your product (week 1) Focus your work using modern product management methods (week 2) Manage new products and explore new product ideas (week 3) Manage and amplify existing products (week 4) This course is ideal for current product or general managers interested in today's modern product management methods. Please note that there are new additions to this course and subtitles for these videos will soon be available. This course was developed with the generous support of the Batten Institute at UVA’s Darden School of Business. The Batten Institute’s mission is to improve the world through entrepreneurship and innovation: www.batteninstitute.org.
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Now more than ever, corporations are investing heavily in IT. The quality of these investments affect the daily work of millions, yet it’s not uncommon to see industry surveys where the failure rates for IT projects is over 50%. It’s possible to do better and it’s possible to do so consistently. In this two-week course, we’ll step through major challenges within corporate IT and how to address them with the disciplined use of design thinking, Lean Startup, and agile as a team framework. By the end of this course, developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and taught by top-ranked faculty, you’ll be able to: Use the Business Model Canvas to focus your company strategy and facilitate buy-in from stakeholders Translate your work on the Canvas to specific charters in IT Rapidly prototype strategically-aligned processes for implementation within your IT infrastructure Please Note: This is a short-form course, two weeks in duration.
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Digital transformation is a hot topic--but what exactly is it and what does it mean for companies? In this course, developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, and led by top-ranked Darden faculty and Boston Consulting Group global management experts, we talk about digital transformation in two ways. First we discuss the pace of change and the imperative it creates for businesses. Next we provide the context for this transformation and what it takes to win in the digital age. Then we walk through BCG's proprietary framework, which helps you identify key areas to digitize, including strategy, core processes, and technology. By the end of this course, you'll be able to: --describe the underlying economics of innovation, technology, and market disruptions --weigh the pros and cons of current digital technologies driving advancement --utilize BCG's digital transformation framework as a "how-to" for digitizing your organization
Taught by
Alex Cowan, Amane Dannouni, Ching Fong Ong, Jeanne M. Liedtka, Michael Lenox and Sonja Rueger