Elsie Gitau.
Elsie Gitau
When she graduates, B.Com student Elsie Gitau might work for her family business in Kenya. She decided to join the d.studio class to learn to think on her feet if she takes that route.
“Problems arise all the time and you need to come up with ideas,” she said of the business back home.
Design thinking has provided her with a framework to generate said ideas. “Rather than just doing what everyone else is doing, you need to be able to bring this kind of design thinking to employers, or to your own businesses,” she said.
She enjoys the flexible structure of the d.studio and appreciates the time Moura and Ron spend listening and adjusting to the students’ needs.
“They encourage students to voice their opinions, no matter what it is,” she said.
Gitau is interested in transport logistics and sees this class as beneficial to her future work. Her team is working on a project optimizing nurses’ time at Lions Gate hospital.
Bernhard Bergström
Bernhard Bergström.
Bernhard Bergström isn’t an arts and crafts type of guy, so he was a little nervous when he saw the easels and the post-it notes in the d.studio. But his apprehension lasted all of 30 minutes.
“I was so thrilled to be a part of this because I believe the future of business will look at problems holistically,” he said. “The great thing about the d.studio is that we finally bring students from different disciplines together.”
On exchange from Norway and majoring in strategy, Bergström enjoys tackling business innovation problems. The d.studio has given him a practical toolkit to come up with creative solutions. He points to the business canvas as a simple, yet incredibly effective tool.
Bergström cited companies such as Apple, Google and Skype as models of shaking up the world with innovative, forward thinking concepts.
“The d.studio pushes you to look forward,” he said. “It acknowledges that the future is uncertain and makes us ask, where can we go with this?”
Peter Fitzpatrick
Peter Fitzpatrick
Even though B.Com student Peter Fitzpatrick has a full-time job at Versapay, he still jumped at the chance to take the d.studio pilot course. He thought it looked different than the average “read the textbook, take the final” class – and he hasn’t been disappointed.
“It’s refreshing,” he said. “It’s more about the thinking process than whether you remember the name of the theory.”
From the real world project his team is working on to the in-class design thinking simulations, Fitzpatrick said the course departs from the norm by encouraging collaboration with both students and the professors. “I love how this course is focused on action and doing things,” he said.
Fitzpatrick, who aspires to go into consulting or become an entrepreneur, wasn’t familiar with design thinking before he joined the d.studio. He enjoys being exposed to the concept, as well as the variety of ideas put forth by the open-minded students in the class.
“It’s a whole new way of thinking about things,” he said.