ACP Creativity & Product Development

This course introduces the various concepts related to the human creative process, creative ideation, and converting ideas into innovative services or products. Topics emphasize the importance of creating a sustainable process to innovate in the areas of product, process and service innovation. Students will examine various common tools and methods to promote creativity in others, contribute to a creative team, manage development frameworks alongside creativity, and establish a culture of creativity within an organization. This course prepares students to contribute to their organizational needs for the continuous and successful development of new products and services. The conversion of concepts and ideas into innovative and practical solutions will be the major output for this course.

In today’s rapidly changing world, companies must be able to tackle and deal with significant problems in a timely and organized fashion. This applies to new product development, services, and the various business processes. Design thinking is a methodology used to analyze and determine the root cause of problems or issues and develop alternative approaches to solve these issues. This includes the features and requirements for a new product or service or developing a better process methodology to speed and streamline work flowing through an organization. We add this initial methodology to the concept of a Design Sprint, which is a highly organized approach to take your development from the initial concepts through the various steps to develop a business plan.

Learn practical skills in aligning projects with organizational strategies and achieve outcome objectives by utilizing project management techniques. Students will learn the skills to work within resource limitations, identify and leverage stakeholders, plan and deliver upon deadlines, and manage user and stakeholder expectations within the realm of product development. Topics also include measuring and prioritizing opportunities, maximizing resource efficiency, developing product extension strategies, building a project portfolio, and securing buy-in from upper management. The goals for product development and management include speed to market, minimal viable product (MVP) development, and the ability to quickly modify and change features during development stages.

Product development teams require strong leadership and the ability to bring together multiple functions and cultures to introduce a new or modified product or service to the market. This course will concentrate on the specific and unique approaches for creating a high performing product development team. During product development, teams confront a number of ongoing organizational challenges and there is a high potential for conflict between participants in the process. This course addresses teamwork and other "soft-side" factors that largely determine whether programs are on schedule. Topics include building and launching effective teams, conducting team meetings, strategies for long-term team communication, and the specialized needs for innovative development-centered teams.

Success in new business ventures occurs with an understanding of key entrepreneurial characteristics and competencies solutions. This interactive course provides potential intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs and start-up developers with the knowledge of succeeding in an entrepreneurial opportunity. With a focus on innovation, creativity and product development, this course will cover all of the practical steps necessary to move from the concept to a potentially marketable product or service. This will include market sizing and potential, obtaining funding, protection of intellectual property and determining how to build and distribute the product through an integrated logistics approach. At the end of the course students will have the skills and confidence to evaluate starting a business or embarking on a new business venture.

Learn the skills necessary to “own the room” and grab the attention of stakeholders, investors, collaborators and executives in this exciting and ever-important course. From impression management and concept pitching, to honing your online and offline networking skills, this course covers all the bases needed to effectively and confidently grow your buy-in potential and bring an audience to your concept, idea, product or service. Additionally, review and analyze basic marketing concepts and how they relate to personal and professional goals, as well as organizational strategy.