Applause to Delft University for practicing what we preach!

That co-creation is hot right now, we already know. And that many companies are looking for ways to implement it… also no hot news. But sitting still will not lead you in any new direction either. Some advice? Just do it! It doesn’t have to be hard or complicated. Invite some people who know more or different things than you do and voilà: fresh input!

A good example was presented to me yesterday, when we were invited at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) at the TU Delft – the place where it all started for many of us at Fronteer. As former students and practitioners in different fields of expertise, we were asked to reflect on the Master Course of Strategic Product Design (SPD) in order to improve its current structure.

Of course, IDE already has quite some experience in co-creation, teaching courses on the topic for many years now. However, teaching it and doing it are two different things, as we have experienced ourselves. (So if you can’t do it, teach it…

The recipe for this session: 9 SPD alumni students (all girls by the way – coincidence?), 3 very large walls, sandwiches, liquorice, drinks and many, many many post-its! In a 3 hour session, all courses and the overall quality of the SPD master were evaluated and input was given based on our working experience in the past 2 to 3 years.

But it doesn’t end here: next to graduates, the faculty also invites companies who currently have SPD students on the pay-roll and PhD students are asked to comment on the scientific side of the master. With these three types of input, this Master is bound to become the most inspiring and cool study there is!

Oh, and this still isn’t all, they actually applied all 5 Guiding Principles of Co-Creation, the final two were proved this morning, when I opened my inbox and saw this email:

Talking about Giving Back and intending to Continue Development.

Heart-warming, isn’t it?