In our first Coursebook, we outline the milestones you should expect when you are building a new venture. We connect user-driven MVP best practices with traditional risk management frameworks and emerging social impact strategies. We also discuss ways to prepare for incubators and accelerators. Recognizing the difficulties of innovation, we conclude this Course Book with a section on how to bow out with grace.

Complexity defies the many efforts to study it. In many ways, that is the nature of complexity. It lies beyond the boundaries of human knowledge, and it confounds even the most sophisticated minds and technology. In the Coursebook, we will investigate strategies to innovate in complex conditions by reexamining pre-HCD design thinking literature and establish basic research standards for evidence-based decision-making to manage uncertainty.

Creating a desirable product for users is key to product-market-fit. In this Coursebook, we will show you how to systematically approach User Experience and Design. We will give you a no-nonsense perspective and answer questions like: How much UX Design do I really need? What are the UX benchmarks for organizations of different maturity? How do you analyze an interface? This is UX 101 for busy executives.

Executives today deal with a vast array of topics in order to make decisions. In time sensitive situations, some information will not be available while others will be deemed unnecessary. To understand effective business research, we will explore the idea of standard of proof and the epistemological implications of pragmatism on theory building and theory testing in business environments. In the process, we will also establish a foundation for multidisciplinary and mixed-method research.