The Primary Thinking Disciplines of The Design and Innovation Lab

The Design and Innovation Lab applies the following thinking disciplines to its activities:

• Design Thinking,
• Systems Thinking,
• Entrepreneurial Thinking, and
• Computational Thinking

The table below identifies the features of the four primary disciplines used by The Design and Innovation Lab.

Feature	Design	Systems	Entrepreneurship	Computation
Thinking Approach	Design Thinking	Systems Thinking	Entrepreneurial Thinking	Computational Thinking
Mindset	User-centered, iterative, creative	Holistic, interconnected, dynamic	Opportunity-focused, risk-tolerant, adaptive	Logical, algorithmic, problem-decomposing
Key Methods	Prototyping, user research, ideation	Modeling, feedback analysis, scenario planning	Lean startup, pivoting, business model canvas	Abstraction, pattern recognition, algorithmic design
Core Principles	Empathy, iteration, collaboration	Interconnectedness, emergence, feedback loops	Effectuation, affordable loss, leveraging contingencies	Decomposition, pattern recognition, algorithm design
Primary Goals	Create innovative solutions to human-centered problems	Understand and optimize complex systems	Identify and exploit market opportunities	Solve problems efficiently using computational concepts
Tools	Sketching, personas, journey maps	Causal loop diagrams, stock and flow models	Business model canvas, pitch decks, MVPs	Flowcharts, pseudocode, data structures
Key Skills	Visualization, problem framing, synthesis	Systems mapping, causal thinking, forecasting	Opportunity recognition, networking, resource leveraging	Abstraction, algorithmic thinking, debugging
Typical Outputs	Products, services, experiences	System models, intervention strategies	New ventures, business models, innovations	Algorithms, software, computational solutions
Associated Fields	Product design, UX/UI, service design	Ecology, management, engineering	Business, innovation, social entrepreneurship	Computer science, software engineering, data science