Intro

Meet Your Facilitator - Bala Ramadurai

Entrepreneur, Professor, Author and Innovation Coach

• Marie Curie Research Fellow at Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
• PhD from Arizona State University, USA (Materials)
• BTech from IIT Madras, India (Metallurgy)

Prof. Bala Ramadurai - Professor

• IIT Madras, Chennai, India
• Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico
• Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, India

Bala Ramadurai - Author

Bala Ramadurai - Innovation Coach

Bala Ramadurai - Entrepreneur

Spirelia

Innovate with Confidence

Srishti OS — The AI-Native Innovation Platform

Spirelia Innovation Pvt. Ltd.

"Innovate with Confidence, Powered by Insight"

S R I S H T I — The AI-Native Innovation Platform

🔭

Utkarsha

Technology Forecasting
& Roadmapping

MVP LIVE

🔬

Uttishta

AI Inventor's
Assistant

IN PIPELINE

💡

Karmaja

Structured Innovation
& Idea Generation

VISION

🛡️

Narasimha

IP Capture &
Protection

VISION

⚙️

Ananta

Rapid
Prototyping

VISION

Courses Taught

Design Thinking

Human Centred Design of products and services

Innovate Like a Boss

Systematic Innovation using methodologies like TRIZ, Brainstorming

Technology Forecasting

Love to keep in touch

https://balaramadurai.net/about/

bala@balaramadurai.net

http://in.linkedin.com/in/balaramadurai

My LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/balaramadurai/

Your Intros

Short Intro of Yourself

• What is your specialization or subject of your studies?
• What do you aspire to do in life?
• What is your superpower?

Plan (1/4) — Week 1: Empathize begins

Plan (2/4) — Week 2: Empathize showcase → Analyze

Plan (3/4) — Week 3: Presentation Skills → Solve → Test begins

Plan (4/4) — Week 4: Test → Iterate ×2 → Finale

How this course works

• Live, Mon–Thu — most work happens in the room, with your studio buddy
• Almost no homework — you run your own project on something you care about

You're great with your hands — same build → test → improve, now applied to thinking.

Your buddy = company, not co-owner

• Paired (1–2) for field-work company · idea-bouncing · rehearsal · peer review
• Your project, your portfolio, your grade — yours alone. You present your work.
• Swap buddies anytime — just email me

The Scoreboard — 100 · absolute · no curve

AI is your partner, not your author

Rides through every phase — a fast, tireless junior colleague: great drafts, terrible judgement.

The 3 things AI cannot do for you:

• Feel — it never met your customer (empathy is yours)
• Be trusted — it hallucinates (every claim = a hypothesis to verify)
• Be specific — it averages (you bring the real human)

Your AI toolkit — two paths, both full marks

• Thinking partner (everyone): any chat assistant
• Build partner (optional)

Default build tool Google Antigravity (free) · or Claude Code · Cursor · Lovable · Bolt · Replit

Physical/service projects stay low-fi (Figma, cardboard, roleplay) — 100% fine
Build path = Ship It

What the heck is Innovation?

Innovation

10s → 100 hours

Moral of the story

• Think about the customer situation
• Formulate the problem according to the customer situation
• Think systems (not just ideas/products/services)
• Create systems which make business sense

Innovation

• Customer Desirability
• Technical Feasibility
• Business Viability

Source - Ideo's model - https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/how-to-prototype-a-new-business

Task 0 — One slider/pager

1. Pick an innovation project you'd like to work on (this is yours for the whole course)
2. Describe it as if explaining to your grandparent
3. Give it a catchy/fancy title
4. Write it as a How Might We — name the existing product/service
   • E.g. — How might we keep a lone woman safe in a taxi at night? (Uber)
5. Upload to the Blackboard Task-0 Assignment: FirstName-LastName-Task0

We'll do this together at the end — you'll get 30 minutes + time to talk it through with me.

What in the world is Compassion?

Open an image search engine and type

• compassion
• empathy

Note what is common among the images

Hand, Heart, Feelings, Action

Compassion = ❤️ + 🫱

Why does one feel bad when another person is suffering?

Watch this - https://youtube.com/watch?v=3qrShIMtYJU

How can one effectively grasp the emotions experienced by others?

Watch this - https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZbEjG_8YE_M

Design Thinking = Compassion + Innovation

Two Scenarios

Starky or Thana Rosa?

Which approach would you like to adopt for your projects?

How do organizations innovate?

Ideas implemented should lead to sales/revenue from the customer

Ideas are meant to solve problems

Whose problems?

Not many will like untested products

A Four Step Efficient and Systematic Process called Design Thinking

Four Noble Truths

• Dukkha — Acknowledge that there is suffering
• Samudaya — Delve into the cause of suffering
• Nirodha — Think of ways to end the suffering
• Marga — Walk on the path to end the suffering

4 Phases of Design Thinking

• Dukkha
• Samudaya
• Nirodha
• Marga

• Empathize
• Analyze
• Solve
• Test

• "Don't take my word, apply this for yourself"
• "cycles"

What are "cycles" in an organization?

Go EAST for Design Thinking

Patient-Centric Design Thinking

Watch this - https://youtube.com/watch?v=FkJD9bYS-As

Blackboard + Shared space

https://bit.ly/UP-KDT-2026

Recap — today in one screen

• Design Thinking = Compassion + Innovation, in 4 phases — EAST
• Your project, your buddy (company, not co-owner), graded on a published checklist
• AI is your partner — use it, cite it, never invent customers

Next: pick the project you'll live with for 4 weeks.

Now: your project — 30 minutes

1. Pick an innovation project you'll own all course (see Task 0)
2. Describe it like you'd tell your grandparent · give it a catchy title
3. Frame it as a How Might We — name the existing product/service
4. Talk it through with your studio buddy

Then I'll share the drive / upload link, and we'll talk your idea through together.

Time:

Recap

Reflection time

• what did you enjoy doing?
• where did you struggle?
• what did you learn?

Time left for reflection:

Empathize

Red — your first points are live now (no learning yet!)

Open the portal and answer — from your own login, first 10 minutes only:

A 10-year-old plays games on her tablet for hours, snacks while she plays, and rarely goes outside.

In 3 lines: what does she actually NEED? (a need, not a solution)

Hard? Good — that's the point. We learn the tool, then you redo it. 😀

Watch this - https://youtube.com/watch?v=9_1Rt1R4xbM

Empathize is visual story telling

Customer Journey Mapping (CJM) is the tool we'll use to tell the story

Kid Mobile Case Study

The kid's persona

Name: Akanksha
Gender: Female
Location: Pune, India
Age: 10
Description: Lives in Pune with her elder brother and parents. Loves chocolates, aspires to be a badminton player, hates assignments and exams. Owns a tablet, would like a pet.

Customer Journey Map — Before

CJM — During

CJM — After

List of problem statements

• The kid plays on the mobile for most of her spare time
• She snacks/eats while playing on the mobile
• She spends very little time playing outdoors

Customer Journey Mapping

1. Write the customer's activity
2. Write the major steps of the user experience
3. Split the story into 3 — Before, During and After
4. Mark the emotional highs and lows (😄 and 😞)

Say the pain as a test — Given / When / Then

The CJM in one testable line — current behaviour, no solutions:

• Given Akanksha has free time and a tablet,
• When she reaches for something to do,
• Then she plays indoors for hours and skips going out 😞

This is your Red — the pain you'll later prove you fixed. Still no solutions here.

Customer interactions

Interaction tips

• Appraise the customer of your intentions and the case
• Give more information than you receive, initially
• Ask them to use the product/service and observe
• Be curious about how they use it
• Ask for stories of their best and worst experiences
• Give them time to be comfortable
• Talk to 3 n customers (this is a minimum, not a maximum)

Since you run solo, n = 1 → minimum 3 customers. Pick an age ±15 years from yours. More customers = Empathy Ace badge + Live-Engagement depth.

This is the one piece of real "homework"

• Over the Jun 19–21 weekend, go out and meet your 3 customers
• Your studio buddy can come along — keep each other company and brave
• Bring back: notes, photos/video (with permission), and stories
• We open the Empathize showcase the moment we're back, Mon Jun 22

Customer Interaction Tips Video

Watch this - https://youtube.com/watch?v=KZYntTU3JW4

AI move — Empathize after you've met real people

• First, meet your 3 humans. No AI before field work — there's nothing real to organize yet.
• Then paste your raw notes/transcripts → ask AI to draft a CJM (Before/During/After) and cluster pains into themes
• Ask it to scaffold a persona — then fix every field against the real person you met

• ⚠️ If AI invents a quote, a name, or a "typical user" you never met — delete it. That's fabrication.
• ⚠️ AI gives you the average customer; your marks come from the specific one. Verify, don't trust.

Cite it: one line — "AI clustered my interview notes; personas verified against real customers."

Worked example — notes → prompt → AI draft

Your raw notes (one real customer): Akanksha, 10, Pune. Home from school → tablet games for hours. Snacks while playing. Rarely goes out. Loves badminton but "too tired". Parents frustrated, no controls on the tablet.

Paste them into AI with this prompt:

You're my Design Thinking assistant for the Empathize step.
Below are my RAW notes from ONE real customer I interviewed.
1) Draft a Customer Journey Map — Before / During / After, with an
   emotion (happy/sad) at each step.
2) List 3 problem statements — the PAIN only, NO solutions.
3) Flag anything you INFERRED that is NOT in my notes, so I can verify.
Rules: do not invent quotes, names, or facts. Use only my notes.
NOTES: <paste your notes here>

AI draft you then verify: Before tablet after school — excited 😊 · During hours of play + snacks, skips outdoors — absorbed → restless 😞 · After parents nag, homework undone — tension 😞 · Problems: (1) free time defaults to screen (2) no easy off-ramp to go outside (3) no parental guardrail · ⚠️ Inferred — verify with her: "too tired for badminton"

Dry-run before the real thing (S4) — 60 min

Don't let your first run of the loop be with your precious real customer. Rehearse it today:

1. Interview your studio buddy (or a volunteer) for 10 min — use your interaction tips
2. AI-synthesize: paste the notes → AI drafts a CJM + clusters the pains
3. Fix it against what your buddy actually said — catch the AI's inventions
4. Write 2 problem statements — no solutions

Now you've run the whole Empathize loop once — the weekend is the real take. 🎯

Task 1A: Empathize This

Field work

Interact with at least 3 customers (more is better)

Field work

Anyone not from your UP class; age ±15 years from yours

CJM

Create personas (name, gender, age, location, occupation, family)

CJM

Write the customer activity

CJM

Before / During / After, with emotions and photos of the customer

Problems

List the problem statements — no solutions, please

Task 1B: Empathize That

• A short video (2–5 min) — a skit highlighting the customer's current status
• Use human actors (no AI/avatars/cartoons)
• Minimize dialog; use your CJM as the script
• Upload the video link with your portfolio

Checklist for Empathize

• [ ] Customers — at least 3
• [ ] CJM — persona(s) with name, gender, age, location
• [ ] CJM — main activity of the customer
• [ ] CJM — 3 sections: Before, During, After
• [ ] CJM — emotions (smileys/sadeys present)
• [ ] Problems — listed
• [ ] Problems — NOT solutions
• [ ] Uploaded: presentation + video

Refactor — redo your opening Need

Reopen the portal. Re-answer this session's opening question — now that you have a CJM.

• Did your first try leap to a solution?
• Is your need sharper now — tied to a real emotion in the journey?

The gap between your Red and your Refactor is your learning today. 🎯

How the room works each phase

1. Breakout presentations — 6 rooms of 5; everyone presents 4 min + 2 min peer feedback
2. Peer-review round — score 2–3 roommates on the checklist (earns your peer-review marks)
3. Roulette to the main stage — the wheel sends one champion per room to the whole class
4. Everyone uploads their own portfolio to Blackboard; the AI grades all of them

You give a full talk every phase — in your room of 5. That's where nervous speakers grow. 🎤

30 talks won't fit one room. 6 parallel rooms = everyone presents in ~30 min, not 3 hours.

Across the course, everyone reaches the main stage at least once — I track it. Finale = all of you.

Showcase format

• In your room of 5: 4 min present + 2 min peer feedback — everyone, every phase
• Main stage (the roulette champions): 6 min present + 3 min Q&A
• Audience questions earn Live-Engagement XP
• Your breakout room is recorded — that's how your presentation marks are graded

Empathize Roulette — pick the room champions

Presentation focus this phase — Story

• Open with one customer, by name, in one human moment
• Walk us through the journey — let the 😄 and 😞 do the work
• No solutions yet — leave us feeling the problem

Criteria — Empathize portfolio (/10)

• Checklist completeness (50%)
• Video (15%)
• Subjective quality (20%)
• Customer evidence (15%)

Analyze

Analyze — Multi-Why

Red — dig before we teach you how

First 10 minutes, from your own login:

Take one problem from your CJM. Ask "why?" — and keep asking. How deep can you get in 10 min?

Multi-Why

This method is also known as Toyota's 5-Whys approach.

Watch this - https://youtube.com/watch?v=N7cR2gArCFE

The Why Chain

Case Study: Application of Multi-Whys

• Why 1: Why does the kid play on the mobile for such a long time?
• Ans: To gain experience (XP) points.
• Why 2: Why does the kid want to gain XP points?
• Ans: These are rewards that the kid can brag about to friends.

Case Study: Application of Multi-Whys

• Why 3: Why does the mobile app reward the kid for experience?
• Ans: Rewards keep the kid addicted to playing the game.
• Why 4: Why are children exposed to such addictive mobile apps?
• Ans: A lack of control mechanisms exposes children to all apps.

Task — Analyze This

1. Take the problems from the Empathize stage
2. Apply Multi-Why analysis on all of them
   • Tip — No solutions, please
3. Chain the whys; branch where it makes sense

Analyze This — Checklist

• [ ] Chain of why statements rather than independent whys
• [ ] > 5 levels of analysis (optional)
• [ ] Branched multi-whys (optional)
• [ ] not listing solutions

Take one item from your list of new problems (from MW)

What would you like to improve in the system?

What stops you from achieving this improvement?

What you just framed is a…

Conflict

The Matrix

Source — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPRbIlMJI4Y

The conflicts

If

Morpheus reveals code,

then

agents hack into Zion's mainframe,

but

Zion is more important than Morpheus

If

tank pulls the plug,

then

Zion's codes will not be revealed,

but

Morpheus will die

Conflict or Contradiction Model

If

<Thing happens or Action taken>

Then

<Positive Consequence>

But

<Negative Consequence>

Same shape as Given / When / Then

• If a thing happens ≈ Given/When a situation occurs
• Then a good consequence ≈ Then the outcome you want
• But a bad consequence = the tension your solution must resolve

Your HMW is just the Then you're aiming for — your future acceptance test.

Put on your movie critic's hat

1. Think of a movie or novel you really liked
2. Pick a scene you liked
3. Find the conflict the character faced
4. Represent it in the model (If… Then… But…)

Time left:

Fine Formulation — Zone & Time of Conflict

• Zone — the space where the conflict occurs (e.g. 3–5 cm around the tyres)
• Time — the moment the conflict occurs (e.g. 150 ms before impact)

Conflict of Interest — Kids Mobile Case Study

If

kids are given access to too many apps

then

they have more freedom to discover new apps

but

there's no parental control over the type of apps

So the problem becomes — How might we give more freedom to kids while retaining parental control?

• Zone — around the "Install" button · Time — at the moment of installation

Task — Analyze That

1. Take the problems from the Multi-Why stage
2. Mark the level of the problem you'd like to solve
3. For each, ask "What would you like to improve?" and "What stops you?"
4. Frame each as a conflict (If… Then… But…)
5. Write each desired result as a How Might We question
6. Note the zone and time of conflict

Analyze — Checklist

• [ ] The key Whys/problems from Multi-Why
• [ ] Conflicts defined for each (If/Then/But)
• [ ] Positive and negative consequences stated
• [ ] Desired results as How-Might-We questions
• [ ] Zones and times of conflict

AI move — Analyze with a skeptic at your elbow

• Feed your problem → ask AI to push the Multi-Why deeper ("ask why 3 more times; branch where it splits")
• Ask it to propose If/Then/But conflicts and map them to TRIZ-40 parameters

• ⚠️ AI loves a tidy, plausible, wrong root cause. Every why is a hypothesis — check it against what your customer actually said.
• ⚠️ A why-chain that reads beautifully but contradicts your CJM is a red flag, not a win.

Best use: AI gives you more whys and conflicts; you keep only the ones the real customer would recognise.

Worked example — problem → prompt → Multi-Why + conflict

Your input (one problem from Empathize): "Akanksha defaults her free time to tablet games and skips going outside."

Prompt to the AI:

You're my Design Thinking assistant for the Analyze step.
Here is ONE customer problem from my real field work: <paste it>
1) Build a Multi-Why chain (Toyota 5-Whys) — each why caused by the next;
   branch if it splits. NO solutions.
2) From the deepest why, frame ONE conflict as If... Then... But...
3) Turn it into a How-Might-We question, and name the zone + time of conflict.
4) Flag any why you INFERRED that my problem statement does NOT support,
   so I can verify it with her. Do not invent facts.

AI draft you then verify: Why play? → instant reward · Why want it? → brag to friends · Why brag? → wants to belong · Why screen over outdoors? → screen is frictionless, outside needs setup. Conflict — If we cut tablet time, Then she goes outside more, But she loses the social reward she values. HMW — How might we give her the social reward without endless screen time? Zone/time — the first 10 min after she gets home. ⚠️ Inferred — verify with her: the "wants to belong" why.

Refactor — sharpen your conflict

From your own login: post your sharpest If/Then/But and the HMW it produces.

Compare it to your rough Red attempt this morning. Sharper? That delta is today's learning. 🎯

Analyze — showcase

Roulette — pick the room champions

Presentation focus this phase — Structure

• One clear claim per slide; say it as a headline
• Lead the audience: problem → why → the conflict → the HMW
• Signpost: "First… then… which means…"

Showcase format — same as every phase

• Rooms of 5: everyone 4 min + 2 min feedback (recorded) → roulette champions 6 + 3 on main stage

Criteria — Analyze portfolio (/10)

• Multi-Why depth & chaining (30%)
• Conflicts (If/Then/But) for each problem (30%)
• HMW questions + zone/time (20%)
• Subjective quality (20%)

Presentation Skills Workshop

Today we work on the skill

You're brilliant with your hands. Now we make you just as good at talking about your work.

We're halfway. You've presented twice. Today we fix what's been holding you back.

The 4 things that carry a talk

• Story — one human, one moment, one change. Not a feature list.
• Structure — one idea per slide; tell us where we are.
• Delivery — pace, pause, eyes to the camera, hands still.
• Slides — picture > paragraph; 6 words, not 60.

Story — the spine of every pitch

• Before: meet the customer in their pain (you already have this in your CJM!)
• During: the turn — your insight, your idea
• After: the customer's new, better day

Your CJM is your story. Empathize → Analyze → Solve → Test is a three-act structure already.

Delivery — small fixes, big difference

• Look at the camera lens, not your own face
• Pause instead of "umm" — silence reads as confidence
• Slow down ~20%. You always feel faster than you sound.
• Stand up if you can — your voice opens up
• Land the last line — rehearse your final sentence to a full stop

Slides — your slide is a billboard, not a document

• One image that shows the point
• A headline, not a paragraph
• If you'd read it aloud word-for-word, cut it
• Photos of real customers beat stock or clip art every time

Handling Q&A

• Repeat/rephrase the question (buys you time, helps the room)
• "Great question" + a short answer beats a perfect long one
• Don't know? "I haven't tested that yet — here's how I would." 👍

Workshop — rehearse on your own material

1. In breakouts, give your Analyze pitch again — 90 seconds, story-first
2. Your buddy scores you on the rubric and gives one thing to keep, one to change
3. Swap. Then redo your 90 seconds with the one change.

Time per round:

Presentation & Communication rubric (the 25 marks)

• Clarity of delivery (20%)
• Story & structure (20%)
• Engagement with the audience (20%)
• Time discipline (20%)
• Quality of slides/aids (20%)

I grade this across all showcases — I'm watching for growth, not perfection on day one.

Solve

Red — solve it before the method

First 10 minutes, from your own login:

Take your sharpest HMW. Brain-dump as many ideas as you can — no judging, just volume.

Count them. We'll beat that number with TRIZ today.

Gulu… Gili… Gele…

Image courtesy - hotelsbible.com

Silent Brainstorming

• Write down all ideas for your desired results in a shared document
• You can look at others' ideas
• Keep track of the number of individual ideas
• Set a target number and beat it

Time left:

Теория Решения Изобретательских Задач

TRIZ

TRIZ Nina Videos

TRIZ Philosophy

The system

A luxury car's battery system

The Contradiction

If

a massive battery for long range driving is added,

then

it provides long-distance luxury travel,

but

the added weight increases braking distance.

So the problem becomes — How might we reduce the braking distance?

Step 1: Draft your conflict in specific terms

• Range vs.
• Braking distance

Step 2: Define the conflict generically

Tip — the mapping of parameters needn't be exact

Step 3: Find generic solutions from the Matrix

Step 4: Generate the specific solution for your problem

Pulsed Electromagnetic Braking (TRIZ 19: Periodic Action) — a brake that uses DC pulses to latch and hold, cutting continuous current and power loss.

Case Study: Ideas

1. Separate login for parents
2. Physical app store with parents holding the keys
3. Parents hold the main objective of the game
4. Game save cannot happen without parental permission

Write the test first

Before you build anything, write 2–3 acceptance tests your prototype must pass:

• Given a parent sets up the tablet, When the kid opens a new app, Then it needs a parent OK

Plain language, customer's point of view. If you can't test it, it isn't done.

This is your Red. Next you build only enough to turn these Green.

AI move — your tests become the build spec

• Brainstorm co-pilot: race the AI for volume — but a generic idea is worth nothing; cross it with TRIZ + your customer
• TRIZ helper: ask AI to map your conflict to the 40 principles, then sanity-check on https://triz40.com

• Then write your 2–3 Given/When/Then acceptance tests. These are now two things at once:
  • Partner path — your build checklist
  • Build path 🚀 — the executable spec you hand to Antigravity/Claude Code: "Build the simplest app that passes these."

Write the test first, then let the agent build only enough to turn it green. Red → Green, for real.

Worked example — HMW → prompt → ideas + tests

Your input (HMW + conflict from Analyze): "How might we give Akanksha the social reward without endless screen time?"

Prompt to the AI:

You're my Design Thinking assistant for the Solve step.
My How-Might-We: <paste it>.  My conflict: <paste If/Then/But>.
1) Give me 8 ideas; for each, note any TRIZ principle it uses.
2) Consolidate the best into ONE concept (one paragraph).
3) Write 2-3 acceptance tests as Given/When/Then. Rules: the Then must be
   something a STRANGER could OBSERVE; do NOT name my solution in any test;
   plain customer language.
4) List assumptions I must verify with a real customer. Invent nothing.

AI draft you then verify: Ideas: outdoor "social streak", friend-match after play, parent-set play budget… (TRIZ 1 Segmentation, 10 Prior Action). Concept: a gentle screen budget that unlocks a friend meet-up outdoors. Tests — G Akanksha has free time at home, W her usual play session ends, T within 15 min she's outside, active, with a friend. · G a parent sets a daily limit, W it's reached, T she switches activity without a meltdown. ⚠️ Verify: that she values an outdoor social reward at all.

Task — Solve This

1. Pick the desired results (from Analyze)
2. Use the 4-stage TRIZ philosophy to generate ideas (an LLM may help)
3. Use https://www.triz40.com/TRIZ_GB.php
4. Combine all ideas from silent brainstorming and TRIZ into one concept
5. Write 2–3 acceptance tests (Given/When/Then) your prototype must pass — before building

Task — Solve That (investor pitch)

For the next round with your "Investor", create a new presentation (~5 minutes):

• Empathize — a simple customer story
• Analyze — your main problem/conflict
• Solution — the USP of your solution (+ a short feature list)
• Improvements / advantages (think metrics, numbers) — for user and investor
• Plan of action (prototyping + milestones with time)
• Support you need from the investor (network, funding, people)

Solve — Checklist

• [ ] Ideas from silent brainstorming (8+ good, 12+ excellent)
• [ ] Ideas from TRIZ methodology
• [ ] Consolidated concept
• [ ] 2–3 acceptance tests (Given/When/Then) written before prototyping
• [ ] New investor presentation

Criteria — Solve portfolio (/10)

• Silent brainstorming volume (15%)
• TRIZ genuinely applied (20%)
• Novelty of the idea (20%)
• Prototypability (15%)
• Acceptance tests (Given/When/Then) before prototype (15%)
• Consolidated concept (15%)

Bullet Proofing

Rules for the Presenter

• Present your concept to a small group (one-way, ~5 min)
• Note all feedback in your notebook (one-way, ~5 min)
• Go back and address all feedback
• No arguing with the dissenters

Method courtesy: http://cognitive-edge.com/methods/ritual-dissent/

Rules for the Dissenters

Give negative feedback on

• Presentation style
• People — empathy
• Problem — analysis
• Solution — novelty, implementation
• Advantages — for user/customer and investor

Presentation focus this phase — Persuasion

• Lead with the change you create, not the mechanism
• One memorable number
• Ask for something specific at the end

Refactor — your tests are your spec

From your own login: post your 2–3 acceptance tests (Given/When/Then).

Next you arrive with a prototype built to pass them — and we find out if it does. 🔴→🟢

Test

Red — will your prototype pass?

First 10 minutes, from your own login:

You wrote acceptance tests in Solve. Predict: how many pass when a real customer uses it?

Write the number and your shakiest test. Soon we find out for real.

Prototypes

In this step

• Take your prototype to the user and observe how they react
• Photograph/videograph their reactions (with permission)
• List the problems the customer faces with this new prototype (Test.v1 / Empathize.v2)
• Run each acceptance test on a real customer — mark it PASS or FAIL

Physical prototype? Use a lab

• Over the Jul 3–5 weekend, book time in a lab — this is your second piece of "homework"
• Take your studio buddy — safer and faster with two pairs of hands
• For apps: Figma / Draftbit. For services: roleplay + flow diagrams.
• Low-fidelity is fine — clay, cardboard, wires, things lying around
• Build it to pass your acceptance tests, then test on a real customer before Mon Jul 6

AI move — build path 🚀 (optional): ship a real app

• Point Antigravity / Claude Code / Lovable at your Given/When/Then → it builds a working app
• Push to GitHub → deploy (GitHub Pages / Vercel) → you now have a live URL
• Real customers use the live app, not a mockup

• 🟢 Green = a real customer makes the Then happen on the live app
• 🔴 NOT green = "the agent says all tests pass" or "the build deployed". The AI is not your customer.

Your git commit history is your iteration log — V1 → V2 is right there in the diff. 🏆 Ship It badge.

AI move — partner path: AI helps you make & validate

• AI drafts your Figma flow, your test script, and your ad storyboard
• But a synthetic / simulated "user" is not a real customer — every PASS/FAIL needs a human

Whichever path you took: run each acceptance test on a real person, log PASS/FAIL with evidence. 📸

Worked example — failing test → prompt → commit

Your input (a red test from V1 on a real customer): "Given the daily limit is reached, When Akanksha keeps tapping the game, Then the app locks and shows the outdoor meet-up prompt" — it didn't lock.

Prompt to your build agent (Antigravity / Claude Code):

Here is a FAILING acceptance test for my app (repo is open):
<paste the Given/When/Then>.
1) Make the SMALLEST change that turns THIS test green. No new features.
2) Show me the diff and explain it in 2 lines.
3) Write a clear commit message that references the test.
Do NOT mark it passing yourself — I will test it on a real customer.

Agent output: Plan: lock the game view when timeUsed ≥ dailyLimit and render the meet-up prompt. Diff: + LockScreen.jsx, guard added in App.jsx. Commit: feat: lock games at daily limit, show outdoor prompt (passes GWT-3). → You redeploy the live URL, hand it to Akanksha, mark PASS/FAIL with a photo. ⚠️ The agent saying "tests pass" is not green — Akanksha making the Then happen is. The commit is your iteration evidence.

Edison's stepping stones to success

FAILURE

ROARING SUCCESS

Task — Test This

1. Consider the solutions you generated in Solve
2. Make a working prototype with odds and ends
3. Make a copy of your existing CJM
4. Modify the CJM to include your solution
5. Run your acceptance tests with a real customer; record PASS/FAIL + evidence

Task — Test That (Ad)

1. Take an advertisement you liked as inspiration
2. Make a digital ad (video) selling this product/service to your customer
3. Use human actors (no stock footage / AI avatars)
4. Use the AIDA principle (max 2 min)

Test — Checklist

• [ ] Prototype and demo
• [ ] Modified CJM
  • Your CJM CANNOT be all 😀😀
  • There must be some new 😳😫
• [ ] Feature list
• [ ] Assumptions listed
• [ ] User-testing evidence (real customers used it)
• [ ] Each acceptance test marked PASS/FAIL, with evidence

Test — Criteria (/10)

• Prototype readiness (30%)
• Features list (10%)
• Modified CJM with NEW pain (10%)
• Assumptions (10%)
• Acceptance tests run on customers, PASS/FAIL logged (25%)
• Video/demo (15%)

Test — showcase

Roulette — pick the room champions

Presentation focus this phase — Demo

• Show the prototype working before you explain it
• Narrate what the customer did, not what you built
• Own a failed test out loud — it reads as credibility, not weakness

Refactor — green or red?

From your own login: which tests went green, which stayed red?

A red test isn't failure — it's your to-do list for Iteration 2. 🔴→🟢

EAST — Iterations 2 & 3 (rapid, AI-assisted)

Why two iterations now — because AI makes cycles cheap

• The old way: one painful rebuild took a week. The AI way: a cycle takes an afternoon.
• So this week we go around twice — V2 (Tue) and V3 (Wed) — before the Finale

Each loop is the same EAST: re-observe → re-conflict → re-solve → rebuild → re-test on a real person. 🔁

Red — make the failing test pass

First 10 minutes, from your own login:

Which acceptance test failed hardest in V1?

Write the Given/When/Then your V2 must now pass — that's today's mission.

In this step

• Take your prototype to your customers again and observe them using it
• List the new problems (Empathize.v2)
• Find the conflicts in these problems (Analyze.v2)
• Generate ideas to solve them (Solve.v2)
• Improve the prototype (Test.v2)
• Refactor: make last cycle's failing tests pass — and write fresh ones for the new pain
• Update your portfolio and showcase

AI move — let the failure drive V2

• Take your hardest failed test → that Given/When/Then is your V2 mission
• Build path 🚀: hand the failing test back to the agent → ship a V2 commit. The diff is your proof.
• Partner path: ask AI to re-synthesize the new pains into an updated CJM and propose fixes

• ⚠️ Do not let AI quietly rewrite the failing test so it passes — that's the integrity trap.
• The customer's new 😫 drives V2 — not AI's optimistic rewrite. Confirm red→green on a real person.

V3 — do it again, faster (Wed)

• Take the new pain V2 surfaced → the customer's fresh 😫 is your V3 mission
• Write the V3 Given/When/Then → build path hands it to the agent → partner path updates the low-fi proto
• Re-test on a real person (live/async — quick is fine), log red→green

• 📈 Your 3-point arc — V1 → V2 → V3 — is the story you'll tell at the Finale: "watch the customer's day get better."
• ⚠️ Same rule: AI doesn't get to declare green. The customer does.

Path forward

• Wash, Rinse, Repeat
• EAST, EAST, EAST
• Iterate as many times as you can

Iterate — Checklist (/10)

• [ ] Evidence of two EAST cycles — V2 and V3 (more = bonus)
• [ ] Real customer feedback incorporated each cycle
• [ ] CJM evolved across iterations (V1 → V2 → V3)
• [ ] A previously failing acceptance test now passes (red → green)
• [ ] Improvements documented per cycle (what changed and why) — build path: the git diffs

Finale

Finale — two parts

• Everyone uploads a recorded full pitch (≤7 min) to Blackboard by the morning of the Finale — your whole journey, Empathize → Iterate. This is graded for your final presentation marks.
• Live: the finalists present to the class and a guest judge — a real audience for your best work.

So all 30 get a graded capstone pitch (the recording), and we still fit a celebratory live round. 🎬

Who presents live

• Anyone who hasn't reached the main stage yet — you're up first (everyone presents live ≥1× by today)
• Plus the peer-nominated finalists — the talks the class most wants to see again
• 7 min present + 5 min Q&A, judged live by the Prof + the guest judge

While others present — you're working, not waiting

The 3-hour Finale is not 30 people queueing. ~8–10 present live; everyone else has a live job:

• Live Q&A — ask each presenter a real question (earns Live-Engagement XP from your own login)
• Award voting — score peers for Best Pivot, Prototype Pro, Stage Presence on the Blackboard form
• Peer-review — final checklist round on the talks you watch
• Ship-It gallery — build-path students drop their live app URLs in the chat for everyone to try

Your graded pitch is the recording you already uploaded — the live room is the celebration. 🎉

Finale — Criteria

1. Presentation quality (20%)
2. Customer representation (20%)
3. Problem analysis (20%)
4. Improvements in the solution (20%)
5. Subjective (10%)
6. Relative (10%)

Recorded pitches: graded by the Prof. Live finalists: Prof + guest judge.

Awards + badges

• Best Pivot · Empathy Ace · Prototype Pro · Stage Presence · Top Reviewer
• The journey from session 1 to now — look how far your talking has come 🎤

Conclusion

Now What?

①

Search for case studies in your own domain

②

Learn even more by doing more projects using what you learned here

Suggested References

1. Karmic Design Thinking by Dr. Bala Ramadurai
2. Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society — Karl Ulrich
3. Change by Design — Tim Brown
4. And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared — G. Altshuller
5. IDEO
6. Stanford d.school

③

Suggested Videos

Watch this - Empathize

①②③

1. Search
2. Learn
3. Watch

Acknowledgments

- Emacs - https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
- Org Mode - https://orgmode.org
- Reveal.js - https://revealjs.com/
- Org-reveal package - https://gitlab.com/oer/org-re-reveal
- Plantuml - https://plantuml.com/

Meet Your Facilitator — Prof. Bala Ramadurai

https://balaramadurai.net/about/

bala@balaramadurai.net

http://in.linkedin.com/in/balaramadurai

Oh and one more thing

Selfie

Design Thinking & Innovation — UP Summer 2026

Smile! 📸 (screenshot the gallery — we're online!)