Strategic Design for New Entrepreneurship

Course

How can design strategically support the creation, development, market implementation, and growth of new entrepreneurial ideas? To answer this question, it is necessary to understand users and adoption contexts, identify opportunities, build clear value propositions, design market-ready offering systems, define marketing and launch strategies, and learn from early market signals.

The Course in Strategic Design for New Entrepreneurship gives participants a design-led approach to the journey through which new entrepreneurial ideas become understandable, desirable, adoptable, deliverable, and sustainable in the market. The programme combines strategic design, entrepreneurship, marketing, operations, execution, and venture building to help participants reduce uncertainty and support the development of new products, services, experiences, and ventures. Here are the programme goals:

• Understand new entrepreneurship as both a strategic and design-driven process, from idea creation to market implementation and growth.
• Recognize the role of design in reducing uncertainty and supporting the adoption of new offerings.
• Distinguish users, customers, buyers, stakeholders, and decision-makers, and map critical assumptions before defining a market-entry strategy.
• Transform insights, opportunities, and needs into clear value propositions, market positioning, and narratives.
• Design product, service, experience, touchpoints, and onboarding as a coherent market-ready offering system.
• Understand MVPs, prototypes, pilots, and beta releases as learning devices before scaling.
• Evaluate the role of DesignOps, execution roadmaps, metrics, and governance in coordinating launch processes and supporting post-launch growth.

The programme is design-led but engages with entrepreneurship, marketing, operations, and venture building. Across an introductory module, six thematic modules, and three interactive sessions with cases and potential guest speakers, participants explore how strategic design can support the transition from entrepreneurial ideas to market implementation and growth. Here are some of the main topics the programme focuses on:

• Strategic design and entrepreneurial mindset as foundations for creating and developing new entrepreneurial initiatives.
• Market understanding, stakeholder mapping, adoption contexts, and critical assumptions.
• Value proposition design, product-service systems, customer journeys, touchpoints, and market-ready offering systems.
• Marketing plan for go-to-market, including situation analysis, segmentation, targeting, positioning, channels, partnerships, resources, and performance measurement.
• MVP, pilot, beta, feedback loops, and pivot decisions as tools for learning before scaling.
• DesignOps, execution roadmaps, launch metrics, governance, and venture-building capabilities for supporting implementation and growth.

Didactics

Attendance

At least 80% attendance is mandatory.

Didactic Modules

The Course lasts 45 hours (9 weeks), including 9 modules across 17 sessions of 3 hours each. Classes are scheduled on days and at times that allow working professionals to attend. 

Theoretical Module 0 | 3 hours 

Ideas, teams and course launch
The opening module introduces the Course, creates a shared learning environment, and activates participants around concrete ideas that may be used as application cases throughout the course. Participants are invited to briefly introduce themselves and present an initial product, service, experience, venture, or innovation idea. The session is designed not only as an icebreaker, but also as a way to identify promising application cases and allow participants to form small teams around shared interests.  

Theoretical Module 1 | 6 hours 

Strategic Design & Entrepreneurial Mindset 

The first module introduces the Course by framing the relationship between strategic design and new entrepreneurship. The objective is to help participants understand strategic design as a capability for shaping innovation, connecting users, markets, technologies, organizations, and business opportunities. The module also introduces entrepreneurship as a possible field of action for designers and innovation professionals: not only as the creation of startups, but as the ability to transform ideas into viable initiatives, new ventures, and meaningful professional trajectories. 

Theoretical Module 2 | 6 hours 

Understanding markets, users and adoption contexts 

The second module focuses on understanding the market and the actors involved in adopting a new offering. The objective is to help participants distinguish among users, customers, buyers, stakeholders, decision-makers, and early adopters, avoiding an overly simplified reading of the market. The module also introduces the topic of critical assumptions: what needs to be understood, verified, or challenged before designing a market-entry strategy. 

Interactive Session 1 | 3 hours 

Market & user insight case forum 

The first interactive session consolidates the first two modules through cases, discussion, and possibly a guest speaker. The objective is to show how an incomplete understanding of users, customers, stakeholders, or adoption contexts can compromise go-to-market, even when the initial idea is solid. 

Theoretical Module 3 | 6 hours 

Designing value propositions and market-ready offering systems
The third module focuses on transforming insights, opportunities, and initial ideas into clear value propositions and coherent offering systems. The objective is to show that go-to-market is not only about defining what is offered, but also about designing how the offering creates value, becomes understandable, supports adoption, and can be tested in the market. The module combines value proposition design with product-service system thinking, customer journey design, touchpoint orchestration, and early market-learning mechanisms such as MVPs, prototypes, pilots, and beta launches.  

Theoretical Module 4 | 6 hours 

Marketing plan for go-to-market
The fourth theoretical module introduces the marketing plan as a strategic framework for organizing go-to-market decisions. The objective is not to train participants to produce a full operational marketing plan, but to help them understand its main components and how these components support the transition from an idea or offering to market entry. The module presents the marketing plan as a bridge between market understanding, strategic choices, launch priorities, communication, channels, resources, and performance measurement. Particular attention is given to how design-led go-to-market decisions can be translated into a coherent marketing logic without reducing the process to communication or promotion only. 

Interactive Session 2 | 3 hours 

MVP, pilot and pivot: learning before scaling 

The second interactive session explores the topic of learning before scaling. It follows the modules on value proposition and offering systems, at a point when participants have already acquired the elements needed to understand what to test, with whom, through which experience, and with which signals. The objective is to discuss MVP, pilot, and pivot as tools for strategic and design-led learning. 

Theoretical Module 5 | 6 hours 

Design ops and execution for launch 

The fifth module addresses execution. The objective is to show that go-to-market requires organizational capability, coordination, processes, priorities, and governance. From this perspective, DesignOps becomes a lever for making design truly operational in the transition to market. 

The module connects design, operations, product management, marketing, sales, technology, and organization. 

Theoretical Module 6 | 6 hours 

Starting up and scaling with design 

The module explores how design can support the transition from an initial market entry to more structured, coherent, and sustainable growth. After addressing understanding, value proposition, offering system, MVP/pilot, and execution, the module focuses on what happens after launch: how to grow the offering, scale the experience, build trust, activate channels and partnerships, and maintain coherence among promise, service, and business model. 

Interactive Session 3 | 3 hours 

From design to market reality: practitioner roundtable 

The final session serves as a reality check. The objective is to compare the course contents with the concrete experience of people who have managed launches, ventures, offering transformations, or go-to-market processes in real contexts. It is a useful closing session for surfacing constraints, compromises, common mistakes, and professional learnings.

Title Released

Upon completion of the program, participants will receive an Open Badge certifying the skills acquired. It is a recognized credential that adds tangible value to your professional profile and career path. 

The Open Badge is awarded upon achieving the following requirements: 

• Test: passing the assessment session 
• Attendance: at least 80% attendance at the scheduled activities 

The Open Badge is issued by: POLI.design, Center for Post-graduate Design Education, founded by Politecnico di Milano.

Admission

Requirements

No specialized technical skills or prior design training are required. A basic understanding of innovation processes, new product/service development, or launching new initiatives is recommended. Familiarity with general concepts in business, marketing, user experience, or entrepreneurship is helpful, but the course is designed to build a shared language across different backgrounds. 

The course is aimed at people interested in innovation, and in particular at founders, managers, innovation professionals, and product and service teams who want to understand how design can support the journey from a new idea, product, service, or venture to market. 

It is especially suited for those working or aiming to work in innovation, new product and service development, startups, corporate venturing, business design, strategic marketing, product management, service design, and organizational transformation. 

The course is also designed for professionals and teams who want to gain interpretive and design tools to reduce go-to-market uncertainty, better understand users and adoption contexts, build effective value propositions, design market-ready offerings, and support launch, execution, and growth phases. 

Applicants must submit the following documents by connecting to the LINK: 

• Course application form 

• Copy of Tax Code (Codice Fiscale) and ID document 

• CV / Resume 

Deadlines

Application deadline: 11/05/2027

Price

The total cost of the Course is 2.400,00 € (including VAT) for each student. This sum will be paid with a single payment upon signing the contract.  

PROMO  

LEARNING COLLECTION CATALOGUE LAUNCH: -40%

A promotion for anyone who enrolls in the courses of the Learning Collection catalogue by September 30, 2026.

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