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University of Maryland, College Park

Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills

University of Maryland, College Park via Coursera

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Overview

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Innovative products and services change lives, and having the right innovative process creates an competitive advantage. Ultimately, innovation is about one thing: problem solving. As an agile problem solver, you'll need to expand your critical thinking skills to address the key sources of risk in developing best solutions for your new products and business lines. The Problem-solving techniques covered begin with problem definition, beginning with job descriptions and applying the right soft skills to enhance requirements gathering. This ensures you're targeting a good problem to solve, and that you understand the business model. The course then moves on to practices such as "brainstorm and storm drain" to target new creative solutions. You will learn how innovation works on fast feedback cycles to test possible solutions and target root causes of defects. Creative thinking isn't a straight line, and neither should the problem-solving process be a straight line. Each course of action needs early and frequent testing. By following best practices of Agile, including timeboxes, constraint-based thinking processes, and empathetic problem solving, you'll learn how to provide a sustainable innovation environment for your teams.

Syllabus

  • Week 1: Innovation Challenge
    • The first week of Innovation revisits concepts of capability delivery from technical perspective; asking how do we achieve a project’s purpose to innovate? What are the risks and methods to be successful in delivering a defined output under uncertain conditions? Here the Theory of Constraints (TOC) is used to target innovation for maximum impact
  • Week 2: Requiring Empathy
    • The second week dives into the requirements gathering and validation process, and the science behind the most powerful requirement tool, a User Story, and how it forms the basis for Test-Drive Development (TDD). During this week we'll also explore the power of visual-based requirements gathering and prototyping for faster feedback and validation of requirements
  • Week 3: Power of Constraints
    • The third week looks at how adding constraints to solutioning unleashes creativity, luck, and productivity towards solving hard, uncertain problems.
  • Week 4: Solving Uncertainty
    • The fourth week culminates with the application of the TOC Thinking Processes, User Stories, and Constraints along with the use of the powerful system engineering solutioning techniques (isolation, absorption, acceleration, etc.) and tools like TRIZ
  • Course Final

Taught by

John Johnson

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Reviews

4.2 rating, based on 10 Class Central reviews

4.5 rating at Coursera based on 15 ratings

Start your review of Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills

  • Anonymous
    The Agile Innovation and Problem Solving Skills course offers valuable insights into agile thinking, innovation, and practical approaches to solving complex problems. It introduces key concepts such as managing uncertainty, rapid experimentation, and using prototypes to test ideas quickly. The course includes helpful examples and case studies that make the ideas easier to understand and apply in real work environments. While the material is very informative, the course can also be challenging at times because it requires careful thinking and understanding of several frameworks and concepts. Overall, it is a rewarding learning experience that helps develop problem-solving skills and an innovative mindset useful for modern organizations.
  • Anonymous
    This course provides a strong and practical foundation in Agile thinking, innovation, and structured problem solving. I especially appreciated the integration of Theory of Constraints, TRIZ, Design Thinking, and portfolio management concepts in a clear and applicable way. The case studies made the ideas concrete, and the tools like Vanishing Cloud and Faster-Better-Cheaper were highly actionable. It helped me think more strategically about uncertainty, value creation, and decision-making in complex projects. Highly recommended for leaders and engineers who want a modern, systems-based approach to innovation.
  • Anonymous
    This course is an excellent learning experience, especially for individuals handling projects independently. It provides practical frameworks and tools that help break down complex challenges into manageable tasks while maintaining flexibility and focus. The emphasis on agile thinking encourages continuous improvement, quick adaptation to change, and creative problem-solving.
  • Anonymous
    هذه الدورة كانت تجربة تعليمية استثنائية ، لقد استقدت من المحتوى الذي يجمع بين الابتكار السريع ومنهجيات حل المشكلات بطريقة عملية.
    الشرح كان واضح ، ولكن كنت أتمنى لو كانت الدورة مقدمة باللغة العربية مباشرة بدلا من الإعتماد على الترجمة، لأن الترجمة في بعض الأحيان تشتت التركيز وتجعل استيعاب المفاهيم يأخذ وقتا أطول، بشكل عام المحتوى غني وقيم وأنصح بشدة لكل من يريد تطوير مهاراته الإبداعية بالإنضمام لهذه الدورة، شكرا للقائمين على هذا المحتوى الرائع.
  • Anonymous
    The course has excellent summaries that help to recap what was learned.
    The examples are very helpful to better understand the theory.
    The video explanations are clear.
  • Anonymous
    Good course, well explained and easy to attend, good material to deepen knowledge. Smooth learning throug lessons
  • Anonymous
    This was the most challenging of the first three courses in the Specialization for me, but at the same time, it was very informative, especially with the real-world examples provided by the instructor. A very good learning experience.
  • Anonymous
    I don't have an engineering background to build on as I explore project management, so it was good to have a course like this to cover different types of innovation (startup, product, and process). The emphasis on user stories was also very helpful, and the case studies from different types of projects helped to give me an idea of what I could learn and then implement in future software development PM work. Lastly, I thought the TRIZ method and contradictions matrix was a pretty cool resource!
  • Hardy Castillo
    Learning experience is a huge help for project management, all the videos and slides are very helpful and easy to understand especially the explanation of the host. Providing examples are very helpful to easy understand the topic.
  • Anonymous
    The course is very good and teaches you many new concepts and techniques that will be useful for any innovation project you want to carry out. Also, the course teaches you several very useful techniques for solving problems or conflicts that arise in any project. From my point of view, the course is 100% recommended for anyone who wants to manage an innovation project or wants to delve deeper into problem solving.
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