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Graduation opportunity (for Master thesis industrial design engineering or similar):
Design of an on-line tool that enables innovators (often product managers, R&D managers and/or strategic marketing managers) to structure their front end of innovation process, while integrating sustainability as core deliverable in their innovation projects. The front end of innovation is often referred to as "the fuzzy front end”. From experience we know this doesn’t have to be the case. A well-structured approach strongly helps.
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to speed up the early phase of an innovation project
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to improve the briefing at start of a development project
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to reduce risks and loops in the development process
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To maximize impact at delivery
Besides this, In a world of increasing scarcity of materials and an increasing pressure to reduce waste, we see circular design as a fruitful tool to improve the competitiveness of a company.
As Sustar we help companies to structure the front end of innovation and ensure sustainability as one of the four core pillars of an innovation project. We help our clients to structurally spot ecological and/or economical value losses in an existing value chain and to convert these into opportunities for sustainable business. For this we have developed a tool called the SVP method (sustainable value proposition creation).
To maximise our impact we want to develop our SVP into an on-line tool that can be used by a wide range of innovators to build better business. It will help to incorporate sustainability as an equally important pillar (next to the classical feasibility, viability and desirability) in the creation and assessment of their new value propositions. The tool can be used as an on-line canvass to address desirability, feasibility, viability and sustainability, but it will also provide custom made print-outs to support offline group session in the process.
Our method helps teams to find the right tools at the right stage in the front end of innovation to efficiently and effectively shape and validate an idea or concept with potential.
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Like any innovation project this assignment will cover the following fields:
Viability: create a business case for this tool looking at an on-line environment and (international) scalability of the tool. Do we apply a subscription model and how to offer customization? How to integrate the tool with consulting and training offered by Sustar.
Desirability: research the assumption that the tool will help teams by testing with actual Sustar clients. Identify our future clients and their set of needs.
Feasibility: how to create a trustworthy tool in an on-line platform. How to integrate an on-demand and automated printout of custom made canvasses. Can we offer e-training modules and how to set-up a sustainable integration with clients operating environment.
Sustainability: how does this tool help with the ESG goals of the client and how can it make life easier with regards to reporting needs like CSRD for our clients as well as for us.
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As Sustar is a no desk company we cannot offer you a desk in an office, We meet when and where needed. We do offer guidance by 2 weathered industrial designer engineers and a close working relation with our clients (like Atag, Wienerberger, Basil). In addition we are open for candidates that would be interested to further develop this product as a future partner or employee of Sustar.
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For more information please contact:
TUDelft: Prof. dr. Hultink, H.j.hultink@tudelft.nl
Sustar: ir Thomas van Daal: thomas@sustar.nl, www.sustar.nl
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