New POLI.design Partnership Extends Reach for FUJITSU Human Centric Experience Design Methodology

Accelerating innovation, generating new business and enhancing customer and social value
FUJITSU HXD methodology is the foundation of the co-creation process undertaken with customers and partners to convert digital transformation challenges into tangible value creation. This design-led, human-centered approach was conceived to accelerate innovation and refined to generate customer and enhance social value from digital transformation.

Using FUJITSU HXD to co-create with customers and partners helps compress the value creation cycle against a well-defined business challenge, taking a human-centric approach. The time-bound and focused co-creation process takes into account four key ingredients: people, purpose, outcome, and design. FUJITSU HXD ensures there is a clear understanding of a customer’s business challenge within the context of an overall company strategy. Then it explores each issue from multiple perspectives, including the human aspect. With these insights, participants combine expertise from different areas such as business management, technology, industry knowledge or science, to jointly develop rapid outline concepts that are quickly turned into a working plan for proof of concept testing.

The new collaboration brings Fujitsu’s longstanding technology innovation, design experience, and global footprint as a trusted partner to Fortune 100 customers together with POLI.design’s 20 years’ expertise and thought leadership in service, product, and strategic design. Fujitsu selected POLI.design as co-creation partner not only for its excellent reputation for developing design curricula but also thanks to a shared belief in the need for a refined, professional design-led approach to develop transformative solutions that have a tangible impact on society.

The first important milestone is the launch of an accreditation program for FUJITSU HXD practitioners across the world, with the first intensive accreditation training taking place in October and November 2020. The collaboration also includes joint research into how the effective use of strategic and human-centred design could increase the commercial and social value that private companies and public institutions can generate in the era of digital transformation.

Jo Box, Head of the Global Co-Creation Program at Fujitsu comments: “As a society, we’re seeing an unprecedented rate and degree of change, spanning economic, social, technology and environmental transformation. We need to encourage innovative thinking to address the challenges this creates. FUJITSU Human Centric Experience Design methodology is a powerful tool and framework that enables this to happen, while retaining a laser-like focus on strategic business goals. By working with POLI.design to create a curriculum to more widely share this results-oriented approach, Fujitsu will enable even more customers and partners to break free from having to settle for only incremental improvements, by equipping them with a catalyst for widespread transformation.”

Venanzio Arquilla, Associate Professor, Design Department, Politecnico di Milano, and Coordinator Experience Design Academy (XDA), POLI.design says: “POLI.design’s focus on design as a resource that can guide businesses and society as a whole to develop innovative solutions is closely aligned with Fujitsu’s objectives. Over the last 20 years we have refined the process of how to develop the next generation of design-oriented graduates, giving them the tools and knowledge to redefine every industry. We’ve assembled the largest design faculty in the world, with laboratory and project components that are considered a benchmark by the industry. By applying this expertise to a new FUJITSU HXD course and the most effective means of delivery, we’re confident that participants will quickly reach full competence, setting them on a path to success.”

Implementation of the new FUJITSU HXD Practitioner Curriculum will ensure that the transformative methodology is consistently shared among Fujitsu’s global employees, and will enable customers and partners to experience a refined and effective value creation journey, wherever they are located. Drawing on POLI.design’s experience of helping learners solidify newly gained knowledge with practical applications, the course will include both theory and hands-on elements. Milan Polytechnic’s focus on enabling students to address real-world challenges from start to completion is also part of the new FUJITSU HXD curriculum.

Additionally, Fujitsu has also introduced a Virtual Co-Creating Experience. Using an immersive virtual collaboration environment, this enables participants to work individually, in small teams or as a larger group in a dedicated space that is specially designed to apply the FUJITSU HXD approach. Virtual sessions expand the accessibility of sessions to a wider diversity of participants and experts, who can join from across locations and time zones. Attendees save travel time and cost, as well as reducing their carbon footprint. Successful collaboration in an immersive virtual environment requires more than just an online presence: active participation and undivided attention of all participants is critical to both the quality of the experience and to the results.

Notes to editors
¹ POLI.design was established by Milan Polytechnic as an interface between universities, companies, and professional organizations, institutions and bodies. Along with the Politecnico’s Design School and its Design Department, POLI.design comprises the Design System of the Politecnico di Milano. As part of the Design System of the Politecnico, POLI.design beckons the most highly qualified faculty, allowing theoretical lessons to be blended with the use of workshops and experimental laboratories on the Bovisa campus that are among the most advanced such facilities in Europe. POLI.design trains students in disciplines that include product, service interior and fashion design, with a strong emphasis on innovation. POLI.design has been instrumental in creating undergraduate and postgraduate courses that deliver some of the most sought-after design graduates in the world. Its educational success lies in its approach to teaching, which enables students to put theories and tools learned in traditional lessons into practice in advanced labs and workshops and via projects working directly with the business community.