Alumna story Elizabeth Pixopoulou

A new mindset for defining a target audience

“Having worked with agile and scrum techniques for managing and facilitating projects and discussing design thinking in training courses, I was excited to discover the Design Thinking online open programme from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).

As an RSM alumna, I know that the quality of the programme and interaction with international professionals were a given. The programme offered a curriculum balanced between theory and practical exercises. This forced all of us participants to think of solutions using design thinking principles.

The case studies were highly relevant, and the reflection exercises put us in the shoes of managers experimenting with design thinking methodology in real situations.

Initially I had doubts about the online nature of the programme: would it be as interactive and as much of a learning journey as an in-person course? I can now confirm "Yes!". The course was highly interactive, using virtual discussion boards and there were two live sessions in which we could exchange opinions and connect in person to exchange thoughts.

After this programme, I now have a new mindset for defining my target audiences and the way I experiment with a variety of tools for projects with quick turnarounds and low budgets. Importantly, I acquired a totally different view of the definitions of success and failure, as well as the learning that comes with it.

I am confident that with my new knowledge I will excel at strategic design and execution planning, taking a user-centric, collaborative approach with a healthy level of risk-taking."