Weekly Meetings & Experiential Learning
The Design + Innovation Club provides regular instruction in design thinking and innovation frameworks at our weekly club meetings. Sessions are designed for everyone — from beginners curious about human-centered design to advanced practitioners looking to deepen their craft.
Beyond the weekly rhythm, members gain hands-on experience through guest speakers, career treks, small-group projects, and collaborative workshops. These opportunities expose students to real-world applications of design methods across industries.
Yale SOM & Beyond
As members of the Yale community, students at SOM have access to Design + Innovation education across the university — through cross-school coursework, partnerships with other SOM clubs, and cross-degree collaboration.
What We Cover
The club's curriculum is built around three interconnected pillars that reflect how design thinking is applied in organizations:
Process Design
Frameworks and methods for structuring creative problem-solving — from discovery and ideation to prototyping and iteration.
Product Design
Approaches to shaping products, services, and experiences that meet real human needs and create lasting value.
People Design
Strategies for building teams, cultures, and organizations where innovation can thrive — because great design is as much about people as it is about process.
The Design + Innovation Club's curriculum bridges theory and practice through a carefully structured sequence of weekly meetings, each building on the last. Members begin by exploring foundational design thinking frameworks and human-centered research methods before progressing into advanced topics such as rapid prototyping, facilitation strategies, and cross-sector innovation. What sets this curriculum apart is its emphasis on iterative, hands-on application: students don't simply learn concepts but immediately test them through small-group exercises, real-time feedback loops, and collaborative projects that mirror the messy, constructive process of real-world problem solving. This scaffolded approach ensures that every member, regardless of prior experience, develops a robust toolkit of universally applicable skills that serve them across industry, entrepreneurship, and public service alike.