1. Origins
The Master’s Degree Course of Product-Service System Design, open to both Italian and international students, was born in 2005, in a context of increasing mobility of students and recognition of the crucial role of Milan in the design world. The innovative teaching program of PSSD was born out of the founding research of Polimi on the role of Product Service Systems for sustainability and on the emerging field of service and strategic design. First Master program developing competences in service design, PSSD distinguishes itself in the global scenario for its long standing experience and systemic perspective on innovation and change.
2. Interpretation of PSSD
The course focuses on systems that combine products, services, spaces, an digital technologies to address complex challenges in a sustainable manner. Students learn to develop creative solutions using methodologies ranging from ethnographic research to data driven and participatory design, collaborating in multidisciplinary teams, and acquiring leadership and entrepreneurship skills. They learn an ability to design product-service systems in a strategic way capable of governing and channelling change and innovation in an evolutionary way, in line with the changing context and the sustainability challenge; lastly, they engage with a multidisciplinary approach that is, nowadays, a crucial perspective in the problem definition and resolution phases.
3. Interdisciplinary approach
The program fosters an interdisciplinary approach, with actionable knowledge coming from different design fields (product, service, systems, space, and interaction design), an extended design toolkit, and basics of project management, strategic management, sustainability, anthropology/ethnography, communication/media.
4. Opportunities
