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Digital Solution Design and Transformation

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Course overview

Across all sectors – from hospitals and museums to retail banks and public administration – organisations are reimagining their services through digital solutions. Digital transformation goes beyond launching apps or websites; it involves redefining how organisations create value and serve their stakeholders. Successful transformation requires a holistic strategy, human-centred design, and effective change management. At the same time, technologies such as artificial intelligence, generative models, and data analytics are expanding what can be built and accelerating innovation at scale.

This course combines strategic and hands-on perspectives on designing digital solutions that align with organisational goals while remaining ethical, inclusive, and socially responsible. The focus is on developing value-driven digital services rather than standalone platforms. Students learn to identify transformation challenges across private, cultural, and public organisations, develop digital concepts using user-centred design and AI-enabled tools, prototype and test solutions, and plan for implementation and continuous improvement.

Academic year

2025/26

Duration and dates

2 weeks from Monday, June 22 to Friday, July 3, 2026 (Mandatory onboarding session on Sunday, 21 June 2026)

Teaching format

face-to-face on-campus Oslo, Norway

Coordinator

Professor Christian Fieseler, Department of Communication and Culture and Gayane Muradyan, International Relations Office

Lecturer

Christian Fieseler is professor of communication management at BI Norwegian Business School and a director of the Nordic Centre for Internet and Society. He received his PhD in Management and Economics from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, in 2008. At the former he worked as a postdoctoral researcher, as well as at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and at Stanford University, before joining BI, in 2014.

Christian’s research is focused on the question of how individuals and organizations adapt to the shift brought by new, digital media, and how to design participative and inclusive spaces in this new media regime. In this field, he has over the last years, worked extensively on technology and new collaboration modes in projects with the European Union and the Norwegian Research Council.

Learning outcomes

This course takes the perspective of a decision-maker responsible for digital transformation and digital solution design. It equips students with the knowledge and skills to initiate, design, and implement digital initiatives across private, public, and cultural organisations. Participants will gain a solid understanding of digital transformation as a strategic and organisational challenge, including how digital solutions reshape business models, value creation, and stakeholder relationships. They will learn to apply human-centred design and design thinking principles to identify user needs, develop value-driven digital services, and translate insights into testable concepts and prototypes.

The course also provides a managerial understanding of key digital technologies, alongside the ethical, legal, and governance considerations associated with their use. Students will develop practical skills in stakeholder research, strategy formulation, implementation planning, and performance measurement to ensure adoption and continuous improvement. Throughout the course, they will strengthen their ability to work collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams, communicate digital strategies to the stakeholders of the case partner, and apply ethical and inclusive judgement in designing and implementing digital solutions.

Course content

  1. Digital Transformation Strategy
    Explore why digital transformation is more than a technology project. Learn frameworks to define vision and objectives, and analyse opportunities and risks from trends like AI, cloud, and immersive technologies.
  2. Human-Centred Design & User Research
    Learn how to uncover the needs of users through interviews, observation, and data analysis. Build personas, journey maps, and “jobs to be done” to inform solution design.
  3. Digital Solution Design & Prototyping
    Translate insights into concepts and service blueprints. Use design thinking and iterative prototyping, and explore AI tools as creative partners.
  4. Technology & Data Fundamentals
    Gain a managerial understanding of platform infrastructure, APIs, data pipelines, and AI models. Explore ethical data governance and strategic technology choices.
  5. Implementation & Change Management
    Learn agile and waterfall approaches, pilot testing, scaling, and organisational change. Study case examples from public, private, and cultural sectors.
  6. Measuring Impact & Continuous Innovation
    Develop KPIs, dashboards, and feedback loops to track adoption, satisfaction, performance, and social impact.
  7. Ethics, Inclusion & Responsible Design
    Apply frameworks for fairness, privacy, accessibility, and participation to ensure your solutions are ethical and inclusive.

Course value

6 ECTS

Required background

Students are required to have completed one semester of coursework at master level in one of the participating business schools.

Assessment

Students work in teams on an innovation challenge posed by a partner organisation. Assessment is continuous and includes:

  • Problem definition & stakeholder analysis – Identify a challenge, map stakeholders, and define desired outcomes.
  • Concept & prototype – Develop a digital solution concept and low-fidelity prototype. Show how AI or data analytics can enhance it.
  • Implementation & business model plan – Outline deployment strategy, technology choices, project management, budget, and sustainable impact.
  • Ethical & inclusion analysis – Evaluate ethical, legal, and social implications and propose mitigation measures.
  • Performance metrics & continuous improvement plan – Define KPIs and feedback loops for ongoing learning.
  • Final presentation & reflection – Present your project and reflect on teamwork, leadership, and lessons learned.

Exam & Workload

  • Form: Written submission (term paper)
  • Weight: 100%
  • Grouping: Individual

Bibliography

  • Amit, R., & Han, X. (2017). Value creation through novel resource configurations in a digitally enabled world. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 11(3), 228-242.
  • Asatiani, A., Torell, J., Rinta-Kahila, T., & Magnusson, J. (2025). Technical Debt Is Killing Digital Transformation, But There Is a Way Out. California Management Review, 68(1) 55–75.
  • Cordella, A., & Paletti, A. (2019). Government as a platform, orchestration, and public value creation: The Italian case. Government Information Quarterly, 36(4), 101409.
  • Garrett, J. J. (2010). Elements of user experience, the: user-centered design for the web and beyond. Pearson Education. Chapter 2-4 (p. 18-77).
  • Jacobides, M. G., Cennamo, C., & Gawer, A. (2024). Externalities and complementarities in platforms and ecosystems: From structural solutions to endogenous failures. Research Policy, 53(1), 104906.
  • Kenney, M., Bearson, D., & Zysman, J. (2021). The platform economy matures: Measuring pervasiveness and exploring power. Socio-economic review, 19(4), 1451-1483.
  • Kretschmer, T., Leiponen, A., Schilling, M., & Vasudeva, G. (2022). Platform ecosystems as meta‐organizations: Implications for platform strategies. Strategic Management Journal, 43(3), 405-424.
  • Libai, B., Rosario, A. B., Beichert, M., Donkers, B., Haenlein, M., Hofstetter, R., … & Zhang, L. (2025). Influencer marketing unlocked: Understanding the value chains driving the creator economy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 1-25.
  • Perez Mengual, M., Danzinger, F., & Roth, A. (2024). Physical interaction platforms: A taxonomy of spaces for interactive value creation. Creativity and Innovation Management, 33(2), 127-138.
  • Ritala, P. (2024). Grand challenges and platform ecosystems: Scaling solutions for wicked ecological and societal problems. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 41(2), 168-183.
  • Schweidel, D. A., Bart, Y., Inman, J. J., Stephen, A. T., Libai, B., Andrews, M., … & Thomaz, F. (2022). How consumer digital signals are reshaping the customer journey. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50(6), 1257-1276.
  • Thomas, L. D., & Tee, R. (2022). Generativity: A systematic review and conceptual framework. International Journal of Management Reviews, 24(2), 255-278.
  • Trischler, J., Zehrer, A., & Westman, J. (2018). A designerly way of analyzing the customer experience. Journal of Services Marketing, 32(7), 805-819.

Extra cost

2500 NOK/210 Euro participation fee (costs such as accommodation, travel, meals and general living expenses are not included).

Miscellaneous information

The course will be held on the Oslo campus, BI Norwegian Business School, Nydalsveien 37, 0484 Oslo. Students can apply for accommodation through BI, in one of the nearby student villages. We have furnished single rooms on offer, kitchen and bathroom have to be shared with other students. Accommodation costs: 9500 NOK/800 Euro (accommodation available from 19 June – 10 July 2026).

About the School

BI Norwegian Business Schoo- is an internationally recognized non-profit private institution and the only Norwegian business school with the prestigious interna­tional triple-crown accreditation: EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA. We are one of Europe’s largest business schools with around 20.000 students. Our purpose-built Campus Nydalen provides an exciting and inspiring learning environment.