Research profile

I work as a researcher, educator, entrepreneur and professional consultant across interaction and service design, design management and innovation management – with a particular interest in critical and strategic thinking. I currently serve as an Associate Professor at Aalborg University, where my core focus is on how design and arts can support personal and community resilience, transition thinking, long-term strategic orientation and positive and impactful change. I have conducted research and teaching activities at various universities (Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Polytechnic University of Milan, Malmö University and University of the Arts London), (co)authoring and (co)editing some 60 publications. I have founded and managed successful companies and award-winning design-driven firms operating in more than 30 countries and with commercial hubs in Milan, Singapore, Toronto and Doha (key Clients include Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Dior, Sony). I also help private and public organizations (e.g. the European Commission, World Bank, Research Council of Canada, UNICEF and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) to define strategies, policies, and funding schemes to foster innovation.

Teaching profile

In the past 20 years, I have had the opportunity to teach courses for various design, business and management schools. Examples of courses I taught and co-taught are: strategy and business in services, service design, data visualization, computing infrastructure management, organizational and technological trends in service design, design anthropology, design research, user experience design (design methods for ideation, prototyping and user testing), interaction design (theory and methods), design for entrepreneurship (business modeling, running a design business), design management, design and foresight. For my teaching, I have experimented with a variety of formats, including face-to-face and online lecture-based teaching, flipped classrooms, workshops (1 day to 2 weeks), prototyping hackathons, design jams, group and individual supervising, coaching and mentoring. Some of the schools where I taught are: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Instituto de Estudos Avançados - Universidade de São Paulo, The National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, IT University of Copenhagen, Politecnico di Milano, Bicocca University, LUMSA University, ISIA Florence.