Product Service System Design Tour: Co-create a pilot field education activity in design

Nowadays, modern changes impacted several aspects of our lives influencing the processes and strategies of the social and economic system. During this transformation most of the companies have changed their business model shifting to Product Service System model providing a cohesive delivery of product and services. Design in parallel expanded its scope starting to address not only the product but also the interaction and the system in which the artefact is part of. In this context of change also universities have been affected, for instance digital technologies have impacted largely the relation with students and how the knowledge transfer connected to digital material by digital platform. The role of universities changed, and academic institutions became more and more a relevant and active part of a larger ecosystem, representing a crucial hub to the research and innovation in the connected industries. Universities, thanks to their active role in the social and economic ecosystem, have developed several connections outside the academic boundaries, which are able to enrich students’ educational path. Within this context, the Master of Product Service System Design at Politecnico di Milano since 4 years have organize an yearly initiative to gather the Advisory Board of the course, composed by community of professionals, civil servants, adjunct and structured professors connected to the course, to discuss around the offer of the curriculum. The aim of the Advisory Board is to provide non-binding strategic advice to the master programme, with particular regard to the interpretation of today designer skills and the identification of opportunities and expectation of the job context, in order to better define the profile of the graduate students and therefore of the training programme the master provides. Through this initiative the teaching staff at Politecnico di Milano is able to better comprehend what companies, design agencies and other design-related organisations are requiring from young graduates. The meeting is as well an occasion to discuss and promoting together with the School fresh new opportunities for students. In this paper is presented the activity and its outcome of co-creation of pilots’ field education tour for the Master course in Product Service System Design developed by the participants of the last Advisory Board meeting. The focus of this year has been on designing a field education experience to narrow the gap between professional and academic, through the creation of a tour in the organizations. The paper illustrates the tool used for the co-design session and it results. Build on these insights some considerations are drawn for field education activities. Given the pandemic situation, many academic activities in person have been suspended to prevent the spread of Covid-19, for this reason the choice to proceed has been to develop a digital tour of the company. Therefore, the educational experience is organized thanks to the use of digital technologies, integrating the experience of visiting with an experience of digital interaction between companies and students.