Value Innovation projects 2017

Value Innovation projects 2017

Value Innovation is a course in the Master programme that gives students in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Economy the opportunity to experience the development of new products and services “in real life”, collaborating with companies and organisations in the Blekinge region.

The Value Innovation process builds on the Design Thinking Methodology from Stanford University and is composed of 4 main steps:

  • INITIATION (framing the problem to be solved).
  • INSPIRATION (analysing customer needs and performing trend- and tech-watching).
  • IDEATION (brainstorming and systematic innovation).
  • IMPLEMENTATION (prototyping and assessing the value of solutions).


The 2017 edition of the Value innovation course featured a total of 7 projects in collaboration with 6 company partners.

Affärsverken – The Archipelago challenge

The Team: Mustafa Feltenheim, Anton Sterner, Sarah Feltenheim, Fredrika Ljung, Carolina Lööf, Jesper Svensson.

The objective was to analyse experience and needs related to the use of broadband in Karlskrona’s archipelago, observing both private consumers and businesses. It required the team to identify customer tiers, to map their journey with existing solutions, as well as to explore, define and assess the most value adding approach to make broadband available on the islands.

Affärsverken – The Rural areas challenge

The Team: Mazin Ali, Sebastian Fischer, Benny Mårtensson, Jojje Sundblad, Mathias Åkesson, Rasmus Sjögren.

The objective was to analyze experience and needs related to the use of mobile broadband in Karlskrona’s rural areas, with regards to both private consumers and businesses. The team worked with need exploration, idea generation and value assessment of innovative technologies to make broadband available in countryside’s ‘blackspots’.

Arbetsförmedlingen – Innovative services for unemployed youngsters

The Team: Saga Hald, Mathilda Weinert, Sheida Ghavamzadeh, Astrid Ortman, Simon Thorstensson.

The objective was to analyze experiences and needs related to the use existing services to support unemployed youngsters in finding their dream job. It required the team to gather inputs from boys and girls aged 18-25 using need finding techniques, as well as to brainstorm and evaluate innovative support mechanisms to improve the experience of Arbetsförmedlingen’s services .

Dynapac: Potholes repairing machine design

The Team: Alexander Boneck, Tobias Karlsson, Danield Larmark, Eric Strömbäck, Chiara Bratelli, Pier GiorgioTravaglia.

The main goal was to develop an innovative device to repair small and large potholes. It required the team to analyse current asphalt compaction practices as well as user needs, to generate innovative solutions and to propose a consistent business case for the new machine.

Three of the 2017 projects are part of a larger European initiative named ‘Social Inkludering och Tillväxt i Blekinge’, which is coordinated by Coompanion Blekinge. You can read more about this initiative at this link.

Kaffestuga Wämöparken: The ‘All-year-around opening’ challenge

The Team: Almiral Mizimovic, Filip Stanisic, SelmaBasic,Sejla Manjusak, Timmie Abrahamsson, Jacob Wickström.

The main goal was to redesign the café’ experience to make it attractive for potential users during winter months. This required the identification and analysis of customer tiers and their needs, the generation of innovative value adding winter activities/events, as well as an accurate analysis of the required investments.

Kasak: Redesigning the car washing experience

The Team: Dekan Aco Aziz, Rebecka Larsson, Chatnicha Chokwatthananon, Taha El Yasir, Noh Saeed, Mahdi Shahin.

The main goal was to redesign the carwashing experience to make it more attractive to private users. Customer tier analysis and need finding were main activities in the project, followed by the generation of innovative solutions to improve both the business case and efficiency of washing operations. Investment analysis demonstrated the feasibility of the chosen solution. This was accompanied by the development of internal practices to improve the workers’ experience of the washing process.

Resurs i Blekinge: Service design for a social enterprise

The Team: Erik Fäldt, Antonio Kendes, Måns Persson, Simon Sajland.

Via market and need analysis, the students designed a clothes washing service for the business-to-business sector. Tools such as Customer tier analysis, Personas and Kano model were used to identify, manage and prioritise the needs emerging from the field study activities. The ideation phase resulted in 9 different concepts, which were further down selected and described using service blueprints.

What do our company partners say?

All projects have got positive feedback from our partners. Here below a collection of some of the comments students received after their company presentation and prototype demonstration.

“This project was a quite difficult challenge. I am impressed by what the student team achieved in such a short time.” (Pontus Johnsson, Dynapac Compaction Equipment)

”Extremt roligt/positivt och givande att samarbeta med studenterna på BTH. Vi fick verktyg och modeller som vi kan applicera till andra verksamheter inom vårt företag. Enkelt och effektiv metod för vår företagsutveckling” (Ingmar Holgersson, Karlsham Kommun/ Resurs i Blekinge)

”Vi tyckte att de fick fram mycket fakta på den korta tiden som kursen varade. Tycker också att det var intressant att de båda grupperna hade olika sätt att angripa utmaningen på. Vi tycker även att presentationerna var proffsigt gjorda och vi var mycket fascinerade av den prototyp som togs fram.” (Åse Larsen, Affärsverken)