Using Design Thinking to Write and Publish Novel Teaching Cases: Tips from Experienced Case Authors

With increasing calls for a greater connection between management education and practice, teaching cases play a vitally important role in the business curriculum. Cases not only allow instructors to expose students to practical problems, but also allow educators to contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning. An important reason why newer faculty members may refrain from writing cases is they perceive it is difficult to write and publish cases. To overcome some of the challenges encountered when attempting to write and publish teaching cases, this paper presents a useful framework—Design Thinking—for tackling the “wicked problem” of case writing, and provides . By introducing the concepts and language of design thinking, we aim to provide aspiring case writers with the tools to develop an iterative approach that is flexible yet systematic and that focuses on instructors’ and students’ needs.