Introduction to the Program
The Master’s Degree Course in Product-Service System Design (PSSD), open to both Italian and international students, was established in 2005, in a context of increasing student mobility and growing recognition of Milan's crucial role in the design world. The innovative PSSD teaching program emerged from Politecnico di Milano's pioneering research on the role of Product-Service Systems for sustainability and the emerging field of service and strategic design. As the first Master’s program to develop competencies in service design, PSSD stands out globally for its long-standing experience and systemic perspective on innovation and change.
Interpretation of PSSD
The course focuses on systems that combine products, services, spaces, and digital technologies to address complex challenges in a sustainable manner. Students learn to develop creative solutions using methodologies ranging from ethnographic research to data driven and participatory design, collaborating in multidisciplinary teams, and acquiring leadership and entrepreneurship skills. They learn an ability to design product-service systems in a strategic way capable of governing and channelling change and innovation in an evolutionary way, in line with the changing context and the sustainability challenge; lastly, they engage with a multidisciplinary approach that is, nowadays, a crucial perspective in the problem definition and resolution phases.
Multidisciplinary Approach
The program fosters an interdisciplinary approach, with actionable knowledge coming from different design fields (product, service, systems, space, and interaction design), an extended design toolkit, and basics of project management, strategic management, sustainability, anthropology/ethnography, communication/media.
Opportunities
With its wide network of partners around the world, Politecnico di Milano and the Master in Product Service System Design offer different types of experiences and opportunities. Students can access exchange programmes such as Erasmus, international Bilateral Exchanges and Workshops.This Master has also two unique Double Degrees. The first one offers to a selection of students to access and join Tongji University in Shanghai. The second one, internal at Politecnico di Milano, is established between PSSD and Management Engineering, with the objective of developing an ability to conceive innovative business models and guide development processes involving a range of actors in the business system.