Problem Solving vs. Problem Finding

In our fourth workshop, we were taught the difference between problem solving versus problem finding. One can find problems by identifying the obvious. We were also taught how visualization can be a design thinking tool and also how Persona can be a design thinking tool as well. Design thinking is more than a methodology that solves problems. In several cases, this implies finding a problem that is different from the one that was originally anticipated to be the problem. In our fourth workshop, we were given photos to observe on the topic, ‘A Day at the Beach’ The plethora of problems at the beaches include accumulation of rubbish, lack of adequate  lifeguards, scarcity of shops by the beach side, people who were drunk and were roaming freely and sexual harassment at the beach. Piles of garbage dumped at the beach causes problems in fishing and also has an adverse effect on the aquatic animals as well as the people who come to the beach. While trying to solve problems, one must ensure that one is merely spotting a problem, and not observing or staring. While spotting problems, one must be careful not to stare and one is not allowed to formally video or audio record people at the beach. One must not invade other people’s privacy. The point of this exercise is to become aware of one’s surroundings and be able to spot the problem without having to look for it. One should be able to transform information into images. We were also taught about the two hemispheres in the brain. Right brain holds visual and spatial holistic thinking while the left brain holds the sequential and deductive reasoning. One should keep visualization simple and think in metaphors and analogs, use storyboards and photographs to tell stories and create personas.

During our fifth week of study, we discussed “wicked” problems. Our professor spoke about the journey map and asked us to write about our journey of undertaking a Master program. I wrote about my journey to Australia, right from applying to Australia to arriving in Australia. After that session, we were told to reflect on how it went, what worked in our favour and what did not work. We discussed about persona and empathy mapping. Our professor gave us a paper with thirty circles on it and asked us to write on the circles what came to our mind immediately. After this, our professor gave us another activity wherein he displayed some pictures on the screen and told us to select any two pictures and make three amendments to the selected picture.

Visualization and Persona as Design Thinking Tools

During our seventh week of study, we were introduced to research and research approaches, types of data, sources of data and ethics (Montgomery, 2017).  There are two approaches to research. They are Qualitative approach and Quantitative approach. We were also taught about Primary data and Secondary data. The sources of primary data include Questionnaire survey that is self administered, Interview-based survey or structured interview. This is administered by interviewer, has structured questions, and is similar to questionnaire. Semi structured interview and unstructured interview are a source of primary data. Group interview is also a source of primary data. The sources of primary data also includes panel discussions and Delphi method. Observations are also sources of primary data. It can be qualitative or quantitative. Primary data is a major tool in Design Thinking, especially ethnographic approaches. Researchers can also play various roles in observations. The differences between primary and secondary data include the fact that primary data will be specific to one’s project wherein the data will be relevant. Secondary data may not be perfectly aligned with one’s project. Primary data is always current and relevant while secondary data may be outdated. Primary data is time consuming while secondary data generally consumes less time. Primary data requires access to participants while secondary data does not require interaction with people. Primary data carries ethical issues unlike secondary data. Ethics refers to norms and standards of behaviour that guide moral choices about our behaviour and our relationships with others. Ethical issues arises as soon as one does research with people. One should ensure privacy of participants by offering to do interviews in a separate room and not in an open-plan office and also not divulge the details of the participants and refrain from telling other people who is participating. One should also not force participants to take part and one should not tell people that they have to take part in the survey and they have no choice. One should also get organizational consent so that one is allowed to carry out research with the person in the premises of one’s organization. One should also get individual consent from every person who participates in the study. One should also resort to anonymity if an interviewee so wants. One should resort to anonymity and not divulge the  names of the participants if they so desire. One should also ensure confidentiality if the participants so desires. We were also instructed not to leave interview transcripts lying around or keep questionnaires, information of the participants or company documents openly accessible.

Wicked Problems and Journey Mapping

Interviews of Design Thinking entail exploring the problems, thoughts, motivation, emotions and views of the interviewee, being empathetic. We were also taught to adopt a Beginner’s Mind Set and not make any kind of assumptions and to probe the reason. At the end of the session, we were given tips to conduct an interview. We were told to avoid personal bias and not ask leading questions and to go down to asking specific moments, specific experiences etc. One should also get interviewees to tell the interviewer their story or journey and get interviewees to tell the interviewer about their stories and emotions. One should also focus on and deepens one’s understanding of pain points that the interview discusses and use probing and follow-up questions a lot. One should pay attention to non-verbal cues, that is facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, laughter, body movements, and significant pauses among others. The various principles of co-creation include enrolling customers who care about me.  Diversity equals to security, create a no-selling zone, present more than one concept,  provide visual concepts and help customers to communicate visually, leave time for discussion and provide timely feedback.

We were also taught about the concept of analysis which can be defined as the process of organizing the large amounts of qualitative data into rich meaningful categories. It also entails examining, categorizing, tabulating, testing or otherwise recombining the evidence in order to be able to draw meaningful conclusions from the data. The aim of analysis is to make sense of data, identity patterns and draw conclusions.

During our eight week of study we were taught about rapid prototyping and about early and later prototypes. Rapid prototyping can be defined as the rough and quick manifestation of concepts, iterative process of developing and improving the prototype. The first methods of rapid prototyping were prevalent in the 1980s and were used to produce prototypes and models. The aim of rapid prototyping is to transfer concepts into testable and feasible models before assigning a large amount of money, energy and time to developing the real things. The principles include building prototypes early, cheaply and often and considering prototype as a means to communicate. Early rapid prototyping include on paper, 2D and were very crude and rough. Later rapid prototyping is more refined, but nonetheless it is still rough, consists of more details and features and is possibly 3D. Alternative later rapid prototyping is done with a 3D printer. Prototyping techniques include sketching, storyboarding, Paper prototyping, Wireframing, Physical prototyping. We were also taught the benefits of  rapid prototyping wherein it helps one to visualize one’s thoughts, has the ability to present a tangible product or service to customers or investors or team members etc. This would help to gain inputs from them or gain funding. It enables the early identification of flaws and areas of improvement. The drawbacks include iterations that could be time consuming, rapid prototyping may cause flaws that require extensive remedies, which could have been avoided by more elaborate prototyping, the expectations of customers regarding prototypes  can be too high,  a designer may be tempted to make it pretty etc which would lead to a wastage of time on specifics. After one has analyzed large amounts of data and after there are some concepts available, one needs to involve the customer, user and the beneficiary, i.e. the person who is currently facing the problem that is being addressed. The best way to do such a thing is by actual prototypes. These also help us test our assumptions. The guiding principles include building prototypes cheaply, early and often, make mistakes fast, and consider prototypes as a means to communicate. The prototyping skills include sketching, story boarding and paper prototyping

Research Approaches and Ethics

During our ninth week of study, we were taught how to plan, execute and review a learning launch. We were also taught approaches to launching innovations. Learning launch equals to experiment in the market place. It is inexpensive and quick, its primary objective is to learn, move from hypothetical behaviour to real customer behaviour, the need to feel real to launchers and customers. It may also be called Play Testing and designers have to remain open to feedback. In comparison to business, learning launches are about actions in the real world, learning as one goes, testing assumptions and being good enough, stating the obvious in a straightforward manner, focusing on behavioral metrics. Business on the other hand include, analysis in conference rooms, achieving perfection, rolling out a finished product, fabricating financials, failing and dying a slow death through denials. Examples of learning launch include Pfizer trying to reinvigorate and revive Nicorette.

In order to execute the launch, tight boundaries are required, both in terms of time, goals and location, pre-launch customer expectations and possible contracts of confidentiality, management of dissatisfaction. There should be focus on untested assumptions, diverse launch team consisting of members who are both optimists and pessimists, emphasis on disconfirming data, feedback cycle that is quick, i.e, weekly meetings and solid conflict resolution mechanism, making it feel real and having a separate plan ready in case the original plan does not work.

One should feel free to explain the problem that one is addressing, stress the important need for gaining honest and creative feedback, give users adequate time to explore the prototype on their own. One should also use one’s interviewing skills to help one to interact with users and get feedback that is more valuable. One should have a designated team member for interviewing and another team member for observing and taking notes. One should also focus on the experience of the user rather than focusing on asking specified questions.

We learnt from Learning Launch  the importance of relevant data that is collected, observations and immediate analysis wherein fast feedback is important, consider ethics when observing, enables behavioral interpretation, may benefit from interviews and other complementary data.

During our tenth week of study, we gave a group presentation. We saw the presentation of an agricultural drone presented by another group. The project that we presented was Hands Free Car Door Opener. In our presentation, we introduced and gave an explanation on Design Thinking. We identified the problem, designed thinking tools to identify the solution. We also showed evidence for use of design thinking; we provided solution to the problem and gave a conclusion. In the presentation, we used tools like visualization, journey mapping, value chain analysis, mind mapping and brainstorming.

Interviews and Co-Creation Principles

Visualization refers to visualizing a concept, a journey map refers to a diagram or a plethora of diagrams that depicts the various stages that a customer goes through when he or she interacts with the company from purchasing products online or lodging complaints with customer care over the phone, to airline grievances on social media (Montgomery, 2017).  Journey maps are rooted in research and visually portrays the various phases customers experience, in terms of customer sentiment, goals etc. Value chain analysis is a tool to comprehend the internal mechanism of a firm. A value chain entails a range of activities beginning with design, followed by production, marketing and at the end distribution that business carry out in the process of bringing a product or service from the conception of its idea till its delivery. Its primary objective is to recognize the most valuable activities of the firm and the activities that could be improved in a firm in order to give competition to its competitors and have a head start over competition (Kolko, 2015). Customer journey maps are important because it helps to comprehend the path that customers take to get to a product. Mind mapping is an extremely effectual way of getting information from one’s brain. Mind mapping can be defined as a creative and logical means of taking notes that literally maps out one’s ideas (Raffi, 2017). The main characteristics of mind mapping include the primary idea, which is depicted as a central image. The ideas and themes radiate from the main image like branches. The branches consist of a main image or a main word drawn on its associated line. The topics that are of less significance are called twigs of a particular branch (Raffi, 2017) The branches led to a formation of a connected nodal structure.

We also offered insights on concept development, assumption testing and rapid prototyping. We also gave two examples on how to use the hands free door opener by using footstep sensor and pedal by foot. Our professor gave us positive feedback and we were happy with our presentation.

 Reflective writing can be defined as formal and organized written version of a person’s reflections. Reflective writing entails putting on paper some of the thought processes behind one’s reflection. Reflective writing is a very personal form of writing as it is all about oneself. Reflective writing is all about writing for various purposes, for example diaries, personal development, academic work, career development and training needs analysis, decision making,  making sense of what is happening around us and blogging on various issues that are close to one’s heart.

This activity made me aware of myself and provided me with knowledge, gave me experience, provided me with skills and confidence and self-esteem, gave me an understanding of employability, empathy and viewpoint among other social skills. This activity has furthered my knowledge about design and helped to hone my creative skills. Over the past few weeks, I have also learnt a lot about myself in terms of personal development because of experiencing entrepreneurial skills and design thinking activities in this unit. I have also gained in terms of knowledge development because of experiencing entrepreneurial skills and design thinking activities in this unit. I also gained an insight about entrepreneurship, innovation, design thinking, and management business. The overall experience was very enriching and positive as it helped me gain valuable knowledge and insight.

References

Cahn, P. S., Bzowyckyj, A., Collins, L., Dow, A., Goodell, K., Johnson, A. F., … & Zierler, B. K. (2016). A design thinking approach to evaluating interprofessional education. Journal of interprofessional care, 30(3), 378-380.

Carlgren, L., Rauth, I., & Elmquist, M. (2016). Framing design thinking: The concept in idea and enactment. Creativity and Innovation Management, 25(1), 38-57.

Geissdoerfer, M., Bocken, N. M., & Hultink, E. J. (2016). Design thinking to enhance the sustainable business modelling process–A workshop based on a value mapping process. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, 1218-1232.

Glen, R., Suciu, C., & Baughn, C. (2014). The need for design thinking in business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 13(4), 653-667.

Gould, R. K., Bratt, C., Lagun Mesquita, P., & Broman, G. (2017). Integrating sustainable development and design-thinking-based product design. In International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing (EcoDesign), Tainan, Taiwan. Springer.

Kolko, J. (2015). Design thinking comes of age.

Liedtka, J. (2015). Perspective: Linking design thinking with innovation outcomes through cognitive bias reduction. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(6), 925-938.

Montgomery, D. C. (2017). Design and analysis of experiments. John wiley & sons.

Rafii, A. (2017). IMPROVING STUDENTS’MOTIVATION IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS BY USING MIND MAPPING. ELT Echo: The Journal of English Language Teaching in Foreign Language Context, 2(2), 147-157. 

Turner III, D. E. (2017). A case study in Design Thinking applied through Aviation Mission Support Tactical Advancements for the Next Generation (TANG) (Doctoral dissertation, Monterey, California: Naval Postg