1. 1.c Three key takeaways/learnings
1. I was not as open minded as I thought. I didn't spend enough time on
the course as I would have liked, but this had an unforeseen positive
effect. The speed that I needed to work at when time allowed freed my
mind from my previous professional but ultimately rigid process.
2. Rapid Prototyping has been under-utilised in my business environment.
Will try to broaden it’s use.
3. It’s good to interact with others on the course. It was both fun and
insightful. My team members were quite inspiring characters.
8. 2.a Start Small
A problem at work is my next focus. I have started work in the solution,
starting from this final Design Thinking assignment and going forward. I’ve
crafted the problem statement and have already chosen several ideas.
The first of these ideas is a group brainstorm to correctly identify the
causes of our the problem, and perhaps a refining of the problem
statement. I’m confident I’ve nailed the problem statement, but that’s my
old thinking…
Problem statement below (ideas are on the next slide)
Our design team needs ways to better exercise their creative skills and
contribute to the companies growth
10. 2.b Build on the first ideas
Our industry is risk averse, but ironically and obviously to everyone, this makes
the creativity stagnate. Most of what is considered best practice at a decision
making level is mostly smoke and mirrors, with the empirical thinking often absent.
This isn’t a problem with our industry alone. What makes our industry unique is
that we have the data and increasingly, the analytical skills to improve the quality
of the products that we are creating.
The playfulness and intelligence of prototyping and group testing is certainly a
way in which we can improve our industry. I am lucky to work for a company that
introduced me to the idea of prototyping many years ago, but it’s still relatively
rare in some aspects of our business.
If design thinking and prototyping were adopted across our industry, it would allow
us to consistently better answer the question – what is it that people need, but
don’t know yet? We do need to improve our mindset too, to start seeing
everything as an experiment and a prototype, as that promotes a productive and
enjoyable cycle of learning and improvement.
