Design thinking 1

What is the design thinking process? Before doing this project, I wouldnt have a clue. According to Roger Martin, who is a strong advocate of this process, design thinking is the process of continuously redesigning a business using insight derived from customer intimacy. (Liedtka et al, 2013) In todays world, every organization must innovate in order to be successful. Design thinking process is simply a state of mind, and every person is able to think innovatively. Thanks to the MGMT9042 Innovation Theory and Practice 25578, Ive been able to acquire design thinking skills and put them into practice. Our class was required to meet with a user group in XXX company and apply the design thinking methodology to a problem that needs solving and come up with solutions to that problem. In the following paragraphs I will go through the major takeaways Ive gleaned from the course within the design thinking subject. For the purpose of this module, I was required to take part in a live case business consultancy project. When Ive received a brief for this project, I was a bit sceptical. Ive never done a live case study before, and felt a bit overwhelmed by the idea of doing it for an actual company, that operates on a day to day basis. Before the project was commenced, we were asked to do a mini literature review on a chosen aspect with the relation to the design thinking process, which was a great start, because it gave me an opportunity to read more about this innovative process and expand my knowledge in general. I did not believe, that I would be able to meet with the company, and capable of solving a problem/ problems that they are facing. During the class hours, i.e. 2 hours every week, our lecturer was doing a great work on introducing and explaining to us the idea of the Design thinking process. When looking back, I feel that we were prepared very well for this project, without even realising it. In the class, we learned the theory behind this process, followed by taking part in interactive exercises, such as doing the gift exchange exercise. It was very interested to time myself, and be able to ask adequate and minute by minute more deeper questions. We were supplied with lots of interactive and creative examples, which I felt gave me more confidence. I never knew the terminology to the Design Thinking process but I have naturally been doing some of the modes on my own. For example, when Ive tried to solve a problem, I was always coming up with many solutions, and different alternatives, not solely just one, fixed solution. And, this is one of the main characteristics of being innovative and creative. This project began two months ago, with a talk given by the XXX company. We had chance to ask them questions with the relations to the assignment. Each group was required to meet with the user group, and solve their problem using the design thinking mythology. Secondly, each group had to explore one challenge set by our lecturer and the company. We were invited to attend a meeting with the user group, on the 31st of October, in their offices, here in Cork. To arrange a date that would suit our master class, and other masters courses, was challenging, since there were many people involved. Before meeting with the company, we were invited to participate in the skype call. And again, I felt overheled by the idea of doing a skype call with people who I did not know personally. However, Ive felt that since, Ive never done a business skype call before, this would be a great opportunity for me and the idea of overcoming my own personal barriers motivated me to take part in this call. On the 22nd of October, Ive joined the skype call with XXX and other students. Ive felt relieved that there was no requirement to turn on the camera. At the beginning of the call, I was very stressed but while the time was passing, I was feeling relaxed and I was happy that Ive actually took part in this call. Maybe, it wasnt something comparable to climbing the Mount Everest, however, Ive felt proud of myself, and felt encouraged to take more courageous steps within this project. There were only 15 participants on the call. On the 31st of October, I went to the XXXs offices with 3 of my class mates. We couldnt find the XXX, and had to use google maps in order to find the right building. I was surprised, that there was no big logo or any sort of billboard advertisement in front of XXXs offices. The XXX company operates internationally, within the recruitment industry. However, it was not clear to us where they are based. Me, and other member of my group, realized that this could be their potential problem that could be solved by applying the design thinking process. Compared to other global companies, their presence in the media and advertisement is quite low. Before attending this meeting, Ive tried to find them on social media, but the information that Ive found in the research tab, was not consistent. The meeting began at 5pm, and lasted to around 9 pm. XXX offered us food and drinks, which was very kind. My group was made of 3 members, myself and two other girls. Only myself, and member2 attended this meeting, which created some extra work for the group, because we had to arrange our timetables to meet with the 3rd member to inform her about our findings. All members of our group are working, and it was challenging in general to combine meeting outside of the college days and hours. During this meeting, we listened to the user group very carefully and later asked them questions. And it is clear that if we ask the right question, were certainly increasing our chances of stumbling upon great ideas that solve the problem. The user group was made of around 8 employees. According to Liedtka (2013),  the framing of a question ultimately drives the nature of the answers. The user group was very open, and helpful. Their boss was present during the meeting, however, it had no impact on the user group. They were very honest, which has surprised me. I really liked their working environment and the atmosphere within the user group. Theyve seemed very integrated with each other. Ive really enjoyed this meeting. This was the first step in the design thinking process. During this meeting, Empathize stage took place. The aim of this stage is to interview the user group, ask them open-minded questions, and build a relationship with them. My lecturers presence during this meeting gave me more confidence, and Ive asked the user group some questions, including how they manage to recruit internally, i.e. for themselves. It was very interesting for me, because they are a recruitment company. Ive recorded their answer. By the end of this meeting, we were very tired, however, our minds were full of ideas how to approach this project. Weve decided to focus on the branding and marketing, because weve felt that they are missing some key opportunities, and that their main problem would be lack of brand recognition. Before commencing this project, we had no clue what the XXX company is doing or even in which sector they are operating. It was quite shocking, that they are based in the city center, and have so limited recognition. After meeting with the user group, weve met as a group several times to discuss what we think. Weve found that there are many problems and even more solutions. The synthesize process was the most challenging one, since we had to narrow everything down. It was my role to describe this process in our scrapbook. Ive organized our group findings, and created the user profile, and the P.O.V. (point of view statement) Weve decided to focus on the XXXs marketing automation manager, since weve decided to focus on branding and marketing. Weve emailed him, and arranged a phone call in which each group member had participated. He informed us that there is no marketing department in Cork. Whenve dig deeper weve realized that the lack of adequate resources spend on branding and marketing is causing the lack of recognition of their brand. By applying the process of design thinking, weve found out that we cant provide just one solution, and in fact this in our opinion was very innovative. Weve decided to provide XXX company with 3 prototypes. My role was to focus on the graduates, and the lack of brand recognition among young people, who are potentially new clients for XXX in next 5-10 years time. Ive found out that mentoring the final year students or recent graduates increase both financial and non financial benefits to a company. During this phase, I really wanted to show and explain my vision and firstly, Ive creates my power point slides, and Ive designed the poster using an app. The poster included our 1st prototype of focusing more on the students, by for example holding free cv building workshops and careers talks. The XXX was already involved in mentoring of the students, however, the XXX company is still very unknown to the students. And surprisingly, we were all aware of their competitors, since the other recruitment company is always present at the careers fairs, students talks etc., and therefore we are familiar with their name and their services. Similarly, in order to answer our challenge question, the work was divided evenly among 3 of us, each focusing on a different aspect, and weve found that working very well. However, I did not like the idea that we did not use any sort of platform to upload our work, and to which we would have a constant access. Ive always used a google doc, or a similar platform to upload my work, and sh