iadp day 1 reflection

After attending the Design Thinking Bootcamp early July, I felt that I really wanted to learn more about design thinking. And the great thing is that there is this 10-week programme (sponsored by the government) coming up end August. And so I've decided to apply for it. Was really excited to get offered to take part in this 10-week programme (also known as Innovation Ambassador Development Programme). And thankfully, I was offered the weekend classes which means that I do not need to take days off from work. I can't imagine taking 20 days off just to attend a training programme, as I do need some of my off days for vacation as well :P

On day 1 itself, we were given 2 design challenges. The 1st one was a 1-hour exercise where we had to redesign a wallet for a classmate - it was a paired exercise. Although, I've downloaded the materials from the Stanford d school previously, I haven't got a chance to go through the exercise myself. Yes, I do feel RUSHED! during this exercise as I was kinda lost. I was just thinking to myself, if I felt lost (even having gone through the bootcamp & MOOC), how would the other participants feel? When I reflected on the process, I felt that I didn't have enough time to pin down exactly what the user needs were; and therefore had to make an educated guess based on the short interview I conducted. But at the end of the exercise, I was truly amazed by the different prototypes developed by all my classmates. The designs were truly user centric when the designers explained the rationale of their design. I've also got really good feedback on my prototype as well, on what worked and what could be improved. The AHA moment was when I discovered how differently my classmate and I inserted our wallet into our back pocket. I did it in a horizontal manner, while he did it in a vertical manner. One key learning here is to build a prototype where the user can interact with it in order to gain "real" feedback.

Throughout the exercise, the coaches told us to trust the process. Being a large group facilitator myself, I always shared the same message with my project sponsors and participants especially when I facilitate open space workshops. And at the end of each open space session, I am truly amazed and surprised of the outcomes. After going through this exercise, I realized that I had to let go and adopt the principle of "whatever happens is the only thing that could have".

In the afternoon, we got to work in a team of 6-7 participants on our 2nd design challenge. We had to either design the courting experience or the working experience. My team had the privilege to design the courting experience. Based on observations (photographs were given), we had to make inferences (find the isi tersirat) and create a persona of our user. We even had to dress up one of our teammates as that user.

It was interesting how the team got together very quickly, and were building on each other's ideas. It was also interesting that majority of the team felt that we should prototype a radical idea and see how it would turn out. We designed a courting experience for our user Jane, where she gets to invite her potential partner to Myanmar to build houses for villagers; followed by a sunset dinner at the beach. To be honest, I was really excited that I got to prototype a service and it turned out really well! The team also got a special mentioned by the coaches as we designed the experience based on our persona - the linkage was quite obvious. It was my first attempt at designing a service, and I can't wait to do my next one.

Other activities on day 1 include:

1. introducing your name with an action, and the whole cohort mimics

2. design a magazine cover of a classmate that you interviewed

3. rock, paper, scissors

At the end of the day, I was still very much excited but at the same time exhausted. Hoping to get lot more opportunities to refine my design thinking skills & truly adopt a design thinking mindset.