iadp week 7 reflection

This is the final week of classes at Genovasi. Am very much excited for the final presentation, and wanting to gain feedback from the project partner once again :) What more we got a special guest who shared about how he leverage design thinking principles in setting up a successful business in Malaysia!


Business Model Canvas
Kick started the weekend with an activity on the business model canvas. Each team was given a bicycle, and RM500 and we have to figure out a business model. And we were not allowed to sell the bicycle, setup a bicycle rental service, nor propose a delivery service. So the team brainstormed, and came out with quite a few ideas and we decided to setup a business where our guest can exercise while enjoying sushi - they would need to cycle in a stationary manner in order for the sushi conveyor belt to move. With the idea, we started populating details in the different sections of the business model canvas.

Although it has been really cool to take a human centred approach in problem solving aka design thinking which focuses on the desirability aspect, it is equally important to ensure that whatever idea/prototype developed is also viable. The business model canvas is a useful framework to do the trick!

Show, Don't Tell

In our final presentation, we are given 5 minutes to showcase our prototype. It's all about telling a story that the audience can relate to. And once again, I was inspired to share with the team an idea I had for our final presentation. And immediately everyone was agreeable to the idea; and started to volunteer for the different roles in the story as well as prepare the props. We also rehearsed our presentations a few times till we got it right. By the end of the day, the team was very much happy and comfortable with what we came out with. Upon reflection, I started to realised that I do quite well in coming up with stories/presentations that would engage the audience - it struck me when I started to read my previous blogpost during the IADP. One key thing which is really important is to showcase your persona in the presentation in a way that the audience can empathise with the persona. Avoid describing your persona and prototype but showcase both in a story - think trailer/advertisement!

The presentation went really really well for the team, and even for all the other teams :D We got quite a few questions; and this time around we nailed them as we went to the field for more empathy & test work the week before. We were also more than happy to share with our project partner details of version 2.0 of our prototype which we thought about also :)

Wrapped up the morning by unpacking all the feedback received!

Design Thinking in Action

We were fortunate enough to have one of the founders of myBurgerLab sharing his experience of how he became an entrepreneur. It was also interesting to listen to how design thinking was used in setting a new business. Here are some of my notes

• What is your core? Core of what the customer is looking for
• 2 steps - customer development through empathy and test + prototype through validation, minimum viable product i.e. cheapest way to test product
• Rent space for dinner and cook in kitchen at red bean bag, ask friends to give feedback
• Selection process to invite brutally honest friends
• Closed door invite to validate i.e. menu, people willing to come? willing to pay? Invited 30 people
• Pivoting during 10 sessions based on feedback i.e colour of buns
• Innovation Always
• Culture - young students or grads. Love Starbucks culture of young people
• All big businesses started small
• Move fast. Embrace mistakes
• Sustainability - how do you bring your company from good to great
• Start moving forward. Small but fast
• Put away excuses - JFDI
• Read at least 1 book a month
• Why should people trust young people in a startup? Show results or testing stage outcome
• Money - own savings & parents
• Beef is one of the core. Muslim friendly. No halal cert yet
• Change of lifestyle e.g. lots of forward thinking, sleep in shop
• Passion beyond burgers - provide food with quality and reasonable price & good customer service
• Business partners are university mates, started with selling t-shirts
• Disagreement of ideas between business partners. It is all about how does it affect customers. Trust is key!
• Key issue is staffing. Whole day to prepare burger. Then sell at night. Students have classes in the afternoon. Lunch experience is quick. And should not wait.
• Passion starting business instead of food. Friends passion in food. Find balance between passion and investment
• Looking into collaboration
• Ultimate objectives grow myBurgerLab internationally. Sell more than burger. Looking for good incubator
• Culture is the attraction. Like minded people. outings, Monday off days, board games etc

Bring It Home
The final session is bringing it home aka applying design thinking outside of the IADP. Think of a personal project that you want to do, where you can apply design thinking. One of the things that I could think of is perhaps to get my workplace to be a project sponsor. But a personal project? Hmm.. I really had no clue what it could be to be honest. Waiting for the AHA moment... but nothing :( Hopefully I will be inspired sooner than later


Other activities include:
1. Ask 20 yes/no questions to guess the object
2. Nascar racing - vroom, oil slick, honk
3. Knight, wizard, monster - paper, scissors, stone v2.0


We were surprised that we got pizza to celebrate our graduation :D Final session was a personal ILIW for each of your teammates and coach. It wasn't easy at all to write these personal ILIW, but it was good stuffs! My personal IL was to blogged about my IADP experience for my personal reflection of key learnings which is done! My personal IW is to train others on design thinking, and applying it at my workplace to build effective organisations. Will have to remind myself and put in effort to make my IW a reality.

Thanks to everyone who made the IADP really awesome and memorable ;)