GDO710 - Week 6 - Reading Week
Week 6 was the culmination of a few difference experiences. First, this was the week of our first project presentations. Second, this week allowed for us to go back through our work and make adjustments and refine our CRJs. In this reflection I will focus on my thoughts around the presentations, the overall project, and looking back at my previous posts. I will post a follow up article solely focused on my project process and outcomes.
During the lecture this week we had five presentations from our class. Everyone who presented shared about their process and final prototype over the 5 minute presentation period. The different ideas, concepts, and final prototypes were very diverse.
For my reading week I wanted to go back and edit my past CRJs to be more inline with what I have learned about reflective writing.
I also spent two hours this week reviewing journal articles on design and innovation, with the goal of understanding more about what is being studied. I focused on design and innovation in the social enterprise sector, since this is where I mostly focus my work. I found a fascinating journal article about design thinking and how it provides a mechanism for innovation through participatory approaches. From the article:
"The literature emphasises that, among many forms of innovations adopted in the social context, especially in the form of social entrepreneurship, design thinking leverages a novel mechanism to advance participatory approaches (Booker, 2014; Kolko, 2012; Lahtola and Stahle, 2014; Phills, 2008; Murray et al., 2010; Galera and Borzaga, 2009)."
Feelings and thoughts about the experience
Everyone who shared this week did a fantastic job of highlighting their work. I appreciate hearing each unique approach to their project. It helped me reframe my mindset to better focus on the process than the final prototype. I was feeling a bit disappointed in my effort on the project prototype. My process focused mostly on the idea generation and what I wanted to build, I failed to understand how much could be done in a short period of time, and that by focusing on what I wanted to build I could miss what might be useful.
Gareth made a fantastic point that this process is more about reflecting on what we are learning, what works or doesn't work, rather than the final output. I needed this reminder as I work on these larger-multi week processes, focus on the journey not the end result.
Evaluation of the experience, both good and bad
I've learned a lot over the last six weeks and this course is showing me how to become a better practitioner through reflection. As I started going back through my previous work and reflections I started to see where I was only describing my experience. I was able to better understand why reflection is so critical to our process, to be able to look at an experience and understand what worked and what didn't.
This week's experience of reviewing my work was a positive experience. I had the opportunity to learn more from myself and how I communicate what I did. Additionally, I was able to meet my SMART goal of reading academic articles from the design thinking, innovation, and user experience industry.
Analysis to make sense of the situation
Looking at all we've gone through so far, it is important for me to remain focused on documenting the process of learning. I have spent too much time focused on the end result of my artifacts, which has ended up leading me down a path where I either: 1) rush the final prototype using the tools and processes I know or 2) wasting too much time on researching interesting concepts that confirm my bias towards my solution.
Conclusion about what you learned and what you could have done differently
This week was about reflecting and updating my work. I now know that I need to focus more time on the process and learning, not the end prototype. Looking forward I am focused on the process, allowing the design process to lead the prototype development, not simply what I think would be the best concept.
Action plan for how you would deal with similar situations in the future, or general changes you might find appropriate
My action plan for this next product will have two main goals: 1) create a proper sprint board for the next assignment and 2) use at least 2 methods of ideation before moving on with an idea.
References:
KUMMITHA, R.K.R., 2018. Institutionalising design thinking in social entrepreneurship: A contextual analysis into social and organizational processes. _Social Enterprise Journal, _14(1), pp. 92-107.