You will complete 4 papers that assess your comprehension of key concepts presented in the readings, activities, and team design project.
Reflection Paper
Congratulations, you just completed one of the paths to explore your project: Explore the Possibilities. Reflect on and analyze the work you and your team did these past 3 weeks by writing an APA format, 2-5 page paper using the framework: What? So What? Now What?
online-course-icons_icon-info.png Assignment Requirements
For each, be concrete and specific and consider the tools, concepts, and mindsets you used, capturing details of how you individually contributed and how you collaborated with your team to achieve the weekly goals.
What? Describe the work you did to explore your project these past 3 weeks.
Describe what you learned about your project during this path.
Describe how you felt and what you were thinking while exploring this path.
What did you observe and notice about yourself? What did you observe and notice about your team?
So What? Evaluate the work you did to explore your project these past 3 weeks.
What concepts, tools, methods, or mindsets led to insights about your project? What didn’t lead to insights about your project? Provide evidence for both.
Considering what you learned exploring this path, what does this mean for your project? For the people impacted by your project? For you? For your team?
Why does your project exploration these past 3 weeks matter?
Now what? Explain the next steps based on the work you did to explore your project these past 3 weeks.
How does this experience validate or challenge your understanding of the project? The people impacted by your project? Yourself? Your team?
How might you use some of the concepts, tools, methods, or mindsets from this path in your life (school, work, or otherwise)?
What new questions do you have about your project after exploring this path?
Exploring Possibilities
How Might We…
How might we help people with mental issues to help them utilize therapy as an impeccable solution to their problem regardless of the stigmatization in the society.
Solo Ideation:
• Show compassion to the people with mental health issues.
• Talk about mental health issues more openly.
• Encourage the society members to empower people with mental health issues rather than shaming them.
• Create general awareness to the public about mental health issues and how effective therapy can be as a remedy.
• Foster equality in the society, both mental and physical, for all society members.
• Help victims and their families have clear and in-depth information about therapy.
• Organize workshops for the victims.
• Offer free or subsidized therapy services for the victims.
• Gradually, introduce activities (Sports) once a week to help them incorporate in the society.
• Introduce therapeutic gym sessions for the victims.
Radical Ideation
• Take Place Outside: Showing compassion to the victims, for example, donating new clothes and food or spending time with the victims.
• Involve social media: Create general awareness to the public about mental health issues and how effective therapy can be as a remedy.
• Involve a Community Partner (Church and Schools): Foster equality in the society, both mental and physical, for all society members.
• Take Place in a Concert Hall: Organize workshops for the victims.
• Involve Nature: Introduce therapeutic gym sessions for the victims (Once a week).
Idea Consolidation
• Delight User: Introduce therapeutic gym sessions for the victims, showing compassion to the victims, for example, donating new clothes and food or spending time with the victims and create general awareness to the public about mental health issues and how effective therapy can be as a remedy.
• Favorite Ideas: Organize workshops for the victims, showing compassion to the victims, for example, donating new clothes and food or spending time with the victims and create general awareness to the public about mental health issues and how effective therapy can be as a remedy.
• Wildest Ideas: Organize workshops for the victims, introduce therapeutic gym session for the victims, and show compassion to the victims.
Idea Selection
Most Delightful: Showing compassion to the victims.
Wildest: Introduce therapeutic gym sessions for the victims- in nature.
Explore the Possibilities // How Might We…?
You are beginning the Explore the Possibilities path for your team design project. This path will take 3 weeks to complete. You’ll work with your team in your Team Design Studio to complete the weekly design project goals. You’ll also have individual assignments due each week: discussion prompts due the first two weeks of this path and a reflection paper due in the third week of this path.
Radical ideation. Brainstorming. Being generative. All these terms mean the same thing: come up with a lot of new ideas to solve a problem. You’ll do this to address your team’s project scope. In other words, explore the possibilities by opening up your project space through a simple question: How might we…?
In design thinking, brainstorming is collaborative and has rules to make a brainstorm session more generative. It’s not often easy to come up with a brilliant idea through sheer concentration. Working with others, building off their ideas, and generating as many ideas as possible increases your chances of coming up with something intriguing and possibly innovative. Eventually you’ll learn what to do with wild, ambitious ideas. For this module, you’ll learn the brainstorm rules, create brainstorm questions, and try out different brainstorming techniques to generate ideas to address your team’s project scope.
online-course-icons_icon-learning objectives.png
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this module, you will be able to:
Explore an open-ended problem from different perspectives.
Create “How Might We…?” statements to explore the project solution space.
Use radical ideation techniques to generate ideas for an open-ended problem.
Collaborate with a team to use radical ideation techniques to build on the ideas of others to generate ideas for an open-ended problem.
online-course-icons_icon-group project-1.png Project Teamwork
TEAM GOAL // Create How Might We…? questions for brainstorming
Level 3 Teams: Complete the Team Design Studio Explore the possibilities: Week 1 prompts as a team during your weekly team meeting.
Level 4 Teams: Each team member will follow the Team Design Studio Explore the possibilities: Week 1 prompts. If another team member has already worked on a prompt, review their work and build on it. Continue to the next prompt until your team reaches the weekly goal. Working in this manner does not mean that the first person to contribute does all of the work. You’re taking steps as a team to reach your weekly goal, like a relay race, where you “pass the baton” from one person to the next to reach the finish line.
Module Activities
Here are the activities that you will complete in this module. It is recommended that you complete the readings in the module prior to submitting the assignments. There are materials embedded throughout the module that are tied to specific assignments. Be sure to read and review all parts of the module to ensure that you access all of the materials.
To help get you into a generative space for your design project, you’ll go on an Inspiration Walk. This is a 15 minute self-guided audio activity. For the best experience, it’s recommended to do this in an outdoor space. The materials you’ll need for this are:
a mobile device connected to the internet to stream audio
headphones
a notebook
a pen
During the activity, you’ll be asked to “pick a challenge to work on.” Use your team’s project scope as the challenge to work on. After you’ve completed the activity, consider what you learned and how you might use these generative methods in your life (school, work, or otherwise).
https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/the-inspiration-walk
Remember the 6 Thinking Hats? The green hat is used for being generative and creative. Try that hat on this week. To get started exploring the possibilities for your project, you’ll create a “How Might We…?” question to explore your project scope through radical ideation, otherwise known as brainstorming.
The type of brainstorming used in design thinking is most likely different than what might come to mind when you think of brainstorming. It involves a quick way to capture ideas, an open mind, some rules, and, to make it extra fun, energetic music (i.e. put on your favorite tunes when working in your Team Design Studio this week!).
To get ready for your brainstorm, read the materials below and refer back to the brainstorming rules as you’re working in your Team Design Studio this week.
Brainstorming Rules:
Defer judgement
Encourage wild ideas
Build on the ideas of others
Stay focused on the topic
One conversation at a time
Be visual
Go for quantity
https://qz.com/work/1022054/the-secret-to-better-brainstorming-sessions-lies-in-the-phrase-how-might-we/
https://www.ideou.com/pages/brainstorming
Team Design Studio Work
Your team goal for this week is to create a “How Might We…?” question and brainstorm ideas. This involves having an open mind, having fun, and following a few rules.
To reach your team’s goal of creating a “How Might We…?” question and brainstorm ideas, you will work in your Team Design Studio to:
Generate a “How Might We” question to spark a brainstorm.
Do solo ideation to generate ideas.
Build off the ideas of others to generate more idea.
Find the corresponding slides for Explore the Possibilities: Week 1 – How Might We…? in your Team’s Design Studio. Collaborate with your team using the distributed working model agreed upon by your team:
Level 3 Teams: Complete the Team Design Studio Module 3 prompts as a team during your weekly team meeting.
Note: There are specific slides labeled for Level 3 Teams in this week of the Team Design Studio. You do not need to complete the Level 4 Team slides for this week.
Level 4 Teams: Each team member will follow the Team Design Studio Module 3 prompts. If another team member has already worked on a prompt, review their work and build upon it. Continue to the next prompt until your team reaches the weekly goal. Working in this manner does not mean that the first person to contribute does all of the work. You’re taking steps as a team to reach your weekly goal, like a relay race, where you “pass the baton” from one person to the next to reach the finish line.
Note: There are specific slides labeled for Level 4 Teams in this week of the Team Design Studio. You do not need to complete the Level 3 Team slides for this week.
This week’s learning was quite comprehensive and clear for me, and I did not find notable challenges in implementing the concepts. Our team also proceeded with relative ease through the brainstorming phase. I would say the only challenge that we faced was the time restriction. If there were no time limits, we would have come up with more creative ideas.
Many of the concepts we learned are applicable in various aspects of life. For instance, showing empathy goes a long way in building personal relationships as well as connections at work and at school. It will help to build trust among the peers thereby helping us in creating networks.
I believe the concepts can help bring up genuine entrepreneurial ideas that can achieve great success. For example, we discussed client loyalty through relatability. If we can generate ideas that cater to the needs of clients, the ideas will certainly be useful in starting new businesses.
I think the brainstorming part is where ethical considerations lie. If we are a diverse group, then there needs to be an ethical condition of listening to all members equally. Everyone has the right to propose ideas and the final decision should be taken only after careful consideration of all members.
End of Module
Congratulations, you have completed Week 1 of the Explore the Possibilities path where you opened up your project scope to ideas by creating a “How Might We…?” question. Please proceed to Explore the Possibilities Week 2: Really Radical Ideation. At the conclusion of the next module you will be able to:
Generate ideas using constraints.
Generate ideas using sketching.
Select ideas to explore for an open-ended project.
Explore the Possibilities // Really Radical Ideation
You’ve entered the world of idea generation. You know the rules and you’ve practiced brainstorming solo and with your team. Maybe you think you brainstormed enough ideas already. Maybe you’re excited to brainstorm more. Either way, you’ll learn even more brainstorm techniques to leverage different parts of your brain and how you process information with the goal of coming up with some truly wild ideas.
This is time to suspend judgement (and possibly reality) and let your mind go wild. Forget feasibility and how things will work. It’s not often that we give ourselves permission to put an idea out there without knowing how it will work. This is the time and space for that. You’ll take your brainstorming to the next level by trying more brainstorming techniques to push yourself beyond the expected and become an idea-generating machine. You’ll hopefully bring this generative mindset into the idea selection process and consider what ideas will truly delight the person you’re designing for and what ideas are truly wild.
online-course-icons_icon-learning objectives.png
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this module, you will be able to:
Generate ideas using constraints.
Generate ideas using sketching.
Select ideas to explore for an open-ended project.
online-course-icons_icon-group project-1.png Project Teamwork
TEAM GOAL // Generate radical ideas then select a delightful idea and a wild idea
Level 3 Teams: Complete the Team Design Studio Explore the possibilities: Week 2 prompts as a team during your weekly team meeting.
Level 4 Teams: Each team member will follow the Team Design Studio Explore the possibilities: Week 2 prompts. If another team member has already worked on a prompt, review their work and build on it. Continue to the next prompt until your team reaches the weekly goal. Working in this manner does not mean that the first person to contribute does all of the work. You’re taking steps as a team to reach your weekly goal, like a relay race, where you “pass the baton” from one person to the next to reach the finish line.
Module Materials
Practice your ideation skills with a warm-up activity. The link below will take you to a spinner with various prompts. Stop the spinner whenever you want by clicking on it. This will be your prompt. Set a one minute timer and come up with as many ideas as possible to answer that prompt. Capture your ideas somewhere. Forget about feasibility and put down any ideas that come to mind – the more the better!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTsyRGGhB1G13eJHETmOjfkGqdT9UFfmCISX12BRGa2TbK3V-Cqo8FpDt9_9DLp6JuTOIv35zDkA6J1/pub?start=true&loop=true&delayms=1000&slide=id.g9d6853309b_0_176
Module Materials
The goal of radical ideation is to generate as many ideas as possible in a short period of time. The more ideas you have, the better your chances are of coming up with something game-changing. Even “bad,” unrealistic, or silly ideas can lead to something great.
Last week you used the brainstorm rules and time constraints to help you in generating a lot of ideas. This week you’ll try two new techniques designed to help you generate tons of “out of the box” ideas: brainstorming with constraints and brainstorming through sketching, which is another type of constraint.
Team Design Studio Work
Your team goal for this week is to generate radical ideas and narrow them down based on potential. This involves stretching your imagination, having fun, and trying new brainstorm methods.
To reach your team’s goal of creating a “How Might We…?” question and brainstorm ideas, you will work in your Team Design Studio to:
Generate ideas with constraints.
Generate ideas with sketching.
Consolidate ideas each teammate brainstormed individually.
Vote to narrow down your team’s ideas.
Find the corresponding slides for Explore the Possibilities: Week 2 – Really Radical Ideation in your Team’s Design Studio. Collaborate with your team using the distributed working model agreed upon by your team:
Level 3 Teams: Complete the Team Design Studio Module 3 prompts as a team during your weekly team meeting.
Level 4 Teams: Each team member will follow the Team Design Studio Module 3 prompts. If another team member has already worked on a prompt, review their work and build upon it. Continue to the next prompt until your team reaches the weekly goal. Working in this manner does not mean that the first person to contribute does all of the work. You’re taking steps as a team to reach your weekly goal, like a relay race, where you “pass the baton” from one person to the next to reach the finish line.
This was an interesting exercise, complicated, challenging, yet most elucidating. Time limitation and lack of concrete ideas were perhaps some of the most conspicuous challenges experienced. Undeniably, the time offered to generate the ideas was shorter, which affected the quality of the ideas generated during the exercise. I must contend some ideas did not make sense even to me but was still generated using a spinner.
Agreeably, the exercise helped to provide a basis for appreciating the need to explore the multi-dynamics to an issue. I do believe this would help in enhancing my problem-solving skills, especially when faced with a complex problem with multifactorial problems. This would increase decision-making skills.
The concept helped to appreciate the multifactorial nature of complex entrepreneurial problems in making informed decisions. An ideal business environment context requires regular decision-making (Buckley, & Casson, 2019). Apt decision-making demands an ability to generate all the options followed by an appraisal of the same. This is an essential skill in fostering creative decision-making in entrepreneurship.
The only ethical consideration in using the spinner concept is that it is to some extent a trial and era procedure since most of the ideas generated are not thoroughly tested. As a result, when applied, it could lead to unintended consequences. This is particularly true since the ability to appraise various ideas’ feasibility differs from one person to another.
References
Buckley, P., & Casson, M. (2019). Decision-making in international business. Journal of International Business Studies, 50(8), 1424-1439.
End of Module
Congratulations, you have completed Week 2 of the Explore the Possibilities path where you generated a ton of ideas using different brainstorming techniques and then narrowed down on two ideas based on potential (not feasibility!). Please proceed to Explore the Possibilities Week 3: The Essence of an Idea. At the conclusion of the next module you will be able to:
Analyze ideas for potential to meet a human-centered need.
Transform a wild idea into a tangible solution.
Provide constructive feedback to your team using the “I like, I wish” framework.
Explore the Possibilities // Essence of an Idea
Your team generated tons of ideas to answer your “How might we” questions. Some of those ideas might be practical while others might be more radical. Your team was asked to select two ideas: one that will most delight the person you’re designing for and one that’s the wildest. But what’s the value of an idea if it isn’t feasible?
Oftentimes when people brainstorm ideas, they enjoy the process of being creative and offering ideas, regardless of feasibility. Then when it comes time to select an idea, those “wild”, “out there,” and “silly” ideas are often skipped over for more practical ones. In other words, the potential for innovation is overlooked in favor of practicality.
Innovation doesn’t happen through incremental steps. It comes from discovering novel approaches to solving problems, even if those novel approaches aren’t feasible from the start. In this module, your team will learn how to take delightful, wild, and hopefully unfeasible ideas and turn them into something practical while maintaining the aspects that make these ideas intriguing, unexpected, and innovative. You will also have a chance to provide constructive feedback to your team about your collaboration and progress on the design thinking project.
online-course-icons_icon-learning objectives.png
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this module, you will be able to:
Analyze ideas for potential to meet a human-centered need.
Transform a wild idea into a tangible solution.
Provide constructive feedback to your team using the “I like, I wish” framework.
online-course-icons_icon-group project-1.png Project Teamwork
TEAM GOAL // Make a wild idea feasible
Level 3 Teams: Complete the Team Design Studio Explore the possibilities: Week 3 prompts as a team during your weekly team meeting.
Level 4 Teams: Each team member will follow the Team Design Studio Explore the possibilities: Week 3 prompts. If another team member has already worked on a prompt, review their work and build on it. Continue to the next prompt until your team reaches the weekly goal. Working in this manner does not mean that the first person to contribute does all of the work. You’re taking steps as a team to reach your weekly goal, like a relay race, where you “pass the baton” from one person to the next to reach the finish line.
Provide constructive feedback to your team using the “I like, I wish, What if” framework.
Decide how you want to explore your project next: people or solution.
We want to learn more about the people impacted -> Go to Explore Humans: Module 4.
We have a solution in mind for how to solve our problem and want to explore it ->
Taking a wild, potentially unfeasible idea takes thought and a few steps. It involves breaking an idea down to understand its essence, what makes it delightful or intriguing, and then building it back up so that it can live in the real world.
de Ruijter, J. (2018). How to turn crazy ideas into feasible solutions
Team Design Studio Work
Your team goal for this week is to make a wild idea feasible. This involves breaking an idea down to build it back up again with real world constraints.
To reach your team’s goal of making a wild idea feasible, you will work in your Team Design Studio to:
Analyze your team’s ideas from different perspectives.
Bring a delightful and wild idea to life.
Find the corresponding slides for Explore the Possibilities: Week 3 – The Essence of an Idea in your Team’s Design Studio in your Team’s Design Studio. Collaborate with your team using the distributed working model agreed upon by your team:
Level 3 Teams: Complete the Team Design Studio Module 3 prompts as a team during your weekly team meeting.
Level 4 Teams: Each team member will follow the Team Design Studio Module 3 prompts. If another team member has already worked on a prompt, review their work and build upon it. Continue to the next prompt until your team reaches the weekly goal. Working in this manner does not mean that the first person to contribute does all of the work. You’re taking steps as a team to reach your weekly goal, like a relay race, where you “pass the baton” from one person to the next to reach the finish line.
Remember, constructive feedback is feedback that is specific, based on observations, and comes from a place of care. One framework for providing constructive feedback is in the form of “I like…” and “I wish…”. Use the framework of “I like…” and “I wish…” to give constructive feedback to your team in the space provided in your Team Design Studio for this week.
