Reflection – Visualization

Fareed Ponce

Challenge and Selection  As I enrolled to the online course of Design Thinking for Innovation, I was briefed about four tools  used in the design thinking process that could aid in development of innovative products and  services. And these four tools were: Visualization tool, Story telling tool, Mind mapping tool, and  Learning launch tool. The good thing about these tools are, that they can be used to solve any  problem and are not just restricted to one domain or industry. And hence these can be called as  universal problem-solving tools.

Going further, I wish to reflect on my experiences using the Visualization tool in product  development. Me and my group of friends had freshly graduated and were fascinated by the things  happening in the electric vehicle (EV) space across the world and in India. There were too many EV  start-ups mushrooming in Bengaluru, the IT capital of India. We wanted to study if we could use our  expertise in automobile and electrical engineering to get onto this bandwagon.

Application  As fresh graduates, we lacked the domain expertise in the EV field as most of our curriculum was  related to Internal Combustion (IC) engines and related components. So, the first thing that we did  was to research about the heart and soul of an EV, the motor and the batteries. We contacted a few  start-ups, watched a YouTube videos on EVs, read books on electronics and electricals, understood  about batteries and their nature at different temperatures. And collated all the necessary data into a  file on Google drive which was always accessible to everyone anytime.

When we met to discuss, we would use simple tools such as stick figures, arrows, and basic  geometrical figures to make each other understand the complexities involved and made sure we  were on the same page.  Most of the time pen and paper was used to visualise the intricacies and  not any complicated design or animation software. We used storyboards to understand the various  requirements at different stages to potential customers.

After completing the exercise of narrowing down on the motor and the battery along with a suitable  Battery Management System (BMS) we moved ahead with the next task of designing the actual  motorcycle. We considered various market trends, used pictures of various EV motorcycles as well as  concept motorcycles from various manufacturers as reference pictures and decided to design our  own motorcycle with “Futuristic” as the design theme.

Post completion of multiple iterations to the design of the motorcycle, which involved numerous  meetings and discussions to envision the motorcycle, we did a complete cost analysis to produce a  thousand electric motorcycles a year. This analysis made us realise the requirements of funds and  resources involved in manufacturing the motorcycle which was not very feasible financially.

After all this, the team decided not to pursue the manufacturing of the motorcycle as the market  was not mature enough and the EV manufacturers in the two-wheeler segment had not turned any  profit even after years of operation. And the detailed plan is still awaiting to be revived once the  market conditions favour the purpose and vision of the team.

And yes, this is how me and my friends used design thinking without knowing what design thinking is  to develop the futuristic electric motorcycle.

Insight and Approach  And now, after completing the Design Thinking for Innovation course, I feel that I am equipped with  the right knowledge which could help me in avoiding group think and visualise the problem  scenarios with probable solutions to tackle problems in shorter time.

The major take away of using the visualization tool is that we can just use simpler tools such as a  whiteboard and marker pen or just a paper and pencil to communicate with our peers to make sure  the ideas and the explanations are better understood by everyone without using expensive and  fancy software.

