Example reflection – Storytelling, Mind mapping & visualization

Challenge and selection

In this case I’m going to talk about how I have used storytelling, mind mapping and visualization  and the applications that have resulted from using them in one of my entrepreneurial projects since  the beginning of my youth.

I find it very funny that I’ve applied most of the design thinking tools without even being aware that  this concept even existed. To give a little bit of context, the example that I will talk about goes all  the way back when I was 16 years old and decided to open my very own business. I was just  beginning my first year of high school and started to discover how the world works, how many  problems there are to solve and that you can actually contribute in the solution of a specific problem  through entrepreneurship. I’m convinced that, as we saw in this course, one of the main goals of  business is to solve problems through value delivery.

To continue with the background context, I live in a country that has a huge problem with obesity  within children population and given that junk food is unfortunately VERY popular and almost an  actual part of children’s diet in my country, the problem is in plain sight.

In short, I decided to open a vending machine business that would provide healthy food not only for  children, but for all ages, no matter if you’re in high school, university, in an office or in a factory,  my goal with this business is and always will be to contribute to this national issue through healthy  food for everyone.

The thing here is how did I started the business without having my parents funding it? That’s exactly  how storytelling, visualization and mind mapping ended up having a crucial role during my  entrepreneurial journey.

Turns out that just about 2 weeks after having the actual idea of the healthy vending machines my  high school principal announced that the school had a project with a business incubator and that if  enough students were to participate, the project would go on. And so, it happened, I registered my  project and they accepted my idea. The problem was that I had just 2 months to make up a business  plan and everything necessary to pull it through. I started from scratch.

Application

This is when visualization comes into place because I spent nights thinking about different designs,  software functions but nothing came through until I started actually drawing it. I drew the vending  machine design like 30 times and made a pre-prototype of it with a 3D printer. Then I built a 6-foot- tall vending machine out of styrofoam. Then I started to draw how the software (mobile app) of the  vending machine should look like, but unfortunately, I didn’t have enough programing skills at the  time, so I found one on the Appstore that suited my needs.

I got the chance to have 2 mentors, which were very experienced in the business world and helped  me through the process. During that process I learned things that are just coming up in my university  (business school) classes and lectures. Anyway, I applied visualization and even Mind mapping  while I was building the entire business model and I think I can assure that it is very helpful because  it lets you visualize an idea and allows others to collaborate, work and add value to the idea itself.

In short, I’m convinced that those 2 design tools had a definitive impact on what my business looks  like till this day, even during COVID-19 times in which like many of you, I’ve been having to deal with  a lot of tough decisions.

Getting back to the main subject, here’s how I got from having no money for my business idea to  where I’m now, almost 4 years later; the business incubator president told us that there was going  to be a “Shark Tank” – like contest, in which all participants would pitch their business ideas and the  winner would get a partnership with the investors so that the business idea could go on.

Just a couple of weeks before the event, once I had everything in order, meaning: the business  model, the vending machine’s designs, the mobile app, corporate logos, the food suppliers and  many other functionalities and benefits of using the service and products that the potential  customers could experience, plus the financial projections (the viability of the business plan).

I had to come up with a way of explaining such a relatively complicated and new idea (vending  machines with sophisticated tech were not that common at the time in my country) to 6  “sharks”/investors in less than 5 minutes. So, imagine yourself with 16 years of age, in a business  center with around 200 people looking at you and 6 investors questioning your idea every 30  seconds and having time pressure…. wasn’t easy, but eventually I won the contest. More of that in  just a second.

Previously, when I was thinking about how was I gona explain/pitch the idea I came up with what  now I known as storytelling, again, at the time I had no even a clue that the term existed, but during  my pitch in the business incubator I told the story of how I came up with the idea, what problem  was I trying to solve, how people would use it and the benefits the idea had for the customer both  in health and in practicality. All of that in a way that the investors and attendees could imagine a  story in their heads and at the same time everyone could get the overall idea of how the business  would work.

Insight and approach

After a few hours the investors reviewed all of the ideas from all of the participants and after they  told me that my project got selected, I asked them in private, why me? And they said: “you were  the only participant that really had a purpose, a problem to solve and the only one that knew how  to convey an idea for everyone to understand”.

Since then, I’ve been growing my business and helped a lot of people from my city to better their  health and change their diets to have a better lifestyle and avoid health issues in the long term, all  thanks to these design thinking tools.

Now, with what I have learned during this course, I’ll apply the concepts in my university and future  entrepreneurial projects that will surely have the purpose to solve problems and contribute to  stakeholders wellbeing.

This course made me more aware of how design thinking could be used as a tool not only for creating  a new product or service, but as a way of solving problems in your lifestyle and in whatever  occupation you may have. I’m thankful for this course and the professors that participated in it,

because having this knowledge at my young age opens a whole lot of possibilities that can turn into  opportunities for me to keep on contributing into creating a better society.

Kind regards.

