Murugesan Fawzy  Coursera - Design Thinking

3 April 2018

Design Thinking Reflection

Tool: Mindmapping

Challenge

The company I work for is in the education technology business, and we are constantly

working to provide schools, teachers, students and their parents across the country with

solutions to support 21st century teaching and learning. Our challenge is that we tend to

create solutions for these user groups that end up being something we THINK they need or

want, but the end result shows that there are other solutions that they ﬁnd more helpful.

Selection

The tool that I have decided to use with our team is mind mapping, inspired by the

“Mind Mapping Tool” video in Week 3. This tool was selected because we believed it to be

the most important in identifying emerging patterns that we previously missed, from all of the

feedback, insight, and data that we previously gathered; mind mapping, we believed, was the

preferred tool for us to create a common mind and understand the “what is” of the

situation.

Application and Insight

To apply this tool, we gathered members from all teams (some were Marketing, some

were Operations, while others were from the Partnerships Team as well). We locked down in

that room for an hour and used post-its to write down all of the user feedback and insight that

we have heard/seen through previous interactions with our own stakeholders. For example,

the Partnerships Team noted down insights they had gathered about our end-users through

discussions with our corporate partners, whereas the Marketing Team provided insight

gathered through feedback they collected from their various marketing campaigns.

DESIGN THINKING REFLECTION �1

With all post-its stuck on a primary whiteboard, we took a quick break before returning

to the meeting room to start identifying connections and ideas that we have missed in the

past. Things that we did not consider before suddenly became crystal clear to all of us, which

meant that we found gaps we could ﬁll more accurately instead of adding features to our

solutions that we ASSUMED people wanted or needed.

Having said that, we also understood that our approach towards using this tool had one

ﬂaw: we were relying on secondary feedback. This feedback was not directly collected from

our end users, it was collected from our internal team member’s and our partners’

interactions with end users.

In order to generate more accurate insight, we realised there was one change we needed

to apply to our approach.

Approach

Using the same methods explained above, we have recently tried including actual end-

users in the process. It wasn’t always easy since we would have to identify and invite teachers,

parents and students to our ofﬁces but so far its been a very illuminating experience. These

end users would also go through the process with our team members, using post-its to put

down their thoughts and then stick it on a board where we could produce a mind map and

identify emerging patterns.

We are quite hopeful for the future in using these tools for our processes, so that we can

make our solutions much more user-centred than they’ve ever been before.

DESIGN THINKING REFLECTION �2


Murugesan Fawzy Coursera - Design Thinking 3 April 2018 Design Thinking Reflection Tool : Mindmapping Challenge The company I work for is in the education technology business , and we are constantly working to provide schools , teachers , students and their parents across the country with solutions to support 21st century teaching and learning . Our challenge is that we tend to create solutions for these user groups that end up being something we THINK they need or want , but the end result shows that there are other solutions that they ﬁnd more helpful . Selection The tool that I have decided to use with our team is mind mapping , inspired by the “ Mind Mapping Tool ” video in Week 3 . This tool was selected because we believed it to be the most important in identifying emerging patterns that we previously missed , from all of the feedback , insight , and data that we previously gathered ; mind mapping , we believed , was the preferred tool for us to create a common mind and understand the “ what is ” of the situation . Application and Insight To apply this tool , we gathered members from all teams ( some were Marketing , some were Operations , while others were from the Partnerships Team as well ) . We locked down in that room for an hour and used post - its to write down all of the user feedback and insight that we have heard / seen through previous interactions with our own stakeholders . For example , the Partnerships Team noted down insights they had gathered about our end - users through discussions with our corporate partners , whereas the Marketing Team provided insight gathered through feedback they collected from their various marketing campaigns . DESIGN THINKING REFLECTION � 1 With all post - its stuck on a primary whiteboard , we took a quick break before returning to the meeting room to start identifying connections and ideas that we have missed in the past . Things that we did not consider before suddenly became crystal clear to all of us , which meant that we found gaps we could ﬁll more accurately instead of adding features to our solutions that we ASSUMED people wanted or needed . Having said that , we also understood that our approach towards using this tool had one ﬂaw : we were relying on secondary feedback . This feedback was not directly collected from our end users , it was collected from our internal team member ’s and our partners ’ interactions with end users . In order to generate more accurate insight , we realised there was one change we needed to apply to our approach . Approach Using the same methods explained above , we have recently tried including actual end- users in the process . It was n’t always easy since we would have to identify and invite teachers , parents and students to our ofﬁces but so far its been a very illuminating experience . These end users would also go through the process with our team members , using post - its to put down their thoughts and then stick it on a board where we could produce a mind map and identify emerging patterns . We are quite hopeful for the future in using these tools for our processes , so that we can make our solutions much more user - centred than they ’ve ever been before . DESIGN THINKING REFLECTION � 2