Product to help undergraduates navigate non-tech placements  Design Thinking Tools used- Learning Launch and Mind Maps

Challenge

As a part of my duty as a mentor to the senior year undergraduates, I consider myself responsible for  helping the students in getting a job or bagging an internship. The branch of engineering I am  associated with does not have a software development as a requisite course and hence more often  than not people tend to choose non-tech profiles for placements. During my time as the placement  coordinator of the branch, I noticed that while the students have aspirations of making it big in their  interviews, they often lack the resources/guidance to do so. I realised that the challenge was to  educate students well in advance about the incoming challenges and guide them how to crack the  interviews in the most efficient and practical way possible.

Selection

Owing to the pandemic situation, meeting and conducting workshops for better penetrability of the  subject was not possible and hence I had to choose to write a blog enlisting the various resources  and personal tips and guidance on how to navigate non-tech placements for undergraduates. During  this process, I used 2 design thinking tools, i.e. Mind Mapping – during the structuring of the blog;  Learning Launch – to test the reach of my blog in order to further make plans of making the service  into a product for a wider audience.

Application

During the preparation of mind maps, I tried to establish a relation between what a company wants  from an employee and what the interviewer’s expectations from the candidate are. On listing  several attributes like analytical thinking, communication skills, negotiation skills, etc. I tried to  correlate the attributes with the methods required to test them in an interview and hence tried to  research about the materials or books which provide help or guidance to practice and perfect these  methods.

The learning launch was an essential part to test the reach and get feedback on the idea. By applying  the learning launch tool, I released a blogpost consisting of all the major resources/guidance to get a  non-tech placement and released it on a social networking site called Medium. Next, I tried to  increase the reach of the post by social media sharing and also sending it to the faculty in charge of  the department to disseminate information to the students.

Insights

While the mind maps helped me to structure my thoughts perfectly in a blogpost, the learning  launch helped me get a variety of insights from major stakeholders. I received suggestions from  people outside my network who read the post and hence was made aware of the skill gap in the  undergraduates in terms of business communication skills and ethics. I realised that to make a  product out of this idea would require me to mentor the students on a one-to-one basis with a small  batch size and in a single engineering branch and then further scale it to the other colleges by  introducing a social network or peer groups methodology.

Approach

After the completion of the learning launch process, I have decided to act upon the inputs given to  me by the readers of the blogpost. One of the most important inputs given was to first elaborate

about my experience of the interviews and to entail how I bagged a placement offer from the  company so as to ensure my credibility. Secondly, future launch designs will comprise of a more  interactive manner of learning by personally mentoring a batch of 20 students and monitoring their  skill growth and overall development to become employable.

This design thinking course has helped me a lot in structuring the ideas and efficiently portraying the  ideas.


Product to help undergraduates navigate non - tech placements Design Thinking Tools used- Learning Launch and Mind Maps Challenge As a part of my duty as a mentor to the senior year undergraduates , I consider myself responsible for helping the students in getting a job or bagging an internship . The branch of engineering I am associated with does not have a software development as a requisite course and hence more often than not people tend to choose non - tech profiles for placements . During my time as the placement coordinator of the branch , I noticed that while the students have aspirations of making it big in their interviews , they often lack the resources / guidance to do so . I realised that the challenge was to educate students well in advance about the incoming challenges and guide them how to crack the interviews in the most efficient and practical way possible . Selection Owing to the pandemic situation , meeting and conducting workshops for better penetrability of the subject was not possible and hence I had to choose to write a blog enlisting the various resources and personal tips and guidance on how to navigate non - tech placements for undergraduates . During this process , I used 2 design thinking tools , i.e. Mind Mapping – during the structuring of the blog ; Learning Launch – to test the reach of my blog in order to further make plans of making the service into a product for a wider audience . Application During the preparation of mind maps , I tried to establish a relation between what a company wants from an employee and what the interviewer ’s expectations from the candidate are . On listing several attributes like analytical thinking , communication skills , negotiation skills , etc . I tried to correlate the attributes with the methods required to test them in an interview and hence tried to research about the materials or books which provide help or guidance to practice and perfect these methods . The learning launch was an essential part to test the reach and get feedback on the idea . By applying the learning launch tool , I released a blogpost consisting of all the major resources / guidance to get a non - tech placement and released it on a social networking site called Medium . Next , I tried to increase the reach of the post by social media sharing and also sending it to the faculty in charge of the department to disseminate information to the students . Insights While the mind maps helped me to structure my thoughts perfectly in a blogpost , the learning launch helped me get a variety of insights from major stakeholders . I received suggestions from people outside my network who read the post and hence was made aware of the skill gap in the undergraduates in terms of business communication skills and ethics . I realised that to make a product out of this idea would require me to mentor the students on a one - to - one basis with a small batch size and in a single engineering branch and then further scale it to the other colleges by introducing a social network or peer groups methodology . Approach After the completion of the learning launch process , I have decided to act upon the inputs given to me by the readers of the blogpost . One of the most important inputs given was to first elaborate about my experience of the interviews and to entail how I bagged a placement offer from the company so as to ensure my credibility . Secondly , future launch designs will comprise of a more interactive manner of learning by personally mentoring a batch of 20 students and monitoring their skill growth and overall development to become employable . This design thinking course has helped me a lot in structuring the ideas and efficiently portraying the ideas .