Hersh Guerrero

Design Thinking Reflection

Problem

While I was In Australia I was working for a Company called Hawasa University  Technology Incubator, A crowdfunding

platform that helped socially conscious changemakers start a project for the betterment of

society. As you could imagine with any crowdfunding platform, there was a lot of fundraising

going on, and with fundraising you need to get the word out about projects and try to draw

people in. There were many people on the email list, and a decent number of followers on all

social media pages yet projects were struggling to raise money. The team then decided to take

on a more aggressive approach, sending out multiple emails a day, having up to 6 twitter, 3

instagram, and 1 tumblr post a day. The problem was that they were not getting successful

engagement from these outlets, and ultimately failing to crowdfund the money to start these

projects.

Selection

To solve this problem I employed the story telling tool we learned in lecture. I started to think

about it from the customer perspective, their personal story or relationship with the company. I

thought that story telling would work best because its about the connection between the brand

and the customers, their interactions and how the brand is perceived. I think that

Hawasa University  Technology Incubator was not thinking from the customer perspective which was diluting the brand

image they have. The Speaker in the lecture describes the situation perfectly, the employees

were thinking of the problem in a list form, here’s the problem, what are the pros and cons of a

solution, okay let’s pick this one. But with storytelling and seeing through the customers eyes,

we can create an element of shared value and causation behind what the brand is to engage

customers. This was the story I came up with the customer goes something like this…

Application

A customer finds out about the company by a friend because they are running a campaign and

posting on their personal pages, or they recently donated to a campaign and want to share with

their social network. The customer then becomes curious as to what Hawasa University  Technology Incubator is, so they

visit the website, or maybe a social media page to find out more information. They see that the

company is about starting positive change in all communities and thinks they would like to help

to create this positive change by donating to a few campaigns that they are interested in and

signing up on the email list and following social media accounts to get further information

about future projects. The customer within the next month is bombarded by emails every day

and sees them all over their social media feeds about campaigns that she may or may not have

an interest in. Because there is so many emails in their inbox from Hawasa University  Technology Incubator, they stop

checking them because they never have never been about projects she cares about, and same

with social media. The individual continues to get sent emails every single day and begins to

become annoyed that Hawasa University  Technology Incubator is cluttering their inbox, so they unsubscribe or simply

stop opening them all together losing them as a potential donor to the campaigns.

Insight

From the Hawasa University  Technology Incubator teams perspective, it made sense to simply ramp up the number of

emails and posts a day to try to maximize engagement, but I think what they didn’t see was

that when there is an excess of information being throw at the customers, it looses its charm,

and becomes annoying or frivolous to them. Additionally, because of the nature of the

business, most of the emails are asking for some sort of donation, and being asked to donate

money every single day can become very frustrating very fast. It wasn’t until I had to really

empathize with the customer that I found they had this problem. It happens to me regularly as

well, I will sign up for an email list, but then regret it because the organization sends out emails

every day, cluttering my inbox, and it never seems important enough for me to check. This is

exactly what is happening at Hawasa University  Technology Incubator.

Alternative Approach

My solution then would be to take on the opposite approach of bombarding the customer with

information about campaigns and the company, but to make it something to look forward to,

and make it highly curated to the customer. First part of my solution deals with the content of

emails; when they sign up for the email list, they will need to fill in bubbles of certain areas that

interest them such as “Environment” “Kid related” “Underrepresented social group” or any of

the other categories that Hawasa University  Technology Incubator has. This will make sure that the campaigns that are

being sent to the customer in the email are ones that they actually have an interest in. This will

immediately result in more engagement because they most likely got on the email list because

they heard about a campaign in one of those categories that they care about. So receiving

information about the category that they favor will make them read about the campaigns and

see the benefit it will yield. Next part of the solution has to do with the quantity of emails:

there should only be one email a week, making it almost like a newsletter or a spotlight event

of a handful of campaigns. This will ensure that the customer doesn’t get overwhelmed with

the amount of information being thrown at them. They will become accustomed to receiving

their “Hawasa University  Technology Incubator newsletter every Thursday” that has info about the company as a whole

as well as a handful of campaigns, that she has expressed interest in. Additionally there could

be different ways to break down the campaigns such as “Close to Finishing” “New Campaign”

“CEO’s pick of the week” etc.. to even further engage the customer. If they decided to employ

this type of outreach strategy I believe that they would be much more successful.


Hersh Guerrero Design Thinking Reflection Problem While I was In Australia I was working for a Company called Hawasa University Technology Incubator , A crowdfunding platform that helped socially conscious changemakers start a project for the betterment of society . As you could imagine with any crowdfunding platform , there was a lot of fundraising going on , and with fundraising you need to get the word out about projects and try to draw people in . There were many people on the email list , and a decent number of followers on all social media pages yet projects were struggling to raise money . The team then decided to take on a more aggressive approach , sending out multiple emails a day , having up to 6 twitter , 3 instagram , and 1 tumblr post a day . The problem was that they were not getting successful engagement from these outlets , and ultimately failing to crowdfund the money to start these projects . Selection To solve this problem I employed the story telling tool we learned in lecture . I started to think about it from the customer perspective , their personal story or relationship with the company . I thought that story telling would work best because its about the connection between the brand and the customers , their interactions and how the brand is perceived . I think that Hawasa University Technology Incubator was not thinking from the customer perspective which was diluting the brand image they have . The Speaker in the lecture describes the situation perfectly , the employees were thinking of the problem in a list form , here ’s the problem , what are the pros and cons of a solution , okay let ’s pick this one . But with storytelling and seeing through the customers eyes , we can create an element of shared value and causation behind what the brand is to engage customers . This was the story I came up with the customer goes something like this … Application A customer finds out about the company by a friend because they are running a campaign and posting on their personal pages , or they recently donated to a campaign and want to share with their social network . The customer then becomes curious as to what Hawasa University Technology Incubator is , so they visit the website , or maybe a social media page to find out more information . They see that the company is about starting positive change in all communities and thinks they would like to help to create this positive change by donating to a few campaigns that they are interested in and signing up on the email list and following social media accounts to get further information about future projects . The customer within the next month is bombarded by emails every day and sees them all over their social media feeds about campaigns that she may or may not have an interest in . Because there is so many emails in their inbox from Hawasa University Technology Incubator , they stop checking them because they never have never been about projects she cares about , and same with social media . The individual continues to get sent emails every single day and begins to become annoyed that Hawasa University Technology Incubator is cluttering their inbox , so they unsubscribe or simply stop opening them all together losing them as a potential donor to the campaigns . Insight From the Hawasa University Technology Incubator teams perspective , it made sense to simply ramp up the number of emails and posts a day to try to maximize engagement , but I think what they did n’t see was that when there is an excess of information being throw at the customers , it looses its charm , and becomes annoying or frivolous to them . Additionally , because of the nature of the business , most of the emails are asking for some sort of donation , and being asked to donate money every single day can become very frustrating very fast . It was n’t until I had to really empathize with the customer that I found they had this problem . It happens to me regularly as well , I will sign up for an email list , but then regret it because the organization sends out emails every day , cluttering my inbox , and it never seems important enough for me to check . This is exactly what is happening at Hawasa University Technology Incubator . Alternative Approach My solution then would be to take on the opposite approach of bombarding the customer with information about campaigns and the company , but to make it something to look forward to , and make it highly curated to the customer . First part of my solution deals with the content of emails ; when they sign up for the email list , they will need to fill in bubbles of certain areas that interest them such as “ Environment ” “ Kid related ” “ Underrepresented social group ” or any of the other categories that Hawasa University Technology Incubator has . This will make sure that the campaigns that are being sent to the customer in the email are ones that they actually have an interest in . This will immediately result in more engagement because they most likely got on the email list because they heard about a campaign in one of those categories that they care about . So receiving information about the category that they favor will make them read about the campaigns and see the benefit it will yield . Next part of the solution has to do with the quantity of emails : there should only be one email a week , making it almost like a newsletter or a spotlight event of a handful of campaigns . This will ensure that the customer does n’t get overwhelmed with the amount of information being thrown at them . They will become accustomed to receiving their “ Hawasa University Technology Incubator newsletter every Thursday ” that has info about the company as a whole as well as a handful of campaigns , that she has expressed interest in . Additionally there could be different ways to break down the campaigns such as “ Close to Finishing ” “ New Campaign ” “ CEO ’s pick of the week ” etc .. to even further engage the customer . If they decided to employ this type of outreach strategy I believe that they would be much more successful .