nromans

[nromans]

Process Journal : Implementation, Part 02

Reflect on how you and your team spent the week iterating on your solution. What were some of the success, and failure points? Did you have to pivot your idea? How did you generate visual assets for your solution? How can you put these to use in your final presentation materials? Summarize those thoughts in a new post in your process journal.

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This week we are continuing the implementation process to further define and concept our solution. Last week we had two directions still on the table so this week our group focused on choosing a single solution and defining what that looks like.

Reflecting on the process thus far, I think this week I hit a wall in motivation. I am reading a book right now that brings up the idea that there is pros and cons to spending too much time brainstorming and concepting. It discusses a "threshold" of brainstorming where at a certain point your brain starts to believe it's completing actionable work towards the solution on a project when in reality you're just concepting and not completing the actual work. I thought this was interesting because with this project being strung out over many weeks, I definitely feel like we have completed a fair amount of work towards the solution when in reality we haven't begun the actual final project yet. I see and understand both sides of the pros and cons but thought it was an interesting point around productivity.

[nromans]

Process Journal: Implementation, Part 01

Reflect on the methods and techniques that your group plans to use to communicate the ways that your project should be implemented and summarize those thoughts in a new post in your process journal. How do you most effectively pitch your idea to various stakeholders? How do you visually communicate the objects, environments, systems, processes, and interactions involved in your project implementation.

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This week we began the implementation process of our solution. Along the way we ended up with two solution directions for our problem. The first being a marketplace approach where we built a platform for buying and selling the models but we don't actually have any involvement in the models themselves. The second being a platform for creating and designing models and subsequently purchasing the models for print. As a group we felt both approaches were different but good themselves so we took the approach of discussing with others to see which we should move forward with.

Reflecting on this phase of the process, I think I realized how difficult it is to communicate an idea . In our group meetings we were all very clear about what our two pathways were but communicating those in class turn out to be harder than we had imagined. I'm not sure it was coming across as clearly as we had anticipated. It made it clear that moving forward having some sort of visual will be helpful when conveying our ideas in class or to others outside our group.

[nromans]

Problem Statement : Personal Journal

With the emergence of 3D models within the fashion industry, it brings up a lot of questions as to how these will be used in the future. Will the items continue to be sold as already printed? Or will they begin to be sold as digital models, allowing the customer to print themselves. This opens a door to open-source customization opportunities. How would these models be sold? Are there any cyber security risks? What are the pros and cons to this? 

Team Problem Statement : 

Clothes have the ability to allow you to reflect your personality and communicate who you are. People don't have the ability to be their best selves because we are pulling from mass produced clothes. Alongside this the ability to customize patterns and clothing for those who have experience has not evolved with modern technology. As such the everyday person cannot reflect their true self while being eco conscious and avoiding fast fashion without extensive effort and fashion design knowledge. 

Team Solution (in progress) : 

To Combat this we would like to create a platform to sell 3D model patterns for clothes items. Choice in material and other variations allows for customizability. There is a future  opportunity for these items to be made at home with the right technology. In the meantime, they can be printed at speciality locations. 

[nromans]

Unit 09 _ Conjunction Junction

01 _ My Desk

a. My desk is made of wood and metal and glass. It is large and can fit all my things for work and school.

b. My desk is made of wood primarily but has a glass top with metal legs. It is large enough in size to hold all my things for work and school but small enough that it doesn’t take up the whole room.

02 _ My Slippers

a. My slippers are white and fuzzy and good quality. They are from Amazon and came quickly. 

b. My slippers are white but don’t get too dirty. They are inexpensive but good quality.

03 _ San Francisco

a. San Francisco has many temperatures, it is cold and hot and foggy and sunny. It is home to local people and people from other cities. 

b. San Francisco is cold and foggy but sometimes hot and sunny. It is home to a lot of local San Francisco people, but also a lot of people from other cities.

04 _ Yellow

a. The color yellow is happy and bright and inviting. It can also be mellow and calming and subtle. 

b. The color yellow is happy, bright, inviting but also mellow, calm, subtle.

05 _ My Dad

a. My Dad has lived in Seattle, London and San Francisco. He is outgoing and kind and sometimes shy. 

b. My Dad lived in Seattle but now lives in San Francisco. He is outgoing but sometimes shy. 

[nromans]

Unit 8 _ Analysis

Our group decided to focus on the intersection of 3D printing and the fashion industry. This topic is something no one in our group have previously explored so it has been very interesting as we gain more understanding and connections surrounding the topic. As we compile research, articles and case studies, we are finding more and more interesting avenues of exploration. Connection to security, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, etc.

At first we struggled with how to even approach the research but as we began, more avenues started to emerge. Similar to methods discussed in lecture, our brain dump approach ended up being effective in helping us gain a wider picture of topics surrounding or connected to 3D printing.

Some of the areas we are researching on include...

Security and distribution of digital models

Cost of materials and production

Impacts on inventory management

Current use cases and case studies

Customization ability

Sustainability impacts

Open source collaboration

and more...

We are lucky that this topic has been widely explored and written about for the last decade. There are no shortage of resources from a wide range of authors and platforms on the topic.

[nromans]

Unit 8 _ Acceptance

POTENTIAL IMPACTS

Our group decided to focus on the intersection of 3D printing and the fashion industry. While at first this doesn't seem like it would directly impact too much, I do work in the fashion industry. The more I research, the more I realize the implications could greatly transform the industry, how clothes are manufacturing and marketed. I don't think it's an immediate impact to worry about, but it's definitely something over the next decade or so that will likely cause ripple effects.

By taking on this project, I think I will learn a lot more than I currently know is possible with 3D printing. I consider being aware of the progress and current use cases of 3D printing is something valuable to not only my day-to-day, but my future professional experiences.

ACCEPTANCE AS A TOOL

Much what we learned about in lecture this week relates to the Stoic practices I try to evoke in both my personal and professional life. There was a common thread of knowing and accepting what you have control or influence over and know what you don't. I believe this can help in both not getting overwhelmed by things you can't control, but also aiming to do your best and apply your influence in the areas you can impact.

With regard to this group project, as a group we are very clear that we want to set expectations early, so we can all put our best effort forward in the areas we want to influence. This topic is something none of us have previously explored, so it has been interesting as we gain more understanding and connections surrounding the topic.

[nromans]

Unit 03 _ Creative Problem Solving Interviews

Interview three (3) individuals. Ask them to respond to these two questions:

How do you generate ideas? (How, when, and where are you inspired? What inspires you? What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?)

What process(es) do you use to solve problems? (Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation.)

A 28-year-old Consultant

01. How do you generate ideas? (How, when, and where are you inspired? What inspires you? What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?)

In a work setting, a lot of the ideas that we work through don't need to be brand new. We can often get to a better outcome by using ideas that have worked well for other companies in the past, even if they are companies in different industries and maybe in a different country. No need to reinvent the wheel! We're a global firm and try to codify the situation, complications, and results of projects we do to make it easy for other people in the firm to reference. So my first step in idea generation is typically to look at our internal library to see if I can find similar situations to what my client is in and see what has been done before. There are usually follow up questions I have when I'm reading through the other case examples, so I may reach out to someone from that team (usually I haven't met them) and ask to chat on the phone. I will also look up who the internal experts are in the firm - these are often senior people who have seen similar types of problems and have good pattern recognition, or have a really good understanding of the nuances of a particular industry. Scheduling a call with an expert and the rest of my team can be a really helpful step in beginning to get our creative juices flowing. From there once we feel we have collected a lot of the firm's internal knowledge on a topic, we may have team whiteboarding session or two to discuss our ideas. Most of our best ideas come about through collaboration. Once we have a draft, we'll show what we have to different stakeholders - first external, then our clients, and go through multiple rounds of iteration until we have something well tailored to the client needs. Often an obstacle we face is resistance by our clients of trying something new that they haven't done before. So whenever we have an idea, we spend about half the time getting the idea right, and half the time talking about the right way to socialize the idea to maximize the chance that it will be received well.

02. What process(es) do you use to solve problems? (Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation.)

First, we lay out the key questions that we are going to focus on. Often times there are many problems going on at one time, so we try to hone in to what the key few are that we're trying to solve. If it isn't in the key questions, we aren't going to focus on it. From there, we begin with a hypothesis. It's totally ok if the hypothesis ends up wrong, and it often does, but we typically form one pretty early on in the problem solving process. From there, we come up with sub-assertions that would need to be true in order for the hypothesis to be true. This makes proving (or disproving) the hypothesis feel like a more manageable task when you break it up into its component parts. It also makes it easier to divide the work up among team members. Different teamlets can be responsible for different sub-assertions that roll up into the main hypothesis. We then decide how we are going to prove each sub-assertion. Before we go off and do the work, we make sure everyone is in alignment about the approach. We are looking for confirmation that if the sub-assertions were true, everyone would feel good that the main hypothesis was true, and also that the activities we have proposed to prove the sub-assertions would give people confidence that the sub-assertions were true. This is an important step so you don't spend time doing work that isn't directly tied to the key questions and hypothesis. Once we have agreement on the approach, everyone goes off to work on their part of the answer. We remain in daily communications across the teamlets because often we learn things that will be useful for another teamlet to know. As we learn more, we frequently pull up as a team and discuss what we've learned about each of the sub-assertions and the main hypothesis, and we adjust based on what we now know to be true. This process continues until we have completed all the agreed upon activities and have refined the hypothesis and sub-assertions to reflect everything we've learned.

A 62-year-old Tech Board Member, Former CMO

01. How do you generate ideas? (How, when, and where are you inspired? What inspires you? What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?)

a. Think of the problem from as many perspectives as possible

b. Involve more minds than just your own

c. Try to think as unconstrained as possible. Are you letting some assumptions narrow your view of possible solutions?

02. What process(es) do you use to solve problems? (Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation.)

a. Frame the problem. Do this as insightfully as possible, with the insights backed by data. This may take time, but is important because if you skip this step you may end up addressing the wrong root cause of the problem.

b. Frame the solution. Once you know what the root cause is that you need to fix, map out a plan for doing so…complete with an approach and a timeline

c. Frame the risks and requirements. What do you need to execute the solution and what are the risks?

A 26 year old Corporate Event Planner

01. How do you generate ideas? (How, when, and where are you inspired? What inspires you? What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?)

As an event manager, I am constantly generating ideas from my day to day life. I get a lot of my decor inspiration from fashion and interior design trends. There is a lot of crossover between these categories when designing an event (colors, fabrics, patterns, shape, style etc.) When it comes to activations at events I get a lot of my inspiration from activities that I do outside of work along with current pop culture. It also wouldn’t be 2021 if I didn’t get inspiration from social media. It is part of our job to take lots of photos of our events so it helps looking at other event managers/planners and the events that they put on. A lot of the times it will help spark a different idea that maybe you weren’t thinking about.

I would say one big obstacle is budget. When working with a client and their budget it can be difficult because you want to deliver the best possible options for each and every client but sometimes that just isn’t possible and you have to get creative to stay within their budget. As much as this is a challenge, I absolutely love being creative and over delivering on little things when I can.

02. What process(es) do you use to solve problems? (Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation.)

One of my most essential steps in problem solving is collaborating with my colleagues. Since we are event managers at a venue rather than an event management company, a lot of the issues that we run into our logistical to the venue. It is great to bounce ideas off of colleagues that maybe have gone through the same thing or just have an idea that will help.

[nromans]

Unit 02 : Exploring Creativity

Prompt:  Discuss creativity and what it means to you.

As we’ve seen in this unit, creativity takes many forms and influences throughout our lives. It is an actively evolving topic as we challenge our current beliefs and apply our creative processes to new fields.

To me, creativity is a mindset or a framework for solving problems and finding unique solutions. Creativity, like innovation, requires taking risks and dedicating hard work, and with that, the understanding that you might fail. 

I also see empathy as an integral part of creativity and the creative process. Taking an empathetic perspective is important in developing creative solutions because it gives you a broad understanding of all sides and obstacles. 

In the last ten years, there has definitely been a shift in creativity being defined solely as an expression of traditional artistic talents, to now being more widely understood as an expression of thought and perspective. You can see this in high school “art studios” now being called “innovation labs” or company departments shifting from “art department” to “creative studio”. Our program is a great example of confronting the outdated definition of creativity and applying it in new ways for innovation and discovery.

[nromans]

Unit 01 _ Processes & Perspectives

Mind-Map : How Do You Solve Problems? 

Use a mind-mapping format to visualize the processes you typically go through when solving a problem. Don’t think of a specific problem, but rather share your general approach to problem solving. Elaborate on the sequence of stages involved, required ways of thinking, methods and techniques you use, and any other details that can help flesh out the mindmap to best reflect your process. Have fun, explore your process and take your time!