#yay i did it! this is a very fun activity. like journaling but tougher

[newttxt]

here are my 2025 hourlies from yesterday!

[seventytwoandsunny]

Process Journal #9: Process Reflection

Yay! We made it. Phew.

Overall, it was quite fun to go through this whole process with an awesome team of creative minds.

Here is an overview of my thoughts on the creative problem solving process step by step:

Acceptance - We were pretty lucky when it came to picking a topic for our group project. I have to thank Tegan for paying $14 for a Postmates Starbucks coffee that day and inspiring our project. We came to a decision pretty quickly and we were all very “gung-ho” about it. However, there are always room for improvements. I believe there could be some idea generating games or brainstorming activities that could be included to kind of get the conversation rolling if necessary. Sometimes breaking the ice when it comes to group work is a tough step and could use some assistance.

Analysis - I really liked this step just the way it is. Our team mind mapped everything and came up with a great four-branch map that we were able to successfully transfer into a morphological analysis, which I thought was really useful tool for idea generation. I think this step should stay “as is.”

Definition - I found this step a bit more difficult than originally anticipated. Perhaps I was just tired in the moment, but this didn’t come to me as easily as I wish it did. We each came up with our own idea and then combined them to create a straight forward problem definition. Coming up with a single sentence with four people was a bit difficult, but we accomplished it nicely. This step doesn’t have a whole lot of room for improvement since it is so direct.

Ideation - This step reminded me a lot of analysis but more directed. Its super fun to come up with a bunch of fun ideas. I think it would be helpful to have a more specific way to narrow down the ideas, but our process of individually selecting our top five then our top three was pretty effective it picking out the best ideas from the bunch.

Selection - Overall, I think this step was the hardest for our group to complete, which is interesting because it seems so straight forward. Having to pick the best idea was a tougher challenge than expected since we had three really fun ideas. However, we decided to weigh out the pros and cons and that was a big help. I think this should be a mandatory part of the process, at least for my process, since it is always important to see both sides of the possibilities.

Implementation - I’m not sure if a business canvas was the best approach for what we were trying to accomplish, but it was a great exercise to consider all aspects of this idea as a business. Personally, I thought scholarships were a 100% non-profit type of deal so I learned a lot about this topic during this step, which is a positive.

Evaluation - I think this part of the process should come significantly after the implementation process has taken effect and there is something to actually analyze. I kind of still feel we are in this part of the process, and it’s a bit difficult to tell how we did yet. I think we did a pretty damn good job though!!

Overall, I think this is an effective process for problem solving in the modern world. Some steps could be combined like analysis and definition. I feel those two steps go together naturally and it was a bit strange to break them up. Same with ideation and selection. A great experience overall though!

And again... YAY!! We did it!