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Evaluation

For evaluation, our team leaned into proposed improvements, debrief, and formative assessment. We evaluated our process thus far and areas where we can improve for next week, given feedback from weeks prior. We considered our current concept and mockups and assessed the best next steps to bring together a cohesive and compelling message. We broke down our contributions and how that played into our nearly “finalized” product and pitch. We agreed that this week after class would be the perfect opportunity to reconvene on the next steps and fine-tune the mass amount of information we have. We will pick the best flow for our final pitch with several graphs, concepts, mockups, and narratives. We took insight from the other group’s presentation on ways to improve our iterations, story, and flow for next week.

Evaluating our team norms allowed us to reflect on our journey thus far. We all found commonalities in the respect and ease of working together. We did not have conflict arise but realized that we might have become agreeable at times. We could have challenged ideas or presented more options previously. Not saying we don’t like our current iteration or our flow, just an observation we made. The team dynamics have been solid and communicative with even work distribution. Our ideation went smoothly, but the lack of positive conflict may have held back some possible ideas. The analysis was successful and easily digestible for the group. Team dynamics and support held strong through stage 7 of the implementation process.

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Implementation Part 2

Our team took the feedback and input from last week and effectively devised our work this week. We worked well independently and communicated on Slack. This week we each had a lot going on, so we only met on Zoom once over the course of this week. We still effectively communicated what we each were contributing. Throughout the week we asked for feedback and input to ensure all our components were well aligned. We utilized Sky’s mockups from previous weeks to frame the ideas we discussed. Janae and I took on user profiles each with a different interaction with the platform. We took inspiration from situations we have experience in as well as our persona we had created a few weeks back. Chloe and Sky embraced their creativity and crafted a handful of amazing concepts from our collective ideas on how users would interact with the platform, and what features we thought should be implemented. Utilizing the user stories as a guiding post for these visual mockups. These mockups will be critical to selling the full story of what our solution is. Seeing the visual truly showcases the culmination of our ideation process and the true implantation of our work. This week we effecting executed our collaborative efforts and its exciting to see us nearing the final product!

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Implementation Part 1

As the best approach to implementation, my group embraced the moment of truth, the advocate, and performance specifications. We looked at breaking down the idea into smaller, more digestible components that can be more effectively implemented. We talked about a statement of intent and an implementation plan. This went hand in hand with the time and task breakdown in terms of practical implementation. The performance seemed more feasible, and including the advocate would allow us to sell our implementation to stakeholders. We used several diagrams to showcase our thought process and the sequence of steps to implement our new communication tool/ onboarding system effectively. The team has carefully devised practical communication tools to showcase the implementation. We have worked on user stories, information architecture, competitive analysis, service offering map, service blueprint, an updated mockup, and task analysis. These all created a more cohesive picture that allowed us to break down the implementation better and showcase the best use cases and what steps the employer and employee requirements. This also creates a more precise picture for stakeholders and those looking to implement our solution in the future.

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Selection

This week the team narrowed down our three ideas by utilizing a variety of methods from this week’s material. We started by analyzing our ideas and individually contributing to the pros and cons of each idea. Then we compared the pros and cons from each idea. While looking at our pros and cons, finding the most feasible and successful options we looked at the poll from last week’s class. The poll showed idea 1 and 3 with the highest rating which were ideas that we thought could be easily combined to form a more cohesive experience. Analyzing both the pros & cons list as well as the poll we utilized idea potpourri to best combine the two ideas and create a proprietary communication tool that features an inclusive and humanistic onboarding process. We dug into details about the design, proprietary versus integration into an existing service such as Slack. 

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Ideation

As we navigated the ideation process this week, we utilized several of the techniques discussed in this lesson. We re-evaluated our problem statement to try and narrow down a more specific focus since it was broadly stated without a direct problem stated. We embraced brainstorming by individually coming up with our ideas for pain points, succussed, and areas of opportunity. Then coming back together as a group, we discussed our different ideas and evaluated trends or similarities. We debriefed on some of the main points we desired and discussed how to implement these ideas best. We took an attribute weaving approach for our three possible solutions. We evaluated the problem definition and looked at what are sub-attributes could best be contributed as a solution with sub-attributes under those.

Clarifying the team’s problem statement helped keep the group focused and best prepared us for the ideation process. After our individual brainstorming sessions, we found commonalities in many of our solutions. Some standout ideas fell under communication tools, inclusivity events/training/onboarding, and diversity. It was interesting to see how many of our ideas on Miro connected even with independent brainstorming sessions. This week the team really embraced Miro, and it may have made the brainstorming process even easier. The several similar ideas made the team brainstorming session hassle-free and straightforward, quickly narrowing down our top solutions.

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Definition

Our group embraced the talk it out/ write it out technique this week. As we discussed in our various team meeting, we would write down ideas and thoughts as we went. We took the time to throw out ideas and jot them down so we could all see what pros, cons, opportunities, etc that we had all come up with. We each wrote out our own problem statement and then rejoined to discuss and go through each person’s answer. We provided feedback and gained greater clarify by asking questions and looking at it from a different point of view. From there we embraced the key words technique and took a few sentences from everyone’s thoughts and included that into our final group problem statement. We all easily agreed on our audience and the elements of business ethics that best suited the problem statement. We discussed brands that are known for good and bad business ethics and further broke down the positive or negative repercussions. The team analyzed who is affected to narrow down the audience of the problem statement.  

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Personal Problem Statement

Business ethics are an essential element to our workplace and companies we support as consumers. Companies with increased business ethics continue to maintain their workforce, where individuals feel valued, resulting in greater innovative work. Poor business ethics puts the business in reputational, financial, and legal trouble. This results in high turnover, a financial burden to the company, a lack of interest by consumers in the products or services, and a tarnished reputation that is difficult to rebuild. To ensure high levels of business ethics, transparency, safety, and inclusion are of the utmost importance. Transparency means clear communication within department teams, sharing company goals, and ensuring stakeholders and consumers feel a sense of understanding. They are fostering an environment that is safe for all, both online and in-person—evaluating brands such as Patagonia’s ethical standpoint not only on the environmental impact but also on those working in their factories—treating everyone in the brand with respect, competitive wages, and humane working conditions. Compare this sense of responsibility and ethics to that of fast fashion brands such as H&M, where working is in inhumane working conditions for a fraction of the pay. Ensuring a company continues to meet its ethical obligations is critical to the success of the company and the continued support of its employees.

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Analysis Phase

As the group’s acceptance went to analysis, we took on a micro to macro approach. We started with an idea dump and all our initial ideas. The ideas seemed to perfectly define the smaller aspects that affect, the bigger picture of a company’s business ethics. Taking on the data privacy aspect of business ethics was not something I initially thought of before. Following the recent class discussions around general data collection and privacy, it was interesting to view it through a lens from a company’s ethical view. I’ve sought out scholarly articles, news articles, and informative, reliable sources. I discovered that data privacy extends past what we all think of as our personal information or financial data. It encompasses intellectual property and confidential data, as a few other examples. I discovered the company’s moral and ethical implications of data privacy. In an odd turn of events, more of the research suggestions consumers trusted banks and family over local and federal government. Many articles and studies showed that consumers believe the government should be regulating data privacy and security instead of individual companies. Greater insight into employees’ expectations from a company’s data transparency standpoint has shown, especially with people working from home during Covid. Overall, the analysis is intriguing, and our contributions are adding up nicely to our cohesive project.

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Acceptance Phase

I was excited and eager to start this project. I saw the collaborative efforts that could unfold, the ideation, critical thinking, and successful result ahead. There was some uncertainty with the problem ahead but discussing it with the group and including the professor brought greater clarity to the issue or task. The overall group-moral felt motivating and engaging. Personal interest in different aspects of business ethics brought forth this collaborative idea of business ethics and how our other passion points tine in perfectly. Business ethics spills into every part of our life, whether we are aware of it or not—aspects of employee-employer relations, business-customer relationships, and stakeholders. The acceptance stage from a self-interested method establishes a greater foundation in my expectations for a company’s business ethics. It also established a greater sense of personal priorities, finding ways to incorporate the group’s meetings into my chaotic and constantly changing schedule. I am excited for a more comprehensive understanding of business ethics and how it impacts our lives by researching different aspects of data privacy and its effects on business ethics. This will be crucial to my future success as a project manager in the tech industry.

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Creative Problem Solving Interviews

Name: AJ

Industry: Social Media and Digital Marketing specialist with a background in business and photography

Interview Style: Facetime

Summary:

1.    “I feel like it comes in bursts for me, it’s hard to force myself to generate ideas so I just kind of have to let it happen naturally! I feel like I’m the most inspired when I’m working out or listening to music as my mind can be free from everything else in life. The ‘where’ isn’t as important as it’s more about doing those activities that help me be calm enough to use my imagination. The biggest obstacles for me personally can be putting my ideas into words. They can often make a ton of sense in my head, but if I try to tell someone or write it down it can seem vague and unclear. I think the easiest way is just talking with others about it until they understand the idea and it can become more precise and refined!”

2.    “I’m a very stubborn person when it comes to problem-solving and I feel like I think of a solution rapidly in my head and it’s hard for me to stray from it, even if it’s not the easiest solution. I’m not sure if this answers it, but I feel like my process starts internally looking for solutions rather than reaching out to others. I feel like I first try to find the solution on my own, find what I believe is the best, and then adjust as needed. I feel like I only really reach out for advice on problem-solving when I’ve hit a roadblock.”

Name: Kylie

Industry: Business Consultant & MBA student

Interview Style: Phone Call

Summary:

1)    She generates ideas by brainstorming and jotting down her thoughts. Typically, this is when she too is working out, walking or disconnected from the outside world. She is inspired by those around her and by little signs of hope for the future. When coming up with new ideas she struggles when she’s not inspired. She said, typically this has to occur naturally, so forcing idea generation typically does not work for her. In an attempt to come up with new ideas, she tries to clear her head so that she can start idea generation.

2)    In order to solve problems, she brainstorms a number of possible solutions. Then she evaluates each and slowly eliminate the ones that do not seem feasible

Name: Jase

Industry: Journalist & hosts informative/ interview style podcasts with creative individuals in a variety of industries

Interview Style: Phone Call

Summary:

1)    He tries to do something that gets creative juices going, like baking. He said, “It’s easy and simple, but helps to come up with bigger ideas and creative concepts after the first ideas start to flow.” He finds it easiest to generate new ideas at home, where he is comfortable, and pressure is low. If he is faced with an obstacle or hit a lull in the idea, he takes a break to clear his mind and see if something else in the world can inspire him.

2)    When faced with a problem, he tries to think of all the possible scenarios and actions he can take. As a publicist, he said he is “trained to think of the very best and very worst-case scenarios in almost every situation, so it is easy to see extremes, but he always try to fill in the middle. This can be daunting because any problem can have hundreds of possible solutions and outcomes, but I do my best to think through as many as possible.” Once he’s identified the best possible outcomes, he narrows it down to the top few and asks himself what resources/skills are needed to achieve the solution he is looking for. He compares these necessities to the resources/skills he has available, and then selects the option that produces the best possible outcome while also maintaining do-ability based on the assets he has at his disposal.

Key Takeaways & Final Thoughts:

        Through this process I tried to capture individuals in different fields that required different styles of creative problem solving. Each provided a unique way finding a solution. All of which seemed to follow this notation of finding a creative outlet and channeling their energy through means and capabilities that they possess. Only AJ really spoke of seeking outside help when stuck, which is a trait I often use. They all follow this path of analyzing and defining. They then continue into a ideation period and a selection period. They all mention narrowing down their best ideas from the big pool they initial think of. It was interesting to see how those around me creatively problem solve in a way that varies from me.

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Personal Creativity & The Theory Behind It - Exploring Creativity

Creativity is a rather complex culmination of expression, knowledge, passion, and innovation. Creativity is often used to find solutions to unsatisfactory conditions, products, or problems. It sparks curiosity, passion, desire for knowledge, and self-confidence as you invest in your creative solution. I often find myself daydreaming, observing everything around me, inquiring how I can make the world better or simply improve a task.

Many of the attributes that were just described often are associated with the characteristics of creative people. However, there is a deeper explanation for how to be creative and the neuroscience behind it. A search or prep stage occurs that brings for more significant curiosity around a topic, gets attention, and your brain works through the solution. Then comes a memory retraction or that accesses previous events or experiences to build upon. It is finally reaching the eureka moment or sense of the creative output.

To further simplify this concept and put it into my personal perspective and utilization, I keep out knowledge or search for a solution to an arising issue. This can also simply be trying to merely fill a creative outlet, such as when your elementary school teacher hands you a piece of paper and markets. You can leave the blank space or use your creativity to let your ideas come to life and fill the page. I subconsciously draw upon my culture, upbringing, and experiences to showcase Creativity. This idea combines with my passions, resources, and knowledge to produce truly creative and innovative work. Passions play a big part in my creative outlet and my creative contribution to groups. Though it was not highlighted as much in the videos as much as knowledge or ambition, passion is not only a great motivator but a great way to focus your Creativity and find areas to innovate around a topic. This further coincides with having inspiration and your attitude. Passion links well to your attitude. If you are passionate about something, you tend to enjoy it and are drawn to it, resulting in a more immersive and impactful creative outcome.

Through the creative process, assumptions are challenged, and ways to improve the status quo are implemented. Ideas are often connected and combined. Most inventions are a modification of what was previously made or a way of incorporating a couple of previous ideas. There is a motivation for all that is being worked on. The program is often reframed or the mental shift states to accommodate for the reconsideration of goals and the environment you are working in.

Creativity is a unique and complex way one seeks answers and gives a verbal, physical, or mental solution or outcome. One goes through a complex cognitive process of analyzing what they need or want to achieve, a problem they are facing, and subconsciously exploring their environment, culture, upbringing, attitude, and knowledge. This culminates into a way of framing a question around what is the view of the problem, doing an active recall, and ultimately using your personal experience, circumstances, and environment to find an innovative solution that is uniquely yours (or your teams). Once that thought process is complete, the creative thought has come to fruition as a solution or outcome to the previously posed opportunity or question.