Statistics
We looked inside some of the posts by pennylovelee-blog and here's what we found interesting.
Average Info
Notes Per Post
0
Likes Per Post
0
Reblog Per Post
0
Reply Per Post
0
Time Between Posts
3 days
Number of Posts By Type
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17
Last Seen Tumblr Blogs
Fun Fact
Tumblr has 16.74 million mobile monthly users in the US.
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Evaluate Other Groups (Group)
For the following, score between 0-5 ( 0 as poor, 5 as excellent):
Presentation Format & Visuals
Was the idea thought through?
Does it contribute to world peace?
Biased Breakers
Presentation Format & Visuals: 5 Was the idea thought through? 4 Does it contribute to world peace? 5
Michelle
I liked their idea of the “Brain Chain” and if they can get security checks to keep bad people out of the 5th graders’ chats, I think there’s a huge learning opportunity for children to engage with and practice empathy.
Loved their smoke test at biasbreakers.co - very well thought out and well-designed.
Amelia
The design of their presentation was great.
The science of empathy is very interesting and great information to spread.
I am worried they are assuming everyone has access to technology - this alienates a large population that does not have access.
The smoke test was very impressive.
Overall, I think they did great.
Penny
I really think that teaching empathy is needed in the world for all ages, not just children.
Have you thought of using VR to teach empathy? Like putting people in the shoes of another person’s situation?
The smoke test really puts the idea into perspective and demonstrated why and how teaching empathy works.
Peace of Mind
Presentation Format & Visuals: 3 Was the idea thought through? 4 Does it contribute to world peace? 4
Michelle
I appreciated that the team walked through their process throughout the term, but it felt a bit repetitive because I’ve watched their presentations on their project every week. I feel like we lost a lot of time that we could’ve been talking about their final solution & implementation
I think the World Peace game has a lot of potentials!!! Especially if they professional game designers on it! It could become a much bigger game than just 20 levels
Amelia
I did not love the style of the presentation of walking through the creative problem-solving process. It made it difficult to know what their final product was.
I like the idea of teaching individuals how to code - I think it would make a real impact.
The world peace video game is a wonderful idea just in general - could link up to the empathy group??
Penny
The method of presentation could have been more focused on the journey of the student and the learning outcomes/impact on the incarcerated youth.
I would like to know more on the game development curriculum and the process of fully completing a game design because it takes a while to fully implement one and that would bring me to wonder how long is the curriculum? How do you add the game design element like features? Environment? How are the resources obtained?
Water for All
Presentation Format & Visuals: 4 Was the idea thought through? 5 Does it contribute to world peace? 5
Michelle
I love the idea of a social incubator - I know that Kickstarter and GoFundMe have become great platforms for their own versions of this, but I think an incubator for social problems would be a great platform for solving the biggest (and smallest) issues our world is facing right now!
I would definitely use this and try to get involved in other people’s ideas, even if that’s just supporting via small donations
Amelia
This is a very interesting idea of getting the public involved.
I like the online SaaS platform because it will make it easy for people to collaborate on ideas.
I would be very interested to see where Rich takes it next.
Overall, great presentation and idea!
Penny
I think there is a huge need in an incubator like this because there may be projects out there that people can join and meet others to collaborate to solve these social issues.
If there’s a way to connect funding opportunities from corporate sponsors than to get money from your own connects and the audience that is on your platform, that would be amazing. I feel like the downfall for Kickstarter and IndieGoGo is that you are raising money from your friends and family than actually getting seen by companies or investors who might be interested in your project/product. Until it makes it into the news, it's hard to get seen.
Made for All People (MAP)
Michelle
This is our project! :D
Amelia
That is us so I am going to say A+++!!!
Penny
I had a lot of fun with this project. I really hope there’s a way we can make this platform happen for the homeless community I think it would really empower them and that to me was one of the biggest problems. I don’t have the time for it, but I’m always happy to support in creatives as a co-founder.
Certivote
Presentation Format & Visuals: 5 Was the idea thought through? 5 Does it contribute to world peace? 4
Michelle
I’m really hoping this group pursues this idea further. There’s a lot of recent occurrences and accusations for interfering with elections and voting in dishonest ways but it sounds like this process/product would greatly reduce the amount of dishonesty in politics & voting
I think it would help politics evolve into more virtuous proceedings
Amelia
I really like this idea for voter integrity and accessibility.
I think they have a strong UX in their app to make it easy and it is layered with a lot of security.
They are lowering costs which is amazing and could make it very enticing for governments.
Their business model was very impressive.
I would love to see this implemented in some way and think they were one of the strongest groups of the bunch!
Penny
I would be the first to download this app during the voting period.
There are specific years that I missed the voting deadline because I could not get to a voting pole on time or mail it in in time.
Very impressed with the UX because of its simple, and straight forward. I’m not sure if I saw it on the slide but the fingerprint verification should be used when accessing the ballot and when submitting the ballot. I pay with my phone all the time now with apple pay and it verifies my fingerprint, so I think this app will definitely work.
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Self and Team Member Assessment
Everyone in the team contributed equally when it came to making the final decisions for our project but we all played different roles in the process:
Amelia Thomas
Amelia was definitely the most passionate one about helping the homelessness. The eCommerce platform idea was an inspiration she got from her friend’s company, The Little Market. Her connection with the homelessness through her volunteer work really brought value to the team because it made her the subject matter expert in our team. She can validate our work with the homeless community. Amelia and I were the ones who were reaching out to other organizations for the project.
Michelle Sacks
Michelle plays a great role in the keeping track of our team discussions and noting all of our ideas. Her mathematical skills really helped us figure out the financial aspect of our solution. Her strong skills in the organization really helped us paint a clear picture of the eCommerce experience.
Penny Lee
I facilitated our weekly team meetings and overall brand direction of the project. I felt strongly about the solution of centralizing the homelessness resources because I saw it a problem that there is more bandaid than fixes to this problem and being able to assess and connect the resources is what I saw was the only way to end homelessness in the combination of getting the individuals motivated. This is a problem I see with not just the homelessness but many situations with businesses and other problems in the world. I made sure to set a direction on what we need to do to implement the project, but I made sure I got buy-in from my team first before moving forward. I was responsible for the creative displays for the presentation. I feel that I could improve on my time management because I tend to overestimate the amount of time it takes to create a complex and amazing piece we want to show. I also contributed in the marketing plans.
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Process Reflection (Individual)
Acceptance
I think this is definitely a phase that cannot be removed because we need to believe that there is something valuable here that is worth solving. The toughest part is to be given a prompt that you have no idea about from the beginning so building that passion might be a problem. Luckily, the topic we accepted as a group was something that we all encountered at one point in our lives that we would like to see solved so there is some passion associated with the topic.
Define
This is the most important step of the creative problem-solving process in my opinion. This is the phase that we need to really spend lots of time on because there’s so many information out there to find and digest. When you think you have something original, you find out that someone has done something similar. One problem I came about is accessing verified data. I cannot tell if a piece of information is accurate just by the website. I automatically assume it is accurate if it is from a .gov or a well-known site. I wish there’s a better way to check sources.
Analysis
Digging deep and connecting the dots is what this phase is all about. I think this phase is important too because this will help you become the subject matter expert. It does get hard to organize all the pieces of information during this phase, which is why it was nice to create a board of categorized information to sort and move around.
Definition
This may be the toughest part of the creative problem-solving process because this dictates the overall direction of your solution. Defining the problem, especially with a group is tough because we all have different perspectives on what is the cause of the problem. A brainstorming session is always needed for this phase to really see everyone’s thoughts. Feedback from other groups was critical for the phase because it served as a tie-breaker for our team since our team had different perspectives on what the underlying problem is. In the end, the definition we agreed on was a mix of what each of us thought the problem is. Certain parts of the problem were dependent on one another.
Ideation
I had fun on this phase of the project. Another brainstorming session was needed to put out all the possible ideas we had of what the solution could be. I think this is important because once we have an idea written out and can visually see it, you can get inspired by newer ideas. It is really interesting to see how much your ideas can shift.
Selection
Narrowing it down to the main solution is always tough but it has to happen. I think getting validation from different parties and perspective for this phase really help us feel confident in the solution. There’s no right or wrong way to solve the problem we defined but we aim to pick a solution that can solve the problem as best as we can. The solution we chose, we wanted to make sure it can do three main things: (1) motivate and empower the homelessness, (2) connect all resources and make it easily and readily available for the homelessness, (3) create financial stability for the homelessness. I think our eCommerce & Resource platform and the Artisans program is a great start in accomplishing our three goals.
Implementation
This is where the magic begins—where you bring creativity to life. Having a big idea is one thing but actually making it happen is another. With little time, I can only create visual concepts to represent our idea. With more time, a deeper dive in the process is what will help us determine how will the actual process look like. Our particular project can visually show many cool things like the eCommerce website, the facility, the supply chain of the inventory management and distribution. This is always an on-going process with lots of changes and improvement along the way.
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Evaluation (Individual)
Given our idea takes time to see the performance of our group’s implementation, the best method to get an appropriate evaluation is to coordinate other people to provide feedback, Specifically from our two main targetted audience: possible homeless artisans and online shoppers.
Metrics and Rubrics
Create a set of feedback categories to measure response with the two different audiences. The categories will be different for each audience. Rubrics would be based on the artisan program experience as well as the eCommerce platform goods and services strategy.
Polls, Voting, and Ranking
This method will allow us to make better decisions on what we train the artisans and what to sell to our consumers. Also, the over processes of on-boarding an artisan can use some voting opinion.
Formative and Summative Evaluation
Internally, for the formative evaluation, we need to evaluate the on-boarding, training, hiring, warehouse inventory management, distribution, shipping, and handling, return policy, and customer service processes. For the summative evaluation, we need to look at the training data, sales data and customer reviews to evaluate our performance.
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Conceptualize It (Group)
The Homeless Artisan’s Experience
The eCommerce Experience
Experience of the e-Commerce customer via the website
For the average consumer, they’ll follow the following flow:
Browse the marketplace for products and services as desired
Add products or services to cart
When viewing the cart, there will be realtime statistics (if possible) on the current levels of homelessness or supportive sayings to encourage shoppers to make purchases in order to help the homeless artisans
Includes a list of products being bought as a separate list on the same page as Services, then after both is the sub-total
Products section lists quantity (with -/+ to change), option to remove from cart, price per unit
Services section lists date/time, option to remove from cart, price per service
After the above sections (if applicable), the subtotal will be listed with the next step to choose a payment method
Include “Customers also bought…” section after the list of things in the cart, so customers can bundle other potential items
Check out to buy the items/services in their cart
Input Name, Contact Number, shipping address, permanent address (if different than shipping)
Next page would be delivery options and payment forms
Donation opportunity section - buttons to choose to donate $2, $5, %10, $25, $50, $100, or other amount
Also has the option to subscribe to donation where they’ll pay $1+ per month (they can choose how much)
Option to write in who the donation is a gift in honor of
Donation certificate will be emailed to the recipient
Can check out via PayPal, Amazon pay, credit/debit card, etc.
Option to add Themed or Randomized package
If they have the majority of a themed package in their cart already, suggest that themed package in this stage
Next would be Review Order & Submit page
If buying a product, they’ll receive an email confirming their purchase and will be notified via email when their order ships which will include the tracking number
If buying a service, they’ll receive an email confirming their booking for the date/time reserved
(The artisan will confirm on their end using one of MAP’s tools)
We will send auto-generated emails that will go out with reminders 1 week before, 3 days before, 1 day before, and 1 hour before the service date/time
After any purchase is made, we’ll send a follow-up email saying thank you for their purchase
This email will also include links below the Thank You part which can connect them to further reading on the status of homelessness and provide action items of what they can do to help reduce it (donate, volunteer, etc.)
Opportunities to donate again sent out via email occasionally
The customer’s abilities on the website prototype:
Homepage
Can access shop pages - New, Products, Services, Discounted
New - the newest products and services available - highlighting the newest people in the transition program
Products - example categories include paintings, totes, jewelry (rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings), tassels, keychains, charms, sculptures and pottery, knit blankets or quilts, wooden sculptures
Filterable by price, colors (if applicable)
Services - example categories include electricians, musical talent (instruments/singing), mural paintings and graffiti, basic tasks like mowing lawns
Packages aka SUBPACKAGES - the option to choose a themed package or a package of randomized products
Themed packages example: Home Improvement & Decor bundle could include a piece or art or sculpture, electrician services, lawn mowing service
New Car bundle could include handmade rearview mirror ornaments, car wash, keychain
Randomized package - you can choose which products you’d like (or opt not to), and we’ll send you a package with the desired number of products
Tiers - $10, $25, $50, $100 monthly subscription options.
Music - subscription and licensing platform for our musically talented artisans. Consumers can subscribe to listen or license songs for personal or commercial use - like soundstripe.com
Sale - the products/services that are on sale at the time
Donate - this button directs them to a donation page, where they can donate $2, $5, %10, $25, $50, $100, or other amounts
Also has the option to subscribe to donation where they’ll pay $1+ per month (they can choose how much)
Option to write in who the donation is a gift in honor of
Donation certificate will be emailed to the recipient
Once within a category, you can filter by artisan if you have a preferred person to buy from
Search - you can search for names of homeless artisans or by product characteristic then filter for more specific search results
Can filter by:
Product or Service, Category (for home, for garden, for car, etc)
Artisan (the person that made the product/service)
City/State/Country (where it’s from, for us right now it’ll be LA, CA, USA)
Color
Wholesale
If you’re looking to buy a large chunk of products or services wholesale, we’re able to offer you significant discounts. Feel free to reach out!
Custom Order
For each product page
Small thumbnails down the left
Larger, zoomable picture to the right of that with arrows to the left or right of it to move between pictures of the product
Heart/Save to Wishlist button overlaid with picture (or the Add to Wishlist button below)
Information on the product to the right:
Title of Product
Artisan’s name, with their overall rating
Description
Quantity (starts at 1, increments up by whole numbers but can type in amount) and relative price
Options to Add to Cart or Add to Wishlist
Unhide sections for most specifics:
Artisan - About the artisan - image & name of the artisan with “Learn more…”
Details - dimensions, materials, care instructions (if applicable), best practices, disclaimer: “As with all handmade items, slight variations will occur”
Reviews
Rating, details, reviewer’s name
Ask us a question!
Modal window with space to input name, email, phone number, message
Share buttons to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, our hashtag
“You May Also Like…” recommendations right below
For each service page
Information on service listed:
Title/type of service
Artisan’s name, with their overall rating
Description
Calendar for booking
Choose your date and time, realtime availability of the artisan
Options to Add to Cart or Add to Wishlist
If there’s no date/time selected, you can still Add to Wishlist
Unhide sections for most specifics:
Artisan - About the artisan - image & name of the artisan with “Learn more…”
Details -
Reviews
Rating, details, reviewer’s name
Ask us a question!
Modal window with space to input name, email, phone number, message
Share buttons to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, our hashtag
“You May Also Like…” recommendations right below
Your Account
Login with Email/Password & “Forgot your password?” link
Sign Up with first name, last name, email, password
Once you’re logged in, you have access to:
My Details
Change name
Change shipping and permanent address
Change phone number
My Wishlist
You can save products and services to your wishlist which will show up here!
Share your wishlist via link, email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, tumblr, LinkedIn
Logout
Your Cart (can access if logged in or not)
In the footer, there will be the following links:
About
Our Story
We’re a team within the Process & Perspectives class of USC’s Iovine and Young master’s program: Design@USC. We were tasked to solve world peace, so we focused in on reducing the homeless population by helping them get back on their feet. Our mission is to seek out those that are homeless that want to make a change in their situation and help them do it. Our organization measures success by how many lives are improved or positively impacted by our work.
Our Team
Meet Penny!
[insert quick intro about you]
Meet Amelia!
[insert quick intro about you]
Meet Michelle!
She grew up in Southern California then went across the world to study abroad in Paris, France. After transferring to the University of Southern California (USC) and completing her undergraduate degree in Applied and Computational Mathematics, she is currently pursuing her master’s degree within USC’s Iovine and Young Academy.
Events
This would list events such as launch party, pop-up shops, community events, etc.
Help
Contact Us
Phone Number
Email
FAQ
General
How can I stay up to date on news regarding MAP’s latest efforts? You can join our newsletter! [insert link to join]
Shipping
Do you ship to PO boxes? Sure! We can ship via USPS and FedEx.
Can I cancel or modify my order before it ships? Please reach out to us via [phone number] or [email] if you need to adjust your order. We will do our best to accommodate, but added costs may apply.
Return Policy
If you’re not completely satisfied with your purchase, you may return it within 14 days for a full refund or store credit by contacting us via [email]. You may only return the item for store credit within 30 days of the purchase Please note that shipping costs are non-refundable.
Shipping & Tracking
When your order is shipped, we’ll send your tracking number via email. Check the status of your orders often to ensure a successful delivery!
Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions
[won’t be readable for prototype]
Artisans
Meet Our Artisans
List picture with name & learn to “Learn More”
Links lead to in-depth bio of the artisan, explaining their life up to that point (whatever they’d like to share with us)
Resources
Training program for marketable skills
For creating products: knitting, weaving, bath bombs, jewelry making, block prints, candle making, ceramics, cooking, crochet, embroidery, glass etching, metalworking, leatherwork, natural dye, pom poms and tassels, sewing, soapmaking, woodcarving, painting
For performing services: electricians, musical performances (instruments, singing), lawn-mowing, car-washing, etc
[this relates to Amelia’s layout on the experience of the homeless artisan]
Feel free to input other resources ideas here!!
Notes:
A great next step if we were to actually implement this solution would be to join the Fair Trade Federation https://www.fairtradefederation.org/
The eCommerce Mockup
The Facility Diagram
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Implementation (Individual)
Our group discussed the following methods that we will be using to communicate the ways our project should be implemented to demonstrate our solution:
Business and Project Management Plans
Our team is using Asana to assign tasks to allow each if us to focus on thoroughly developing a component of the solution in a timely matter. This will also let us to figure out the content and assets needed to visualize our solution properly. Having a constant communication channel and organize platform will allow the team to be productive.
Data Visualization
Data visualization will be helpful for our presentation to organize the data and research on why this solution will be effective before presenting the solutions to solve the problem. We need to be able to have the information digestible in the easier way possible given the amount of time we have to present. In addition, being able to visually represent the process of how the organization will work at each touchpoint will also help understand the overall scope of the solution in detail.
Modeling
Since there will be a facility for our artisans and to run our eCommerce shipment, having a facility walk-through model of how the operation is set up can visually represent the people and resources that will be included.
Prototyping
The eCommerce and resource platform is so dynamic that we need to create a prototype of the website and not just mockups for users to understand the sitemap and user flow. With the prototype, we can quickly implement the website for usability testing.
Communicating Solutions to Intended Audiences
To verify our work, we want to bring these items to stakeholders like The Little Market, Bridgeworks, Illuminations and possibly caseworkers to see if what we developed could work. We believe that gaining feedback is very important.
Overall, our presentation pitch deck must demonstrate a logistical flow that works for the customers in both our artisan’s program and eCommerce platform.
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Business Model Canvas (Group)
Value Proposition
Connecting homeless artisans with a platform of resources to sell goods & services to help them become financially sustainable.
Empowering and incentivizing the homeless to become their own entrepreneurs through a training and mentoring program.
Bringing awareness to the LA community regarding the homelessness crisis through the eCommerce platform and a dynamic marketing strategy.
Customers
Segment #1: Homeless individuals who may or may not be actively seeking for help and resources.
Relationships:
Caseworkers
Professional Educator
MAP staff advisor/mentor
Initial Assessments
Progress Reviews
Surveys
Quarterly Check-ins
Artisan Story Spotlights
Segment #2: People who value shopping with socially responsible companies
Relationships:
MAP Staff - Quality Customer Service
Website Inquiry
Email
Phone
Product Reviews
Blog Comments
Social Media Feedback
Surveys & Testimonials
Artisan Story Spotlights
Channels
Awareness
Customers & LA Residents
eCommerce website
Social media, Ad Campaigns
Outreach events - bi-annual trade fairs, community free events
Artisans
Local/city postable bulletins and bus stops
Evaluation
Artisans - Pre- and post-assessments
Customers - Satisfaction surveys, web comments, sales data
Purchase
Artisans - No purchases required. The program is free for all individuals who have the will to participate
Customers - eCommerce, Future stores
Delivery
Artisans - at the training and resource facility
Customers - eCommerce store supply chain
Post-Support
Artisans - after program graduation, there will be quarterly check-in with the individual
Customers - quality customer service via website, email or phone
Key Activities
Artisan’s Program
Running the facility
Supplies, computers, stations
Assess motivations and needs
Find a track for them
Train the artisans
Progress assessment
Program Graduation
Quarterly Check-ins
eCommerce Platform
Operating the website
Running the facility
Inventory management
Distribution
Buyer/wholesaler
Planning outreach events and marketing
Financial processing
Customer call center
For the training program and eCommerce platform to happen, we must consider the process to hire staff, recruit volunteering professional educators, business sponsors and other organizations and donors.
Key Resources
Physical
Facility
Supplies for training
Website
Customer data for trends
Supplies for e-commerce
Human
Staff
Professional educators
BridgeWorks (shelter)
Caseworkers and counselors
Volunteers
Key Partners
The following partnerships will help us optimize the transition process for those that are homeless but want to transition.
BridgeWorks Agriculture - a working shelter, helping the recently homeless transition back into a financially secure and stable livelihood.
Professional educators - teaching the curriculum for those that are in the program.
Caseworkers - working directly with those that are homeless to assist in tracking the progress before, during, and after our program in realistic measures.
The following partnerships will help us in the acquisition of resources such as time, money, and experience:
Local business sponsors - encouragement and financial support from the community.
Donors - direct contributions to capital resources.
Other non-profit organizations - they’ll have expertise and resources that we won’t have yet.
Cost Structure
Costs to consider
Salaries for 10-15 employees to run the program and e-commerce platform
Material cost for developing and maintaining a training program
Building and maintaining the website
Initial capital to purchase goods at wholesale from artisans
Facility costs such as utilities, rent, etc.
Facilities to store products, train those that are homeless, office space for the organization.
Revenue Streams
eCommerce Platform
Marking up prices for retail sales on the e-commerce platform
Products will be marked up around 50% which is industry standard
Subscription model
Random or themed packages of artisan goods and services
Example: Home Improvement & Decor package can include mini sculptures, a piece of art, electrician service
External
Local business sponsorship
Donations
Government contributions
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Solution (Individual)
Our group couldn’t select only one method to find our solution because we want to ensure we are focused on what can directly solve our problem definition.
We ended up using these techniques:
Technique: Idea Potpourri
We all agreed to use this technique because the combination of the three ideas can more effectively solve the lack of connections between a variety of needs, motivations, efforts, and resources is preventing the reduction of homelessness in Los Angeles.
Technique: What Would Happen If…?
Penny played Devil’s Advocate for some ideas, which helped us keep in mind best/worst case scenarios of our ideas.
She helped us think about: What if the homeless people in the program lose motivation? The discussion started with only selling goods, but we’ve expanded to other opportunities as well such as providing services or music.
Technique: Take A Poll
Amelia discussed with a colleague at The Little Market (an eCommerce website selling goods from women around the world) about their business model and how they are self-sustaining.
She learned about their business and how our group can take aspects of that and apply it to our idea.
We came to a consensus that we need elements of our top three solutions to bring about an empowerment movement that motivates, incentivizes, aids and connects all resources for the homeless individuals.
Combining parts of all three options into one non-profit organization to create an ecosystem for the homeless community. It will include an e-commerce platform as the core solution, along with accessibility to a database of resources and education pieces to the site as well.
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Choosing a Solution (Group)
By MAP
Using the ideas generated during the ideation phase, work with your team and use one or more of the decision-making methods and techniques to select an appropriate solution to your problem. What criteria did you use to select the solution? How do the pragmatic and logistical concerns around implementation affect the selection of your solution? How do you deal with compromises and coming to a consensus regarding the solution decision? Document your activities in a new post in your process journal.
Technique: Idea Potpourri
We all agreed to use this technique because the combination of the three ideas can more effectively solve the lack of connections between a variety of needs, motivations, efforts, and resources is preventing the reduction of homelessness in Los Angeles.
Technique: What Would Happen If…?
Penny played Devil’s Advocate for some ideas, which helped us keep in mind best/worst case scenarios of our ideas.
She helped us think about: What if the homeless people in the program lose motivation?
Technique: Take A Poll
Amelia discussed with a colleague at The Little Market (an ecommerce website selling goods from women around the world) about their business model and how they are self-sustaining.
She learned about their business and how our group can take aspects of that and apply it to our idea.
Criteria:
Providing job opportunities
Connecting Resources
Empower, motivate and incentivize homeless individuals
Increase Awareness
SOLUTION: Combining parts of all three options into one non-profit organization to create an ecosystem for the homeless community. It will include an e-commerce platform as the core solution, along with accessibility to a database of resources and education pieces to the site as well.
Purpose:
provide job opportunities → to reduce unemployment of homeless people
Homeless can sell goods or services
Weaving baskets, teaching others, music performances for more job opportunities
connect resources
Business plan – 5-year plan:
80-90% working in this org have graduated through this program
Cycles through, supposed to be a temporary
Potentially buy goods wholesale from artisans
If something doesn’t sell, then it’s on the org, not the artisans
Marketing:
Trade Fair in person
Tags with “Made by [name] in LA”
Financial model, marketing strategy
Sub-ideas:
Professional recording studio available for the homeless musicians
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Ideation (Individual)
My group and I started a digital board on Asana, a project management system. We each reflected on the research we’ve done in the past week and performed new searches as well. Throughout the week, we kept adding to the board. When we came to meet in person, we did a final push on ideas and then discussed them. Our problem definition is: The lack of streamlined connections between a variety of needs, motivations, efforts, and resources is preventing the reduction of homelessness in Los Angeles.
From the beginning, we’ve always had the idea that we wanted some platform that can connect all the resources for the homeless to better serve the needs of the homelessness. There are a vast disconnect and overlap across the country that could benefit from a platform that can create unity. If there were a way that the homeless people can see all their options out there as well as become motivated and incentivized to succeed in their lifestyle and career, it would change many lives.
Another idea we explored was an eCommerce platform where the goods made by the homeless community in LA. It’s a platform that can empower the homelessness and help support their living. We were even thinking about doing an annual or bi-annual trade fair where anyone can come to buy homeless-made goods, or the homeless people can trade and barter their goods. This can also bridge the gap between the homeless and people who are well off.
The last idea we explored during our brainstorming session was an educating LA resident to build empathy and engagement. There are many ways we can inform the residents of the misconceptions of homelessness, such as business campaigns, exhibits, interactive signage at bus stops, plus more. We have yet to go into a more in-depth discussion on this if we do go this route.
Overall, we thought that all three of these ideas could have elements combined with the final solution we select in the end.
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Brainstorming and Debriefing Session (Group)
By MAP
How did we do it? Remotely
On what platform? Asana, bulletin template
Group Brainstorm Duration: 5min
During our own time throughout the week, we added our ideas on the Asana board (an online project management system.) On Sunday, we took another additional five minutes on a conference call to put our ideas on the Asana board. We took two minutes to sort the items into three categories: events, programs, and technology. Then, we took another two minutes to tag each of our top five choices. We were able to isolate the top ideas into three columns:
Primary: We discussed that many of the ideas could fall under the resource portal idea as a function.
Secondary: These items required a bit more discussion with our team. Ultimately, we decided to use the trade fair system to empower the homeless through an eCommerce platform.
Tertiary: We think a great way to connect people locally and nationally is through education and awareness. We discussed how we could explore different campaign ideas to educate LA residents to be more accepting and participate in helping the homeless.
Here are other ideas we had that did not make the initial cut, but we might revisit based on the final method we end up selecting
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Conjunction Junction (Individual)
Homeless shelters are overcrowded and are poorly managed. The management is minimal, and the solution to managing the overflowing capacity is a bandaid.
Homeless shelters are overcrowded but are pools managed. The management is minimal, but the solution to managing the overflowing capacity is a bandaid.
My Maltese has fluffy white hair, and she looks youthful even at the age of 10. Her fur is silky white and easily gain knots because of the thin silkiness.
My Maltese has fluffy white hair, but she looks youthful even at the age of 10. Her fur is silky white but easily gain knots because of the thin silkiness.
My office is small and simple, and the quiet atmosphere allows me to focus. The office space is equipped with a fast computer and has a beautiful glass board for brainstorming sessions.
My office is small and simple, but the quiet atmosphere allows me to focus. The office space is equipped with a fast computer but has a beautiful glass board for brainstorming sessions.
Gianni Versace was a family man, and he was passionate about his career in design and fashion. His designs changed the world’s perspective in fashion by integrating his art in lifestyle, and his vision and style were unique nonetheless.
Gianni Versace was a family man, but he was passionate about his career in design and fashion. His designs changed the world’s perspective in fashion by integrating his art in lifestyle, but his vision and style were unique nonetheless.
The website I am redesigning is a decade old and is non-responsive. The site has no structure in its architecture, and the content is poorly written. There is too much information, and there is not enough visual representation.
The website I am redesigning is a decade old but is non-responsive. The site has no structure in its architecture, but the content is poorly written. There is too much information, but there is not enough visual representation.
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Definition (Individual)
Penny’s Method
I started with analyzing our team’s morphological analysis and found the patterns from all the types of solution that people have done in the area of shelter, insurances, health care, and government aid. As a team, we decided that it falls under different mediums of delivery: general, technologies, policies and programs. Looking into other sources online, I noticed that we are bringing awareness and aid to people, but that does not drive action in the community. We are putting in bandaids instead of addressing the causes. I decided to mind map to gather my thoughts and noticed that the trend is that organizations constantly hand benefits to the homelessness instead of incentivizing or motivating them to want to earn the resources to get back on their feet. In addition, not all homeless individuals come from the same situation or background so there cannot be a cookie cutter solution for all types of homelessness. Also, the city of LA only looks for solutions within their own boundaries and there are no solutions currently that can unite the resources that are out there within the nation that can possibly help LA. I think that is something to explore.
Michelle’s Method
I came up with the main parts/characteristics of homelessness, then formed the definition around them in nicer words. I mostly just followed a train of thought, tried to think about what I was missing for a more well-rounded definition (answering who, what, when, where, why), and adapted from there until I completed the definition and posted in the doc. See below for reasoning behind the parts of my definition
There’s a huge problem of homelessness everywhere, but we’ll tackle homelessness specifically in Los Angeles - because we’re nearby, we don’t have to go far to talk to other people involved with the cause - local government (at least the LA Mayor) has shown support of reducing homelessness - LA really needs the help
There are multiple types of homeless: chronic, transitional, and episodic. Chronic homelessness includes those who are homeless for a year or longer at a time, often elderly, injured, or disabled. Transitional homelessness includes those who are homeless for a short period of time due to a catastrophic event and often seek housing at a shelter. Episodic homelessness includes those who frequently go in and out of homelessness; this could be because of abuse, unemployment, mental illnesses, or medical problems. We’ll focus on helping those who are categorized under episodic homelessness. - it’s important to distinguish the types so we can conclude which one we’re focusing on - Chose episodic because this is very common in LA • Ex: includes those who are recipients of monthly disabilities payments/cash assistance but may run out of money early
The top causes of homelessness among families and individuals are the lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and poverty. - Part of the problem is why it happens, so the causes of homelessness are important to note in order to make preventative measures for future
Barriers we will face include getting resources to homeless people as well as motivating them to make a change in their lives for the better once they have access to those resources. - Remembering it it boils down to the point where we're still dealing with people, and how they'll feel about receiving help, making changes, improving themselves, etc, where they're at in their lives (skills, financially, family)
Amelia’s Method:
After a lot of research, I boiled it down to key facts to come up with a concise problem statement. The main thing that I realized is that the lack of distributing the resources was the problem. I had to identify what these resources were and which were of the greatest need. In short, my definition process is completely research based then whittling things down to what I feel are the most crucial.
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Problem Definition (Group)
Group Definition
Homelessness in Los Angeles is a continuous problem because our community lacks coordinated efforts, affordable housing, and streamlined connections between a variety of needs, motivations, and resources.
Individual Definitions & Comments
Michelle’s definition:
There’s a huge problem of homelessness everywhere, but we’ll tackle homelessness specifically in Los Angeles. There are multiple types of homeless: chronic, transitional, and episodic. Chronic homelessness includes those who are homeless for a year or longer at a time, often elderly, injured, or disabled. Transitional homelessness includes those who are homeless for a short period of time due to a catastrophic event and often seek housing at a shelter. Episodic homelessness includes those who frequently go in and out of homelessness; this could be because of abuse, unemployment, mental illnesses, or medical problems. We’ll focus on helping those who are categorized under episodic homelessness. The top causes of homelessness among families and individuals are the lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and poverty. Barriers we will face include getting resources to homeless people as well as motivating them to make a change in their lives for the better once they have access to those resources.
Penny’s comment: I really like the three categories you found that grouped the types of homelessness: chronic, transitional and episodic. That may be a direction we can go with the streamlined process/resources.
Amelia’s definition:
Homelessness in Los Angeles is a huge problem that we can no longer ignore. The lack of housing, shelter and appropriate resources available to the homeless is the main reason the problem has become so out of hand.
Michelle’s comments: Love the concise statement for the cause of the problem & how urgent it is to be fixed!
Penny’s comment: It will be interesting to identify the ideal housing situation and resources that can solve homelessness once and for all.
Penny’s Definition:
Homelessness in LA continues even with 2019’s half a billion fund from local tax to build shelter and services. The problem lies with the disconnected effort and their available resources from the city to city and state to state. Different resources are available for different types of homelessness situations—we must streamline the different needs and make the resources easily accessible to the poor and keep them motivated to turn their situation around.
Michelle’s comments: I really like that you pointed out the fact that there’s money being thrown at the problem, but that won’t solve everything because other issues are going on for homeless people than just lack of funds.
Discussion
How similar were all of the definitions?
Housing is unaffordable
Difficulty in accessing resources
Finding each homeless individual's motivational factor
Different types/situations of homelessness
The same issue of location: Los Angeles
How different were they?
They were all aligned, there weren’t any differences.
Overlapped in ideas, some went into more detail.
What were the patterns and what were the outliers?
We all focused on the cause of the problem, that led to our problem definition.
The outlier is one of us defined national resources while the others defined local resources.
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Analysis (Individual)
Approach
I decided to look into the topic of homelessness at a broad spectrum before I pin down details of homelessness in Los Angeles, CA. Here are the steps I took to seek out research materials this week:
The internet is always the first place I go to since there are many government and nonprofit websites I can go to. I can also google search terms like policies, programs, technology, and generally homelessness to see what is out there in the world.
Taking information I have gathered from the net, I would talk to individuals are experts in the topic. I work for the University of California, Irvine, so I have access to individuals who are researching this area.
In the following weeks, I am hoping to compile more questions that I have from the research I have done so far and reach out to individuals in LA county (i.e. USC campus, local non-profits, law enforcement, homeless clinics and shelters, etc.)
Discovery
There’s a wide range of aid and resources that are currently out there, but the resources are not actual solutions to the homelessness issues. Here is an outline of the types of resources that are currently out there:
Government Aid through Departments
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Continuum of Care (CoC)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Grants & Funds
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH)
California Department of Social Services (CDSS)
CalWORKS program
HealthCare.gov
The Patient Information and Affordable Care Act
National Organizations
National Health Care for the Homeless Council
Guarantee affordable housing
Reform behavioral health systems
Reform criminal justice systems
Addressing Opioid Crisis
Advocacy Tool for policymakers
National Coalition for the Homeless
National Alliance to End Homeless
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
The National Law Center on Homelessness
National Runaway Safeline
Shelters
www.shelterlistings.org
www.shelterlist.com
www.homelessshelterdirectory.org
National Coalition for the Homeless Directory
Health Care
Countries with FREE healthcare
Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom (source: New York Dept. of Health)
Statistics for Los Angeles County Homelessness
58,000 homeless
Three out of four homeless people — 41,000 — live in cars, campers, tents and lean-tos
L.A. has a severe housing shortage, and city and county homeless programs have been slow to start and too limited to absorb the waves of people forced into the streets.
In 2006, 500 homeless veterans have vouchers but no place to cash them in.
Other programs and technologies
Mobile shelters
Fingerprint scanning
Predictive analytics
Crowdsource funding
Donated cellphones for the youth
Homeless management information systems
Business use of year-end extra funds (i.e. Starbucks)
TennCare Shelter Project
The Johnson-Pew Health Care for the Homeless Project
Illumination Foundation: Break the Cycle of Homelessness
Community Marathon events for the homelessness
Insights
From my research so far, there are lots to explore in the realm of technology and an all-inclusive incentive program. Here are ideas I would like to explore further:
Data-driven cash cards that can form an incentive program
Reform shelter systems/mobile shelters and design
App for the homeless
An economic model for insurances and housing for the homeless
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Morphological Analysis (Group)
By Penny Lee, Michelle Sacks, Amelia Thomas
Download PDF version
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What’s in it for me?
Possibly solve a world problem--poverty to be exact
Made a difference in the world or in someone’s life
Satisfaction of being a part of a big and challenging project from start to finish
Create a safer community around my home
Learn new processes and tools to solve problems
Learn from my peers
Gain a new perspective of the world and issues at hand
Be a part of something bigger than my own bubble
Networking and exposure to people outside of my own circle
Discover a new passion
Learn from any mistakes in the process
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