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Self and Team Member Assessment

Penny: Penny kept us on the right track for our deliverables every week. She developed the mock-up of the website as well as the facility. I was very impressed with her quality of design and felt that her demo of the website and facility was a good representation of our view of these. She and Amelia were the main point of contacts for BridgeWorks - the group in another cohort working on reducing homelessness as well.

Amelia: It was very obvious from the beginning that Amelia is committed to helping the homeless. I could tell she was excited to pursue this problem and develop a solution. She connected us with her friend's company, The Little Market, which was a great resource to reference as we were developing our user experience for the website and artisan program. Amelia developed the process that artisans would experience as they moved through our program. I was impressed by her narrative of Maria making flower arrangements because I think it intrigued the audience and made practical sense of the program process for artisans. She and Penny were the main point of contacts for BridgeWorks as well.

Michelle: I was responsible for the financial model for our solution as well as the process experience for the customers of the eCommerce market. I got great practice on estimating revenue streams and expenses as well as developed my skills further with Excel. In my next project, I'd love to reach out to more external organizations to get feedback and advice from them, as Penny and Amelia were able to do with BridgeWorks (unfortunately I was at work during the times they were trying to video-chat). I would also like to try my hand at designing for a next project, although I don't think I'd be skilled enough to lead in the design like Penny was. My current role at work has a shifting schedule each week/month that includes me working weekends and many times evenings, so for my next project, I'll make sure I'm in a consistent work schedule that is (hopefully) more standard working hours.

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Process Journal: Process Reflection

Over the course of the term, my team and I have developed a project following the creative problem solving process including phases of: Acceptance, Analysis, Definition, Ideation, Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation. I appreciated having a week available for each phase, but at the same time I feel that some weeks were very slow in terms of effort and deliverables for the week and other weeks were jam-packed and busy and we barely had enough time to get done what we needed to. I think that we should've taken the first week to work through the Acceptance, Analysis, and Definition phases, as opposed to the first three weeks. Doing these three phases faster will get the ball rolling on the other stages, which were more exciting and fun to do. Analysis must include a lot of research on the top, what's being done to solve the problem right now, who are the key players in the issue, etc. Conducting great research and analysis is important for the Definition phase, so we're solving a problem we know a lot about, as well as the next phase: Ideation, where we're using what we know to develop an even better solution than what's already being done (if anything). I think a week for the Ideation phase was a great amount of time - we had time to brainstorm and then meet to talk twice, which gave us the time we needed to let our analysis absorb into our minds and ideate from there. I think Selection did not need its own week, and it could have been joined with the Implementation phase. The implementation phase has a lot of back-and-forth with trial and error as we try things and have to adjust parts that don't work. Sometimes this meant going back to the Selection to adjust as needed. The Evaluation phase was critical to reflect on our processes and what was working and what wasn't for our group. I think this stage is especially important for our group to communicate about if we decide to pursue our idea past the scope of this class.

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Process Journal: Evaluation

The technique I use for evaluating progress is by checking in with my group on deadlines, quality, and functionality. We set dates, time, and people of the group to the tasks we were trying to accomplish each week. We were able to keep up with the assignments each week, so we successfully stayed on schedule with our deliverables each week. We often checked in with each other for spelling checks, aesthetics, and other details in order to ensure great quality of our work throughout the project. The functionality check-ins have been helpful earlier in the project as we were trying to develop a solution to homelessness that would be practical and function well in Los Angeles (as well as potentially scale to more cities), and they've been especially helpful toward the end of our project as we're trying to build an MVP. We're trying to make a basic prototype of the e-commerce market for our project with a little bit of functionality to demo for the class but also have a layout that would conceptually work well if we were to develop the entire website for launch. We're trying to set everything up as functional as we can so that if we were to launch the entire non-profit organization, it would be functional. Over the course of the various phases of the creative problem solving process, our group was constantly checking in with each other. We found that the best way to view a deliverable as successful was to discuss it until we agreed on next steps. We wanted all three team members to feel heard and feel a part of the team. To help with this during the earlier phases of the process (such as ideation and selection), we used a polling technique to help us visualize which of our ideas were the most popular for the group.

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Process Journal: Implementation (individual)

I think the most effective way to pitch our solution is through the prototype of the website and a thorough record of all of the developmental, operational, and other types of processes involved. The website will serve as a minimum viable product that potential stakeholders can play with and get a feel for the e-commerce platform. The thorough processes are important because these are the steps that will guide those that are homeless through the transition of homeless to self-sustaining. Penny will potentially develop a prototype for the website e-commerce platform since she has the most experience with design. Besides the website, our program will be based on measuring progress through the processes of on-boarding, training, and consistent follow-ups, among others. I think it would be a great idea to consolidate all of the processes into larger milestones with trackable measurements in order to simplify the complicated process into approachable ideas for the stakeholders and audience to take in.

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Process Journal: Business Model Canvas (group)

This is the business model canvas we developed for the Implementation Phase. There are some more details on the Business Model Canvas within our presentation deck, available to view here.

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Process Journal: Selection

We came up with some criteria that we wanted to make sure was covered in the solution: creating jobs, providing resources, and empowering the homeless to make changes. We used multiple techniques discussed in class to massage our main ideas a bit: Idea Potpourri, What Would Happen If…?, and Take A Poll. Through Idea Potpourri, we gained valuable insights by patch-working the three main ideas because we analyzed which parts of the ideas applied to our problem definition and which parts were off-topic. It helped us combine the ideas to become a superior solution. The “What Would Happen If…?” technique gave us a safe space to bring up contrary opinions. This pushed us past our bias for our own ideas, encouraging us to be more objective about the ideas and thinking about pros/cons for them. We received valuable feedback from Amelia’s colleague about our ideas and we heard a lot about their business model which is an e-commerce website for goods made by women around the world. Over the course of selecting our final solution, our main discussion has been on which subset of the homeless we’re trying to help, like the mentally disabled, children, unemployed, etc. We knew that our timeline to create an implementable solution must be within 4 weeks. No matter what we do, it would be extremely difficult to solve homelessness everywhere for everyone for good. Because of this, we knew we had to choose a subset of the homeless population and start there with our solution. We concluded on the group of the homeless that have marketable skills, like creating products or art or providing services.

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Process Journal: Ideation

I started the brainstorming process by researching what's currently being done and why it's not working. I wrote all of my ideas down on paper until we created a board on Asana where we could simulate the sticky-note brainstorming technique. We moved all of our ideas to this board and did a couple of rounds of brainstorming and discussing. We separated the ideas by categories: events, programs, and technology. We each tagged five with our personal color to represent our favorite ideas of those brainstormed. We moved the tagged ideas to new columns and sorted by popularity. The Primary column had ideas with 2 tags. The Secondary column had ideas with 1 tag. We moved around ideas to put similar ones together. We narrowed down similar ideas until we had three main ideas. We concluded that there's three directions we can go: we can focus on an initiative that connects homeless to resources, we can empower the homeless to take action for themselves through personal responsibility and creativity, or we can raise awareness of LA residents of homelessness and ways to get involved and help them.

Solutions tended to include the development of events, programs, or technology to connect a specific needs, motivations, efforts, and resources. We brainstormed festival fundraisers, free haircuts for the homeless, personal art, consulting, recruitment, new case management system, cash card system, prepaid phone starter kits, help hotlines, online resource portal, job incentive program, "turn it around" program, free minimum housing with upgrade possibilities, trade fair between homeless, education for LA residents on homelessness, bus stop ads, and Pay It Forward movements. Some of the standout ideas were a resource portal that connects the organizations to other organizations and resources and to the homeless, a homeless goods e-commerce market, and awareness initiatives for LA residents.

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Process Journal: Definition (individual after group definition)

How we got to our group definition: From our discussion, it sounds like we developed our individual definitions based on the research and morphological analysis stage. We were separately able to conclude similar patterns, revealing the biggest causes of homelessness as well as different types of homeless situations. We all noticed that there are people out there trying to solve this complex problem, but the efforts are uncoordinated and therefore less effective than they would be if they were one force. We compared our individual definitions and found similarities then developed a group definition that connected the individual definitions.

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Process Journal: Problem Definition (group)

My 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.

My group’s 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.

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Process Journal: Conjunction Junction

Try describing five (5) different things (objects, spaces, paintings, people, etc) using only the conjunction 'and' to specify their qualities.

Forrest’s guitar has a bunch of different brown colors and six strings and is sitting on a stand and has a capo on the top and has a label on the inside that I can’t read from here and has some marble-like texture on the front.

The Beatles photograph is framed and almost as big as me and has the four members of the Beatles and they’re in a pool and it’s in black and white and there’s a diving board in the background and they are treading water in the general direction of the camera and it looks like they’re having fun.

The bottle of tonic water is a clear bottle and has a white label around the body of it and has a red cap to close it and has red and black and white colored info on the label and is about half full and has condensation on the outside of it and it’s on the kitchen counter.

The plant on the table is fake and is in a nice stone pot and has a white geometric-type design on the stone pot and has white stones inside the pot and the stones are stuck together and keep the plant itself in the pot and keeps it from falling over and the plant has big green leaves like in the Amazon and has 14 leaves and the leaves feel real and the stem feels plastic-y and from afar the plant looks real.

The microwave is black and silver and has 7 white buttons and 8 blue buttons and 10 black buttons on it and it has a silver handle and the display has “:15” flashing on it and it’s bothering me and there’s a red word above the “:15” that says “COOK” and there’s a label that says “Oster” and there’s some dirt on the front of the microwave and the cords behind the microwave are tangled.

Follow up by describing the same things using only the conjunction 'but' to specify their qualities.

Forrest’s guitar is mainly light brown but has dark brown wooden materials on the edge of the body and along the neck. There are six strings, but they are of different thickness. The guitar is sitting on a stand but the strap to hold it back is not secured. You can barely see into the guitar through the sound hole, but I can see a illegible label with a logo. The body of the guitar is a light brown color with a wood-like look to it, but there’s an area that is shiny and marble-like that is next to the sound hole.

The Beatles photograph has the four members of the Beatles treading water in a pool and generally facing the camera, but they aren’t all directly looking at the camera. I’m bigger than the photograph in its frame but the head of the Beatle in the front is larger than my head because of photograph depth. It looks like two of them are having fun but the other two have facial expressions that suggest other emotions.

The bottle of tonic water is a clear bottle but has a white label and a red cap. The label has a white background but has black and red colored text and symbols on it. The half full bottle has condensation on the outside of it suggesting it was in the fridge recently, but it’s on the counter.

The plant on the table is fake but it looks real from afar. The 14 green leaves feel real but the stem feels plastic-y. There is a nice stone pot with a geometric design that holds the plant but sometimes it falls over. The plant can support itself, but the white rocks in the pot are glued together to keep the plant connected to the base.

The microwave is black but it has silver elements on the front. It has 10 black buttons but only 7 white buttons and 8 blue buttons. The display is blinking “:15” but there’s a red word “COOK” above it that isn’t flashing. There’s a label that says “Oster” on the front, but there’s no other branding on the microwave. The microwave looks practically new, but there’s some dirt on the front and the cords behind the microwave are tangled.

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Process Journal: Analysis

I researched specifically government programs, aid, policies, and technology that are helping to reduce homelessness. I found information by researching online, looking through books and resources from USC's online libraries, and talking to people I know about their experiences, opinions, and knowledge on homelessness. I've discovered a bunch of the active programs that the government is pursuing in order to reduce homelessness. I've found that a lot of the programs by the government overlap with each other, so I feel it would make more sense to combine efforts and have fewer, but larger & farther-reaching programs. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has required some areas of the US to use the Homeless Management Information System in order to keep track of personal and medical records of homeless individuals. It seems like this was a very effective and successful solution to help social works keep track of homeless individuals and target those who need the most help. From my research, I've found that there are many government programs out there already and their progress is being well documented. We can learn from the government's mistakes and successes, ideally to build a resounding solution.

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Acceptance & What’s in it for Me? (INDIVIDUAL)

Process Journal: Acceptance.

Consider what it would be like to succeed in overcoming the problem that lays ahead of you.

- On a personal level, I’d expect there to be a sigh and a feeling of contentment that we put in a solid amount of work, did our best to make a difference, and actually made a difference.

- Although we don’t have goals set in stone yet, one of our best case scenarios would be to develop an executable solution for a smaller area, then scale it up for a larger effect across the state, country, and eventually world. I think that even if we only make a small difference on a small scale in a small area, then that’s a success in and of itself.

- People living in poverty would benefit from our success, as our efforts are to reduce the number of people living in poverty worldwide. Poverty has many manifestations, causes, and consequences, so our success would probably come from focusing on one piece of the puzzle.

- I think it would be reasonable to consider developing a product or service that would benefit those in poverty, helping them with skills they need to get and then stay above the poverty line.

- Helping others has never pushed me back in my career. Although I may not get a raise for it, I’ll gain valuable experience that I can take with me in my next career.

- I’m interested in this problem because I see homeless people daily in Los Angeles and I hear about people starving all over the world, and I feel powerless. So if I have a team that’s just as passionate and excited to help others as I am, I’m very inclined to genuinely commit to this assignment and see what we can make happen over the course of the semester.

Process Journal: What’s in It for Me?

Create a new post in your process journal and list the benefits that you might accrue if you become involved in this project. Reflect on the subject matter that you and your group have chosen and how accepting the undertaking will benefit you personally.

- Explore Los Angeles more, meet more of the people

- Gain experience, build confidence and self-esteem

- Learn more about economics & what it takes to build a society with less/no poverty

- Directly & indirectly have a positive impact on the lives of other humans

- Feel valued as part of a team

- Have more things to talk about & connect with others who are passionate about reducing/eliminating poverty as well

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The Destination and Journey & Contingency Management Group Work Responses

GROUP WORK

Process Journal: The Destination and Journey. (group)

Review and select a subject matter that you anticipate will contain a problem to solve. Provide a rationale why you should be part of the team, outlining your interest, expertise and contributions. You will work with a team, throughout the remainder of the course, to collectively and collaboratively work through the stages of the creative problem-solving process. Each team member should post a copy of this document to their process journal.

The problem we are trying to solve is the issue of poverty. This problem will not have a black-and-white solution, so we're accepting the challenge to reduce the levels of poverty the best we can.

Michelle: I would be able to contribute to the team through my background in mathematics. Math opens up all kinds of avenues for change, like potentially developing a new global economic model that's backed by data and evidence. My personal interests in participating with the topic of poverty involve ethical motivation, intrinsic value in helping others, and being a great role model, influence, and a contagious proponent of change.

Amelia: I think I will be able to contribute my passion for the homelessness crisis in LA and California at large. It has been something I have been very interested in fixing for many years. I have volunteered with various organizations and I have become very educated on the issues and steps that are being taken to solve the issue in innovative ways. I have been very interested in coming up with my own creative ways to tackle this problem. I am currently working on my own clothing line whose socially responsible aspect will be helping women transition out of homelessness through donations to the Downtown Women’s Center. I have a huge motivation to extensively research the problem and learn as much as I can. Overall, I think my passion for this specific issue will push me to get as creative as possible and work very hard for my team.

Penny: I moved to Orange County, CA in 2008 and in the last 11 years I’ve witnessed an increase in homelessness in southern California alone. Last year, Santa Ana Riverbed was overcrowded with homeless encamps and the solutions to migrate them we’re not effective. Moving them from one location to another is not a solution. Not only am I living a few miles away from these issues, I see homeless people every day at my work. They are unable to afford the current housing market as well as having a hard time finding a job in this competitive world. My passion is to help people in any aspect I can. My strength is in design and marketing, and I have always been good at developing and implementing projects from start to finish. I hope that by solving this issue locally, we can implement this solution globally.

Process Journal: Contingency Management. (group)

Create a new post in your process journal and identify the project’s contingencies, real or imaginary, that may impede progress, that seems outside of your control, and or issues that need to be resolved before you can move forward. 

Amelia: I think bureaucratic issues could get in the way because there are a lot of laws and rules surrounding the homeless. It could be difficult to implement certain things because of these rules. For example, creating mobile homeless shelters is a big issue because the police will just confiscate them because they can be a fire hazard. We need to be aware of different city rules so we can come up with solutions that can actually help. Another contingency could be working with individuals with drug addiction and mental health problems. We would need to find people who are properly equipped to help with these individuals so they can get the proper care. Lastly, just the sheer size of the homeless population is something we cannot control. We have to tackle it on a very small level, see if what we implement works then take it larger scale.

Penny: I think the hardest part about tackling poverty is that poverty is seen at different levels geographically, and different countries and cities have their own laws and policies. One would tackle the issues with poverty in a third world country is much different than tackling poverty issues in a first world country. Even poverty issues are different city to city. Some laws and policies are in favor of the poor but not poorest of the poor. Other tough parts to crack are the economic systems and health systems that are currently in place that is not considerate of the poor. Moreover, other countries just simply don't have clean water and other basic resources. We need to identify what levels of poverty there are and which are the ones we can possibly solve.

Michelle: I think it’s extremely important to keep in mind that the problem of “poverty” has countless moving parts and it’s impossible to find a single solution to solve all of them simultaneously. A potential approach would be to work on a few of these where a solution to those may also knock out a few others. After we’ve got a tried-and-true solution on a smaller scale, it’d be great to scale it up or try it in other countries too. Developing a plan to tackle poverty may also need to address the following causes and/or effects of poverty (not an exhaustive list):

- Human greed - Belief that your life is worth more than another’s

- Stubbornness, laziness - Assumption that nothing you'll do will actually make a difference in someone else's life

- Generational influence - someone is born into poverty

- Because of parents’ situation, can ruin kids’ changes pretty harshly

- Disabilities/injuries - Found anecdote online: “Health issues and a social structure that incentives me to collect SSDI for my disabilities rather than provide me with worthwhile gainful and sustainable opportunities and employment protection. It also incentivizes me to never have more than $1,800 in the bank. I either have to be poor or phenomenally successful to deal with my medical bills.”

- Bills, debt, loans, credit cards, Student debt, Bankruptcy

- Irresponsible choices, overspending

- Mental issues

- Terrible relationships

- Can incur debt

- Divorces

- Dropped out of school

- Ran away from home

- Having kids young or before financially stable/can afford them

- Really bad timing

- Lots of things happen at once, like car repairs, house repairs, medical

- Natural disasters

- War

- “I still consider myself in poverty even though I have a job and make a decent salary” type of mindsets

Respond individually at first, and then share and discuss with your team the following “behavioral modifications” or rules of engagement: Understand your limits. what are your capabilities and the collective capabilities of your team?

- We all have a similar passion to genuinely help people, not just “bandaid” fix

- Between the three of us, we have personal experience of proximity to poverty, volunteering

- We may not have a perfect understanding of the economies of the world, but we can research & develop an improved (potentially global) version

- We have access to health system policies

- We have a lot of creative ideas!!

Establish reasonable and feasible goals and standards. What are your and your team’s intentions and are they in line with your abilities. Where does your team have gaps and how will you mitigate that?

- We all have the same intentions -- having the desire to help others.

- We agree we’ll keep each other accountable to keep our goals, standards, and abilities in line.

Be strict and consistent. Do not promise what you cannot deliver. Talk with your team on how to stay within scope and meet and exceed expectations with within your collective means.

- We’ll brainstorm, communicate, and evaluate about our ideas, and decide together which direction to move forward in. We’ll test and spread our ideas on crowdfunding sources and/or fundraising events.

Reward yourself. What incentives do you and your team value when you meet your goals and, conversely, what is agreed upon and accepted “consequences” for you or your team members not contributing or behaving poorly?

- If we release something at the end of our project, we’ll have a launch party!

- Feel good at the heart that we accomplished something good.

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Three Interviews on Creative Problem Solving

Interview #1: FD

1. How do you generate ideas?

a. I really don't. Kinda just let mind float and come up with ideas. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad. Usually whenever I'm bored I come up with ideas.

2. How, when, and where are you inspired?

a. I get inspired when I'm doing things non-focused. Doing dishes, walking to grocery store, etc.

3. What inspires you?

a. Nothing in particular. I just really like learning

4. What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea. How do you overcome those obstacles?

a. Whenever I come up with an idea, I'll constantly second-guess my ideas. I'm always fighting myself; it's like a defeatist-perfectionist perspective. If it's not going to be the best, then why bother working on it?

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

a. Always lots of Googling. It's figuring out if other people have been through similar or identical solutions, taking their results, and patch-working my own solution.

Interview #2: CJ

1. How do you generate ideas?

a. Randomly - I get ideas when I’m thinking about other things or focusing on a mindless activity (swimming, vacuuming, etc).

2. How, when, and where are you inspired?

a. I’m inspired when I’m relaxed and in/near fresh air.

3. What inspires you?

a. Nature, documentaries, other people describing their problems, drinking and bouncing ideas off other people, and identifying systematic issues.

4. What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea. How do you overcome those obstacles?

a. I forget usually about the idea/lose inspiration for it. I overcome that by writing the idea down and taking a break from thinking about it to do a mindless activity.

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

a. I’m an analytical problem solver, so I break down the steps of a system to their smallest parts until I’m able to identify the area that isn’t working. Then I typically marinate on the why the specific field/item isn’t working for a day or two (always sleep on it if I can) and when I come back to the problem I have a few ideas of how to fix it. I like to talk through my ideas with someone because it forces me to logically think through the problem and my solutions and helps me identify what I’ve missed or why an idea doesn’t work. Then I guess it’s trial and error until I find a solution that works.

Interview #3: NR

1. How do you generate ideas?

a. If I have some sort of goal or inspiration, I think about it for while in my head, and once I start to get more inspired by the small thoughts then I start making lists of the steps that I need to take in order to reach a goal. In that process of making a list, I normally generate more ideas and writing it out helps me make a clear path of how to reach that goal/idea.

2. How, when, and where are you inspired?

a. Usually, inspiration hits me at random times - like when I'm given a homework assignment, sometimes that assignment will relate to something that I really want to try and it will inspire me and motivate me. Often I'm inspired to start something new when I'm really busy rather than when I have nothing to do (which is unfortunate)

3. What inspires you?

a. My own success often inspires me to do more as I realize my own potential. Others' success also inspires me and I see how much creativity and effort successful can put into things and how much reward comes out of it.

4. What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea. How do you overcome those obstacles?

a. Often, when coming up with a new idea that I really want to pursue, I have a rushed idea and I am very over-ambitious. I try to make a list of my ideas/plans to help narrow it down and keep me grounded. Also, this helps so I don't forget my best ones and then I can continue to build from those.

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

a. It's similar to how I generate ideas - but usually something sparks in my mind to give me inspiration to try something, or I may be given some sort of problem. Then I begin to write down my thoughts to start making more sense of everything. Usually as I am writing everything down, some pattern starts to form or some logical flow of ideas starts to appear and then I start ordering the thoughts into steps that I can take action on. Then one by one, I take those actions and will hopefully reach the goal. Sometimes, there will be obstacles that I didn't foresee, so I will revert back to my step-by-step list and see what changes I can make to get around/solve that obstacle.

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CPS Model Collection

The PMI Technique by Edward de Bono

What are the steps?

Find PLUS Points - Write all possible positive results of taking action

Find MINUS Points - Write all possible negative effects

Find INTERESTING Points - Enter implications and possible outcomes of taking the action, whether positive, negative, or uncertain

Make your decision.

Which professions practice this model? This is especially useful when working with children, but everyone should be able to use this model.

How it differs from the other models? This process is different in that it guides you to think about specifics in other possibilities. Many processes just say to “find all possibilities”, but at least this method guides you saying “find all possible positive results”.

Where it excels? This process forces you to see other perspectives, especially the ones contrasting your current view, and thus broadening your view.

Where it falls short? This process only starts after you’ve formed an opinion. It’s not very helpful when you’re starting out on a problem with no research, no opinion, and no direction to start.

Link: http://sourcesofinsight.com/avoid-the-intelligence-trap/

Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) by University of Lancaster Systems Department

“The primary use of SSM is in the analysis of complex situations where there are divergent views about the definition of the problem. These situations are "soft problems" such as: How to improve health services delivery? How to manage disaster planning? When should mentally disordered offenders be diverted from custody? What to do about homelessness amongst young people? In such situations even the actual problem to be addressed may not be easy to agree upon. ” – quote from link to explain the method a bit.

What are the steps?

Enter situation considered problematical

Express the problem situation

Formulate root definitions of relevant systems of purposeful activity

Build conceptual models of the systems named in the root definitions

Compare models with real world situations

Define possible changes which are both possible and feasible

Take action to improve the problem situation

Which professions practice this model? This model is can be applied to many fields, like ecology, business, and military logistics.

How it differs from the other models? It does not encourage as much out-of-the-box creative thinking.

Where it excels? This model helps with tougher bigger-picture questions that don’t have a black and white answer, or potentially even a hard-to-pinpoint question.

Where it falls short? It tends to build on whatever political/power structure that’s already out there, instead of breaking out of the status quo and pushing boundaries.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_systems_methodology#The_7-stage_description

CATWOE Analysis Model by Peter Checkland

What are the steps?

Customer: the recipient of the outputs from the business system

Actor: the roles that perform the business system processes

Transformation: the core process that delivers the outputs to the customer

Weltanschauung: the underlying world-view for the transformation

Owner: the stakeholder with the overall authority for the business system

Environment: the rules and constraints surrounding the business system

Which professions practice this model? This process is used at various stages of the business change life-cycle and during projects, so is mostly used by people in business/corporate roles.

How it differs from the other models? This model explicitly keeps in mind the people, processes, AND environment that contribute to your problem. Many models only keep in mind the process and getting from problem to solution but forget that you’re dealing with people within a certain-sized environment.

Where it excels? It excels in the same regard that it differs from other models, it keeps in mind the people, processes, AND environment that contribute to the problem. It allows for realistic changes to be made.

Where it falls short? It’s hard to make everyone happy and fulfill ALL obligations when solving a problem. If there are too many holes and not enough pegs, it doesn’t walk you through how to prioritize the parts of the problem.

Link: https://businesschange.co.za/what-is-catwoe-analysis/

“Make It” Method by Kent Beck

What are the steps?

Make it Work

Make It Right

Make it Fast

Which professions practice this model? This process was made specifically for programmers, especially useful for beginners.

Also applies to business needs:

Meet minimum requirements for business to call project a success (Make it work)

Add details/features to make program less prone to errors (Make it right)

Find and eliminate waste/uncessary logic or assumptions in the process (Make it fast)

How it differs from the other models? It keeps the steps very short, precise, self-explanatory, and memorable.

Where it excels? It helps you remain focused on your current priority before moving onto the next one or falling prey to premature optimization. This process works especially well when you apply it to smaller parts of a larger problem.

Where it falls short? This method assumes you can tell when you’re getting ahead of yourself, but many people who directly follow a process step-by-step needs the guidance to keep them on track. This is assumed

Link: http://www.weeklydevtips.com/006

SWOT Analysis

What are the steps?

Evaluate:

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

Subcategories:

Strength-Opportunity (S-O) – strategies target the opportunities that fit well with the innovative product strength.

Weakness-Opportunities (W-O) – strategies targets overcoming the weakness to build opportunities for the new product or service.

Strength-Threats (S-T) – strategies aim to identify the methods to use the product’s strengths to reduce the threats and market risk.

Weakness-Threats (W-T) – strategies which builds a plan that prevent the product’s weakness from being influenced by external threats.

Which professions practice this model? Stakeholders, business analysts, and companies use this method to find profitable opportunities.

How it differs from the other models? This model encourages a big-picture view, helping you detail knowledge and experience of the team, creativity, innovation, reputation, market needs, brand, budget, competitors, users, and the idea itself among other things.

Where it excels? Guides product developers and stakeholders to determine the correct direction to turn an idea into a new product.

Where it falls short? This is not an all-encompassing method. You can focus on parts of the process and still have a successful product.

Link: https://www.designorate.com/swot-analysis-innovation-creativity/

[sacks-usc]

thoughts on creativity

creativity = new combination of old elements

distinction between talent and creativity

technical (talent) vs uniqueness/something of you (creative)

example: pianist can play hard music (talent) but also adding something from yourself to it or making your own music (creative)

can be for yourself that makes your own life more interesting or feels good, or can be for the world that makes a change beyond your life

can arise when deliberately looking for solution to problem or spontaneous/not prompted by necessity

should/must be intrinsic (enjoying process of creating), flexible (open to possibilities when creating), adaptable (shift to change of situation when roadblocks/challenges come up

steps to the creative process = PIIEE

preparation = exploring what’s already out there & gathering raw material

incubation = letting ideas ruminate in subconscious mind while you work on other things

insight = “aha!” moment

evaluation = deciding whether insight is valuable or not

elaboration = actually doing the work to put plan in motion