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Process Journal: Reflection

Hard to believe it’s already over. But as we’ve learned along the way, the journey never really ends. Problem solving methodology is an iterative process that I’ll revisit time and again in a variety of circumstances. I mean, hell, I’ve already made my boss mind-map out the content for a conference we’re hosting in November.

So let’s reflect back on all the good times...

Looking back on the Acceptance stage of the process, it’s clear how important the group dynamic is. In a small working group, it only takes one team member not accepting the problem you’re trying to solve to lead to a whole different host of problems. If everyone can get onboard individually and as a unit, every other stage of the process will be easier. In retrospect, it’s interesting how immediately important the team dynamic is right off the bat. One of the best decisions we made as a group was taking some time during our very first meeting to just chat with each other about non work stuff. Kicked us off on the right foot. It’s also interesting to think about this stage in the broadest sense... you’re accepting the problem and your level of commitment to solving it. If you try to accept too much beyond that up front you may end up encroaching on a future step for which you haven’t yet done the necessary legwork.

The Analysis stage of the process was hugely important, and one that we continually revisited throughout. It was tempting to jump to conclusions... and by tempting, I mean I 100% had a conclusion picked out before this stage was over. But that’s not the solution we ended up going with, namely because we continued to do research throughout the project, and because we remained open and flexible. The research we did on other products on the market and available components for production was hugely impactful. It informed decisions we were making this past week during evaluation. I think in the future I should probably try to do a better job of staying present during the Analysis stage instead of looking forward.

Defining the problem was critical, and interesting that it came after we started doing research, not before. The “problem” we initially accepted was extremely broad, and the research we did informed the number of different directions we could have taken it in. But based on feedback we received, we knew we had to narrow the target market (from everybody to teens) and narrow the specific issue we were aiming to address (to flossing from oral care). Writing things down individually and talking them out as a group was critical. And, shocker, this was an iterative part of the process, as the original definition we came up with was not where we eventually landed.

The Ideation session was the best. We had four creative, expressive individuals with different backgrounds that all wanted to say “yes” to each other’s ideas. We were all able to riff off each other and combine things in new and creative ways. We revisited this portion of the journey throughout the rest of it, referring to posts in the stormboard for reference or alternative execution options. We had FUN with it.

The Selection stage came next, which was based namely on market research to pick app2mouth as our solution, though it’s notable that we did see the opportunity to combine other potential solutions together into one super powered solve. Like, how could we ditch the mouth vacuum. She’s so beautiful. I’d say the most important part of this step is letting go of any biases you may have going in. Part of this is having respect for your teammates’ opinions. Part of it is a willingness to rely on market research instead of individual-centric design. And part of it is knowing that you can always revisit this step after attempting implementation or evaluation.

 Wait, did somebody just say Implementation? Cool! That’s the next stage! I’ll be honest... this is about when my work / life went completely off the rails, which was unfortunate for a number of reasons. Prototyping the physical aspect of our product would have been a blast. And putting together an MVP game to prove concept of tracking brush / floss motions to a connected device also sounds fun. But alas, we were stuck with putting together more of a conceptual business canvas, which while being an interesting and helpful exercise, didn’t really allow us to get past the theoretical part of implementation.

When it comes to Evaluation, it’s much easier to do that when you’ve actually implemented a solution. So again, the tail end of this project swung pretty dramatically from practical to theoretical. We conceptualized how we would test out the efficacy of the project, and budgeted future capital for additional R&D throughout the product lifecycle. And we learned a valuable lesson: always iterate, and never be scared to revisit old steps. Also, we learned about the value of friendship.

As far as making improvements to the process, I almost feel like that’s a trick question. The process is deliberately iterative and malleable. It’s important not to get ahead of yourself (i.e., you gotta understand the problem before you can propose well-informed solutions), but as long as you allow for testing and introspection along the way you can never get too lost. So how do you improve the process? By following it perfectly, or maybe not following it for a bit before getting back to it again, or by iterating different tactics within the broader strategy. Oh, yeah, and by having a great team. The process can’t do crap for you if you don’t listen to your teammates and trust each other to do good work.

~Fin~

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Process Journal: Evaluation

Oh man so I'm on week two of 14+ hour stressful-ass work days all culminating in our stock going down 25%+ in after hours trading following our 2Q’19 earnings report so I’m just about spent. I love the hell out of this class but definitely gonna be phoning this one in. Planning on watching the lectures on the train to work at 6:30am tomorrow. Kill me.

So evaluation... what’s that all about? I’d say one super important element of any project is to actually budget the time to be able to evaluate both the output and the process. 

When it comes to our current project, we (not surprisingly) haven’t been able to make a working prototype or commission any focus groups or anything like that. But we have talked to people in our network about the idea to get feedback and assess general interest. The crowd seems to love it.

We have set achievable, bite-sized, measurable goals on a scheduled roadmap, so assuming we go along that process, we should be able to determine whether or not those milestones are being reached. When it comes to judging an output, pre-determining quantifiable criteria for what constitutes success is critical. Cause judging something is way more fun when you’re justified in your criticism (and can call out actionable items to change).

The thing I’ve come to realize about any good problem solving process is that it’s iterative in nature, and always incorporates assessment points from which you can return to an earlier step. Everything should be tested throughout. Nothing should be sacred. And you should be honest with yourself and open to hearing other people’s opinions. An inability to take feedback is a one-way ticket to pooptown.

Jesus. I’m tired. 

One last thing... it’s not just about testing and judging the product. My group has been giving honest feedback to each other throughout the process. And we’ve been willing to try out things that we’re not particularly good at along the way. Because as awesome as it sounds, I’m coming to terms with the fact that we’re probably not going to invent a revolutionary way to brush your teeth in the last seven weeks of a class. But the idea is cool as shit and my teammates have been great to work with and I’m super impressed with our output so far and we’re learning things along the way.

(Hoping that was corny enough to cover for the fact that I didn’t actually do any real work for this.)

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Process Journal: Implementation

Ok gotta be honest here... I’ve been working literal 16 hour days this week not including the group work for PnP and given that a lot of this is duplicative I just don’t have it in me (nor do I have the time) to go into too much additional detail.

My team continues to work brilliantly together. Michael tends to take a leadership role, particularly in regards to organization. Isaac is a master of sketching and illustration. Rae seemingly has researched every product ever related to anything. And then there’s me, suggesting we use Poot Lovato as an influencer.

But for real, it’s like that part in the Spice Girls song, where she’s like...

...and then goes on to list what everybody does:

“We got Em in the place who likes it in your face You got G like MC who likes it on a Easy V doesn't come for free, she's a real lady And as for me, ha you'll see“

That’s what implementation looks like. Also we built a sick-ass deck (waaa it won’t let me attach the PDF) that goes through the Business Canvas and Roadmap, complete with nicknameifcation of tasks, the importance of which may be the most important thing I’ve learned in this class.

We’ve all committed. We’ve gotten thoughts down on paper. Our group dynamics are tight. We have sketches. We’ve rallied around a path. We’re so effing gucci rn.

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Process Journal: Selection

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Process Journal: Ideation

Brainstorms! What-ifs! Taking breaks! Altering environments! Altering verbs! Altering minds!

So many ways to come up with ideas. The input research was super helpful. And then I just thought. And crazy shit came to me. Because baby, I was born this way.

The group brainstorm was effing awesome, but that’s mainly because my team is smart and hardworking and super fun. We embraced crazy and outlandish ideas. We supported each other. We responded to ideas with “yes, and...” It was like an improv class. Except actually funny.

One of my favorite things to do was to come up with ideas that we wanted to toss out. Like, we had a bunch of good ones, so we wanted to come up with some obviously bad ones too. Because sometimes being bad feels good.

We forced connections like floss forcing its way between teeth. Or would that be forcing aparts? Whatever. We came up with a mouth vacuum. That says it all.

This has been my favorite part of the journey so far. Establishing base knowledge is important, but it’s not as much fun. If only coming up with crazy ideas paid as well as finance...

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Team CleanAF Process Journal: Group Brainstorming and Debriefing Hunnnnnnnnyyyyy

How do we make flossing gucci af for teens?

A common refrain, one that’s been asked for generations. And one that Team CleanAF was ready to face head-on.

But how, you ask? 

By turning our brainstorm into a mind monsoon.

Working individually, we looked at the problem from multiple angles, with a plan to come together and make magic happen. First question: can we make physical hardware that would be faster, cuter, on fleeker? Second: how do we reach these kiiiids? How can we meet them where they are to influence their decisions? Third: how can we combine and cross-polinate different ideas to make everyone smile?

We posted our individual ideas to a Stormboard and set a time to get together in a private Zoom conference room. Red carpet and everything. Super VIP and elite. 

Then the magic started to happen. We looked at our ideas on the board, broke them down some more and started looking for connections. The what-ifs and the crazy combinations started...

Michael was all like, yo, what if there were floss bristles that extended out of a regular toothbrush?

It would be like this:

But also kinda like this:

But probably more like Isaac’s sketch:

Then Rae was all like, you know those white out rolls? What if those were for teeth? 

Bong bong:

BUT MAKE IT FASHION HUNNNNEY!

This, for some reason, caused Isaac to ask if you could flush dental floss. No way said Rae, who went on to regale us with tales of other things not to be flushed. Including kitty litter. Go figure. Then zigging just as fast as she zagged, Rae screamed “I like coconut oil and charcoal too!” And then Michael was like WHAT IF THEY WERE ALL THE SAME THING. Yikes.

Then Issac was like think about this, captains: teens love apps. Seriously. It’s all they do. So why not gamify the process? Paired with a toothbrush and an interchangeable flossing head, the app monitors the usage and rewards the user for completing daily and community goals.

Say cheese!

Then Ken was like yo what if we could plug a waterpik directly into the sink and have a self-contained apparatus to reduce the mess from it blasting all over the place?

So to start maybe this:

And Isaac said we could stick it in a mouthguard and everybody else was like SHABLAM!

Shablam:

design sketch by Isaacsso

And then - believe it or not - all four of us, at the exact same moment, looked each other straight in the webcams and said in unison: “mouth vacuum.”

Look at how excited she is to have a clean mouth!

We also discussed some outlandish ideas, like an awareness campaign, ways of marketing the sexiness of flossing, and little magic pebbles that were actually mouthwash. It’s not my fault mind-altering drugs are one of the universal problem solver’s tools.

We moved things around the Stormboard. We connected and disconnected and reconnected different ideas. We sent each other gifs. And whenever somebody prefaced a thought with “This might be stupid…” we were all like “no way you’re awesome so this will be awesome by extension and even if it isn’t whatever you’re still gucci af.”

It was a brainstorm of epic proportions. Everybody got drenched.

(Creative and unexpected way to hold your umbrella, Rihanna. You’re invited to the next one.)

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Problem Definition

My original definition: There is no fast, easy, comfortable, non-messy way to clean your dirty mouth

Group definition: Many Americans have a pain point! There’s no fast, easy, comfortable, elegant, comprehensive way to clean your dirty mouth.

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Conjunction Junction

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Analysis

I think we should alter the current design of the water pick to make it more efficient and less messy to use. There. I said it. Please don’t yell at me for thinking ahead to other steps the whole jump to conclusions thing was your idea. ANALYSIS!

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ACCEPTANCE

First and foremost I’d like to congratulate myself for not doing this prematurely and accepting something I need not accept. That’s a waste of mental enegry and I will not abide. I feel that everyone who turned their assignment in on time should have 10% deducted from their grade and everyone who did the responsible thing and waited should get full credit.

So my team is great. Even though I was “unaware” of the team even existing before class today, possibly because my own effing company’s app didn’t actually tell me what team I’m in, possibly because I don’t check Slack because THERE ARE TOO MANY DAMN MESSAGING APPS. But yeah, when we actually got time to discuss things everyone was constructive and fun and funny and focused on moving in the right direction. So my starting point of acceptance is that I am fully confident that we’re going to be able to come up with a viable hypothesis - then execute - on any problem we face.

As for the Picture Success technique, I’m already there. A world with no bad breath. No deodorant stains. No flossing (the gums bleeding type, not the dance). It’s glorious. A written description of projecting myself “into the mental state [I] would be in as [I] jously celebrate the rewards of [my] success” probably isn’t appropriate for a graded assignment. Let’s just say I’d party.

The immediately expected results of the best case scenario would be improving health and happiness at scale at a reasonable price. And putting dentists out of business. I’ve always hated them.

Who would benefit from our success? LITERALLY FUCKING EVERYBODY. How bout dat.

Ok honestly this prompt has too many questions. Chill out.

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