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Final Presentations!

It was really fulfilling to prepare our final presentation and be able to summarize our work from this semester.  We looked back all the way to step 1 of the process and were able to pull out some of the key moments where we evolved our understanding of the problem and the solution. It was interesting to realize how helpful the process was to structure our approach particularly as we worked across time zones and travel schedules. It was great working with Kelly and Romas on this project – I learned a lot from them and really enjoyed solving this problem together.

We presented our project to the class tonight and it was great to hear the feedback from everyone. I also really liked seeing the other projects come together. Each team had their own unique journey through the process, but all ended up with some really engaging solutions! Nice job to the Street Urchins, No Spoilers and Discover Loco!

I also really appreciated the thoughtful feedback from Sue throughout this entire journey. She helped guide us through the process by asking insightful questions and providing suggestions that helped us think creatively about the problem and solution. I learned a lot from the specific guidance on our project and from hearing her questions and feedback to the other teams.  I have mixed emotions as we end the semester – I’m looking forward to a short break, but it’s been a great class and I’m going to miss our Thursday nights together!

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Evaluation

This week we started the evaluation phase and already our team is seeing the benefit of the iterative nature of this process. Throughout each stage of the project, we have refined our idea, making sure that it solves a real need and is viable. I’m looking forward to hearing the feedback from class on our final concept and process.

From a timing perspective, this week was difficult for me. I was travelling in Europe for work and the time difference made it so that I couldn’t join class and was limited to collaborating mostly over email. Luckily our team has developed good communication and collaboration techniques that made it possible to keep working together despite the time difference.

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Business Model Canvas

Filling out the business model canvas, I was struck by the fact that although our solution is a good idea and solves a worthwhile problem, the business model is not straightforward! Our end customers are individuals and primarily school age kids, but our paying customer could include various levels of government, companies who need fire safety training and advocacy groups. This does open up several revenue streams, but it would take an investment of time and resources by our team to better understand and develop relationships with this network of customers.

We also found that there is federal grant funding available for Fire Prevention & Safety through FEMA which could be a potential source of funding for our solution. In 2016, $34.5M was granted, with the average award amount being $331k. Looking at the list of 2016 winners, we would likely need to partner with another agency, fire department or local government with more expertise and experience in fire safety in order to win a grant. We also want to partner with equipment manufacturers to sponsor installations and equipment such as fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and hoses. We would also benefit from finding a partner in the construction, trucking or modular housing industries to help build the installation.

Iterating through the business model canvas helped us to refine our solution and think through the ways we could make the implementation successful. It was exciting to see my thinking of the business model progress from “this is going to be hard to make money on” to “here are the actions we can take, partnerships we can develop and customers we can target to make this solution successful.”

Here is a link to our business model canvas: https://canvanizer.com/canvas/wDdyl9QnkxWLW

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Conceptualize It

Our solution is a mobile live action simulation for fire safety education. It is an innovative and interactive experience that we hope helps make learning how to escape a deadly situation stick with a wider audience. The simulation can be set up in a trailer and surrounding area to give the illusion of being a part of a real fire extinguish and/or evacuation scenario.

We conceptualized the solution through a storyboard mapping out the interactive experience. The hands-on simulation includes using a rope ladder from a second story window, putting out a kitchen fire and crawling beneath smoke in a simulated escape. The key visualizations for our concept are below.

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Choosing a Solution

Based on the feedback we received from classmates, voting results and a team discussion, we selected live action community simulation as our top solution.

 I’m excited to pursue this topic - I think there is a lot of opportunity to improve education through hands-on experience and the delivery method of an adventure room makes it a fun and memorable activity. 

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Sacrificial Concepts

We used Mural to vote up 3 sacrificial concepts and then spent some time visualizing and defining the solution in more detail. Our 3 sacrificial concepts were:

We presented these three concepts to our class during the live session and gathered their feedback:

In/out of home connectivity - 3 votes

Asked about what is novel in this concept:

The connection to all devices in your house allows your house to intelligently vent the house, unlock or open doors and light up an escape path with connected light bulbs

The social connectivity and ability to connect to your emergency contacts, family, NextDoor, etc. when a fire is detected in your home

Pros:

Seems like a strong solution for when people are sleeping and unaware of a fire or gas leak

Community engagement aspect - neighbors, friends and family may be able to reach people faster than the fire department and are usually willing to help in a crisis

Social media interactions - 0 votes

No comments!

Live action community simulations - 7 votes

Pros:

Physically doing something, even in a simulation, has a much larger outcome on changing behavior than watching a video or reading

Even if you just captured the school age market, that could still make a difference for future generations. Even them being the ones who know what to do for their families.

Could extend to company safety training and use AR or VR

Cons:

Adults may not go to a community event or do any of these activities in their free time without kids

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Group Brainstorming

Our group brainstormed around 3 How Might We questions

1. How might we reach the public about fire safety without making it seem boring or unnecessary? 

2. How might we use the inventions we have today to better improve the way we handle fires?

3. How might we improve escape path and awareness for at risk people without modifying their homes?

It was interesting to use an online platform for this and I think Mural worked pretty well for our team. It helped that we had a video chat going on in parallel so that it felt more personal and interactive.  The HMW questions helped to focus our brainstorming, but it did also feel a little constricting. It was hard to get creative with such a serious topic and focused questions. It was really helpful when Sue popped in to inspire some lateral thinking and spark some fresh concepts. I think it could be interesting to apply some of the other brainstorming techniques to encourage the crazies even more! 

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Problem Definition

As a group, our team came up with a problem definition:

Growing up, we remember learning all about Smokey the Bear and that he stood for fire safety. What we don’t remember is being taught how to prevent them and be safe around them, other than “Stop. Drop and Roll.” Today, we don’t think that the curriculum is strong enough, aside from the very basics. If we spend more time focusing on the main causes of fires, how to prepare for them, and create escape plans, we believe the amount of uncontrollable fires would reduce drastically, as well as the damage and casualties of the ones that cannot be tamed. At the end of the day, our main focus is educating the public about fire safety.

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Individually, to help define our problem, I did some additional research and found that there are more fires started outside than in a structure, but structure fires lead to more civilian death, injuries and property damage.

Within home fires, smoking leads to the most civilian deaths and unattended cooking leads to the most injuries.

With this in mind, I think people in the home should be our target audience rather than campers or people with fire pits. Within this category, there are also groups who are more at risk than others including smokers, people over 65 and African Americans (see infographic below).

The problem definition I came to through my research is: How might we create an easy to follow and remember escape plan for at risk people without modifying their homes?

Some additional statistics from NFPA:

In 2016, there were 1,342,000 fires reported in the United States. These fires caused 3,390 civilian deaths, 14,650 civilian injuries, and $10.6 billion in property damage.

475,500 were structure fires, causing 2,950 civilian deaths, 12,775 civilian injuries, and $7.9 billion in property damage.

173,000 were vehicle fires, causing 280 civilian fire deaths, 1,075 civilian fire injuries, and $933 million in property damage.

662,500 were outside and other fires, causing 85 civilian fire deaths, 650 civilian fire injuries, and $1.4 billion in property damage.

The 2016 U.S. fire loss clock a fire department responded to a fire every 24 seconds. One structure fire was reported every 66 seconds.

One home structure fire was reported every 90 seconds.

One civilian fire injury was reported every 34 minutes.

One civilian fire death occurred every 2 hours and 35 minutes.

One outside and other fire was reported every 48 seconds.

One highway vehicle fire was reported every 3 minutes 2 seconds.

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How might we

HMW (action) (who) to (what) without (pain point).

Homeowners

How might we teach homeowners to know what to do in a fire without fear or worry?

How might we make it intuitive for people to extinguish all types of home fires without it feeling like a lot to remember?

How might we improve escape path and awareness for at risk people without modifying their homes?

Campers

How might we eliminate wildfires due to unextinguished campfires?

How might we teach experienced and casual campers campfire safety in a fun and memorable way?

How might we learn to use natural resources to extinguish campfires?

Firefighters

How might we help firefighters extinguish wildfires without extreme losses or costs?

How might we build on the idea of firefighters as role models for kids to improve fire prevention education?

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Extreme Contexts or Users

Fire Fighters

Arsonists: Arson is a crime of intentionally, deliberately and maliciously setting fire to buildings, wildland areas, abandoned homes, vehicles or other property with the intent to cause damage.

Pyromaniacs: Pyromania is an impulse control disorder in which individuals repeatedly fail to resist impulses to deliberately start fires, in order to relieve tension or for instant gratification.

Pyrophobia

Everyday homeowners

Campers

People with Fire Pits

Scientists

Creators of Fire Retardants and Suppression systems

Fire Regulators - Inspectors

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Analogous Situations

Fires spread rapidly and so do diseases

Preventative care - birth control, diseases, vaccines

Not knowing how to do something until the last minute when you need it

Injuries, using insurance

Car insurance - required

Optional insurance (pet) - what makes people buy these? Fear, emotion

...end up getting burned in the end!

Thinking something wouldn’t happen to you

Natural disasters

Unpredictable: earthquakes, tsunamis

Something that you had to learn that ended up being really memorable and fun

Smokey the bear

DARE to stay off drugs

Stop, drop and roll

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Conjunction Junction

1. Stranger Things

Stranger Things is a Netflix show and is scary. It is a hit amongst 30-somethings and has a throwback nature to it. It has adult actors and kids.

Stranger Things is a Netflix show, but it is scary. It is a hit amongst 30-somethings, but also has a throwback nature to it. It has adult actors, but also kids.

2. My Cats

I have two cats and their names are Rocky and Midnight. My cats are cute, cuddly and get in to trouble sometimes. Rocky likes to sit in my lap when I work on the computer and Midnight likes to sleep all day.

I have two cats, one is named Rocky, but the other is named Midnight. They are cute, cuddly, but they also get into trouble sometimes. Rocky sits in my lap when I work on the computer, but Midnight likes to sleep all day.

3. Winter

In Connecticut, winter is cold and snowy and lasts from November through March. I like the fresh snow when it is white and fluffy and pretty. I do not like to drive in the snow and shovel it.

In Connecticut, winter is cold, but also snowy. It lasts from November through March. I like the fresh pretty, fluffy, white snow, but I do not like to drive in it or shovel it.

4. My Car

I have a 2002 VW Jetta and I love it. It is silver and has a sunroof and leather seats. It also has a coolant leak and engine oil leak and I haven’t been able to properly fix it. I don’t like the negative impact it has on the environment and I think I will have to buy a new car soon.

I have a 2002 VW Jetta, but it has a coolant leak and engine oil leak. I love the car, but I haven’t been able to properly fix it. I like how the car looks and drives, but I don’t like the negative impact it has on the environment. I think I’ll have to buy a new car soon.

5. Travel

Travelling for work is hard and fun. I get to travel to a lot of cities all over the world and go with my coworkers/friends. It is exhausting and hard work and not as glamourous as it sounds.

Travelling for work is hard, but fun. I get to travel to a lot of cities all over the world, but with my coworkers/friends instead of my family/friends. It is exhausting, but not as glamourous as it sounds.

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Morphological Analysis

Problem: Fires are destructive, unpredictable and can easily get out of control. There is no easy and sustainable way to extinguish fires after a certain point.

Two of our team’s morphological analyses are pasted below. 

Morphological Analysis 1: Comparing the places that fires occur with the resources that might be available

Morphological Analysis 2: Comparing the requirements for a fire to exist with resources

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Process Book #3

Process Book Entry

Week 9

For this phase, I started looking broadly at the problem. There are many related components - preventing fires, extinguishing them, using different types of extinguishers for different types of fires, education and dealing with recovery after a fire.

The latest large wildfire in the US in northern California led to 42 deaths, 8,400 structures burned, 5,500 homes destroyed and over $1B in damage. Over 11,000 firefighters have been working to extinguish the fire. Aerial views show this destruction at a large scale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wsegE01zUE

In 2015, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 365,500 home structure fires. These fires caused 2,560 deaths, 11,075 civilian injuries, and $7 billion in direct damage. Although the number of fires has decreased over time, there has been a plateau in the reduction of civilian deaths due to fire around 3,200-3,400 over the past 3 years.

Of all the calls that firefighters respond to, only 4% are for fires. The majority are rescue and medical aid calls.

In education, the NFPA (National Fire Prevention Association) is teaching Every Second Counts: Plan 2 Ways Out! http://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Campaigns/Fire-Prevention-Week with Sparky the dog as the mascot.

I also looked into how fires work and what is done to extinguish them fundamentally. Fires do not occur in the absence of one of three things: fuel, oxygen or heat. Fires can be put out by removing the fuel source (turning off the gas on a stove), suffocating it by removing flow of oxygen (putting a lid on a flame), by removing the heat (pouring water on a campfire) or by applying a fire retardant chemical. Interestingly, fires can’t occur in the absence of gravity because convection doesn’t occur. Anywhere fuel, oxygen and heat exist, a spark can start a fire.

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Contingency Management

As a group, we discussed contingency management:

Understand your limits. What are your capabilities and the collective capabilities of your team?

We have a mix of engineering, design, and business perspectives on our team, but we are all open to pushing outside of our comfort zones. In addition to everyone’s unique backgrounds, we are able to bring a sense of passion to help each other succeed.

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?

The main goal for our team is to identify feasible solutions to fighting and preventing fires. It is our intention to provide helpful guidelines, tips, and education, with the hope of reducing fire catastrophes, injuries, and overall fire damage. Some potential gaps that our team could face are creating a curriculum that is accepted by the board of education to allow us to educate students on fire prevention, and working closely with fire departments to better understand how to prevent fires. To mitigate these problems, we will reach out to subject matter experts in each particular department or field to ensure we have the best possible action plan and are not missing any key components.

 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

It is each of our responsibilities to keep one another motivated and energized to find the best possible solution for our problem. Our intention and goal to exceed expectations are dependent on how often we meet and align our personal and work commitments to stay within our scope and complete our main objective.

 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?

As a team, we don’t believe in poor behavior or team members not contributing as we are all equally invested in solving for a real life problem. However, we understand that life happens, so it is each person's responsibility to keep all members of the team up-to-date and aware if they foresee any interruptions or issues.

My individual responses before meeting with the group are pasted below. Our team was pretty well aligned on these contingencies from our individual responses and we further solidified them as a group. 

Understand your limits. what are your capabilities and the collective capabilities of your team?

My capabilities include engineering and design thinking

From a problem perspective, my limits include lack of personal experience with threatening fires or fire fighting

From a project perspective, I have limited availability above and beyond the course expectations

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?

Goal: Create a solution that is feasible and desirable

Deeply understand the problem to be solved, both technically and with regard to user needs

Ideate several potential solutions, use insights, research and inspiration to go broad and select the top solution to develop further

Understand the business model for our top solution

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

Recommend that we agree on the goals & intentions and amount of time spend

Set regular meeting times and adjust for personal or work commitments as needed

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?

Incentives: Thank you as recognition of good work, time off from the project

Consequences: Not contributing: Request to add more time to the project. Poor behavior: Request to stop poor behavior, if no change and detrimental to the team somehow, reported to the professor

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Destination and Journey

Problem: Fires are destructive, unpredictable and can easily get out of control. There is no easy and sustainable way to extinguish fires after a certain point. 

Why should I be a part of the team?

Personally motivated and interested in solving this problem

My expertise in design thinking parallels some of the Creative Problem Solving Process

Access to experts in fire suppression through my work which may be a good resource

Engineering background

Why should my team members be part of the team?

Romas

Passionate about solving problems with passionate people

Experience in data analytics, graphic design, and communication

I always give it a 150% effort to help my team succeed

I’m a visionary and I’m always looking for the big picture

Kelly

I am interested in being a part of this team because I think that we all provide a dynamic perspective and can work together really well. I am very interested in making an entrepreneurial impact on the world and coming up with an idea that could change someone’s life. I am very passionate about entrepreneurship, strategy and business. I do extensive research on these topics, listen to podcasts, watch TED talks, read books and study my favorite entrepreneurs compulsively. I think I can bring a strategic and innovative perspective to the group. I love to incorporate creative elements and ensure that the team is thinking big picture. I have a variety of interesting connections to the topic of fighting fire. Over the past 10+ years, I’ve experienced and witnessed the devastation of the Colorado wildfires nearly every year. I know the destruction that can take place and the loss that can be experienced. Much like flooding or other natural disaster, it is hard to bounce back after something so heavy. My grandpa was a firefighter for many years, so I’ve always found it fascinating to pick his brain about his experiences in the field. I would love to interview him about the topic and find out more about the science behind fires and their strategy for tackling them. I am interested in researching the topic in depth and becoming a subject matter expert so that I can contribute new ideas to my team. I am also interested in the creative side, contributing to the design of a product or the proposal. I am very excited to be a part of this team and work to discover a new way to effective fight fires or minimize the destruction in their path.  

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What’s In It For Me?

For me, the benefits of working on this project include:

Learn and apply a new process

Feel energized solving a real problem

Getting to know the team and working with a new group of people

We also discussed this as a group and what we feel is in it for us includes:

Learning from one another and helping each other

Learning and applying the 7 step process in more detail

Learning more about the science of fires

Energized to solve a real problem that really matters