After participating in the Defining process, I realized that it is a long process that can be hard to dwindle down into a few distinct ideas to move forward with. I’ll admit I got overwhelmed at times, but I think that had to do with me not being 100% confident in my ideas and my abilities since this is the first time that I’ve participated in the design thinking process. At times, my thoughts were all over the place when it came to the overall Defining process, as I tended to jump a few steps ahead of what we were supposed to be doing. Also, I think I volunteered to spearhead this section because it feels the most concrete in the design thinking process, which aligns more with my thought processes. However, I think as a whole, our group did a good job in parsing through our ideas and coming up with a few strong HMW statements.
One thing I noticed that was helpful for me in coming up with HMW statements was thinking about the role of consumer wisdom in the overall design thinking process. I think that understanding what a wise consumer wants and needs plays a big role in coming up with potential HMW statements. As was discussed in class, it’s important to keep the ultimate consumer in mind when coming up with ideas to benefit both the company and the consumer. I think having a persona in mind when coming up with HMW statements is utilizing the ideas of consumer wisdom, because it helps put into perspective what the customer is looking for when it comes to products from and experiences in a store.
I thought it was really lucky that our group converged very quickly on which LP subsections we thought were most important. I think it helped our group morale, knowing that we were all on similar pages on where we thought the opportunities were for our company. However, I think that initial morale made it more difficult for us when we needed to have more discussion about the HMW statements later on in the Defining process. We ended up stalling a bit in the discussion period, running with potential ideas that are part of later steps. Despite this, I think that we eventually were all on the same page concerning our thought processes as we narrowed down our ideas to our final 3-4 HMW statements.
Overall, I think that the Defining process has started to take me out of my comfort zone when it comes to narrowing down ideas into a few. I think as we continue farther into the design thinking process, I’ll be pushed more to think creatively and in ways I never thought I was good enough to. I can already feel parts of my mindset starting to change as well as skills starting to improve, especially with creative thinking and comfort with ambiguity. I still have a ways to go, but I think as I move further along in the design thinking process, these skills will improve and I will have more confidence in myself to take risks and suggest out-of-the-box ideas.