After going through ideation for two HMW statements, I found the process to be enlightening and interesting. There were times where I stated that I wasn’t creative enough to come up with ideas, and that was just a lot of insecurity talking. However, I think that being able to feed off of my group and see their ideas helped me spark a couple of my own. After two iterations of the process, I definitely felt more confident throwing out ideas, even if they were a bit outlandish. Even though ideation has probably been the most challenging part of this class for me so far, I really enjoyed pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Our group did a great job of accepting all ideas that were created, and I felt like I was in a safe space to throw out any idea that came to mind.
One challenge I think our group faced during the ideation process was that we were missing one of our group members for the entire week. Having that fourth member would have helped generated more ideas overall and would have brought another perspective to the table. Despite this, I think the three of us did a good job making up for this loss and persisted through the ideation process. I think another challenge for us was going through the ideation process a second time, because we noticed that our other HMW statements were too similar to our first one to create separate ideas that wouldn’t overlap with the first HMW statement. However, I think we were able to discern between the HMW statements to create more ideas overall.
After going through the ideation process, I’ve definitely learned a few lessons about mindset, group work, and the design thinking process:
- Do not be afraid to speak up about any and all ideas–I know this was part of the class instructions, but I find it to be easier said than done. I think that having a supportive group and confidence in yourself are key factors in stating any ideas you may have.
- The design thinking process works better when you have the right mindset, especially the aspects discussed in class. One in particular that I didn’t expect to be so important is persistence. Ideation can be a lot of work, and there can be lulls in the process where no one is coming up with ideas and it feels like the group is stuck. Pushing the group to come up with a specific amount of ideas in a set of time is important for those final moments before moving on to the next step.
- It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. At first, I thought this meant that I was doing something wrong, or that I wasn’t equipped to do something like come up with ideas. I also felt this in the Defining stage as well. However, I realized that this is a normal feeling to have, especially because it’s my first time going through the design thinking process. I think this has do with being comfortable with ambiguity, because I’m not used to feeling overwhelmed in group work when doing something new. I think that this whole process has pushed me to be better, and I’m really enjoying myself along the way.