Can you believe march is over already? We definitely can’t!
Because design thinking is all about prototyping and being open to new ideas – we’re starting this term with a new team being created in the class, and our enrollment count going up to 21, as a new duo is formed to tackle an Open Ideo challenge related to recycling of Nike waste materials (https://www.openideo.com/challenge-briefs/nike-design-with-grind). We also started this term with Ashley’s birthday! Which of course meant, lots of delicious after class snacks and time for everybody to hang!
As each team takes a very individualized track this term, Tuesday was mostly spent checking in to see where everybody’s at, and also explain expectations and deadlines for the term — we’re letting loose and focusing around deadline dates rather than content this term. Yup, that means we’re letting every team tell us what they should be presenting at each deliverable date based around where they expect to be at the end of the term, and what their solution will likely be looking like. We expect that although teams are currently starting at different places: some going back to the ideation phase whilst others have already chosen what prototype to refine, we expect all teams to begin focusing their efforts solely on their final product by the end of April, so they get a full month of prototyping, testing, and iterating at the end — and hopefully, a product/service/experience that can exist on its own in the real world!
To get everybody comfortable and back in “team mode” we had a few ice breaker activities on Tuesday and then dedicated a significant part of Thursday introducing teamwork frameworks by talking about the “forming, storming, norming, performing” process and discussing DISC assessments. DISC assessments are a personality test that is particularly interesting for this context as it also takes into account how people work in team environments. Due to our budget we worked on the free version for this year, but considering its worth and relative success, its something we are eager to include and pay for if we get the program running next year. DISC assessments are a useful activity not just in the team environment, but also as a way for individuals to better reflect about their own communication and work styles.