Every time the end of semester arrives, I am amazed at 1) how quickly the time went 2) how much was packed into three short months. As I’ve reflected on the Design Studio course, the projects we did, the new concepts I’ve learned and the people I’ve met, I am amazed at the seemingly slow, yet steady transformation that has occurred in the way I think and approach problems.
Problems are all around us. Most jobs are created in order to solve problems. The larger the problem, typically the more money is rewarded to the person or team who can solve it. When I first stepped into the Design Studio on January 4, 2012, I walked in unsure of what the next three hours would hold. I knew we would be learning concepts related to how we think. I also had this intense feeling of anticipation and excitement. I felt that when I walked into the studio – all the rules would change. Exploration would not only be allowed, but encouraged.
I was right. I got pushed out of my comfort zone within the first hour of class. Coming from an intensive fine arts background coupled with experience in engineering projects – the most impressive of which included winning 1st place at MIT at the Second Annual Underwater Robotics Competition – I have had some experience with design and loved the ambiguity of it all. However, I was out of practice. My time at Sauder has been spent gaining valuable analytical and strategic thinking skills. I knew I needed and wanted theses skills so I applied myself to this area of study. Yet, I always felt as though something was missing. Some creative force – that I become addicted to in high school – was gone.
How has your thinking process changed?
My time at the Design Studio taught me many important lessons. Here is the short list;
- Prototyping
- Comfort with Ambiguity
- 35 Ideas in 5 Minutes: The Power of Brainstorming
Prototyping
Based on past projects I’ve worked on, prototyping meant creating a “draft” of the final project. There is a certain level of comfort in knowing that the first prototype you make will only be the first draft. The pressure of perfection diminishes which allows ideas to flow freely. In the first few weeks at the Design Studio, I had to get “back into the rhythm” of prototyping. I found that I had fallen into “analysis paralysis” by judging ideas before they had a chance to be expressed. As a result, it made it easier to sit back and let someone else contribute while I “critiqued”. I pushed myself to move beyond this and forced myself to come up with creative, wild ideas. It was fun. I now feel more comfortable to not always have the right answer, but instead, to contribute one part of the main idea that the team can develop together. I used these skills a lot over the semester and really enjoyed the newfound freedom I felt.
Prototyping for business is different from prototyping for an engineering project. I found it more challenging to think of ideas on how to prototype business departments than an engineering design. This was part of the challenge and one that I enjoyed finding solutions to. For example, it stretched my brain to think of new ways to represent a service journey of customer interactions. But now I feel more comfortable with the “un-comfortableness” of it all.
Comfort in Ambiguity
This leads me to my second insight; learning to be comfortably uncomfortable. It is always easy to “play it safe” in order to keep things structured and logical; to maintain an element of control. However, this, quite simply, is not realistic. In order to achieve greatness, it is necessary to take risks and be comfortable with ambiguity; albeit measured ambiguity. I found that, for myself, the desire to “play it safe” often stems from fear. The fear can come in many forms; fear of failure, fear of disapproval, fear of “getting it wrong” or the fear of not being understood. Yet the damaging thing about fear is that it stops the journey of discovery – which really is essential to design.
This course gave me plenty of opportunities to choose to live in that fear or to choose another path. The times I chose to embrace ambiguity brought greater confidence and stronger, clearer, more brilliant ideas. My choices also affected my team. I realized that the more I chose to embrace ambiguity and the journey of exploration; others also joined me in that journey.
35 Ideas in 5 Minutes: The Power of Brainstorming
To help embrace this idea of ambiguity, I found it helpful to put up boundaries to the creative process. When stumped on generating ideas or when I found myself judging the ideas, my team and I would create brainstorming goals. My favorite was to come up with 35 ideas in 5 minutes. This game helped me come up with seemingly “crazy” or “out there” ideas. When all the ideas were out on the table, it was easier to synthesize everything together into something great.
Concluding Remarks
Taking this course has been an incredible experience. Working with business and academic professionals, and other students from different educational backgrounds has taught me the value of prototyping, how to embrace ambiguity and some unique tools on idea generation. The last three months were a rewarding journey of exploration