If I were to encapsulate the business canvas project in one word it’d be: interesting. This past project was very distinct compared to an average commerce project. At Sauder, the usual case study or business plan often covers the same number of aspects: research, problem statement, insights, and recommendations. But our academic objectives with the business canvas were a lot more ambiguous. I’m one of those individuals that do not like the feeling of uncertainty or ambiguity. With school work, I prefer having clear instructions on what is expected and a benchmark of what a quality piece of work is. However, I think one of the things I’m starting to realize about design thinking is that there is always going to be some amount of ambiguity to deal with. I think it’s almost necessary for a designer to have some slack with any project they are immersed in, I think it’s that ambiguity that allows them to innovate or at the very least impose their own flavor onto a project.
Going back to the canvas, my partner and I had the opportunity of working with Sunnytrails. They are the guys who are providing companies with a service that provides email updates to clients on socially influential customers. After our meeting with Octav, one of the co-founders of Sunnytrails, my partner Steph and I felt that we had sufficient information to build the canvas. However, a couple nights before our presentation Steph brought up the fact that our canvas was not very concise and coherent and things didn’t connect with each other. Consequently, we scrapped our entire canvas and built a new one from scratch. Hence, another key take away I got from this project is summarized in Thomas Edison’s definition of genius – that it requires “99% perspiration.” Edison’s definition of genius attempts to explain that many reiterations and attempts of trial and error may be required before stumbling upon a result that’s satisfactory. I think this really rings true in the world of design thinking. To be experimental and creative means to sometimes work outside established norms and expectations, and doing things different doesn’t always translate into doing things right.
I think the business canvas was a good exercise in teaching us how to pull together lots of information to provide a solid bird’s eye view of an intricate entity, and then draw meaningful insights from that perspective to push the boundaries on what you know about that entity.
Finally, I found one more aspect of Tim Brown’s Design Thinking article to be fairly accurate. Brown’s description of a design thinker’s personality profile was very true for me. To be a good design thinker, I think you must have the ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes – particularly those who are using or judging your design work. A design thinker also needs to draw from the knowledge of multiple disciplines, be ready and willing to experiment, as well as work with different people, and lastly a design thinker’s got to stay positive.