KEENzine5

Customers acquainted, opportunities identified, teams formed, prior solutions and universal design principles researched – what’s next as the semester progresses? Back to the customer for a second time. After identifying the opportunity for design and conducting some preliminary research into the market, the teams then connect all this knowledge along with customer feedback to develop a set of design requirements. This is a critical point in the design process. Making the connection between the customers’ needs and a comprehensive set of design requirements is a “do or die” moment in the life of a project that will create value. To enable the students to make these connections, we introduce them to outcome-driven innovation methods. 2 These methods help students focus on their customers’ job as the unit of analysis for determining customer needs. Before their second site visit, students deconstruct the job into process steps and critically analyze those steps. At the site, students talk to customers about this “job map” and where the customer sees slow, unpredictable, or costly pain points in the job process. Using this customer input, students can make connections as to how this feedback can be directly translated into quantifiable design requirements and where innovation and design can create the most value. “Don’t think about solutions yet!” We find ourselves repeating this again and again at early phases of the design process. Teams are looking for opportunities for design but want to jump directly to proposing solutions. It is human nature to see a problem and immediately seek out solutions. As we finally reach the point in the design process when we want the teams to think about solutions, they are quite eager to do so! On “Concept Generation Day,” teams participate in a brainwriting ideation session that involves the whole class – think musical chairs meets brainstorming. By the end of the exercise, everyone in the class proposes at least one solution concept to every team’s project, including their own. The teams then sort and use a decision matrix to systematically evaluate their best concept ideas based on their customer needs as defined by their design requirements. This matrix reveals the top two solution concepts. At this point, the teams must decide which of these two solution concepts will create the most value. First, teams get feedback from us and their classmates during what we call “Consulting Day.” Teams quickly create small scale prototypes that demonstrate the general form of their top two solutions and present their prototypes to the class. The class then gives feedback and oŒers improvements that guide each team to a final concept selection. However, the final concept selection is not complete without input from the actual customer. Teams head back to the customer sites for a third visit equipped with a full-scale model of what they propose as a design solution. They talk extensively with the customers about the model and how the design will work. This approach gives the customer a hands-on holistic experience of the students’ vision. They help the students work out the design details and trade-oŒs that will lead to the most impactful design solution. Many teams return from the third site visit with multiple design changes. They know these changes are worthwhile because they are based directly on what the customer needs. Building of the final, working prototype followed by testing and refinement with the customer during a fourth site visit ultimately leads to a final design and working prototype. The prototype is delivered to the customer during a final celebration at the end of the semester. CHOREOGRAPH ing Real Customer Interaction Connections: FOOTPRINT of a Meaningful Project Creating Value: Old Method 18.2 Seconds per Bottle Wrist and Back Pain Unnecessary Reaching 1 2 3 A Student Solution for As 20