Day One in School

The roll call begins Itziar, Predrag, Cagri, Mervi, Haana, Ida and of course my name Titikshya a tongue twister in the list  … The day starts with so many new names, felt like it would take ages to remember all faces and names … but know what our Design thinking lecturers had in their Magic Box new methods and techniques in introducing each of us. What comes out the box is a little walk around like “Moving in Space” “Who are we” “Bingo: collecting signatures”. The outcome was smart way of introducing new faces. Not all but at-least few new faces were recognized. This was quite an innovative way of introducing a class and collecting signatures was so interactive that reflected a child in each of us eager to collect signature and says Bingo. I will be using these technique’s in many other instances in my life, it would work out well in birthday parties, get together and social events.

Gijs van Wulfen’s book The innovation expedition – a visual toolkit to start innovation ends with 37 techniques and tools for managers, consultants and entrepreneurs to use in projects at the start of innovation. One of those 37 techniques is OPENERS: For the effectiveness of every workshop or brainstorming session it is important that the participants feel at ease. There are techniques with helpful activities that can be implemented for a smoother “getting acquainted” phase. These are: Photo Introduction, Key chain Introduction, Your Innovation, The Sequence Game, Mix it Up and The Trash Can.

Then the Magic show continues on the with a lecture on Design Thinking by Prof. Katja Tschimmel exercise pencil which again shows over versatility in thinking how far could our imagination led us stretch our thought on How do I use a pencil ? What came out this time is…. Use pencil for plant support, save someone’s life, curl support, and create designs and so on. Here we got to know how strange ideas pop up in our mind in the last minutes. This was again one of the 37 techniques mentioned in the book by Gijs: BRAINSTORMING GAMES: Brainstorming brings to mind something playful and fun to do. Quite interesting Games like Free the Genie Cards, The KnowBrainer, Thinpak, IDEO method cards.

The class continues What’s Innovation and Introduction FORTH Innovation Method and Introducing 10 Design Thinking Tools like mindmapping, visualizing and creating and presenting mood board and brain writing. This is what came out of my mind for my daughters 3rd birthday planning, a mind map mad after the class.

Ah!!! Things look so easy after these techniques were introduced and now we were divided in groups along with an assignment in hand so that we don’t forget our focus and the team had to practice using these tools. Like mentioned in the article Tschimmel, Katja 2012. Design Thinking as an effective Toolkit for Innovation“that sketching helps the designer to think and elaborate ideas, early prototyping is another way of visualizing and testing new solutions, adapting to human-centered approach, and methods of co-creation” The day ends with these design thinking principle.

Day Two in School and the Magic continues

The next day of the school continued with the Foto Safari presentation, Brain writing and Semantic Confrontations which was real innovative way of looking at things and our team was deeply involved in brain writing and Prof Gijs steps in with this Magic Wand and says “Now start Semantic Confrontations and see what comes of your brain ” to our surprise the whole wall was not enough for our team.

This reminds me about how strange and crazy ideas popup using this technique. Then there was Desktop Walk through and Business Model Canvas were our creative brain got a chance to play with toys and bring up meaning business models for our idea. And finally we presented the business model canvas, which was the most difficult part for me.

From the article the thing I like most is The Double Diamond model is also called a 4 D model Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver   

Discovery Phase : This is what we did the whole two day class like discovering ideas. Definition Phase : Here in this phase we tried defining our thoughts using Mind mapping and other tools. Developed: Here in this phase we developed our thought and concept by doing practical models as desktop walk through and Delivered : The presentation and business canvas.

Well  now we have all the magic tricks from Prof Gijs and Prof Katja. 

Written By Titikshya Mohanty

1st year SID student Laurea University of applied science .