Tag Archive | sustainability jam

Business owners and investors should take part in Jam events

Apr15

This blog post discusses why I think that investors, clients, CIOs, CEOs, CBOs and other people who are responsible for service quality, organisation’s strategy or business should take part Jam events in future.

Did you recognise yourself? Great!

I thought You when I wrote this.

What is Global Service Jam?

From 27th of February to 1st of March in 2015 curios and open-minded people all-around the world met for fifth time in 95 different locations at the same weekend.

Global Service Jam is a yearly 48h event where ordinary people with different backgrounds meet together and solve ordinary problems people are facing in their daily lives. Simple as that.

But Global Service Jam is by no means the only one of its kinds. Global Sustainability Jam and Global GovJam focuses more in social responsibility issues. Watch also a video about Jams in general.

Now you may wonder “what’s in it for me in Jams”? Next, I give you several reasons why I think that you should get in.

Adopt the design process and rapid prototyping skills

One of the most interesting elements in Jams comes in the form of rapid prototyping. New service concepts are tested and evaluated numerous times at a rapid succession. This is something that rarely occurs in traditional business setting.

The design process in Jams goes like this:

  1. People quickly share their views and insights about problems worth solving
  2. They team up with other people who have passion to solve a shared problem
  3. Teams learn quickly about the true nature of the chosen problem in real-life
  4. Teams ideate how the problem could be solved
  5. The most important thing… aside the process, teams create very early plausible prototypes, test and improve them, until they have found a minimum viable, desirable and feasible solution.
  6. When time is up, audience can experience or interact each teams’ service prototype. No PowerPoints or bullet points.

All in 48 hours.

Instead of explaining here more deeply what is Design Thinking, Lean Startup Process or what is a Minimum Viable Product, I suggest you to go next Jam and live the process. Bill Moggridge from IDEO have crystallized the nature of human experiences very well: “You can’t experience the experience until you experience it”. Thus, you know then what you mean, when you find yourself explaining the previous design processes for your colleagues or clients. Also, you have a proper starting point to improve your new practical hands-on design skills.

Now you may think: How long it takes to play and test a service prototype with a user or a stakeholder?

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Oslo Sustainability Jam 2013

Dec16

Ever heard about jamming?  I hadn’t until I joined the Service Design Jam in March 2013 and ended up in the winning team with the idea ”Memorylanes” which we continued to work with for half a year later. This fall they expected 65 Sustainablity jams, on five continents, making this the biggest Global Sustainability Jam ever!

A jam is when people interested in the fields; Service Design, Sustainability, Public sector, etc. meets for an intensive 48-hour workshop to create brilliant ideas related to different “themes”, with people from different backgrounds and nationalities who they never met before! The word “Jam” is even found in the business world. “Innovation Jams” are used to facilitate gathering insight together with internal and external parties. The participants are encouraged to share everything they know and come up with new ideas together! (Doz et. al. 2008).

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This year I was part of the brilliant Oslo team hosting this years Sustainability Jam. Oslo Jams took place for the first time in 2011, when Service Designer Ingvild Sundby took this worldwide concept to the capital of Norway. Since then she has been able to influence passionate people with diverse backgrounds that would devote their free time and be able to invite people to this amazing weekend of ideation and creation. Originally the jams was started in Germany by Adam Lawrence and Markus Hormess, which have mobilized a global network of “jammers”, hosts and support network in more than 350 cities, worldwide! You can read more at: http://www.globalsustainabilityjam.org

I want to share my experience as an organizer, and hope to influence more people to join this brilliant concept, either as “jammer”, an organizer, coach or even a sponsor! Next jam, is the Service Jam in the “7th of March weekend”, 2014.

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