Critical self-analysis

The report aims to provide a thorough and critical analysis of the activities that I have performed within group and individually throughout the course. The subject in which the activities were centered was Design Thinking. The activities will be explained along with the significance in this report. In the report, I will also discuss my knowledge development, assisted by the activities and learning throughout the course. I had no knowledge about the Design Thinking approach or even the innovative thinking approach. This course helped me gain vast knowledge about these concepts.

I will also include a personal development plan to analyze the development I have experienced personally while doing the activities. In addition, I will present an action plan after identifying my strengths and weaknesses from the personal development plan. The action plan will have the goals and objectives that I would like to achieve in the next six months.

When the course on Creative Designs commenced, I had little knowledge about innovation but I had no knowledge about the fact that innovation is related to business designs as well (Ngo & O’cass, 2013). When the classes started after a long holiday break, I had difficulties concentrating in studies. Nonetheless, Mr. Burgess, our teacher, made it easier for me to be back from the holiday hangover and concentrate in the class. After he introduced the topic, the students began to throw words and sentences related to it. I was reluctant to say anything because I had no knowledge at all about this topic. Anyways, I was trying to grasp what Mr. Burgess was narrating regarding Design Thinking. I learned that Design Thinking could learnt by following the four steps, which include answering the four questions – What is? What if? What wows? What works? I found that the process followed for Design Thinking was different from the process associated with the critical thinking process of which I had some knowledge (Purdy, 2014). Critical thinking process is mostly related to the decision-making that takes place in an organization. The new approach of Design Thinking allows businesses to adopt an approach that is centered on customers (Liedtka, 2015).

Undertaking the course was a big decision for me as I have realized that it helped me gain deep insights into the Design Thinking process. The activities that spanned across the seven to ten weeks were interesting and knowledgeable at the same time. In fact, the activity that we performed on the first day in class provided us with a good idea about the topic. We formed a group as per the teacher’s instructions and then he asked us to jot down certain key points (See Blog 1, Week 1, 11/07/2018). Then, we were asked to draw pictures with those key points and exchange the papers amongst classmates. It was then time for everyone to see the pictures and write anything that came to our mind by looking at them. At the end of the activity, I found that not a single thinking correlated with the key points that were noted at the start.  The activity was helpful in making me understand that we all have our own viewpoints and skills of observation. Human beings tend to interpret things differently from others although they possess same organs and cells and the capability to reason (Cumming, 2015). This I learned from doing added research on varying points of view of people. I found that Design Thinking requires one to have good observational skills and to understand the different viewpoints of others (Seidel & Fixson, 2013). Design thinking also involves various processes that culminate into a well-planned solution. I learned about it during the second week of the class. Five design processes are there which include Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test (Glen, Suciu & Baughn, 2014). The first stage of Empathize refers to an understanding of any problem. After understanding the problem, we have to analyze it or define it in clear terms, which is the second stage of the process. When the analysis is done, the problem enters the third stage – ideate – where designers have to ‘think outside the box’ and identify better and innovative solutions. Prototype, the fourth stage involves designing the version of the product with little expense. The last stage of the process is to Test the prototype and know if any changes or modifications are to be made (Chasanidou, Gasparini & Lee, 2015). Conducting further research after the end of the activity revealed that designers do not necessarily follow the linear stages and their applications might vary.

Knowledge development

The teacher played two videos. The first video was about a company named IDEO that is known for its innovative ideas and great thinking process (See Blog 2, Week 2, 18/07/2018). The most fascinating thing for me was the way the staff at the company invested their free time in decorating their cabins, which was great to see. In the second video, our teacher showed us an episode from The Simpsons where a character was asked to design a car but due to its awful decision-making, the car that the character had designed looked more like a spaceship. From this, I learned that applying my own ideas would not be enough and that I would need assistance from others to expect a better outcome in designing. I was able to fathom that the most important thing to do is to complete successfully all the phases of the Design thinking process, linearity, and non-linearity do not actually matter (Lammi & Becker, 2013). Another activity in Week 4 further enhanced my knowledge about the five processes of Design thinking. In this activity, we had to form a group and look at some pictures of a beach and identify the problem in each picture (See Blog 4, Week 4, 01/08/2018). After identifying the problems, we had to come up with some suggestions to resolve that problem. Therefore, in this activity, we empathized, defined and ideated a problem.

The experience of learning Design thinking further enhanced my knowledge about planning. Prior to this course, I had the simple notion that planning does not involve any specific stages. However, in Week 3, our teacher introduced us to the three ‘loops’ of planning – single loop, double loop and the triple loop (See Blog 3, Week 3, 25/07/2018). These loops comprise of three significant things that include thinking, actions and results whereas acting, refraining and reflecting constitute the three possibilities of planning (Lozano, 2014). In order to help us understand this complex concept of planning, our teacher played a video of the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies where the concept of ‘integrated planning’ was shown (See Blog 3, Week 3, 25/07/2018). Research and decision-making were the two most important things that the students at the school were taught about planning. From the video, I had the chance to learn more about planning and its different types. Planning is a crucial part of Design thinking because without planning, nothing concrete can be achieved (Bocken, Rana & Short, 2015). We cannot depend entirely on luck and especially in business, planning is vital in going ahead in the competition. In the activity relating to this topic, our teacher had asked us to give answers to the several questions regarding mindset and designers’ core values. Our main task was to state whether the printouts given to us demonstrated mindset or not.

Planning is important for solving problems as well and so is the data. Data refers to the information, which is gathered from various sources to resolve the problem (Yeager et al., 2016). Data assembling most often start with input from customers and other stakeholders (Waller & Fawcett, 2013). This was made clearer to me during the fifth week of the course (See Blog 5, Week 5, 08/08/2018).  In the fifth week, Mr. Burgess introduced us to the process of problem solving and the importance of data. The activity that was done in week 3 helped me to understand the significance of gathering data to solve any problem. I realized that planning was important to gather data because without proper planning, we cannot gather concrete and reliable data. In terms of problem solving in other ways like discussing amongst team members, the activity in week 5 that included understanding the thirty circles drawn in a sheet of paper was productive.

As I have mentioned in the above section, input from customers constitute an important data in business and hence, customers must be at the core of any business. Week 6 was all about learning the fundamentals of business and the chief element of business are the customers (See Blog 6, Week 6, 22/08/2018). I learned that a business analyzes the various aspects that satisfy the needs of a customer and engage in two types of activities – primary and secondary (Park, Chidlow & Choi, 2014). Primary activity involved research and development whereas secondary activity was about infrastructure and material management, human and technological resources management and such others. I wanted to learn more about the primary activities of a business and so I did some research after the end of the week. In the research, I found that most organizations have dedicated an entire department to research and development (Boons & Lüdeke-Freund, 2013). The reason I found was that research and development helped businesses know in deep about their core aspect, the customers (Thompson et al., 2015).

The activity in Week 7 focused on developing the self-thinking capability of the students, I felt. The teacher showed us a video and then asked us to identify the problems that were in the video. The video had footage of people crossing the streets on a rainy day and the vehicles passing by (See Blog 7, Week 7, 29/08/2018). Our initial observations did not find any fault in the footage but as we further discussed as a team, we were able to pinpoint several issues. For example, some people were getting drenched because they had no umbrella, some people found it difficult to cross the roads since some vehicles had their headlights on and others did not. This impaired some people’s vision. We came up with some recommendations to solve these problems. At first, we suggested that the sidewalks could have coverings like overhead roofs to protect people from wetting; secondly, we also suggested that there should be some reflectors for vehicles when they reach a crossing where people cross the streets.

While undertaking the course spanning eight weeks, I found that I had many academic skills but that I lacked in the personal field. While undertaking the activities from week 1 to week 7, I had developed many of my skills. However, the activities also revealed some of the areas where I lack. In both the cases, I must say that I was fortunate to have undertaken this course. The reason is that while undertaking the activities related to Design thinking, I was able to associate those with my own development especially my cognitive development.  I shall elaborate my personal development further in the following section

It is important for any individual to know about her o his personal strengths and weaknesses because it is vital to the overall development. In the context of this course, I should say that the personal development here is mostly about my cognitive development. During the course journey, I discovered that I lacked as well as possessed many skills.

In terms of strengths, I can say that I am a good team player because in all the activities I have performed with my team, I have been able to deliver my best. I am a keen listener and a learner and hence, I let others speak and then put my point forward. During the activity in week 1, I was one of the group members who analyzed that the key points we had written after looking at the pictures that did not match the ones we had written at the beginning.

Another strength that I have is my ability to grasp the theme of any activity quickly, which was demonstrated in the activity in week 3. In that activity, we had to watch two videos and I did not take much time to understand what the videos tried to show.

I found out that giving speech in front of a large crowd or a group of people was another strength that I possessed. In the activity conducted in week 4, our teacher had asked us to give presentation on the problems identified in a beach and I did the presentation and received appreciation.

Nonetheless, I have many weaknesses as well and these were revealed during the activities. One of the major weaknesses I have is my inability to think differently or out of the box. I can say that I do not have a ‘design mindset’.

Another weakness I have is that I lack observational skills. The weakness I came to know during the Week 1 activity where our group had to write key points by looking at the pictures. I did not observe carefully, the pictures we had drawn.

The Week 7 activity brought out another weakness in me, which is the inability to think independently. During the activity, I found out that when I engaged in self-thinking to find problems in the video shown, I was struggling to do so. However, when I discussed with other team members, we could identify many problems. Thus, self-knowledge and self-thinking is one of my major weaknesses.

Figure 1 Strengths and Weaknesses

(Source: Created by author)

Conclusion

After doing the critical self-analysis, I have found that I need to engage in more thought-provoking activities as I had during the course. I have also found that I have a good presentation skill but I lack in other important areas. The course has helped me not only with my knowledge development but also with my personal development. The action plan above is a reflection of the areas I need improvement on.

It is thus evident from the above analysis that I have many weaknesses, which I need to overcome to perform and learn better in the future. To achieve that, I will have to create an action plan that would help me overcome my weaknesses. Action plans help us clearly define our goals and objectives. It involves different steps that we should follow in order to achieve the goals and objectives. The action plan however, has to be prepared keeping in mind the particular areas of development including the knowledge, skills and behaviors.

Design thinking is a topic that requires deep understanding, good observational skills and out of the box thinking and I lack in all these areas. Goal setting holds key to creating the action plan and goal setting, which is improved by plans connected to behavioral goal, is very effective. Creating an action plan with the goal to improve understanding, skills of observation and independent or out of the box thinking is ideal for me.

Timeframe: 2 months

Timeframe: 2 months

Timeframe: 2 months

References:

Bocken, N. M. P., Rana, P., & Short, S. W. (2015). Value mapping for sustainable business thinking. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 32(1), 67-81.

Boons, F., & Lüdeke-Freund, F. (2013). Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-the-art and steps towards a research agenda. Journal of Cleaner production, 45, 9-19.

Chasanidou, D., Gasparini, A. A., & Lee, E. (2015, August). Design thinking methods and tools for innovation. In International Conference of Design, User Experience, and Usability (pp. 12-23). Springer, Cham.

Cumming, T. (2015). Challenges of ‘thinking differently’with rhizoanalytic approaches: a reflexive account. International journal of research & method in education, 38(2), 137-148.

Glen, R., Suciu, C., & Baughn, C. (2014). The need for design thinking in business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 13(4), 653-667.

Lammi, M., & Becker, K. (2013). Engineering Design Thinking. Journal of Technology Education, 24(2), 55-77.

Liedtka, J. (2015). Perspective: Linking design thinking with innovation outcomes through cognitive bias reduction. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(6), 925-938.

Lozano, R. (2014). Creativity and organizational learning as means to foster sustainability. Sustainable development, 22(3), 205-216.

Ngo, L. V., & O’cass, A. (2013). Innovation and business success: The mediating role of customer participation. Journal of Business research, 66(8), 1134-1142.

Park, B. I., Chidlow, A., & Choi, J. (2014). Corporate social responsibility: Stakeholders influence on MNEs’ activities. International Business Review, 23(5), 966-980.

Purdy, J. P. (2014). What can design thinking offer writing studies?. College composition and communication, 612-641.

Seidel, V. P., & Fixson, S. K. (2013). Adopting design thinking in novice multidisciplinary teams: The application and limits of design methods and reflexive practices. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 30, 19-33.

Thompson, D., Bhatt, R., Vazquez, I., Cullen, K. W., Baranowski, J., Baranowski, T., & Liu, Y. (2015). Creating action plans in a serious video game increases and maintains child fruit-vegetable intake: a randomized controlled trial. International journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 12(1), 39.

Waller, M. A., & Fawcett, S. E. (2013). Data science, predictive analytics, and big data: a revolution that will transform supply chain design and management. Journal of Business Logistics, 34(2), 77-84.

Yeager, D. S., Romero, C., Paunesku, D., Hulleman, C. S., Schneider, B., Hinojosa, C., … & Trott, J. (2016). Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions: The case of the growth mindset during the transition to high school. Journal of educational psychology, 108(3), 374.