Bridgeable – Bridging the Gap Workshop

November 5, 2014

Hosted by Rotman DesignWorks and Bridgeable (http://bridgeable.com/), a reputable design firm in Toronto, I had a chance to attend their workshop.

(At this point, you might have realized that I basically am attending every single Business Design workshops.)

As soon as the session started, we were assigned a very overwhelming task,

to collaboratively draw a spaceship. Please do not ask why it looks this way :)…

It was interesting to see how everyone differently perceives what they see and how ideas are formed in such a short amount of time.

Then, we had a chance to show our idea as a 2 minute skit, which was very fun and entertaining. What I thought at this point is that assuming I’m a typical MBA student, what I can think of is something which others would be able to think of as well. While there wasn’t enough time to make differences (just making excuses now) How can I differentiate myself?

Empathy & Need Finding Workshop by Rotman DesignWorks

On October 30, I had a chance to attend empathy & need finding workshop hosted by Rotman DesignWorks. Empathy is the first gear of the 3 gears of Business Design, which is to understand users and identify needs.

http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/EducationCentres/DesignWorks/AboutBD.aspx

We talked about applying for financing MBA, which was an interesting topic.

Here are the surprising takeaways:

1. Finding negative/positive needs

2. Connecting loans with emotions

3. Find commonalities and difference between people

4. simple framework to understand experience

5. Practicing develop skills

6. Needs help you frame the problem

7. Observation can inspire 1000 thoughts.

BDC – Portfolio Workshop

I attended a portfolio workshop hosted by Business Design club today. Competing against thousands of MBA students with the entire world, you need more than your resume and coverletter to express yourself, and that’s where protfolios come in especially if you’re into design consulting.

I do have a portfolio, but wasn’t that high quality, and luckily I managed to get some nice feedback that I can use to fix my portfolio.

I hope to end my blog post with a photo of Toronto.

Business Design Club ‘Know Yourself’ Workshop

Ran by Heather Fraser, professor and an author of ‘DesignWorks’, I had a chance to attend ‘Know Yourself’ workshop, one of Business Design Club’s events.

Asking questions, identifying DRIVE, we get to understand more about ourselves, to be able to quantify what’s qualitative.

Business Design Bootcamp

Coming from an engineering background with user experience design focus, their emphasis on design aspect was very refreshing and it was one of the main reasons why I wanted to be at Rotman. Last Saturday, I finally had a chance to attend designWorks’ business design workshop.

The main purpose was to design something based on three pillars: empathy, prototyping, and business strategy. Of course, user-friendly products are important, but incorporating business aspect of it into the cycle was definitely something I particularly found interesting about.

Lot of post-its. If you have an idea, start writing. Sky is the limit.

Thank you, Whole Foods.

This is the one prototype my group created using a persona user story. I drew cartoons ever since I was a kid and I think I still got it.

and of course the rock paper and scissor event, which is when unfortunately my cellphone battery ran out.

My thoughts: IT WAS AWESOME!!! One main misconception about MBA is that it is usually all about finance, management consulting, investment banking and all the money-related careers, but with a world becoming so complex, you need become a creative thinker. If you are able to express ideas more visually and understand technical people’s ideas, even better. I am glad Rotman studies and clubs’ emphasis on design are very serious and this is one of the strong components that differentiates Rotman from other MBAs. 

What I also realized is that, you know how we always talk about “let’s be creative”, or “be innovative”. We use these words so easily, but once we start brainstorming and sharing ideas, we get stuck. What does it mean to be creative and innovative anyway? 

Do not jump into solutions right away. Think about what needs are necessary to be met.