1) My first time leading in a professional environment
I have plenty of experience as a leader. I’ve been captain of a football team with 70 of my teammates looking at to set the example me. At my military high school, I graduated as one of the top 10 ranking students of 300 total. I’ve lead my siblings through some tough times, too. However, until this class, I had yet to act as a leader in a professional, business setting. Having interned at big companies and followed past leaders of Agency 1693, I’ve spent plenty of time observing business leadership — never conducting it. But, my time in Customer Insights for Innovation this semester was my first experience as a leader in a professional environment. I was the only teammate who seemed engaged to meet outside of class time. During in-class group work, I was responsible for sparking insightful conversation during collaborative activities like creating empathy maps and brainstorming. My teammates looked to me for the ideas and I felt responsible for the success of my group. I have a lot to learn, but I’m excited to build on my experiences this semester and become a successful leader in the business world some day.
2. Change is possible in seemingly decided-upon industries
People have been living in houses since the dawn of civilization. When Dr. Luchs instructed us to innovate the housing market, I was intimidated. What could a few unexperienced, undergrad innovators do to actually change something that’s been around for thousands of years? However, during our past presentations this week, I was happily surprised. My fellow teams in this class did amazing work this semester. I think it’s proof that if we really follow design thinking the way it’s intended, innovation can happen anywhere.
3) Hard work doesn’t always pay off. It’s really hard to be perfect. And that’s okay.
As stated in my peer reviews, our group’s workload was unevenly distributed. Two of us worked tirelessly to meet deadlines and achieve success, but the other two were freeloaders. I was on the half that did the work. And I think my partner and I did a lot of good stuff. We worked our asses off. We really did. Our app was innovative and feasible. Our prototype was thorough. It received nothing but positive remarks in our two focus groups and our group presented it well. But, when I looked at the review sheets that our visiting experts Ms. Harlow & Gooch wrote to my group, I realized we’d missed the most obvious part of research any innovator must do. We never asked ourselves if our idea had been done before. I’m embarrassed to say it never crossed my mind. Reading their feedback made my stomach drop. It felt like all of my group’s hard work this semester was for nothing. I felt like an idiot! I put a lot into making sofa, but everything I’d done had been done before. But that’s okay. I’m going to take this failure as a learning experience. It’s really hard to be perfect, but I’ll be closer next time.
4) Experience in a field should be cherished
My second time through the design thinking process was much more productive than the first. Everything felt foreign last spring in Sustainability Inspired Innovation & Design. It honestly was more like another language than anything else. It was my first class in the Studio, and the course syllabus emphasized collaboration more than any class I’ve ever had. I had to make a blog, there weren’t any tests, participation was a HUGE chunk of the grade, and hardly any of the work was individual. However, this semester was much much more productive than the first. I knew what to expect in preparing for class. I could lead my group through unorthodox activities like making empathy maps and prototyping. I’m sure having the same professor 2 semesters in a row would help in any class, but this fall was so much easier than last spring, proving the importance of experience in a field.