It is ironic that the class that ended up being my favorite of the semester was the one that I registered for on a whim. This whim was supported by my interest in environmentalism after taking Intro to ENSP and being intrigued by its ties to business. I had never taken a business class before, so I was immediately drawn to “sustainability” and “innovation” being in the course title. I had no idea how many new ideas I would be exposed to and how I would grow as a student/person. When I look back on the course, my main takeaways from Sustainability Inspired Innovation and Design can be summarized in 5 statements that shatter myths that I originally believed before this class.
- How I Built This stories are not the only way that innovation and entrepreneurship can occur, the design thinking process is successful. As an avid listener and fan of Guy Raz’s NPR podcast How I Built This, interviewing the men and women who began someone of the most famous companies in the world, I had always noticed the same theme in every story. The majority of these innovators stumbled upon a problem and tried to solve it with no awareness or intentionality in turning it into something real, something like a multi-billion dollar company. These solutions just organically evolved into them. There were no clear steps for how they came to their solutions besides sheer luck and innovation on the spot. I had always thought being an entrepreneur/innovator would be super cool, but I was dissuaded by my ability to magically find myself stumbling upon a problem and suddenly developing a super cool idea. Therefore, this class shattered this perception I had deeply believed for years. By learning about and developing our company’s product with the design thinking process, I realized clear steps are just as effective tools for problem solving as the innovators in the podcast. We could all be creative even if the idea was first developed with a white board, sticky notes, and some How Might We statements.
- The wise consumer can make sustainable buying choices that do not compromise her frugality. Before this course, I had never saw myself or my family as having the ability to make intentionally sustainable purchases, without paying for expensive goods. I was under the impression that sustainability was directly tied to elite people who could always spend extra money for these goods that were better for the planet. However, after discussing the ability to be a wise consumer who still participates in consumer culture but researches products that will be durable and good long term value, I became more optimistic about becoming someone with sustainability on the forefront of my mind. For instance, I love the example about no longer buying cheap glasses every year from Target that break by the end of the summer season and instead paying a bit more for a nice pair that can last decades. Also I still think about the “imperfect produce” concept all the time.
- Group work is extremely successful and collaborative, but it requires individual work first. Before this class, I had never done so much intensive group work inside and outside the classroom, especially with people who I had never even met beforehand. However, what bonded us together was our unique perspectives. As an easily influenced person, I sometimes have trouble in group dynamics sharing my own ideas because I question if they are as valid as other group members’ or even worth sharing. I admire that Professor Luchs continually emphasized the importance of thinking for ourselves first then coming together as a group to generate the best design thinking results. I immediately think about how different all of our persona ideas were, but this enabled us to consider the question of whether we wanted to target the current Olay clientele versus a new, younger target market. I am confident that I will bring this strategy to the rest of my future groups because as someone who enjoys taking a leadership/facilitator role in groups, I think this could benefit our work greatly.
- Pitching to a group of potential consumers should be an opportunity to embrace collecting feedback over actually selling a product/service. This lesson about having an open mind when sharing something with others applies to my life beyond this class. I acknowledge that as humans we become naturally tied to our ideas, and we can become defensive, even hostile, when people critique what we are saying. However, once my group’s mindset switched from being married to our initial idea to acknowledging that it was a work in progress, we succeeded. Like in any endeavor, constructive criticism is the best way to grow. I hope to take this open mindset with me to my future endeavors because I saw first hand how helpful feedback can be.
- Business can be tied to social good. Even though I still do not have a major sense of what I would like to do in the future, I never really saw the ability for business work to tie into something like environmentalism or other social justice issues. After being exposed to my regular “Optimistic Daily” email or browsing through websites like IDEO, I have been exposed to creative consulting as an avenue to do good in the world by solving problems while still working with businesses. This course has initiated my interest in potentially continuing to interact with innovation. However, even if I don’t end up in the formal business world, I see the value of innovation stretching to all industries. I see myself striving to continue to develop my ability to be a creative, inspired thinker. From this class, I leave with the knowledge that we can all be effective problem solvers because there is a clear cut process that can foster exciting solutions.