Welcome to Students Incorporated. I'm your host, Mr. Jason. Join me weekly as my team and I produce content that's informative, positive, fun, and uplifting.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International Community School of Bangkok.
In today's episode, we explore the concept of design thinking and how we can use this framework to solve complex problems.
Then, in our second segment, we have some fun discussing and using a brainstorming technique called Worst Idea with a Special Guest.
By the way, today's episode is sponsored by The Media Club. The Media Club specializes in recording videos for major events like our school's banquet and school camps.
Their team captures every moment with professional quality, ensuring that memories are preserved and shared with everyone.
Whether it's a big celebration or a special outing, The Media Club brings events to life through their video recording and producing.
Now, it's time for our quote of the day and our headline news.
Our quote of the day comes from Carl Josner, a Swiss designer and typographer, author, and an artist.
He's quoted to have said,
I see design as a matter of solving problems, art as a matter of inventing them. Design is like a double-edged sword. On one hand, design allows you to create something beautiful. On the other hand, without design, it becomes a chaotic force that can hurt or harm.
To communicate your message effectively and avoid confusion, design acts as the essential structure to guide your creativity.
Design can also help solve complex problems.
And that's our quote of the day.
Now onto some headline news with Mia.
Thank you for our quote of the day, Frank.
Now today, I want to share several good design awards presented in 2024 for this episode's new segment.
We are starting with the first product, Swiddle Body.
It's an all-in-one caregiving bathing equipment for nursing homes designed to shorten the shower time for the nursing staff.
It addresses the practical issues faced by caregivers and was praised for its innovative solution to an ongoing problem in healthcare.
Our second product would be a nano-imprint lithography semiconductor manufacturing system made by the famous camera company Canon.
The product combines the advanced technology Canon with a beautiful design and contributes to countermeasures for global warming.
Our final product is a camera from Sony called the Alpha 9 III.
The camera features an interchangeable lens and is known for its exceptional portability.
It caters to professional photographers and enthusiasts with desires like cutting-edge technology, design excellence, and a decently affordable price point.
And that concludes our new segment for this episode.
Thank you for the quote and headline news.
For the first segment, we not only want to have a conversation about design, but specifically design thinking.
I'm joined by Mia, Frank, Premi, and Highlight today.
Before we get into our first discussion question, let me talk a little bit about what design thinking is.
According to Tim Brown, who's the executive chief of IDEO, a cutting-edge design and consulting firm that focuses on design thinking, Mr.
Brown defines design thinking this way.
He says that, quote, design thinking is a human centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people,
the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success, unquote.
By the way, if the topic of design and design thinking is something you'd like to study more about, IDEO's website has a lot of good resources and information.
You can find their website at designthinking.ido.com.
Some of our discussion information today can be referenced back to IDEO and their work in this area.
One last comment, and then we'll get into our discussion topics.
According to Interaction Design Foundation, another great resource, the goal of design thinking is that the solution is developed as to meet three standards.
Those standards are it needs to be desirable, feasible, and viable.
Desirable meaning that people actually want it, feasible meaning that it can actually be accomplished, and viable meaning that it is sustainable over time.
Okay, with that said, and with the understanding that design thinking is a human centered and human first approach,
let's get into our first discussion question, and it has to do with the entertainment industry.
All right, Mia, why don't you get us started?
All right.
Hi, everyone, and welcome to the studio.
So we know that design thinking can be applied to anything.
So let's start off with the entertainment industry.
Now, how does design thinking help the entertainment industry such as film, music, theater, and sports address complex challenges related to audience engagement and audience expectations?
Yeah, I think we have to start with the understanding that the audience, which includes defining who the audience is and then having empathy for them.
No matter what entertainment we're talking about film, music, theater, or sports, each industry producer needs to understand the general audience.
So the producers of a particular movie title, for example, should talk to the fans and consumers to try to get a sense of new trends and new preferences that may exist.
For instance, a new Marvel Captain America movie was just released.
Now, depending on how it does at the box office may indicate whether the movie meets its intended audience's expectations or not.
This is just one example of one movie by defining the core problems from the audience's perspectives.
For instance, fans feel disconnected or viewers want to see new and innovative content.
The industry can then focus on creating solutions that generally resonate within their intended audience.
Yeah, this makes sense.
If the audience is what they want, well to a certain degree, right?
In their areas of sports, design thinking principles could be applied to many different areas of sports,
such as enhancing the fans experience, improving athlete performance, or improving sports organization management.
Well, let's just quickly take a look at how design thinking can be used to enhance the fan experience.
We start with empathy.
First, we have to understand the motivations, needs, and frustrations of the fans.
The fans are important.
In regards to a live sporting event, we have to identify the pain points that the average fan experience.
How difficult was it to buy a ticket?
And what experience do those fans have while at the stadium?
You see, when you start with the human first approach,
then finding those pain points and then brainstorming ideas on how to minimize those pain points is a lot easier.
No fan wants to walk a half mile to find a concession stand when they got hungry in the middle of a tight match.
What an exciting game.
The illusion is, take the food and drink to them.
But if they do have to get up and leave their seat for whatever reason,
there are plenty of concession stands, food, and drink kiosks.
Low-key that strategic places inside the stadium and arena.
The numbers prove my point on this.
Design thinking, putting the human first, is important when designing and building a sports arena.
Mr. Jason, you have some stats on this, right?
Yes, I did some research on the top five most expensive stadiums built in the world,
which helps put into perspective the idea of how important the fan experience is to the sports industry.
And they are all located within the United States of America.
Americans like their sports and the numbers prove it.
So here's the list.
Coming in at number five is Yankee Stadium, located in Bronx, New York, USA.
Its capacity is 50,000 people.
It cost 1.5 billion US dollars to build back in 2009.
And today's money with an adjusted inflation rate that would be close to 2.2 billion US dollars.
Number four is the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Its capacity is 71,000 people.
The stadium cost 1.5 billion US dollars to build.
Number three is the MetLife Stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA.
It has a capacity of 82,500 and cost 1.6 billion US dollars to build.
Number two is the Allegiant Stadium, located in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
It has a capacity of 65,000 and it cost 1.9 billion dollars to build.
And finally, the number one most expensive stadium built in the world is SoFi Stadium,
located in Inglewood, California, USA.
Its capacity is 70,000 and it came with a price tag of 5.5 billion US dollars.
To put this into perspective, if you divide the construction cost by its capacity,
they spent over $78,000 per seat.
That's a lot of money.
When it comes to the fan experience, the stadium is an important factor,
but one coach quoted to have said,
I've been in this business long enough to know that nothing enhances the fan experience more than putting a winning team on the field.
All right, let's move ahead. What's next, Mia?
All right. So on that note, the principles of design thinking are obviously very versatile.
So let's transition to how design thinking can be used to solve social issues.
So how can design thinking help with solving social issues in society?
Highlight will start us off with some information to help us answer this question.
Generally speaking, design thinking gives us the framework on how we can problem solve.
This framework can help us solve social issues.
First, we need to deeply understand the problem.
This, of course, starts with empathizing and then defining the problem.
We have to understand the lived experiences of those affected by a social problem.
Whether it's inequalities, limited access, or lack of opportunities,
the design thinking helps us frame the problem from the affected person's perspective.
Then design thinking encourages ideation, prototyping, and testing as the steps in problem solving.
The stage includes brainstorming solutions and then testing those solutions.
Doing this will give us the chance to gather user feedback
so that whatever more permanent solutions are developed are centered around the information that was learned and gathered from the stage.
Design thinking promotes collaboration and encourages diverse thinking and approaches.
Sometimes the best solutions are those that come from a diverse set of voices and experiences.
By placing the people that are affected by the social issue at the center of the process,
design thinking creates solutions that are much more likely to be accepted and effective.
Social issues such as food insecurity, homelessness, environmental sustainability,
access to quality education, and mental health and well-being are all social issues that the design thinking framework can effectively be applied to.
And the solution may look different in different communities.
All right. Thank you for that highlight. Now, moving on, we want to now move to the topic of business and design thinking.
So what are some practical ways design thinking can be used in business?
Permi, could you start us off with this one?
Sure. I'll focus on the area of product and service development.
Nearly 30,000 new products are introduced each year and 95% of them fail,
according to Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School.
Another professor at MIT said,
Many innovations fail because they introduce products or other solutions or that real need to them.
There's no market for the solutions they've created.
Many organizations don't take their customers' needs into account when launching their products.
This professor goes on to say, some of these failures arise from a lack of empathy on the part of the organization,
with those in decision-making positions not taking the necessary time to study and understand the customer's true needs.
Without putting themselves in their shoes, it's often too late when they realize there's no market for their solutions.
I think it's the basics that we forget about doing and design thinking frameworks takes us back to those basics of understanding consumer needs,
generating innovative ideas that match those needs and then prototyping and testing.
Design thinking helps businesses create customer journey maps.
And at the end of the day, will a potential customer pay money for the thing you are selling?
Do they find that it is valuable?
If these two questions cannot be answered with a level of confidence, then it's more likely than not that the business could fail.
Yes, I can attest that this is true from my own personal experience.
When I tried launching a co-working space business about seven years ago, the concept was good, the financials made sense,
but I neglected to walk in the shoes of my customers, meaning that I did not start with understanding the pain points of my customers who were living at that location.
Long story short, the business was in the wrong location, and I ended up closing it after about a year and a half.
Okay, let's move on. What's next, Mia?
Last but not least on this topic, here's our final discussion question about the topic of design thinking.
Frank, you can start us off this time. Here's our question.
What are some examples of how design thinking can be applied to education?
Design thinking can be applied to curriculum design.
Some practical ways are to design project-based learning modules that address real-world problems or simulate real-world situations.
This connects back to our last episode where we talked about project-based learning.
And design thinking can also help educators create learning experiences that connect different subjects.
For example, let's say we want to connect the subject of math and literacy into a project.
Teachers of these subjects could co-create a project-based learning initiative called Data Storytelling Project.
For that subject, math, students could learn how to collect, organize, and analyze data.
They could practice creating charts, graphs, and data visualizations.
The students learn about statistical concepts such as mean, median, mode, and standard deviations.
Then, for the subject of literacy, students could learn how to write compelling narratives based on the data.
They could develop skills in presenting the data in a clear and engaging way.
The students learn how to use data to support arguments and tell stories.
And finally, bringing these all together and make it relevant,
students could analyze data on a local issue such as traffic patterns, recycling rates, and school attendance.
They could then create a data visualization project to present their findings.
They could write a report or article based on their data and analysis.
And then create a presentation that uses data to support a proposed change or solution.
Wow, thanks for sharing. That's very fascinating to hear.
So, adding on, design thinking can also be applied to classroom management.
Let's use the problem of students are frequently disruptive during group work time as an example.
The teacher observes students during group work, noting specific disruptive behaviors and potential triggers.
That is to say, maybe you seek unclear instructions, lack of engagement.
Then the teacher interviews students to understand their perspectives on group work and why they might be disruptive.
Then the teacher defines the problem by asking,
how would we create a group work environment that fosters engagement and reduces disruptive behavior?
The teacher then brainstorms possible solutions and then implements clear roles within groups,
uses timers for tasks, creates a quiet signal, or introduces a help request system.
The teacher then prototypes this new idea by assigning roles such as leader, recorder, timekeeper,
and creating a clear help request system using colored cards.
Finally, the teacher then tests this new solution, collects feedback from students, and by observing it in action.
If changes are needed, the teacher can make adjustments.
There, this is a practical way to use design thinking to solve this problem by coming up with a solution that fits.
Great. Thank you, Hylia and everyone.
Remember, this design thinking framework can be applied to just about any problem we're trying to solve.
Now, as we close the segment, here's the framework in a simple five-step list.
Step one, empathize, which is when you understand user needs.
Step two, which is define, where you clearly state the problem.
Step three is ideate, or brainstorm potential solutions.
Step four is prototype, where you create and implement solutions.
And finally, step five, test, to gather user feedback and refine.
Okay. Thank you, everybody.
I think that was a very good and informative segment, and hopefully our listeners will get an idea
and a good sense of what design thinking is and what design thinking isn't.
Thank you. This concludes our first segment about design thinking.
Stay tuned for our second segment as we discuss the funny and popular brainstorming technique called worst idea with a special guest.
Okay. We'll be right back after this short PSA announcement.
One, two, three, four.
If you're into design, enjoy networking with other people, and don't mind spending money, then you're in luck.
The Interaction Design Foundation has posted and endorsed several design conferences that are happening during the month of March.
The first conference is called the Education 2.0 Conference and is being held March 4th through the 6th in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
This conference is a three-day knowledge-intensive conference and attracts the most dynamic leaders in the education sector.
This conference promises to bring fresh insights and perspectives to empower, inspire, and enrich the global learning community.
This particular conference is ideal for learning experience designers and interaction design educators, and it comes with a price tag of US$3,000.
The second conference in March that the Interaction Design Foundation endorses will be held in Tokyo, Japan, March 28th through the 30th, and is called UX Days Tokyo.
This conference offers a deep dive into digital products, digital experience design, and user experience design.
The conference will include insightful lectures and interactive workshops and promises to help you bring your ideas to life.
This conference is ideal for all UX and design enthusiasts, from beginners to professionals, and comes with an admissions price tag of 50,000 Japanese yen.
Thank you, and we are back with our second segment.
And before we actually jump into that second segment, I want to share just a couple personal notes on this idea of going to a conference.
Conferences, if done well, can help propel careers, spread new and innovative ideas, and provide great opportunities for networking with like-minded people.
And I want to emphasize if they're done well.
So here's my conference story.
Early on in my career as a graphic designer and then as a new and kind of learning web designer, I had the opportunity to attend an innovative web design conference in Seattle, Washington.
This was like late 1999 or early 2000s. I can't remember exactly which one of those years it was.
Anyway, at that time, I was working for an advertising agency and I had proposed to the creative director at that time and also to the CFO to send me to this conference.
I had convinced them that the agency needed to start building its expertise and portfolio of website projects for its own clients.
So website design and development was getting popular around this time and customers, both big and small, wanted a web presence.
Long story short, the agency accepted my proposal and sent me to this week-long conference.
I networked with other like-minded designers from around the US, which was super inspiring.
I was also introduced to some new and innovative software and ideas, which I was able then to take back to the company.
When I returned to work the next week, I was asked to give a presentation to the company about what I had learned.
I then was asked to train two other colleagues and then hire another person.
Our agency then became known locally to our clients and potential clients as the place to come if you wanted a dynamic database driven website that you could update yourself.
The agency eventually built a separate wing in their building to house our department, and this was about a year later.
So my team and I saw a lot of work come our way with help from our fantastic sales team.
We ended up building a lot of websites and web applications for the next few years for many of our agency's current clients.
So we made a lot of money for the company those first few years, all thanks to their small investment of a few hundred dollars to send me to that conference in Seattle, Washington.
Attending the right conference at the right time could produce a large return on investment for a business.
Okay, let's jump into our second segment now, and we welcome special guest Mr.
Fabrice to the studio to help us talk about the brainstorming technique called worst idea.
Welcome, Mr. Fabrice. Thanks for joining us.
Hi, thanks for having me. Worst ideas. I'm so excited. Let's get to it.
All right. We thought you'd be the perfect guest to help us with this next topic.
So without further ado, I'll hand over the mic to Mia to get us started.
All right. So we have a really fascinating discussion lined up about a brainstorming technique that might sound completely counterintuitive at first,
but we are referring to a technique called worst idea, which is a brainstorming technique.
And it's exactly what it sounds like coming up with the absolute worst possible ideas first, but surprise,
it actually helps lead to some of the best solutions and to help us figure out why this is a fun and useful brainstorming techniques.
Mr. Fabrice is here to help. Well, I'm glad you guys have confidence in me.
Maybe this is not the best idea. This is the worst idea, but who knows?
Seriously, I'm excited to chat to you guys about this method.
And I think it's going to be super useful, actually, and fun for us to come up with some really worst ideas, I guess.
All right. So for our first question, Mr. Fabrice, could you explain to us and our listeners what this brainstorming technique is and how it can be used?
Yeah, sure. So the idea is actually pretty simple. When people brainstorm, they often try to come up with the best idea right away,
which can lead to overthinking or just getting stuck. The worst idea technique flips that completely.
Instead of aiming for the best, you deliberately come up with the worst, most ridiculously ridiculous, sorry, and completely unworkable idea, just the craziest idea.
And once those are on the table, you start looking for elements within them that could actually be useful or spark new ideas or better ideas.
It helps remove the fear of failure and gets people laughing, which makes creativity flow even more freely.
That sounds fun. So it's like tricking your brain into creative mode by taking away the pressure of being right or coming up with the best ideas.
And it sounds like that. Sometimes those like worst ideas could actually contain a hidden good idea as well.
All right, let's practice the brainstorming technique with the real world scenario.
Here it is. Let's say a certain company, Nameless, wants to improve customer service at their coffee shop, but is struggling to think of unique ways to do it.
Instead of asking, what's the best way to improve service? They may ask, what's the worst way to handle customer service?
So let's get started with some worst ideas.
So I would say that one of the worst ideas to handle customer service would be to make customers wait in line for like an hour before actually ordering.
Another one could be, and this is really bad, replacing humans baristas with actual robots that are rude.
And what about you, Mr. Fabrice?
I mean, I would say another really bad idea is to give customers the wrong drink on purpose.
I mean, that's actually one of my big pet peaks, giving the wrong drinks.
Obviously, those are bad ideas could maybe even be considered some of the worst ideas on how to improve customer service for the unnamed coffee shop.
But now that we have them down, can we reverse those ideas and modify them, which may in turn help us in creating good and practical ideas?
So making customers wait an hour could lead to asking, how can we make the ordering process faster?
Rude robots could turn into a fun AI power chatbot that entertains customers while they wait or during the ordering process.
That's if the ordering process is automated.
Yeah, I mean, I like that.
I mean, giving the wrong drink on purpose that might spark the idea for a surprise drink or the day or some type of promotion that we could give the customer along with their original order.
So that could be cool.
All right.
Let's practice one more example.
I liked all those worst ideas and I liked how we flipped them.
All right.
Let's practice one more example.
This example is about teamwork or team collaboration, something that is very important for all of us.
Obviously, the scenario goes like this.
A company is struggling with communication between departments.
They ask, what's the worst way to improve communication?
All right.
Give me some bad ideas, guys.
All right.
So I think a simple worst idea would be to eliminate all meetings altogether.
Just get rid of them all.
Okay, I got we can make people take notes in code and send messages in code.
And lastly, an absolutely terrible idea would probably be to have employees use carrier pigeons to communicate through the building.
These are funny.
All right.
Let's reverse these bad ideas now.
What do you guys think for Bruce?
I can get rid of the carrier pigeon idea.
But I mean, if we eliminate all meetings, that could lead to streamlining meetings to only essential ones like the ones we actually need to make them shorter and more efficient instead of having three hour meetings.
Writing messages in code might inspire fun internal challenges where employees learn new ways to express ideas concisely.
And using carrier pigeons could spark the idea of creating a more engaging and creative internal messaging system that doesn't include bird poop.
Yeah, nobody wants bird poop right in the meetings.
All right, you got it.
These are all good ideas now, and they help address the overarching question of how to improve communication.
Next, Mr. Fabrice, could you explain to our listeners how they can get started by using this simple brainstorming technique?
Yeah, sure.
So if you have a problem or idea you need to come up with or you are in a group, start with these things.
First, set a playful and fun tone.
Just have fun.
Then instruct your team to come up with some absolutely worst ideas imaginable to the problem you're trying to solve and give them permission to be ridiculous, to just be silly.
Then once you've got a list of like worst terrible ideas like carrier pigeons, go through each idea and ask, is there any part of this that could be turned into something semi useful?
I mean, it's just that simple.
That technique works best in the group and really it could be fun.
And just like you guys are hearing, pretty funny with carrier pigeons.
Yeah, so to break this down into really easy steps, the worst idea brainstorming technique goes like this.
Number one, you must start with a problem statement or question.
Number two, come up with as many bad ideas as possible.
Number three, search for the opposite of the worst attribute.
Number four, consider substituting something else in for the worst attribute.
And finally, number five, mix and match various bad ideas and see what comes of it.
All right, guys, and there you have it.
The best idea using the worst idea brainstorming technique.
Thank you again, Mr. Fabrice, for joining us.
There are other brainstorming techniques out there such as mind mapping, storyboarding, analogies and questioning assumptions.
If you're curious about some of these other techniques, just look them up online.
There's lots of great information.
I've got to admit, the worst idea technique is one of my favorites.
As we end this episode, we'd like to remind you that each episode we produce and all past episodes are available on multiple different platforms.
Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and YouTube.
We are currently in season three, but there is plenty of fun and educational content from our past two seasons as well.
Also, if you'd like to sponsor one of our episodes, please get in touch with us by sending a message through our Instagram account or emailing us at students, Inc. podcast at Gmail dot com or by visiting our website at students, incorporated dot com and clicking on the sponsor link.
Stay tuned for our next episode.
As we dive into the hot and relevant topic of A.I. Don't worry, it won't be boring.
And as always, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives sharing copyright free images, videos and music.
And we are signing off until next time.
We are students incorporated because your voice matters.
Thank you.