Our class really helped our group kick things off in our brainstorm process. We were able to make a document and identify the 3-4 main questions we wanted to address and created a spreadsheet for us all to brainstorm individually. We set up two group meetings where we went over the outcome of each individual brainstorm to merge thoughts and talk out potential solutions. We use the color voting method, we have our massive list and everyone gets to vote and then as a group we lobby for our favorites.
Right off the bat we dove into the question: Why do we want to go to Mars? We all agreed this was vital in moving further in putting our Martian team together. We came up with funny, scary and realistic ones. From there though there were a few brainstorming sessions not everyone could attend, which actually made up for some interesting reflections on the notes we shared with each other and some fresh ideas! The best part of this week was our face-to-face Mars meet up: Alex, @commandzeeandrepeat and I got together and tied up loose ends and cleaned up what we’re delivering to you today!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
âś“ Live Streamingâś“ Interactive Chatâś“ Private Showsâś“ HD Qualityâś“ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Our Morphological Analysis went in so many directions yet all collectively worked together somehow. We talked love, life, art, economy, space travel, sci-fi and so much more. So much of this touched on fear and the unknown. We collectively agreed on our X-axis and from there we allowed each other to decide on the Y-axis because we wanted some wiggle room in our research. In compiling our sources, we used  sites like NASA, of course. But some surprising sources I looked at were sites like Wired, Forbes, and a ton of sci-fi blogs. Most importantly maybe, I was inspired to watch films and listen to music. I watched The Martian, The Space Between Us and added a few others to my list.
This all led me to my major discovery: Mars is emotional. Going into this topic I thought it would be science heavy but I leaned into the fears, the ideals and the symbolism of life on Mars. Most music dedicated to Mars (or space in general) is emotional; a lot of depression like in Kid Cudi’s “Man on the Moon”. There is also this constant belief that the ideal love can only take place among the stars. In David Bowie’s “Life on Mars,” the lyrics are filled with surreal DalĂ-esque images while telling the story of an emotional girl with the desire to escape the restrictions of real life… is it possible Mars offers her that freedom? Does Mars offer us all that freedom?Â
There are a few things that come to mind when thinking of the overall journey that we are now wrapping up. First and foremost, it is a journey. There are paths we don't expect to take, insights and beauty that just make sense, enemies of the success of the process, and overall know that this journey is just that; it’s a process that's different for everyone.Â
As it relates to this class however, I think there are methods and questions that we can successfully evaluate ourselves and other teams, but again, this will be different for everyone. Immediately the following questions come to mind,Â
How well does the solution solve the problem statement?
Teamwork
How creative is the solution?
Presentation clarity & engagement
Viable / Desirable / Feasible
That being said, we can only effectively answer those questions when we attentively listen and ingest the information that is being presented, understand the group dynamic through inquiring about their experiences, and overall the experience they delivered.Â
Throughout the entire process, I feel that we truly stayed within each step of the  journey, which helped us stay focused. Though we occasionally jumped ahead, we always allowed ourselves to run a bit free so we can get our thoughts and ideas out in the world so we can effectively come back to the task at hand. When looking back at the methods on how we will ultimately solve the idea we are addressing, I think it was easier to play on our strengths to save time. Though playing on our strengths, I think we did a great job ensuring we delivered on an idea that we were satisfied with that answered the problem statement above. At times it was a bit frustrating because the process felt a bit slow, or felt off, but ensuring we stayed within each step allowed us to creatively focus.Â
We used a variety of tools to help aid our process, but most importantly whatever the method, several themes came out: Write it out, talk it out, Leave it/take it when needed. Though we used tools like google sheets, slack, texting etc., I think my favorite was just talking to my peers via zoom and being able to jump on call adhoc to discuss.Â
I think at times I felt frustrated almost in the feedback sessions mostly because it always felt like we were fishing or trying to grasp to something tangible (not sure if anyone else in my cohort felt this way), but the moments I enjoyed the most was receiving some sort of validation from my peers about what we were trying to accomplish. Though this wasn't often, I truly value even getting a smile, or a question from a colleague and made the process that much more rewarding.Â
“How might we change consumer behavior to reduce food and plastic waste?”
The assessment of the process I think is contingent on how we feel like we answered the problem + the validation from external and internal parties on our solution. I think time is always going to be a factor on how fast we can iterate and effectively test our hypothesis of our solution, but there are some real enemies of the process that do get in the way and time is one of them. Just wish we had more of it.Â
This has been my background on my computer since we started our online work, and its been tremendously helpful to guide me and ensuring my group and I stayed on track.Â
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
âś“ Live Streamingâś“ Interactive Chatâś“ Private Showsâś“ HD Qualityâś“ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Visual communication will be key to convey the proposed solution to our big question, “How might we change consumer behavior to reduce food and plastic waste?”
We went through a few exercises during our implementation phase, but broke out into individual work and came back and regrouped to show what we thought would be best. We had each member tackle a different portions of the solution; The business model canvas, app prototype, operations, brand, education, and business process.Â
When considering what our blue sky idea would be, we thought it would be best to create an MVP model where we would tackle a single market with essential components of the business so we can effectively test the solution in the marketing (see BMC Mobile Meal Service).
More importantly, knowing that this model is similar to what is out there already, we had to think about what would be the biggest differentiator for this business,Â
Sustainable packaging and waste practices
Remove plastic early on and recycle properly
Working with local vendors
Demand Generation so goods do not go to waste
Self sustaining ecosystem (only buy what you are able to sell, not backstock unless necessary)
Radically Transparent (and I mean radically down to the cost of the transportation costs)
Knowing these things, we are able to go forth and create systems and value that will support our business model and ultimately attempt to solve our problem statement through user development, tasks management, moodboards for branding, product and consumable analysis, space layout and analysis, and getting to the good greens of what will support our business initiatives. Long story short, visuals (as is to be models, schematics, BMCs and prototypes) will help us convey what we want to accomplish.
Not gonna lie this is harder than it looks. We have to consider every step we take which in turn can cause me (us) to question if it is the right move which in turn can set you back 10 paces; but at least there is movement? Im tired. Welcome to grad school. I wanna be an entrepreneur and create impact and change. Oof. I have the fatigue. Send help.Â
ASSIGNMENT: PROCESS JOURNAL: SELECTION
Reflect on the methods and techniques that your group used to select the most appropriate idea to address the problem you have defined and summarize those activities in a new post in your process journal. How did your group come to a consensus on what ideas to select? What were the discussions and debates over ideas?
When reflecting on the methods and techniques, I feel a bit hopeful yet deflated. We first began by taking the 5 choices we had below and polling to our colleagues which idea they thought was the best. That being said, we landed on Idea 1 as being our starting off point. Based on feedback, it was best that we do not proceed with the Smoothie/juice cart idea as that idea has already been conceptualized and may not warrant the result we are looking for as it relates to innovation.Â
IDEA 1: Local Source Marketplace & K-12 Nutritional Program “EDUCATION”
IDEA 5: Recycle/Reuse programs “CAMPAIGNS”
IDEA 4: Revitalize /inspired WIC “SHOPPING & COMMUNITY”
IDEA 2: LA Smoothie / Juice Carts “PRODUCT”
IDEA 3: Revitalize CSA-esq “APP”
With idea 1 in mind, we broke out into self discovery where we conceptualized on our own what the best blue sky idea for us individually as it relates to idea #1. We effectively came back and pitched to one another an idea that is centered around idea number 1 and collaborated through google sheets. From there we took the significant attributes that we liked from each idea and rated those attributes against all the ideas that were presented to where we would cherry pick what ideas made the most sense. That being said, I think this process was the most difficult out of all the steps in the journey so far.Â
We used a number of techniques to solidify our idea like Kepner-Tregoe matrix, ranking and selecting attributes from each idea, and picking parent each idea via the colored hats method. What was troubling was not the idea generation, but rather the selection and the consensus portion. Though we have a lot of great ideas, it was difficult to pair down on a solution that was unique and would give enough backing to fulfill our problem statement. This is when we began to revisit some of our initial ideas.Â
We chose our top 5 from an easy-hard matrix where we categorized ideas based on low impact and easy and hard to implement. The ideas we choose were primarily on the top left hand quadrant of the matrix which were high impact and easy to implement, or so we thought. By revisiting the matrix we were able to discover additional ideas that were viable for what we want to achieve as it levels up to our problem statement. We determined that taking a model like a good delivery truck or the “Swanson Cold Cars” that carried household staples to where people can pick up bulk items that can be packaged in sustainable and eco friendly containers (think ice cream truck of grocery goods). We determined being able to bulk select items and delivery would be the best method in reducing plastic and food waste, while also making it mobile allows us to cater to a wide variety of markets where we could set up anywhere so people can get what they need.Â
Our group first started out by generating as many solutions as possible individually. The idea was to get as many ideas down as possible in a group document so we would have a repository of solutions to comb through as a group at a later time. We then came together and went through each idea individually and attempted to give more context to each idea and applied a short-code for each solution like EDU for education or COM for community. Once we had classified and effectively scrubbed through all the solutions by removing the too outrageous or too difficult ones, we then placed them into individual slides where we sorted them via short code. Once in individual slides were sorted we then arranged the ideas in a matrix of High-Low Impact to Easy-Difficult to implement. One we came to the consensus on where each idea fell on the matrix, we then selected ideas that were in the upper quadrants.Â
Though we had many contenders, we realized that a majority of the ideas we had, though high impact, would be difficult to implement as it related to policy, infrastructure, or urban development.
Our top 5 ideas were:Â
LA Smoothie / Juice Carts “PRODUCT”
Local Source Marketplace & K-12 Nutritional Program “EDUCATION”
