#usciya

The group will be meeting on Wednesday to discuss how well we stuck to the team norms documentation that we put together at the beginning of the project as well as weigh the different methods by which we will be grading the projects of our peers as well. There were several different tools in the coursework that go over how to review the different steps that we took in the Creative Problem Solving process that we can use in order to rank our own performance as well as how effectively we addressed the problem. Individually, we may also go over our independent contributions by utilizing the critiques of the jury of peers method.

This week’s Implementation process was a bit stressful as we had to examine where our first version of the project, the customer journey map fell short. We also had to separate out the difference between the final prototype and the final deliverable. The difference between the two is important as the final prototype is a combination of a marketing campaign, website, and business plan while the final deliverable is that presentation combined with our team process documentation. Because of that we have several deliverables due for the next week in order to best present to both our class as well as to hypothetical investors and customers.

We have had several different failures with the business plan that can be chalked up to a breakdown in communication. This occurred when one team member presented a planned rollout without the consideration for where we may be sourcing the adobe from, and so we will need to scrap that timeline as it is no longer aligns with our goals. Additionally the team took the time to painstakingly outline the look and feel of the home and collect imagery to be used in both the marketing campaign as well as the website. The plan was to use this to help model the home before as a drawing I made first before handing off the design to Lauren to model in 3D. As I spent the time to begin to draw a different team member who was not able to attend the meeting presented a separate model that I will now need to integrate with our design or request they re-model it with the aspects of the design that were approved by the group for our next prototype presentation. 

In our Implementation within the time constraints of the project we decided to scale back on our consumer group to early adaptors for the sake of simplicity. The next step was to begin story boarding a potential set of circumstance that would lead to a use case scenario. This allowed us to develop a persona, a prototype user journey map, and key drivers of success. Another team member, Lara Dean, is already prototyping a display webpage to use in the assignment but with this iteration of a user empathy story, we can use the narrative that it creates as the structure for the following deliverables.

Reflect on the methods and techniques that your group used to come up with ideas to address the problem you defined in the previous unity and summarize those activities in a new post in your process journal. What ideas were the outcome of your group brainstorming exercise? What were some of the standout ideas and discussion points that came out of the debriefing session? During our last class session, we shared our original problem definition and received feedback regarding its length. Our original problem definition was:

“Annually there is 1.3 Billion tons of food waste, from the supply chain to the consumer endpoint. Combined with this is a portion of 270 million tons of global plastic waste. How might we create a solution that increases awareness and accountability that leads to change consumer behaviors, that lead to healthier outcomes and support better community-oriented shopping experiences?”

There’s a difference between a problem statement that is read versus what is said and pitched. This original problem statement is great to read and sest the stage why we’re solving the problem, but it’s not straight to the point. We then revised it to the following?

“How might we change consumer behavior to reduce food and plastic waste?”

This new question set our intention for ideation. Throughout our prior group meetings, we’ve always allocated time to ideate but didn’t set it as a priority. However, we did collect those ideas and revisited them to kick off our ideation process. 

The software we chose to use was Google Slides. We created a section called “Brain Dump” where each of us collaboratively went crazy with ideas that came up during our team meeting. Afterward, we sorted each idea into categories: education, community, application, program, shopping, policy, development, and campaign. Once that was completed, we created slides for each category and put each idea on a digital post-it note and placed them on a matrix: easy-hard to implement and low-high impact.

From this exercise, we then took the top 5 and sorted them in the same matrix. 

Reflect on the methods and techniques that your group used to define the problem and summarize those activities in a new post in your process journal. How did you come to a consensus on what characteristic of the problem needs to be addressed?

This week, my group and I put together a problem definition that combined each of our individual definitions. Below is our process:

1. Prior to our meeting this week, my group and I decided to tackle the problem definition individually and wrote it down in a shared document. The problem statement I created was:

“There are 270 million tons of global plastic waste and 1.3 billion tons of food waste per year. Grocery stores are the largest contributors of plastic waste, yet plastic is necessary to decrease food waste. We need an alternative non-plastic food packaging solution.”

2. When we came together, we each shared our individual problem definition and explained our thought process behind it. After each person shared their definition, we all highlighted keywords that stood out to us and compiled that list at the very bottom of the document.

3. From the list of keywords, we then grouped them together based on similarities and themes so we can organize our thoughts and come up with the problem statement.

“Annually there is 1.3 Billion tons of food waste, from the supply chain to the consumer endpoint. Combined with this is a portion of 270 million tons of global plastic waste. How might we create a solution that increases awareness and accountability that leads to change consumer behaviors, that lead to healthier outcomes and support better community-oriented shopping experiences?”

The purpose of this is to explore how to reframe your thinking by replacing and with but. Let’s see how we can reframe our thinking about the details of a subject matter by forcing ourselves to describe it in a different way. Below are five things:

1. My MSI GS65 Stealth Thin laptop is my gaming laptop and is VR compatible. Compared to my Alienware 15, it’s thinner and lighter, and it’s easy to carry around. It’s black, gold, and sleek. It’s a strong laptop and different from using a MacBook.

My MSI GS65 Stealth Thin laptop is my gaming laptop but is VR compatible. Compared to my Alienware 15, it’s thinner but lighter, but it’s easy to carry around. It’s black, gold, but sleek. It’s a strong laptop but different from using a MacBook. 2. I recently purchased a pair of ankle boots that are leather and black. The heels are three inches tall and comfortable. They are similar to my favorite shoes and they go well with a lot of my outfits.

I recently purchased a pair of ankle boots that are leather but black. The heels are three inches tall but comfortable. They are similar to my favorite shoes but they go well with a lot of my outfits.

3. The standing desk I have at home is the best and I bought it from a friend. It’s height adjustable and I can adjust it by pressing some flat buttons on the surface. It has a feature where I can charge my phones using the USB ports on the side and it’s quite convenient. The desk is already my favorite desk and I’ll be keeping it for a long time.

The standing desk I have at home is the best but I bought it from a friend. It’s height adjustable but I can adjust it by pressing some flat buttons on the surface. It has a feature where I can charge my phones using the USB ports on the side but it’s quite convenient. The desk is already my favorite desk but I’ll be keeping it for a long time.

4. My dog, Haku, is cute and playful. I adopted her when she was 1 year old and she is now four years old. Her best friend is my family dog, Buddy, and they love to play with each other all the time. Her personality is quite dainty and curious.

My dog, Haku, is cute but playful. I adopted her when she was 1 year old but she is now four years old. Her best friend is my family dog, Buddy, but they love to play with each other all the time. Her personality is quite dainty but curious.

5. Croatia is a beautiful and small country. When I traveled there a few years ago, it was during the month of November and it was cold. I visited Dubrovnik’s historical and famous city. Game of Thrones was filmed there and there are quite a few tourists who want to explore the different filming sites. It’s quite far away and I want to visit it again.

Picture Success exercise Nelson Abreu, USC-IDBT, P&P, Cohort V

Imagining the successful end of the project can motivate us to succeed. To related to the feeling, I can even back at how it felt to accomplish a successful presentation of well-researched novel concept, I can project forward that same feeling of satisfaction and pride (and happy exhaustion). In the best case scenario, the feedback from peers and experts might point to an exciting post-class incarnation or offshoot of the project. Ideally, the team and the entire presentation audience will benefit from our success: at the very least, by acquiring some morsels of new information, new benchmarks and inspiration. Locally, our success might energize the USC innovation community. Globally, it is possible that our project can impact the related industries.

I do not expect that we will reach a fully fleshed out product in just a few weeks, but we can determine whether or not it might be worth pursuing such a product thereafter. There will be intellectual reward, but there is an outside chance of financial reward. Either way, this process will further my career by learning more about safety, applied mindfulness, product design, and entrepreneurship. I am particularly motivated to success because I am passionate and curious about the theme and want to make the most out of this program. I believe that it is important to study consciousness, mindfulness, or the depths of the human mind which affects our well-being, personal growth, relationships, sense of meaning, happiness, how we feel and understand ourselves and the world. It can also act as source of many of our ideas and insights. Technology and techniques might help us tap into our own well of potential and well-being. I’m fascinated at the potential means and applications, including in areas like industrial safety, which is part of my professional experience working in high-voltage and construction environments.