Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Design Thinking – the best way to problem solving?

In my first weekly blog post I want to write about design thinking and how it can impact the process of finding a solution and the solution to the problem adherent itself.

First of, we need to think about what design thinking means. In the article „Design Thinking for Social Innovation“ by Tim Brown & Jocelyn Wyatt they define it as:

„Design thinking incorporates constituent or consumer insights in depth and rapid prototyping, all aimed at getting beyond the assumptions that block effective solutions.“

Therefore design thinking is a way to involve the consumer or buyer of a product respectively service from the beginning in the process of making it. The term also draws meaning from the word design itself, as design is a way of visualizing an idea or concept, „which helps achieve the item's designated objective(s)."[1]

The way design thinking works is mainly to find a intrinsic solution to the issue at hand. Instead of looking outside of your field for answers the basic approach is to look at the challenge and try to find "positive deviants" or other abnormalities that stick out.
First of all you observe your field and find out as much as possible that is relevant for the topic. From this you attempt to derive data that will help you finding an idea for a solution. Hence design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem solving. As an anthropologist this reminds me a lot to the way we try to understand different cultures. Ethnologist use fieldwork to gain inside information about a culture and thus have an emic perspective on it.

Since the resolutions found through design thinking are very unique to the context and issue that are at hand, it may not be always possible to transfer them to a similar problem. This means that you would have to start again with the process to attempt getting the best solution possible. Since this could be time (and money) consuming and it may not always be possible.
Therefore my question would be if design thinking is the best practise for problem solving or if there is another approach which would have more transferability and hence be easier to apply to different contexts, cultures and people?

[1] http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/design.html

Fluidity and the Future

With “disruption” this week’s theme, the resonating point is the uncertainty it brings with it, and how it is now, more than ever, impossible for businesses and governments to progress or strategize for the future while turning a blind eye towards it. In the rapidly changing world of today, technology, demographics, emerging markets and global connectivity all interplay and produce outcomes and scenarios that are unique and lack a precedent, or a guideline on how to deal with them; Change for Dummies, if you will. Looking at the first of the identified forces; the shift of economic activity towards emerging markets and the rise of the urban population. Perhaps at one point in history nobody could have predicted for China to house more large companies that the US by 2025. Perhaps yet again, in the 9 years that follow, a new trend might emerge that revises this prediction towards an even more incredible country. What’s more important is, however, due to the ever expanding global market, with the locus of activity shifting, economies need to create space for themselves in the global web lest they find themselves redundant. This uncertainty has certainly been helped by technology, another formidable force of disruption. From the steam engine to the Internet of Things today, advances in technology have played a pivotal role in accelerating the growth of business and economies and shaped the way in which that growth has been achieved.

Today marks an unprecedented world of potential outcomes and possibilities. While it is daunting to live in an age where disruptive forces deliberately keep one from projecting and predicting scenarios, leaders must be wary of the fact that adjusting to new, more fluid realities has never been more imperative than now.

Fading Geographical Constraints

Fading Geographical Constraints

Going through “Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy” brought back an interesting piece I read a few months ago. In particular, this paragraph echoed loudly:

“The world’s largest taxi firm, Uber, owns no cars. The world’s most popular media company, Facebook, creates no content. The world’s most valuable retailer, Alibaba, carries no stock. And the world’s largest accommodation provider, Airbnb, owns no property. Something big is going on (McRae).”

The report and the aforementioned paragraph clearly signify that we are living in a world that is experiencing technological changes at a rate never witnessed before. What we deemed impossible fifteen years ago is a major part of our reality now. Our future will be particularly exciting because of its unpredictability in terms of what doors technological advancements open for us.

However, apart from the macro business implications the report talks about, I would like to mention the importance of the micro changes in lifestyle brought about by technology. To provide an example, I will reflect on my own life. As an international student, I can call my family any time I want for free and get amazing voice quality today. About fifteen years ago, an international call would have been a tedious and expensive process that would have required a lot of monetary resources and exquisite time management to coordinate. These days, “mom, the chicken’s bland, what else was I supposed to add?” is a query I can shoot in an instant, and get a just-as-instant response to (if the time difference matches up, of course). Consequently, advancements in connectivity have played a part in allowing more students to pursue studies internationally with lesser worries compared to the situation two decades ago. This micro change has lead to other bigger changes in the future since brain power that was bound by geographical boundaries now has easier means of transitioning to a completely different continent, and nurture itself to maximize its potential. This ties up with a major takeaway from last week’s lecture as well: it is usually the smaller incremental changes that build sustainable impact. With more people becoming less geographically restrained, the flow of knowledge and human capital is pushing us to advance in ways that have never been possible before. These small changes, I believe, are the foundation upon which the bigger changes compound on. And it is always insightful to keep these in mind as well while we discuss the bigger, flashier changes.

Work Cited

McRae, Hamish. "Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, and the Unstoppable Rise of the Content
non-generators." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 5 May
2015. Web. 05 Sept. 2016.

Thoughts on The Importance of Frugal Engineering

This week the most salient article for me was, “The Importance of Frugal Engineering”. The reason this piece struck me the most was because I had a really hard time with the underlying concept of frugal engineering. In order to understand the concept better, I took apart the functionality of the Tata Motors Nano. My natural inclination was just to take my understanding of what a car looks like and how it functions and trim the cost down with these ideas in mind (and this is the exact antithesis of frugal engineering). Many of the innovations from this vehicle are not ideas I would have considered because I have a rigid idea of how a vehicle should look and function. For example, I wouldn’t have suggested removing the adjustable capabilities from car seats because in my mind car seats have to be adjustable. Continuing with that mindset, cars must have two windshield wipers and two side view mirrors. These car “must haves” are simply expectations for a car, not necessarily the realities for how a car must always be built. Still, as Seghal, Dehoff, and Panneer suggest, the line between expectations for engineering a project and the possible realities for that projects are blurry, especially when approaching project with an understanding of what the project has looked like before, on a more developed market, or both.

While the frugal engineering projects the authors highlighted were intended for use in other countries, there is definitely a need for frugal engineering projects in the US. I chose to look into projects around a concept that has been a pain in my neck that last few weeks. Before coming to Heinz, I lived in rural Upstate NY, with limited internet access. Since, coming to Heinz, I have had no internet access (installation date is Friday… hooray). For the last couple of weeks, I have joked about being of the grid, but much of rural United States is actually (permanently) off the grid due to a variety of reasons (internet cost, computer cost, lack of reasonable internet connection). A good remedy for this problem is RACHEL pi. It reminds me a bit of Raspberry pi. RACHEL pi “servers include copies of educational websites as they existed in the recent past. By storing copies of websites directly on RACHEL devices, no internet is required and there are no monthly subscription costs. When a RACHEL server is turned on, a RACHEL server emits a wireless signal… This signal however, only provides access to the copies of websites stored directly on the RACHEL device. Any device with a web browser (a laptop, desktop, tablet, or smart phone) can connect to RACHEL's wireless signal.” (1) Currently, RACHEL pi has been utilized in the US as a mini library of educational texts to be used for prison education programs (2).

1) RACHEL pi website - https://racheloffline.org/collections/rachel

2) Erasing Barriers to Technology in Prison Education - http://nwspecialcircumstances.org/

Festive Social Innovation

Millions of people across India are currently celebrating a 124 years old traditional festival called “Ganesh Chaturthi”. During this festival, families and communities build or buy an idol of God Ganesha and worship it for 10 days. These idols can be as tall as 78 feet and are usually made of not so eco-friendly Plaster of Paris as well as decorated with chemical paints having mercury, cadmium, lead and carbon. On the last day of the festival all these magnificent idols throughout the country are immersed in nearby lakes, rivers, ponds, seas and oceans after its grandiose procession on the streets. The "visarjan" (idol immersion) raises the pH level of water to 7.5 from 6.7 according to a research published in International Journal of Scientific Research. The resultant increase in total hardness, chlorinity, salinity and turbidity of water also disturbs the aquatic eco-system as well as breeds harmful pests detrimental to the society’s health and hygiene.

According to an article dated September 28, 2015 in the newspaper The Hindu read nationwide, approximately 50,250 such idols were immersed in lakes and beaches of just the Mumbai city, last year. Hardly 20% of them were immersed in artificial lakes that were built by the government in order to restrict the extent of water contamination. Uncontrollable water pollution due to these idols has been menacing the environmentalists, Municipal Corporations, and the society since many years.

Affected by this nuisance, a 30-year old local artist of Mumbai named Dattadri Kothur, took the responsibility to not only discourage usage of hazardous materials for making idols but also enrich the city’s green cover. He developed a unique process to create clay idols with seeds of okra planted in it so that they are transformed into plants after the festival. These go-green idols are made of red soil, organic fertilizers and "shadu" clay filled with seeds of plants. The idols are then set upon clay pots filled with soil and watered during the festival, instead of immersing them. Hence, as the clay melts and soil dampens, seeds start germinating into sprouts in a few days thereby creating a lasting memento of the idol. The technique is so simple that anybody can build their own idol at home.

This initiative started last year by Dattadri has received worldwide recognition under the name Tree Ganesha and thousands of people have adopted it this year. Leading a team of 8 artists with a total capacity for 500 idols, Dattadri is already busy meeting demand for 4000 more such idols. Many other social organizations have promoted the cause and are planning to expand its reach for changing people’s mindset to emphasize environmental concerns over religious sentiments.

Can we term Tree Ganesha as a truly social innovation and Dattadri as a genius social entrepreneur? Tree Ganesh is definitely not a revolutionary technology but surely a disruptive idea to curb a seasonal environmental crisis. It has the potential to make a vast social impact with economic benefits for the state governments as well as innumerable religious citizens of India. According to the definition of social innovation given by Stanford Social Innovation Review, Tree Ganesha is a novel solution to a social problem (pollution and disregard for hygiene) that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions (artificial ponds) and for which the value created (cleanliness and plantation) accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals. And Dattadri has posed as a bold and accountable change agent who relentlessly pursued an opportunity to create social value through continuous innovation and learning, with limited resources in hand. Unknowingly, he applied design thinking to address pressing needs of people as well as nature and created a human-centered solution while adapting to the religious predispositions of the society.