Brainstorm
Individual Idea Generation
“How might we reduce the strain on USPS’s resources by empowering the consumer rather than depending a human resources.”
New Warm-Up Game
How would a ___ get to ___?
One person in the team poses a question in the format of “How would a ___ make their way to ___?” and the next person in the circle answers the question in a creative way. Then the person who answered takes their turn in posing a new question.
Person 1: “How would a mouse make their way to Tennessee?”
Person 2: “A mouse would make their way on the back of a tennis ball.”
Session Organization
The participants in my brainstorming session are as follows. Nate, a Freshman Biology major. Marissa, a freshman Mathematics major with a business focus. Eli, a Linguistics major with teaching English as a 2nd language. Rory, a senior Psychology major. We held our brainstorming session in the Rapson Courtyard because the space is so open and conductive to creativity and collaboration. We just played the warm-up game that I thought up. It lasted for about five minutes of play time. I met all of these people through DnD when I joined the Dnd club this year and began playing with them. I reached out to this group in particular because I know that DnD is such an imaginative game and demands a lot of improve skills from the players. These skills proved useful because even though we didn’t have a lot of ideas generated throughout the whole session, the ideas they thought of were highly fleshed due to their collaboration and very pointed questions about my topic all the way through the session.
All of our brainstorming was done on printer paper because that is how I did my individual brainstorming and I wanted the format to be consistent.
The total time spent brainstorming was just around 35 minutes and within that time, the group of 4 people generated 24 ideas.
IPM = 24 ideas/35 minutes = .69 ideas per minute (or .17 ideas per person per minute)
Sorting and Voting
Each person was given 4 votes for creativity and 4 votes for the most interesting idea. They put colored marks next to an idea to vote for it. Not all of the ideas they wrote down applied to my “How might we” statement, so I asked for these ideas to not be voted on.
To organize the ideas, we surveyed everything that had been created and started to think of category names as we went through. When something new came up, we added a new list or modified and old one. I will list the ideas by their title (some are abbreviated. These are especially large ideas that required a lot of explanation) digitally because that is how I recorded the information. I did all of the organization on my phone so that ideas could be moved around quickly and category names could be changed and not look messy.
Categories
Technology: Robot Voices, Video Tutorials On Self Service Kiosks, Scannable QR Codes Instead of Writing Information, Pay For Blockchain E-Messaging, Label System.
Products: Standardize Stamps, Remove Stamps, Package Bracing, Strategically Position Self Service Kiosks, Self Service Kiosk Gear, Better Packaging.
Self-Service: Complete Everything At Home, Self-Service Kiosks At Important Locations, Write & Format Letters Digitally, Scan Mail To Have It Sent Physically, Drop Offs By Consumers At Sorting Areas, Better DIY.
Community: Community Moves Mail To Community Boxes, Community Shared Mail Locations.
Information: Tracking Based On Container Units, More Links To Online Information, Interactive Screens in Store.
Services: Put Employees in Interpersonal Positions, Mail Ahead, Sentimental Insurance Plan, Loan Postage Equipment, Bulk Pickup On Demand, 24/7 Self Service Kiosks, Pick Up From Store Locations, Better Tracking, Automated & Consistent Package Loading, Automated Community Service Centers, Pre-Pay QR Codes Marked Onto Packages.
System Architecture: Alternate Drop Off & Sending Mail Days, Privatize The Postal Service, Update Old Systems Before Making New, Standardize Programs, Quota Based Funding System.
Campaigning: Target Demographics With A Higher Chance Of Using USPS, Inspire Pride In Younger Generations, Advocate For Structural Change To Bypass Gridlock.
Top Ideas
Automated Community Service Center (5 votes. Thought of by Rory & I.)
Pre-Pay QR Marked Boxes (5 votes. Thought of by Rory.)
Quota Based Funding Systems (4 votes. Thought of by Marissa.)
Scan Mail To Have It Sent Physically(4 votes. Thought of by me.)
Remove Stamps (3 votes. Thought of by me.)
Blockchain E-Messaging (3 votes. Thought of by Rory)
Privatize The Postal Service (3 votes. Thought of by Nate.)
Write & Format Letters Digitally (2 votes. Thought of by me.)
Mail Ahead (2 votes. Thought of by me.)
Loan Postage Equipment (2 votes. Thought of by me.)
