I am Merwad and this is Week #1 of Applied Design Thinking with Mustefa Jo’shen of Design Cofounders.
I am in transition, whether professionally, geographically or even mentally. I am a graphic designer morphing into strategic thinking. I am a nomad who found a home in Toronto. I was born stateless / “persona non grata” and now working towards becoming a citizen. I continually seek knowledge (useless or otherwise) through courses, workshops, experimentation and trending stories.
Context
First step: define context and establish a frame of reference to start building the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when and why) and identifying goals.
Who, What, Where, When and Why
Second step: examine you. How you view your past, present and future, professionally or personally, everything pours out in a jumble of thoughts. Eventually, with the help of magnetic notes (magic!) and some post-its, the Ws take form. It’s quite telling the number of times I shifted the notes back and forth between “What I do / aim to do” and “Who I am”.
As a designer, I am constantly evolving and it almost needs a chameleon like quality to continue to be relevant. On a personal level, my family and I have moved around enough to become pretty adaptable in embracing change and re-settling.
In addition to the Ws, stakeholders/influencers that can be places, people and things, are identified. These are connections and leads who constitute your network.
My career has helped me learn more about various businesses, initiatives and organizations. By nurture (or nature) I have the drive to be active within the community and be conscientious in making a difference for the “greater good”.
Identifying the Goal
Third step: Distilling the Ws to get to “The Goal” (or set of mini-goals that pave the way to the ultimate one). By stepping back and focusing on mapping out a path toward my personal goal of being a “Citizen Designer”, the neat rows transform to become pyramid chart (sort of) that starts out from where I am now, up a level to where I need to be in a year, another for 2 years and finally the 5 year mark.
It has become a recurring theme for me to step out of my comfort zone; whether by completing a business program in the US or immigrating by myself to Toronto. It is yet another challenge for me to go back to the drawing table and forge a new path / career.
I want to think on an organizational level, beyond designing the campaign, marketing materials or brand image so to speak, and think of strategies that implement design thinking towards social issues to build communities.
So this is Week #1, getting to know ourselves within Applied Design thinking: defining context and identifying goals and relationships.
