Day 1 of Concept Development for Impact 2019 — The Good Feelings

The first day of Concept Creation for impact 2019 left the students feeling excited, confused and energetic.

The workshop was facilitated by our new lab masters Prateek Neupane and Abhisekh Maskey from King’s College. The Finnish lab masters decided to observe the session from the back seat, take notes and provide feedback to the lab masters and coaches.

The day started with a generous breakfast — omelets, chickpeas, and fresh fruits that prepared students for the excitement to follow. However, the excitement only lasted until Abhisekh’s crucial welcome speech where he murdered their expectations by showing them the slide below.

His exact words were — “These are the feelings you will be experiencing in the next few days and believe me, all these are good feelings.”

Soon after Abhishek’s pep talk, everyone participated in get-to- know-each-other warm-up activities. The students thoroughly seemed to enjoy these activities. The participants were then divided into 19 teams, each team consisting of 3 members. Each participant was also assigned an individual coach who would help them set personal goals. Their personal goal setting activity will be conducted every morning before the beginning of the session. The activity would help students monitor their progress and realize their learning outcomes.

After personal goal setting, the students were assigned a broad theme based on their initial interest which they posted in the basecamp during pre-task. Umes Sir from King’s College then stepped in to deliver his session on “The Problems with Problems” to help students gain more perspectives on problems and underlying assumptions. I could see ‘confusion’ in the faces of participants.

The groups now had to go outside in the field and interview users about the problems they were assigned to. Students were required to attend ‘Interview Clinic’ to practice their interview skills before going to the field. Finnish lab master, Ulla Maijja delivered her presentation here about intricacies of asking questions. For the next two hours, the teams interviewed around ten people.

Finally, after the participants returned, they had to share one interesting insight from their field visit. The teams were informed about the presentation and other requirements for the next day. The day concluded with participants leaving ‘thermometer feedback’ in a publicly displayed board. The lab masters and the coaches now had to analyze the feedback and plan for day two.