Final Reflection

I want to start this reflection with a story that I experienced this semester during the course period. I did not intend to take Design Thinking in the first semester. I took up another course. The professor gave us the assignment to write an article based on the Economist Publication reading in the first class. That day, I returned home and started writing the piece, and I failed. I tried the second day, and I failed again. I was clueless about how to write an article. I got worried and immediately opened Albert, dropped the course, and chose Design Thinking. Professor Kristine shared the folder that contained the syllabus, and I saw the reflection section, where I needed to write articles. Guess who had a mini heart attack? Me! (Haha). I had no choice but to continue the course as the deadline was over by this time. Again, I returned home and checked what I should write about; in my first blog post. It was a casual topic to write about anything that inspired me. I thought about it for one whole day and wrote my piece, and I loved it. That was the first time I learned that I need not be scared of writing, but I needed to get comfortable with it. After writing my third reflection, I realized the professor’s intention for the previous two blog posts. They helped me get comfortable writing, and I could write my third post without any issue. I was glad that I chose this course.

I loved the class activities. They were engaging and informative. One of my favorite activities was the “Outlier activity.” It was simple and effective. I was clueless when the professor asked us to draw random things on paper, but in the end, we all drew so many things in common despite us performing the task individually. A few didn’t match any groups, and she called them outliers. I was never disappointed with the class activities. They taught me a lot. They led me to think, form opinions, talk, and, most importantly, have fun while learning. The readings were unique. We had videos, podcasts, articles from many people. They are inspiring and easy to understand. The “Question party” in the class led us to understand our classmates’ views on those readings.

The most important part of the course, the team project, was an incredible journey. I found the best teammates who coordinate and understand each other’s views. The professor’s approach to building a product made us learn something new every week. We went through mixed emotions while working on the project. Finally, when we delivered our idea and looked back at our journey, we knew that we had become better at designing a product now. We learned helpful insights from the panelists on the day of our presentation. It was very eventful.

I have a lot of takeaways from this course. I have developed a good number of skills, gained confidence. I gained knowledge that I would use it any place I work in the future. In writing, communicating, opinionating, critical thinking, presenting, and many more, I have improved my performance, and I’ll continue to work on it more. Overall, being in the first semester of my master’s course, this course was a great start to learning the above skills. Now, I have three semesters to explore more and be prepared when I start working after graduation and during my internship period.