Last Reflection: Sad Goodbyes

During this class, I got the opportunity to truly begin understanding how design thinking can help beyond just the way we create new products but can be beneficial to simply practice as a team trying to solve any problem. One of the first things that I think will remember for a long time was the opportunity to learn from Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg. I had never noticed the importance of problem framing before I arrived at this class. As a student, I have always been very keen on finding solutions to problems, not realizing the importance of actually understanding the problem. When Mr. Wedell had us complete the exercise on the elevator speeds it was like being faced with design thinking for the first time. I say this because ( and a lot of my classmates will probably relate) of how TERRIBLE the elevators can be before class times at Tandon. Before the class, my “solution-oriented” mind had pretty often thought of ways to make it streamlined. It was when I saw all of my classmates have different thoughts and ideas on what the cause of the problem was that I understood that my thinking was actually very flawed and my “solution” would have been no help. I think that a very big insight from this is that I am now actively trying to unlearn the urge of jumping into solutions without truly understanding the problem. In extension to this, I also think that I became a much better interviewer following similar thinking. Before this class, I had no idea how to formulate useful information with qualitative knowledge. As an undergrad, I had to complete a lot of transportation and urban-planning-based projects and always relied on quantitative data and in retrospect probably made a lot of faulty assumptions along the way. In terms of qualitative research I had a few (not great) ideas on how to begin, would have asked just anyone, and then would have had an even harder time using all of it. I really enjoyed learning how to create interviews that encourage people to speak more freely instead of accidentally leading them to answer in unuseful ways. I learned how easy it is for language to be leading and how to avoid it. It was also quite to learn from the first-hand experience of the guest speaker on interviews. I also really enjoyed all of the activities we took part in that encouraged us to think outside the box. The activities that prompted us to draw for instance at the beginning of the class really demonstrated how much a group can think in similar ways, a lot of us see stop signs and pizzas in circles for instance. And more recently they encouraged us to be adaptive and to let ourselves think freely. Thank you to all of my classmates for participating and making this class fun and interactive. Overall I really enjoyed being a part of this course, it felt like I really started to learn a new skill. I understand it as a skill that needs to be practiced to be perfected. I will try and make design thinking more integral to the way I think from now on. Thank you Kristine! I will miss your lectures!