Analysis And Reflection Of The Experiences During Course For Creative Designs

Weekly activities and learning outcomes

In the scope of this report, a detailed analysis and reflection of the experiences gathered as an outcome of attending the weekly activities held during Course for Creative Designs. This course of design thinking alleviates my entrepreneurship by allowing me to develop my potential through many activities during the lecture. Writing the blogs also provided the opportunity to learn how to reflect what I learned throughout the activities. The seven weekly activities that we experienced during the learning sessions allowed us to witness how innovation helps the big business organisations to promote their products and/or services and heighten sales. In this aspect, we learned various marketing management techniques also.

Relying on what I learned during the weekly activity sessions, I have attempted to reflect how the learning outcomes have helped me to gain and enhance my knowledge about the various aspects of design thinking and the ways they can impact the organisational outcomes. I have also justified my findings by citing supportive texts from eminent critics. A PDP for reflection on the future activities based on the objectives identified as an outcome of these weekly activities have been also incorporated in this report.

The topics covered in the activities of every week are multifarious. However, the basic outline of the topics identified for every week focus entrepreneurship and/or its implementation for brainstorming ideas related to problem solving in various aspects like business plan, regular day-to-day life or in case of any particular situational aspect of life.

In the first activity held in the week 2, technological innovations are being discussed. I had the least conception regarding how entrepreneurship and innovation help in the achieving sustainable future. However, in the activity session we learnt how Blackberry failed to assess the market trend and could not innovate correctly to sustain. People’s needs are very difficult to assess. Firstly I can comment what we learned that people do not have a clear conception of what they expect out of the utility product brands. It entirely depends on how successfully a company is conducting market survey to understand what clicks with the people’s choices.

I took this lesson entirely from the week’s learning activity. Another thing that this weekly activity taught me was that only customer based innovations cannot lead a company to towards success. I promptly realised what amount of importance branding, packaging and presenting holds for a company through the instance of the product launch event of the Homer Car (see blog 1, week 2, 11/08/2018). The product was innovative and ensured time saving for the customers. However, the launch event was a flop and as an outcome the sales were severely affected.  

Activity 1: Technological innovations and market trends

I am looking up with much enthusiasm for the upcoming lecture sessions in the same context. This is because I feel that I personally need to know more regarding how innovation in business marketing and product launch can affect sales growth and also learn about the avenues through which the companies can implement design thinking for ensuring the uniqueness of their promotional activities. I must also reflect that the unique in house weekly activities based on the implications of our regular life have helped me to accomplish a better understanding of the design thinking aspects.

Coming to the second activity, held in week 4, I learned with impact that designing have many dimensions and in the context of real life designing outcomes should actually be problem solving also. The activity entitled “A day on the Beach” focused on situational problem solving and as I realised brainstorming ideas of new designs is very essential. I personally analysed that keeping list of the various factors that can affect a situation or outcome is very necessary. In context to the problem presented the group members innovated ideas to avoid negative outcomes of the scenario (see blog 2, week 4, 19/08/2018). My personal learning involves the lesson that a normal life situation also requires innovation in every steps. In future I would like to further study some real life circumstances about the new implementations that I can make in the context of real life problems. In case of the business campaign of any organisation stands up before a critical position at some point of time, the company have to find new and brainstorming solutions to find the ‘pathway to successes (Glen, Suciu & Baughn, 2014).

In the context of the third activity, or specifically the 6^th workshop activity, we were led by an example to try and find innovative solution to the basic problems. Through this learning methodology, the teacher attempted to give us a glimpse of how the business organisations implement brainstorming solutions to find prompt solution to the issue they face in the context of the everyday problem they might face or some serious business issue that calls for rapid action. Gaining consciousness about the business problems is a major concern as Kupp, Anderson & Reckhenrich (2017), puts it, and I emphasize that as far as I have realised and learnt from this weekly session, this personality trait should be inherent present in the business managers of a company. The consciousness model that was discussed and exemplified throughout the activity was of utmost importance in the context of mitigating the coherent business issues (see blog 4, week 5, 26/08/2018). The consciousness model allowed almost all the executives to come up with brainstorming solutions to fulfil the loopholes of the product in the consumer market. However, the most implementable solution was accepted by the upper management of the company.  

Activity 2: Situational problem solving and brainstorming

In the next stage we focused on learning the significance of the value chain in a business. I had a very blurred conception regarding how the value chain impact a business. However after attending this activity I am able to clearly understand how the value chain in a business, helps to create new designs and frameworks (Huq & Gilbert, 2017). In fact I did not have any conception regarding the real importance of value chain in the scope of a company. However, attending the activity I got to know that the value chain of an organisation is actually behind the success of ant product and/or service of any entity or organisation (Upward & Jones, 2016). Value chain and the real significance of it was exhibited by the professor in an innovative and impactful way. After accomplishing the activity, I also got to realise that my initial identifying skills are not very prompt. As an outcome, I faced some difficulty to mind frame the activity.

The activity of the 7^th week on understanding customer perception and buying outlook was one of the most enticing activities we performed during the course of all the weekly activities. I had practically no idea regarding how to understand the perception of a customer or at all if observing a customer had any real importance in the context of expanding the business of a company. During the initial period of the activity, I guessed that we would be simply made acquainted with the ways in which the simple observation of the customers can lead the seller to a position of high sales. However when I was assigned the activity of contextualising the perception of the customers relevant to a set of questionnaires, I realised that change implementation and change management in an organisation is quite aligned to the phenomenon of observing the customers (Glen, Suciu & Baughn, 2014). The professor in fact simplified the task for us when we were having problem to identify the right person to interrogate or our survey for consumer perception. We surveyed each other in the class and after we had collected the data, it was evident that understanding why a product becomes a market hit or a flop is only possible through understanding the behaviour of a customer (see blog 5, workshop 07/02/09/2018). In this context I also want to say that I did not have any clear conception regarding how to make surveys in real life context. The task of surveying my own peers gave me the necessary outlook of how a survey is done and how the necessary approach for doing a survey should be.

Activity 3: Mind mapping and innovation in basic problem solving

The next activity that is Module 8, helped me to understand the way in which prototype is essential for a business. Before conducting this activity, I had the idea that prototype only performed the role of giving a final impression of the business project to the proponents of the business plan. I also did not have the conception regarding how the evolution of the pathway of creating business prototype have taken place and what are the most feasible outcome of these changes. The changed prototype are now palpable. I gained the idea from the study can be explained using an example. A construction company can be considered. For the purpose of the sales of apartments the company would clearly specify the floor area that the customers would get and also list what other amenities the customers would be able to enjoy (see blog 6, module 8, 09/09/2018). Instead if the company pastes a picture of the business prototype of a 3d printed model of the housing society, the customers would be more enticed to buy the apartments. Besides, the software helps in creation of the prototype much faster since no manual work is associated with the creation of the prototypes (Cagnin, 2018).

Herein I would be peaking about the last activity that is of the module 9, which was concerning the successful designing of a product launch. I would say that analysis of the video that was shown to us was, very helpful in making us understand the reason behind most of the product failures (Elsbach & Stigliani, 2018). I learned that more than implementation of the sales techniques, during the launch of the product, the organisation should give more impetus towards highlighting the best aspects of the products (see blog 7, module 9, 28/09/2018). My product analysis skills were also not very strong. After accomplishing the exchange of ideas regarding the prototypes, I also gained further knowledge regarding how prototype analysis is actually done during the big product launch events (Amit & Zott, 2015). Most importantly, I also understood how review of the prototype during product launch helps in understanding of the pros and cons of the product, when my peers’ comments helped me to improve my own prototype.

In terms of achieving personal development in an orderly manner, self-reflection holds a lot of significance. Self-evaluation after the completion of the weekly activities have helped me to understand myself how effective, appropriate and feasible my way of learning is.

Activity 4: Understanding the value chain in a business

I would like to associate the postulates of Behavioural Theory with my reflective learning experience. Reflecting on the learning outcomes achieved is a planned as well as reasoned action (Hynes, Kennedy & Pettigrew, 2016). The critical self-reflection that is being accomplished here, would be helpful in monitoring the impact of the exposure gained. In this context, the exposure is the weekly activity sessions that we conducted. The Great Man theory can also be highlighted here. Consistent reflection of the achieved outcomes paves the way towards greatness (Berglund and Leifer 2017).

This is exactly what I have been trying to accomplish throughout the weekly activities. Before conducting the 1^st activity and the 4^th activity I rarely any accurate knowledge regarding how innovation impacts business growth (vom Brocke, Zelt & Schmiedel, 2016). I feel that prototyping, mind frame mapping through questionnaire and other similar activities have helped me to sharpen my personal skills also alongside understanding the scheduled learning outcomes.

Again, during the course of the activity of 7^th, 8^th and 9^th sessions, I got the assistance of my peers and other senior members. They helped me to understand how situational analysis can be done. I had very poor knowledge regarding how data and statistical framework helps a researcher to arrive at derivatives (Ghezzi, Cortimiglia & Frank, 2015). Participating in the group activities have helped me to understand the method associated with research work in a good way.

 The insights gained as an impact of participating in the weekly activities would have a great impact up on my future development. Firstly, I would say I have gathered great experience of applying analytical skills and the practical work during the activities and the theoretical online research reports that we prepared during the weekly activities helped me in two ways (Jacobs, 2018). Firstly my knowledge of search engine optimisation was enhanced. Second opportunity was the enhancement of skills in design thinking (Berglund & Leifer, 2017). I am eagerly waiting for the next weekly session. My skills in innovative situational management have also enhanced and I feel that now I am able to prepare business assignments for the academic purpose quite convincingly now.

Goal	Activity	Timeframe	Rationale
Understanding the success factors behind the most successful market innovations in the 2016, 2017 and 2018	Online research of the most successful business model and further research to understand what innovations have been applied.	The time frame is 6 months: In the first 6 weeks, I would devote my time to analyse the spheres in which marketing innovations mostly benefit the organisations. I would devote the next 10 weeks to analyse case studies of the most successful and innovative model of market innovation and analogously study how the innovative strategies have been able to reverberate brand presence for the company. In the next 2 months I would study the various models related to innovation in business and attempt to make in the forthcoming 8 weeks I would make analysis of the selective case studies based on the interpretation of the theories and models that I have learned.	This activity is significant for understanding how product launch, brand packaging or analysis of consumer behaviour can help a company to introduce market innovations
Understanding problem solving in a business campaign	Listing of activities undertaken in the course of the campaign and assessing how each activity is relevant to the projected outcome of the campaign	The time limit is 4 months: In the first 2 months I would analyse the most critical aspects in a business campaign. In the next 2 months I would emphatically implement the problem solving skills that we learned during our weekly course activities and prepare strategic business report on the selected cases. I would also invest one extra week attempting to collect tutor feedback on the reports made by me.	This would help in realising how a company may ensure smooth business operations.
Understanding the significance of business prototype	Analysing the process and software that helps in creation of 3D prototypes	Time limit is 8 months. The explanation of the activity+++Firstly, I need to undertake a more in-depth study on the various tools that are used to create 3D prototypes. In the next stage I would invest 3 months to make video analysis of the creation of business prototype. For the next 2 months I would explore online sources to learn the implementation skills of the various prototype creating software and attempt to develop the business prototype that I had created during the weekly activity.	This activity would significantly enhance my weak issue identification skill. Analyses of various business prototypes would make me better at researching issues that hinder success in business.
Understanding the factors behind successful product launch.	In order to analyse the factors I would need to consider various marketing theories and models and assess the market launch of various organisations in their light	The time limit is 6 months. I would devote each of the six months to learn and analyse the various factors associated with a successful product launch, namely Packaging, deciding the name of the product, recognising the target customer base and making the product pass the pilot phase to make sure that the prototype is actually in the absolute working stage.	This would significantly enhance my SEO skills.

Conclusion

At the initial learning stage many students like me have issues in understanding the key concepts. However, in light of the weekly experimental sessions undertaken, the learning process that I have experienced have been very lucrative and in a lucrative manner these have helped me to understand the key concepts as well as the basic limitations that I need to improve up on for better organisational outcomes. The self-evaluation plan was also extremely important for monitoring whether my learning achievements were occurring in the right direction or not. The knowledge that I received about various software and mapping program would help me to make my future assignments more relevant and designed.

Activity 5: Understanding customer perception and buying outlook

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