i helped tinkerlabs run a
9-day behaviour design course, where mba-students went from identifying a problem to pitching a
tested low-fidelity prototype as a solution. i ran a section
independently, and conducted common sessions to facilitate ideation &
prototyping for 120 students.
discussing an example of using scamper — an ideation tool — during an
ideation session. image:
varun.
we introduced students to the
tinkerlabs behaviour design codex, that we’ve used in the past to solve large-scale problems, via case
studies. then, we took them through each step of the
edipt-design-thinking-framework, and helped them apply it to a problem of their choice. we pushed for
more projective-research (as opposed to conversational), and more
iterations (as opposed to finesse).
students discussing research findings. image:
varun.
my goal as an educator was to help students learn the ability to switch
between a 'generating-many' mindset and a 'selecting-few' one; so that
the world has more enterprising (future) team-leaders, product-managers
and senior-executives. i did this by busting myths about a ‘good’ idea
and a ‘bad’ one, helping them generate wacky ideas by applying humour,
restrictions & time-limits, setting class norms about what ‘mindset’ to
use (dreamy vs analytical), and helping them be okay with visually
shabby work.
i asked students to make a prototype for a very specific kind of alarm
clock, and we used those to understand differences between 'good' and
'bad' prototypes. images:
varun.
from an 'anti-ideation' round, where i asked students to list
unfavourables outcomes, and then reverse them later for new ideas.
image:
varun.
teaching students mind-mapping, and then them taking over the space to
practice it. images:
varun &
tvishaa.
students ultimately pitched their projects to a jury, and were graded on
the same.
in my last session, i gave each student in my section 7-minutes to
submit (or not submit) an anonymous-note that answered the question —
what stayed with you after these 9 days? these are some
responses:
acknowledgements:
worked with:
ankur,
vaibhavi, akshita,
varun &
tvishaa; all from tinkerlabs.
mandeep
for suggesting me; all the kind students of iim-udaipur who trusted me,
despite our age differences; and
prachi
for slowly making me able over time.
