Erin Young Customer Insights for Innovation

      As our team first developed our target market, we thought we knew what drove us to go to shopping malls and why they were in decline. Our initial beliefs were that malls existed mainly as convenient places to sell clothes and thus began to suffer with the introduction of online shopping and later the pandemic. However, our secondary research demonstrated that malls offer consumers an entertainment area, a social place to meet with friends or family outside of home life. We were shocked to see the impact malls had across the world, and how the function they have as a public forum contributed to political discussions in other countries where they were used as places of protest. We recognized the mall as somewhat of a generic space, our collective image being of white tile and glass windows looking into stores despite our references being malls hundreds of miles apart. While we assumed this was just a design choice our research revealed that the design of the mall allo...

  After Wednesday's design thinking boot camp, I was interested to see how Ideo's process differed from ours when given more resources for research and building prototypes. When viewing the Ideo Shopping cart video, I noticed that the company follows a collaborative process of stating examples of problems found with the cart, similar to our peer-focused interviews on the issues with cell phones. However, the Ideo team references data and professional opinions on shopping cart issues including safety and theft instead of asking their group members how they feel shopping carts can inconvenience them. I think this approach fits the problem Ideo is trying to solve better since we have real attachments to our phones, but less emotional attachment to a cart we temporarily use at a store. Ideo's design thinking process emphasizes the quantity of ideas over the quality of them. It seems like a much more collaborative process with the ideas on the board for others to see and potenti...

  As I enter into Customer Insights for Innovation, my primary goal is to learn more about human-centered innovation as a concept and a process. I am a member of a consulting agency on campus, but our process involves talking to the client to get a feel for the problem they want solved before coming up with solutions independently. I hope this course will prepare me with a new skill set to integrate the client at every level and get a feel for their perspective. Wednesday's class intrigued me with the concept of utilizing empathy to create solutions better suited to the customer's needs.  Unlike previous courses I've taken at William and Mary, this course feels much more hands-on, allowing us to experience the processes discussed rather than memorize the steps to them. Partnering up to brainstorm potential stress relievers made me feel like an entrepreneur instead of someone learning about entrepreneurship as a concept. As a result, I feel much more involved in the content ...