Gino Schiavo   Design Thinking for Innovation 

 Learning Launch 

 Reﬂection 

 Challenge 

 Describe your challenge , including all relevant information . 

 My company imports , markets and resells technical products for scientiﬁc research in 

 Italy . In my company I ’m responsible for scouting new products that could be interesting for 

 our customers , and adding them to our portfolio . As a new product requires commitment 

 with the supplier , intensive training and the purchase of samples and demo units , the 

 challenge is to identify successful products before spending lots of money , and avoid the ones 

 the customer wo n’t buy . 

 Selection 

 In your own words , brieﬂy describe the tool you selected ( e.g. , what it is and why you selected   it for your challenge -- including any appropriate video lecture references ) . 

 In order to solve this challenge , I ’ve selected the tool “ Learning Launch ” , i.e. small , 

 cheap and fast experiments in order to test different product ideas in the real marketplace . I 

 selected this tool because presenting a cheap prototype to customer is the best way to 

 introduce a new product and collect feedback . 

 It is quite easy for my company to reach a good amount of customers quickly , because 

 we take part to many exhibitions ; we usually have a booth where the customer can speak with 

 representatives and learn about new products . I just need to deﬁne the experiments . 

 Application 

 Describe how you applied the tool you selected to your challenge ( e.g. , what you did and how   the tool was applied effectively or ineffectively ) . 

 Some months ago I ’ve been contacted by an English company that was manufacturing a 

 new version of a quite common instrument [ details of the instrument are not disclosed on 

 purpose ] , usually available to all biology labs . This new instrument , although being more 

 expensive , is signiﬁcantly faster ( 8x ) than the state of the art , and requires less reagents and 

 less consumables . Before committing with the manufacturer , and buying a demo unit I needed 

 LEARNING LAUNCH REFLECTION � 1 

 to collect a feedback from the customers . As it was not the case to create a physical prototype , 

 the experiment was conducted by creating technical brochure and leaﬂets , with pictures and 

 real data , as if the customer could buy the instrument right away . 

 Insight 

 Describe the insight you gained from applying the tool you selected to your challenge ( e.g. ,   how an insight affected your thinking about the challenge and about design thinking more   broadly ) . 

 The application of the tool was a success , because thanks to just some pieces of paper 

 and technical data I was able to test the market and understand the feeling of the potential 

 customers . In particular , the customers appreciated the velocity and the lower usage of 

 reagents , but were n’t really willing to buy because of the higher cost and the unknown brand . 

 Even if in the end they would have spent less , thanks to purchasing politics and procedures , 

 they could not justify the initial higher investment . Thanks to this learning launch I 

 understood that it would have been very difﬁcult to sell the instrument and I refused to 

 distribute the product :   I could avoid expenses that would have taken to no , or very few , sales . 

 I believe that the methods of design thinking can be used for choosing the best products 

 and suppliers , to focus on their sales . 

 Approach 

 Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool you selected or a   different one -- and the reason(s ) why . 

 I realized that a single version of the technical brochure would have too many details 

 and had made more difﬁcult to understand the straights and weaknesses of the product , as 

 seen by the customer . If I had to repeat the experiment ( and I will , with different products ) I 

 could try different versions of the brochure , highlighting different points , in order to 

 understand better the solutions of high appeal to the customer . 

 LEARNING LAUNCH REFLECTION � 2 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Gino Schiavo
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Gino Schiavo   Design Thinking for Innovation 

 Learning Launch 

 Reﬂection 

 Challenge 

 Describe your challenge , including all relevant information . 

 My company imports , markets and resells technical products for scientiﬁc research in 

 Italy . In my company I ’m responsible for scouting new products that could be interesting for 

 our customers , and adding them to our portfolio . As a new product requires commitment 

 with the supplier , intensive training and the purchase of samples and demo units , the 

 challenge is to identify successful products before spending lots of money , and avoid the ones 

 the customer wo n’t buy . 

 Selection 

 In your own words , brieﬂy describe the tool you selected ( e.g. , what it is and why you selected   it for your challenge -- including any appropriate video lecture references ) . 

 In order to solve this challenge , I ’ve selected the tool “ Learning Launch ” , i.e. small , 

 cheap and fast experiments in order to test different product ideas in the real marketplace . I 

 selected this tool because presenting a cheap prototype to customer is the best way to 

 introduce a new product and collect feedback . 

 It is quite easy for my company to reach a good amount of customers quickly , because 

 we take part to many exhibitions ; we usually have a booth where the customer can speak with 

 representatives and learn about new products . I just need to deﬁne the experiments . 

 Application 

 Describe how you applied the tool you selected to your challenge ( e.g. , what you did and how   the tool was applied effectively or ineffectively ) . 

 Some months ago I ’ve been contacted by an English company that was manufacturing a 

 new version of a quite common instrument [ details of the instrument are not disclosed on 

 purpose ] , usually available to all biology labs . This new instrument , although being more 

 expensive , is signiﬁcantly faster ( 8x ) than the state of the art , and requires less reagents and 

 less consumables . Before committing with the manufacturer , and buying a demo unit I needed 

 LEARNING LAUNCH REFLECTION � 1 

 to collect a feedback from the customers . As it was not the case to create a physical prototype , 

 the experiment was conducted by creating technical brochure and leaﬂets , with pictures and 

 real data , as if the customer could buy the instrument right away . 

 Insight 

 Describe the insight you gained from applying the tool you selected to your challenge ( e.g. ,   how an insight affected your thinking about the challenge and about design thinking more   broadly ) . 

 The application of the tool was a success , because thanks to just some pieces of paper 

 and technical data I was able to test the market and understand the feeling of the potential 

 customers . In particular , the customers appreciated the velocity and the lower usage of 

 reagents , but were n’t really willing to buy because of the higher cost and the unknown brand . 

 Even if in the end they would have spent less , thanks to purchasing politics and procedures , 

 they could not justify the initial higher investment . Thanks to this learning launch I 

 understood that it would have been very difﬁcult to sell the instrument and I refused to 

 distribute the product :   I could avoid expenses that would have taken to no , or very few , sales . 

 I believe that the methods of design thinking can be used for choosing the best products 

 and suppliers , to focus on their sales . 

 Approach 

 Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool you selected or a   different one -- and the reason(s ) why . 

 I realized that a single version of the technical brochure would have too many details 

 and had made more difﬁcult to understand the straights and weaknesses of the product , as 

 seen by the customer . If I had to repeat the experiment ( and I will , with different products ) I 

 could try different versions of the brochure , highlighting different points , in order to 

 understand better the solutions of high appeal to the customer . 

 LEARNING LAUNCH REFLECTION � 2
### Output: 