Coursera ’s Design Thinking for Innovation course reflection . 

 Challenge 

 The last 15 years of my life I ’ve been a business intelligence IT professional . From administering and   developing databases , reports and ETL process to developing some windows applications when it was   necessary . Most of the time , the work came to me by people in the business areas with specific needs ,   where , by the most part , I knew how to solve the problem or where to look and learn the solution they   required . I had the need to innovate in many times but it was all inside the scope of my profession and   knowledge , like in an eggshell . Inside the egg I was a champion . 

 In January of this year I was offered a change in my professional career , I was offered to become the   data analyst for the Department of Innovation for the biggest and most important bank in my country . I   wanted a career change and this was a great opportunity to grow professionally , so I took the challenge .   And challenge it has been . You see , by taking this new position I was braking out of my eggshell , leaving   my championship . In the innovation department we need to search for new and better ways to do   processes and technology , very interesting stuff , but it means that I now have to come up with ideas and   solutions to problems that , not only I do n’t have , but do n’t know if they exist . My boss saw me   struggling trying to see where and how to do this new and different job and suggested me to take a   course in Design Thinking , a peer recommended this one , and here I am outside the egg . 

 Selection 

 In this course I have learned many things , but the one that shocked me the most was the visualization   tool . It shocked me because I ’ve always draw a lot , not necessarily well , but often you could see more   drawings in the pages of my notebooks than information related to the meetings I used the pages for .   Many times I struggle to visualized their problems or explain to others my suggestions , and after the   course ’s introduction of the tool , I started remembering a good friend of mine , to whom I have great   admiration , that always draws his explanation when is given them , helping one understand visually what   he ’s saying . So I decided to use the visualization tool more often and — no pun intended — see the results . 

 Application 

 Recently I was assigned a proof of concept project in which I have been working a lot to come up with a   design that ’s affordable and provides the necessary information for us to learn from it . I have spent   many hours writing and re - writing the concept and the many path it can take trying to find the best   scenario to test . When I decided to start drawing the ideas , no words , just the drawings , I started to see   different options and relations between them . Another big improvement this tool gave me was and   improved ability to communicate to my peers these ideas . I often prepared a report describing the   concept , pros and cons , and notes taken from others in the team so we can better collaborate with each   other . But in the last project I added my drawings which showed the clients journey through the process   and where , in that process was our new concept idea being used . It sounds very simple , I know , but it   did help for others to better understand the problem we wanted to solve and how we proposed to solve   it . 

 Insight 

 By using the visualization tool and adding drawings of how I saw the concept I learn a lot about how to   better express my mind and share the knowledge in a very simple way . Now I see the concept of   visualizing as a common language between brains , some kind of communication bridge that I can use to   better communicate and collaborate with others . Thanks to the course of Design Thinking , this simple   tool that in some way I had known for all my life but never used in this way , now became part of my list   of skills . I ’m a better professional thanks to adding that tool to my tool belt . 

 Approach 

 One thing I ’ll try to do the next time is to invite whoever I ’m working with to use the tool to explain to   me what they need me to understand . Show them the benefits of the tool so they can better express   their needs and also helping myself in the process . Another important step I need to do is to learn the   other tools taught in the course . There ’s so many other ways to accomplish innovation that I did n’t   know about . It shows me the need to develop some kind of plan to analyses which of those tools I could   be using for my next task so I can learn more about them and use them . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
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: Coursera ’s Design Thinking for Innovation course reflection . 

 Challenge 

 The last 15 years of my life I ’ve been a business intelligence IT professional . From administering and   developing databases , reports and ETL process to developing some windows applications when it was   necessary . Most of the time , the work came to me by people in the business areas with specific needs ,   where , by the most part , I knew how to solve the problem or where to look and learn the solution they   required . I had the need to innovate in many times but it was all inside the scope of my profession and   knowledge , like in an eggshell . Inside the egg I was a champion . 

 In January of this year I was offered a change in my professional career , I was offered to become the   data analyst for the Department of Innovation for the biggest and most important bank in my country . I   wanted a career change and this was a great opportunity to grow professionally , so I took the challenge .   And challenge it has been . You see , by taking this new position I was braking out of my eggshell , leaving   my championship . In the innovation department we need to search for new and better ways to do   processes and technology , very interesting stuff , but it means that I now have to come up with ideas and   solutions to problems that , not only I do n’t have , but do n’t know if they exist . My boss saw me   struggling trying to see where and how to do this new and different job and suggested me to take a   course in Design Thinking , a peer recommended this one , and here I am outside the egg . 

 Selection 

 In this course I have learned many things , but the one that shocked me the most was the visualization   tool . It shocked me because I ’ve always draw a lot , not necessarily well , but often you could see more   drawings in the pages of my notebooks than information related to the meetings I used the pages for .   Many times I struggle to visualized their problems or explain to others my suggestions , and after the   course ’s introduction of the tool , I started remembering a good friend of mine , to whom I have great   admiration , that always draws his explanation when is given them , helping one understand visually what   he ’s saying . So I decided to use the visualization tool more often and — no pun intended — see the results . 

 Application 

 Recently I was assigned a proof of concept project in which I have been working a lot to come up with a   design that ’s affordable and provides the necessary information for us to learn from it . I have spent   many hours writing and re - writing the concept and the many path it can take trying to find the best   scenario to test . When I decided to start drawing the ideas , no words , just the drawings , I started to see   different options and relations between them . Another big improvement this tool gave me was and   improved ability to communicate to my peers these ideas . I often prepared a report describing the   concept , pros and cons , and notes taken from others in the team so we can better collaborate with each   other . But in the last project I added my drawings which showed the clients journey through the process   and where , in that process was our new concept idea being used . It sounds very simple , I know , but it   did help for others to better understand the problem we wanted to solve and how we proposed to solve   it . 

 Insight 

 By using the visualization tool and adding drawings of how I saw the concept I learn a lot about how to   better express my mind and share the knowledge in a very simple way . Now I see the concept of   visualizing as a common language between brains , some kind of communication bridge that I can use to   better communicate and collaborate with others . Thanks to the course of Design Thinking , this simple   tool that in some way I had known for all my life but never used in this way , now became part of my list   of skills . I ’m a better professional thanks to adding that tool to my tool belt . 

 Approach 

 One thing I ’ll try to do the next time is to invite whoever I ’m working with to use the tool to explain to   me what they need me to understand . Show them the benefits of the tool so they can better express   their needs and also helping myself in the process . Another important step I need to do is to learn the   other tools taught in the course . There ’s so many other ways to accomplish innovation that I did n’t   know about . It shows me the need to develop some kind of plan to analyses which of those tools I could   be using for my next task so I can learn more about them and use them .
### Output: 