Addressing the challenge of new parking arrangements through a Learning Launch 

 My submission follows the criteria of 10 paragraph limit , with all 5 elements flowing from “ Challenge ” to   “ Approach ” . 

 1 . Challenge : 

 The college I teach at recently declared that students would now longer be able to park inside the   main campus . Instead they must use the parking just outside the main gate and leave the limited   inside parking for staff and faculty . Understandably , students are upset and demand consideration .   Recently there have been accidents and improper parking by students that lead to this decision . The   inside parking is about 100 meters from the classroom buildings , while the outside parking is about   500 meters from the classroom buildings . A parking pass must be shown to security to get inside the   gated front entrance . There is no walking path from the college entrance to the classroom buildings . 

 2 . Selection : 

 I ’ve selected the tool of Learning Launch to address this challenge . Students are upset and have a   number of varied demands to make the situation tolerable . College administration realizes   something should be done , and quickly . The advantage of learning launch is that it allows us to test   the attractiveness of ideas , lots of ideas , quickly and cheaply . This is part of the experimentation   phase of our course , finding out “ What wows ” and “ What works ” . The main justification for the tool   is that finding the truth quickly saves you money and time . 

 This tool is appropriate for this challenge because the group performing the challenge is students of   an innovation course who have studied Design Thinking . They are familiar with the first steps of   developing empathy , then using this knowledge to generate ideas ( What is and What if ) . In fact , the   students are the ‘ customers ’ in this case , so the idea generation has already bubbled to the surface . 

 3 . Application : 

 I applied the tool in each of the 3 classes I teach . They had the whole class of 2 hours for this   challenge . First , they were told the problem , then that the College Director wanted suggestions from   them for ways to make the new parking work . I put the students into small groups of 4 . I gave them   a 7 step document to fill out , each step having a time frame . Step one was to document their   interviewing of each other to list the problems . They had 15 minutes to come up with as many   problems as possible , digging deep past the obvious ones of distance and discomfort . Second ,   drawing on their learning about empathy , they had 10 minutes to find student ( customer ) needs and   insights based on what they think the interviewees think and feel . Third they as a group had to pick   one need that was the greatest in their opinion . 

 Now each group was given several sheets of flipchart paper and markers , and 10 minutes to   generate ideas to solve the one greatest problem that they had identified . They did various things   with the paper , listing features of the solution , drawing parts or concepts of the solution , and   eventually were told to draw their suggested solution to the problem they had identified . 

 For step 5 , in the last hour , they were to build quickly and with minimal materials at their disposal , a   prototype or model of their idea . I had brought   boxes of supplies such a aluminum plates , tape ,   cardboard , toothpicks , small round candles , glue , scissors , colored paper , paper cups , sticky notes ,   etc . for them to use . This was the heart of the Learning Launch , the experimentation , after   grounding it in the design thinking idea generation phase taught in this Coursera course . At the end   they had to display their models and ask feedback from other students ( customers ) which was step   6 .    They shared out loud the things they found interesting and relevant and most surprising . I   collected the solutions , photographing some , and sharing them with the College Director . 

 4 . Insights : 

 I was pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm of the students tackling the challenge . The first half   hour they needed lots of help from me to dig deeper , finding meaningful problems and insights into   why they were problems . However , having a challenge that personally affected them made them   more aware of what design thinking was , and how it can benefit problem definition and ideas   generation . 

 Having a relatively short time frame in which to agree on one specific problem and solution before   building made them focus and be active , which brought good ideas to the table . People who do n’t   usually participate in traditional meetings and discussions found a way to build part of the learning   launch . Unknown skills such as drawing came out . 

 The main thing I learned is that minimal materials are needed to do the learning launch , and it can   be done very quickly by a team . Getting something 3D so customers can see it and comment on it ,   allows us to learn quickly from real customers how they see using it , which needs it meets and   which it does n’t meet , and which of our assumptions were good and those that were bad . Having   the customers on hand during the building of alternatives is key to getting quick feedback and   redesign . 

 5 . Approach : 

 For an alternative approach , next time I will take one class and not do the first half hour of design   thinking prep – building empathy and generating ideas – I will give all groups a fixed hypothesis   about the solution and tell them just to make it wow ! Then go and test it with customers and see   what works . In this way there will be more iterations of solutions , starting likely with poor ones but   learning quickly from customer feedback to make good solutions for the challenge . 

 ( see 4 photos following for an idea of the ideas launched and learned from ! ) 

 1 . Parking lot of the right , blue arch entrance , covered walkway on left , pink golf carts ready to 

 transport those wishing a lift , aluminum classroom buildings . 

 2 . Another design in process 

 3 . Yet another design 

 4 . An air conditioned golf cart for transporting students 


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: Addressing the challenge of new parking arrangements through a Learning Launch 

 My submission follows the criteria of 10 paragraph limit , with all 5 elements flowing from “ Challenge ” to   “ Approach ” . 

 1 . Challenge : 

 The college I teach at recently declared that students would now longer be able to park inside the   main campus . Instead they must use the parking just outside the main gate and leave the limited   inside parking for staff and faculty . Understandably , students are upset and demand consideration .   Recently there have been accidents and improper parking by students that lead to this decision . The   inside parking is about 100 meters from the classroom buildings , while the outside parking is about   500 meters from the classroom buildings . A parking pass must be shown to security to get inside the   gated front entrance . There is no walking path from the college entrance to the classroom buildings . 

 2 . Selection : 

 I ’ve selected the tool of Learning Launch to address this challenge . Students are upset and have a   number of varied demands to make the situation tolerable . College administration realizes   something should be done , and quickly . The advantage of learning launch is that it allows us to test   the attractiveness of ideas , lots of ideas , quickly and cheaply . This is part of the experimentation   phase of our course , finding out “ What wows ” and “ What works ” . The main justification for the tool   is that finding the truth quickly saves you money and time . 

 This tool is appropriate for this challenge because the group performing the challenge is students of   an innovation course who have studied Design Thinking . They are familiar with the first steps of   developing empathy , then using this knowledge to generate ideas ( What is and What if ) . In fact , the   students are the ‘ customers ’ in this case , so the idea generation has already bubbled to the surface . 

 3 . Application : 

 I applied the tool in each of the 3 classes I teach . They had the whole class of 2 hours for this   challenge . First , they were told the problem , then that the College Director wanted suggestions from   them for ways to make the new parking work . I put the students into small groups of 4 . I gave them   a 7 step document to fill out , each step having a time frame . Step one was to document their   interviewing of each other to list the problems . They had 15 minutes to come up with as many   problems as possible , digging deep past the obvious ones of distance and discomfort . Second ,   drawing on their learning about empathy , they had 10 minutes to find student ( customer ) needs and   insights based on what they think the interviewees think and feel . Third they as a group had to pick   one need that was the greatest in their opinion . 

 Now each group was given several sheets of flipchart paper and markers , and 10 minutes to   generate ideas to solve the one greatest problem that they had identified . They did various things   with the paper , listing features of the solution , drawing parts or concepts of the solution , and   eventually were told to draw their suggested solution to the problem they had identified . 

 For step 5 , in the last hour , they were to build quickly and with minimal materials at their disposal , a   prototype or model of their idea . I had brought   boxes of supplies such a aluminum plates , tape ,   cardboard , toothpicks , small round candles , glue , scissors , colored paper , paper cups , sticky notes ,   etc . for them to use . This was the heart of the Learning Launch , the experimentation , after   grounding it in the design thinking idea generation phase taught in this Coursera course . At the end   they had to display their models and ask feedback from other students ( customers ) which was step   6 .    They shared out loud the things they found interesting and relevant and most surprising . I   collected the solutions , photographing some , and sharing them with the College Director . 

 4 . Insights : 

 I was pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm of the students tackling the challenge . The first half   hour they needed lots of help from me to dig deeper , finding meaningful problems and insights into   why they were problems . However , having a challenge that personally affected them made them   more aware of what design thinking was , and how it can benefit problem definition and ideas   generation . 

 Having a relatively short time frame in which to agree on one specific problem and solution before   building made them focus and be active , which brought good ideas to the table . People who do n’t   usually participate in traditional meetings and discussions found a way to build part of the learning   launch . Unknown skills such as drawing came out . 

 The main thing I learned is that minimal materials are needed to do the learning launch , and it can   be done very quickly by a team . Getting something 3D so customers can see it and comment on it ,   allows us to learn quickly from real customers how they see using it , which needs it meets and   which it does n’t meet , and which of our assumptions were good and those that were bad . Having   the customers on hand during the building of alternatives is key to getting quick feedback and   redesign . 

 5 . Approach : 

 For an alternative approach , next time I will take one class and not do the first half hour of design   thinking prep – building empathy and generating ideas – I will give all groups a fixed hypothesis   about the solution and tell them just to make it wow ! Then go and test it with customers and see   what works . In this way there will be more iterations of solutions , starting likely with poor ones but   learning quickly from customer feedback to make good solutions for the challenge . 

 ( see 4 photos following for an idea of the ideas launched and learned from ! ) 

 1 . Parking lot of the right , blue arch entrance , covered walkway on left , pink golf carts ready to 

 transport those wishing a lift , aluminum classroom buildings . 

 2 . Another design in process 

 3 . Yet another design 

 4 . An air conditioned golf cart for transporting students
### Output: 