Reflection Assignment 

 Design Thinking for Innovation 

 Challenge 

 Since I am about to start a new Master ’s program and I am currently undergoing a process of career transition , I decided to select my career design as my challenge for this assignment . It is an ideal time as I am currently selecting courses for my program , as well as engaging in personal and professional development activities , and I believe this challenge is complex enough to warrant design thinking in helping me work towards a solution . 

 Selection 

 I was inspired by this course as well as Stanford ’s Life Design Lab , particularly their videos on “ Designing Your Career ” , to use the mind mapping design tool to aid in my own career design process . As Rocio Patterson outlines in the video lecture in Week 3 , mind mapping is the process of distilling the data we discover in phase one , when we examine the current reality , to enable us to find patterns and insights leading us to creative solutions . It is intended to help you move from the “ What is ? ” phase to the “ What if ? ” phase of design thinking . Therefore , it is an excellent tool for my career planning as I am in the earlier phases of gathering data and determining themes , patterns , and possibilities . 

 Application 

 In applying the mind mapping tool to my challenge , I decided to organically jot down words or draw pictures related to my past career and my future career interests on a blank sheet of paper . I worked from the past starting with nursing , education , and program management then drew arrows connecting this to my more recent career phase of midwifery , instructional design , and health technology implementation and training . Then I had a future section where I included interesting future career directions and areas I could explore more in my Master ’s degree , including organizational development , people operations , business strategy , product management , and career counselling . As I worked through the mind mapping , I started to notice connections and themes emerging , which prompted me to draw circles around the themes in the map and straight or dotted lines between items that were connected . 

 This activity was extremely useful to help me see the full picture and understand some of the connections between past career experiences and future career interests . This led me to the next step in my process of exploratory experimentation with career planning , for example making a list of online courses and books I was interested in pursuing and people I would like to reach out to for informational interviews and networking . 

 Insight 

 Applying the mind mapping tool to my career design challenge was extremely useful for three key reasons . For one , it allowed me to organically record areas of interest for my future career that were unbounded . Secondly , it allowed me to visualize my past career and future interests so that I could more easily make connections and discover possibilities . Lastly , it enabled the creative thinking process which has motivated me toward further experimentation with topics related to my future career interests , which will help me work towards my goal of finding a meaningful career . This exercise also opened my eyes to the real value of design thinking when it comes to addressing complex programs in one ’s personal and professional life , and made me more comfortable using this tool which I believe will be helpful in the future . 

 Approach 

 Next time I use the mind mapping tool , I would like to make a computer - generated mind map . I think this would be valuable in letting me move things around easily , color - code , copy and paste pictures easily , and iterate on the mind map over time . It will also allow easier viewing and sharing with others . As powerful as pen to paper can be , I think online mind mapping has some additional advantages that are worth exploring . 


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: Reflection Assignment 

 Design Thinking for Innovation 

 Challenge 

 Since I am about to start a new Master ’s program and I am currently undergoing a process of career transition , I decided to select my career design as my challenge for this assignment . It is an ideal time as I am currently selecting courses for my program , as well as engaging in personal and professional development activities , and I believe this challenge is complex enough to warrant design thinking in helping me work towards a solution . 

 Selection 

 I was inspired by this course as well as Stanford ’s Life Design Lab , particularly their videos on “ Designing Your Career ” , to use the mind mapping design tool to aid in my own career design process . As Rocio Patterson outlines in the video lecture in Week 3 , mind mapping is the process of distilling the data we discover in phase one , when we examine the current reality , to enable us to find patterns and insights leading us to creative solutions . It is intended to help you move from the “ What is ? ” phase to the “ What if ? ” phase of design thinking . Therefore , it is an excellent tool for my career planning as I am in the earlier phases of gathering data and determining themes , patterns , and possibilities . 

 Application 

 In applying the mind mapping tool to my challenge , I decided to organically jot down words or draw pictures related to my past career and my future career interests on a blank sheet of paper . I worked from the past starting with nursing , education , and program management then drew arrows connecting this to my more recent career phase of midwifery , instructional design , and health technology implementation and training . Then I had a future section where I included interesting future career directions and areas I could explore more in my Master ’s degree , including organizational development , people operations , business strategy , product management , and career counselling . As I worked through the mind mapping , I started to notice connections and themes emerging , which prompted me to draw circles around the themes in the map and straight or dotted lines between items that were connected . 

 This activity was extremely useful to help me see the full picture and understand some of the connections between past career experiences and future career interests . This led me to the next step in my process of exploratory experimentation with career planning , for example making a list of online courses and books I was interested in pursuing and people I would like to reach out to for informational interviews and networking . 

 Insight 

 Applying the mind mapping tool to my career design challenge was extremely useful for three key reasons . For one , it allowed me to organically record areas of interest for my future career that were unbounded . Secondly , it allowed me to visualize my past career and future interests so that I could more easily make connections and discover possibilities . Lastly , it enabled the creative thinking process which has motivated me toward further experimentation with topics related to my future career interests , which will help me work towards my goal of finding a meaningful career . This exercise also opened my eyes to the real value of design thinking when it comes to addressing complex programs in one ’s personal and professional life , and made me more comfortable using this tool which I believe will be helpful in the future . 

 Approach 

 Next time I use the mind mapping tool , I would like to make a computer - generated mind map . I think this would be valuable in letting me move things around easily , color - code , copy and paste pictures easily , and iterate on the mind map over time . It will also allow easier viewing and sharing with others . As powerful as pen to paper can be , I think online mind mapping has some additional advantages that are worth exploring .
### Output: 