Zakaria Hassan 

 Challenge 

 I work in an NGO as a Recruitment Lead . My organization ’s key product is a Fellowship   program that is open for people who have at least completed their graduation . Though the   program is well established and around a decade old , recent times have seen a steep decrease   in the number of applications coming in from young college graduates . It has been   tremendously tough for the organization to solve this issue ( i.e. increase the applications of   fresh college graduates ) . In my opinion , the only way to solve the issue is by identifying the   key reason which has led to the decline and then working on creating a solution . To identify   the reasons for the decline , we would have to employ historical application data , its analysis   and also look at some qualitative parameters which would include regional context , cultural   quotient , mind - set of the students , etc . Hence , design thinking would have to be adopted for   solving the problem statement : “ What has led to a decline in the number of applications   received from fresh college graduates in the past two years ? ” 

 Tool selection 

 The tool I selected for this challenge is “ Mind Mapping ” . Mind mapping is the best tool to   identify the reasons/ patterns/ trends in the available current scenario . As my challenge is to   identify the root causes of the decrease in application numbers , mind mapping will help me to   flesh out the “ What is ” part of the bigger problem . Using mind mapping I hope to get a better   picture of all the quantitative and qualitative reasons which would have contributed to the   problem in the first place . Once I can identify and pinpoint the reasons , as Prof. Marian   Moore mentioned in the Week 3 Video 4 , I will be able to Segway to “ What if ” and think   about creative solutions to the problem . 

 Application 

 Mind mapping in design thinking is to identify what goes on in the minds of our customer , in   this particular case , we were looking at the minds of the fresh college graduates . As the best   way to do it was to involve a team , I pursued 5 other colleagues of mine to join this process .   My colleagues were picked based on their background of having been college students who   had applied for the program and their experience of having worked on the ground with   college students in the past 4 years . 

 As the first step , I collated all the materials I had for this study . It included the following : 

 1 .       Primary data from College students : it had details of their passion , short term and   long term goals , career aspirations , their knowledge about the program , knowledge   about the impact , the program will create in their lives , their interests , their source of   information about the program , along with some of their personal details . This was   collected by me during conversations with the students .   2 .       Historical data about the number of applications we have received in the past   from these colleges .   3 .       Information on demographics of the college students .   4 .       The other opportunities which the students have opted for in the past 2 years   5 .       The list of all the other social sector programs in the country 

 All this information was shared with my other colleagues to view . After spending about 45   mins of individual thinking time with the anchoring question “ For the larger problem , which   parts of this data will add value ? ” , the members were asked to note down their observations . 

 Zakaria Hassan 

 The observations of the 6 of us were then grouped into 3 large buckets . We then sat down to   interpret the observations to come up with solid insights . With these insights , we came up   with the “ Design Criteria ” statement . 

 Insight 

 The following were the three large observations : 

 1 .       Availability of other opportunities   2 .       Incorrect / Lack of the details and impact of the program   3 .       Parental pressure . 

 These three big buckets were then analyzed by the six of us and the root cause of the problem   were led to two main insights about why the application numbers have reduced amongst the   college students : 

 1 .       The messaging about the program sends confusing ideas of what it entails   2 .       Lack of strong brand image amongst the youth and their families 

 These insights have changed my perspective on the issue in general . Till before this activity , I   was convinced that the issue was with the customers and lack of inclination towards the   social sector . These insights have been able to direct my attention towards the change which   is under our control and action can be taken by us to solve the issue . 

 What should the action be like would be a part of “ What if ” which is yet to be analyzed .   However , as per our initial goal of identifying the root cause , we were able to come with a   strong answer . 

 Approach 

 I would prefer using the same tool as this is the best tool to identify the root causes and   answer to “ What is ” . Though the project gave really strong insights , I realize that some parts   of it can be improved to give a better result .   A major change I would bring to this approach   when I have to do it for the second time would be to involve a larger group of people in the   activity . With only 6 people ( including me ) , the scope of innovation and thinking seems to be   narrow . In addition to this , the primary survey can be done in a written format with an   increased number of participants to get a better understanding . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Zakaria Hassan, Zakaria Hassan
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: Zakaria Hassan 

 Challenge 

 I work in an NGO as a Recruitment Lead . My organization ’s key product is a Fellowship   program that is open for people who have at least completed their graduation . Though the   program is well established and around a decade old , recent times have seen a steep decrease   in the number of applications coming in from young college graduates . It has been   tremendously tough for the organization to solve this issue ( i.e. increase the applications of   fresh college graduates ) . In my opinion , the only way to solve the issue is by identifying the   key reason which has led to the decline and then working on creating a solution . To identify   the reasons for the decline , we would have to employ historical application data , its analysis   and also look at some qualitative parameters which would include regional context , cultural   quotient , mind - set of the students , etc . Hence , design thinking would have to be adopted for   solving the problem statement : “ What has led to a decline in the number of applications   received from fresh college graduates in the past two years ? ” 

 Tool selection 

 The tool I selected for this challenge is “ Mind Mapping ” . Mind mapping is the best tool to   identify the reasons/ patterns/ trends in the available current scenario . As my challenge is to   identify the root causes of the decrease in application numbers , mind mapping will help me to   flesh out the “ What is ” part of the bigger problem . Using mind mapping I hope to get a better   picture of all the quantitative and qualitative reasons which would have contributed to the   problem in the first place . Once I can identify and pinpoint the reasons , as Prof. Marian   Moore mentioned in the Week 3 Video 4 , I will be able to Segway to “ What if ” and think   about creative solutions to the problem . 

 Application 

 Mind mapping in design thinking is to identify what goes on in the minds of our customer , in   this particular case , we were looking at the minds of the fresh college graduates . As the best   way to do it was to involve a team , I pursued 5 other colleagues of mine to join this process .   My colleagues were picked based on their background of having been college students who   had applied for the program and their experience of having worked on the ground with   college students in the past 4 years . 

 As the first step , I collated all the materials I had for this study . It included the following : 

 1 .       Primary data from College students : it had details of their passion , short term and   long term goals , career aspirations , their knowledge about the program , knowledge   about the impact , the program will create in their lives , their interests , their source of   information about the program , along with some of their personal details . This was   collected by me during conversations with the students .   2 .       Historical data about the number of applications we have received in the past   from these colleges .   3 .       Information on demographics of the college students .   4 .       The other opportunities which the students have opted for in the past 2 years   5 .       The list of all the other social sector programs in the country 

 All this information was shared with my other colleagues to view . After spending about 45   mins of individual thinking time with the anchoring question “ For the larger problem , which   parts of this data will add value ? ” , the members were asked to note down their observations . 

 Zakaria Hassan 

 The observations of the 6 of us were then grouped into 3 large buckets . We then sat down to   interpret the observations to come up with solid insights . With these insights , we came up   with the “ Design Criteria ” statement . 

 Insight 

 The following were the three large observations : 

 1 .       Availability of other opportunities   2 .       Incorrect / Lack of the details and impact of the program   3 .       Parental pressure . 

 These three big buckets were then analyzed by the six of us and the root cause of the problem   were led to two main insights about why the application numbers have reduced amongst the   college students : 

 1 .       The messaging about the program sends confusing ideas of what it entails   2 .       Lack of strong brand image amongst the youth and their families 

 These insights have changed my perspective on the issue in general . Till before this activity , I   was convinced that the issue was with the customers and lack of inclination towards the   social sector . These insights have been able to direct my attention towards the change which   is under our control and action can be taken by us to solve the issue . 

 What should the action be like would be a part of “ What if ” which is yet to be analyzed .   However , as per our initial goal of identifying the root cause , we were able to come with a   strong answer . 

 Approach 

 I would prefer using the same tool as this is the best tool to identify the root causes and   answer to “ What is ” . Though the project gave really strong insights , I realize that some parts   of it can be improved to give a better result .   A major change I would bring to this approach   when I have to do it for the second time would be to involve a larger group of people in the   activity . With only 6 people ( including me ) , the scope of innovation and thinking seems to be   narrow . In addition to this , the primary survey can be done in a written format with an   increased number of participants to get a better understanding .
### Output: 