Reflection – Visualization 

 Challenge & selection 

 Commercial architecture business can be approached in many ways , but in the end it can be   summed up to take a problem , design a building that can provide a solution to it , and sell it . 

 Typically , the person providing that problem is a business person , who has identified it and has   a remarkable interest in doing business with the solution . We as architects , develop the solution   ( this is where design thinking usually happen ) , but in the particular case we are going to talk   about , we had 4 stakeholders , each one explaining a different problem they believed was the   same . 

 Since they were n't aligned with what the problem was , they had no idea what they wanted or   needed from us or from our design . So to go further with this project , we had to get them to   reach a shared understanding of the problem to be solved . 

 As they are a family who had been talking a lot about this subject without reaching any   understanding , we thought they needed an alternative tool to express their perspectives , so we   opted to implement visualization tool . Through visualization we could make them structure their   ideas in such a way that they could express them graphically and more tangible for others . 

 Application 

 We were in their conference room . They are 4 cousins who control the family business . 3 of   these 4 people had n’t made any creative attempts in years , so we were in a room without any   creative tools other than some markers on a large frosted glass table , but we had the need to   get some real insight from this meeting . So we improvised with the tools we had a whiteboard .   We separate them , ( to break alliances and instead get more individual insight ) , each person in   an area of the table , and we gave them a marker of a specific color to graphically express their   ideas on the table . We told them they could choose any type of representation they wanted   ( sketches , storyboards , sticks figures , etc . ) , and we asked them three questions : 1 ) What is the   problem that your organization needs to solve with this project ? 2 ) Why is this problem   happening ? 3 ) What is the role of our building in this problem ? 

 When they finished we took a short tour around the table with everyone , to learn about the   graphic of each stakeholder . In each one we marked what the group considered valuable . After   that , we redrew a mixed model in the middle of the table , a model that had the contribution of   each one . Each contribution was drawn in the specific color assigned to the owner of the idea ,   as well as in the margin , we included any other comments that appeared after this activity in a   different color . All of assumptions made for the cousins , that emerged from this exercise , were   included in the graphic to be tested later . In the end we got a compiled graphic with everyone ’s   perspective , one in which everyone knew they had contributed . A graphic that depicted a richer   view of the problem to be solved . A view that everyone agreed with , and that allowed us to   advance in the process . 

 We made a photographic record of the entire process and the outcome . 

 Insight & approach 

 As architects we learn the power of visualization early , so when we started this exercise we   expected it to clarify many misunderstandings among stakeholders , and we were confident that   it would give to them a broader perspective on the problem to be solved . What we did not   expected was that through graphic expression our clients would offer us much more insight   about their business than they did in previous projects . In this experience we discovered , that   even business people can engage with this tool . Surprisingly they were focused and inspired to   express more when they communicated graphically . This tool showed us we can do more to get   insight even if our clients apparently do n’t know what to say . 

 This was the first time we used visualization at this stage of a project , which was generally   problematic when clients came to us without a clear idea of what problem they wanted to solve .   In projects prior to this experience , we used to have several meetings with this client and lose a   lot of work , before achieving between them a clear vision of what the problem to be solved   would be . So if visualization was always an important part of our work in more advanced stages ,   now it will be a recurring tool for us from the first contact with a client . 


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 – Visualization 

 Challenge & selection 

 Commercial architecture business can be approached in many ways , but in the end it can be   summed up to take a problem , design a building that can provide a solution to it , and sell it . 

 Typically , the person providing that problem is a business person , who has identified it and has   a remarkable interest in doing business with the solution . We as architects , develop the solution   ( this is where design thinking usually happen ) , but in the particular case we are going to talk   about , we had 4 stakeholders , each one explaining a different problem they believed was the   same . 

 Since they were n't aligned with what the problem was , they had no idea what they wanted or   needed from us or from our design . So to go further with this project , we had to get them to   reach a shared understanding of the problem to be solved . 

 As they are a family who had been talking a lot about this subject without reaching any   understanding , we thought they needed an alternative tool to express their perspectives , so we   opted to implement visualization tool . Through visualization we could make them structure their   ideas in such a way that they could express them graphically and more tangible for others . 

 Application 

 We were in their conference room . They are 4 cousins who control the family business . 3 of   these 4 people had n’t made any creative attempts in years , so we were in a room without any   creative tools other than some markers on a large frosted glass table , but we had the need to   get some real insight from this meeting . So we improvised with the tools we had a whiteboard .   We separate them , ( to break alliances and instead get more individual insight ) , each person in   an area of the table , and we gave them a marker of a specific color to graphically express their   ideas on the table . We told them they could choose any type of representation they wanted   ( sketches , storyboards , sticks figures , etc . ) , and we asked them three questions : 1 ) What is the   problem that your organization needs to solve with this project ? 2 ) Why is this problem   happening ? 3 ) What is the role of our building in this problem ? 

 When they finished we took a short tour around the table with everyone , to learn about the   graphic of each stakeholder . In each one we marked what the group considered valuable . After   that , we redrew a mixed model in the middle of the table , a model that had the contribution of   each one . Each contribution was drawn in the specific color assigned to the owner of the idea ,   as well as in the margin , we included any other comments that appeared after this activity in a   different color . All of assumptions made for the cousins , that emerged from this exercise , were   included in the graphic to be tested later . In the end we got a compiled graphic with everyone ’s   perspective , one in which everyone knew they had contributed . A graphic that depicted a richer   view of the problem to be solved . A view that everyone agreed with , and that allowed us to   advance in the process . 

 We made a photographic record of the entire process and the outcome . 

 Insight & approach 

 As architects we learn the power of visualization early , so when we started this exercise we   expected it to clarify many misunderstandings among stakeholders , and we were confident that   it would give to them a broader perspective on the problem to be solved . What we did not   expected was that through graphic expression our clients would offer us much more insight   about their business than they did in previous projects . In this experience we discovered , that   even business people can engage with this tool . Surprisingly they were focused and inspired to   express more when they communicated graphically . This tool showed us we can do more to get   insight even if our clients apparently do n’t know what to say . 

 This was the first time we used visualization at this stage of a project , which was generally   problematic when clients came to us without a clear idea of what problem they wanted to solve .   In projects prior to this experience , we used to have several meetings with this client and lose a   lot of work , before achieving between them a clear vision of what the problem to be solved   would be . So if visualization was always an important part of our work in more advanced stages ,   now it will be a recurring tool for us from the first contact with a client .
### Output: 