Design Thinking for Innovation | Peer - graded   Assignment : Reflection 

 1 . Challenge : 

 I work as an innovation manager at an IT consultancy firm and I am responsible for the innovation   of our service portfolio regarding Internet of Things and Data Management . Approximately 120   consultants of ours work in these domains and to stay ahead of the competition we have to   continuously innovate our services and the technologies we work with . As these consultants are   highly educated and motivated persons , they have thousands of ideas for new services and   technologies . Our customers expect technological advanced solutions which will help them thrive   their business and they want to do this with the most innovative technologies . With that they   expect solutions to function and perform perfect in order for them to pay our ( significant ) fees .   This creates a challenge with us wanting to launch new profitable services and having customers   to pay for them on one hand and the on the other hand customers who are only willing to pay for   innovative but proven services . 

 2 . Selection : 

 The tool I have selected is the learning launch tool which was explained by Ed Hesse . The   learning launch tool is a method to test a lot of business ideas for little money quickly . Looking   upon my challenge we have a lot of ideas for innovating our services from highly motivated   people but not the ability to create a business case for all of them . At the same time management   expects profitable new services which customers are willing to pay for . These customers however   are only willing to pay if the service is indeed innovative but stable and reliable at the same time .   The learning launch process offers a way to validate and test ideas quickly for little money . In   addition to this , the aim to look for confirming and disconfirming facts prevents us from being our   own problem as we are likely to love our own ideas . 

 3 . Application : 

 With our team we decided to apply the learning launch tool to out innovation process by going   through the following steps : 

 1 . We gathered all recent ideas with regards to new services and technologies .   2 . For all these ideas we looked upon which customers have a need for this service or 

 technology and we looked upon what the specific need is . 

 3 . We then assessed whether the service or technology really fulfills the specified need and 

 whether it is better than the currently available alternatives . 

 With the selected ideas we went looking for disconfirming facts . We looked for circumstances   under which the idea would not work , not sell and why someone would not want to buy it . We did   this by having meetings with our customers . The teams consisted of fans of the idea and critics of   the idea . The “ bad ” ideas where placed on the shelve . The “ good ” ideas were taken to the   learning launch 2.0 . The learning launch 2.0 at our firm consisted of offering the new technologies   and or services in a proof of concept to our customers for below market value prices . By doing so   the customer has the chance of experimenting with the new service or technology for little money   and we have the ability to not only convince the customer of the service but also adapt the   service or technology to the feedback we received . We now have over 20 proof of concepts   running for new services and technologies . 

 4 . Insight : 

 By applying the learning launch tool me and my team have learned to quickly validate and test   ideas for little money . This prevents us from bias as we could fall in love with our own ideas and   involve our customers better . What we also experienced is that often an idea looks amazing but   does not necessarily have to be better than an existing alternative . Finally , we are looking to   implement more aspects of design thinking in the idea generation process and are thinking of   already including customers in that stage of the process . 

 5 . Approach : Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same 

 tool you selected or a different one -- and the reason(s ) why . 

 We will keep applying the learning launch tool within our service development process as it has   brought us a faster and economically more efficient innovation process . However we also   experienced that doing the proof of concepts and validation sessions with customers became a   purpose in itself at one moment . The ease of testing and validating new services or technologies   through proof of concepts below market value with our customers became very popular with our   account managers and consultants . Therefore we had one intervention to realign the mindset of   our employees that the purpose of the learning launch process was to create financially viable   innovative new services . Personally , I have become more open minded to testing new ideas   quickly and relying less upon making assumptions within big business cases . 


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: Design Thinking for Innovation | Peer - graded   Assignment : Reflection 

 1 . Challenge : 

 I work as an innovation manager at an IT consultancy firm and I am responsible for the innovation   of our service portfolio regarding Internet of Things and Data Management . Approximately 120   consultants of ours work in these domains and to stay ahead of the competition we have to   continuously innovate our services and the technologies we work with . As these consultants are   highly educated and motivated persons , they have thousands of ideas for new services and   technologies . Our customers expect technological advanced solutions which will help them thrive   their business and they want to do this with the most innovative technologies . With that they   expect solutions to function and perform perfect in order for them to pay our ( significant ) fees .   This creates a challenge with us wanting to launch new profitable services and having customers   to pay for them on one hand and the on the other hand customers who are only willing to pay for   innovative but proven services . 

 2 . Selection : 

 The tool I have selected is the learning launch tool which was explained by Ed Hesse . The   learning launch tool is a method to test a lot of business ideas for little money quickly . Looking   upon my challenge we have a lot of ideas for innovating our services from highly motivated   people but not the ability to create a business case for all of them . At the same time management   expects profitable new services which customers are willing to pay for . These customers however   are only willing to pay if the service is indeed innovative but stable and reliable at the same time .   The learning launch process offers a way to validate and test ideas quickly for little money . In   addition to this , the aim to look for confirming and disconfirming facts prevents us from being our   own problem as we are likely to love our own ideas . 

 3 . Application : 

 With our team we decided to apply the learning launch tool to out innovation process by going   through the following steps : 

 1 . We gathered all recent ideas with regards to new services and technologies .   2 . For all these ideas we looked upon which customers have a need for this service or 

 technology and we looked upon what the specific need is . 

 3 . We then assessed whether the service or technology really fulfills the specified need and 

 whether it is better than the currently available alternatives . 

 With the selected ideas we went looking for disconfirming facts . We looked for circumstances   under which the idea would not work , not sell and why someone would not want to buy it . We did   this by having meetings with our customers . The teams consisted of fans of the idea and critics of   the idea . The “ bad ” ideas where placed on the shelve . The “ good ” ideas were taken to the   learning launch 2.0 . The learning launch 2.0 at our firm consisted of offering the new technologies   and or services in a proof of concept to our customers for below market value prices . By doing so   the customer has the chance of experimenting with the new service or technology for little money   and we have the ability to not only convince the customer of the service but also adapt the   service or technology to the feedback we received . We now have over 20 proof of concepts   running for new services and technologies . 

 4 . Insight : 

 By applying the learning launch tool me and my team have learned to quickly validate and test   ideas for little money . This prevents us from bias as we could fall in love with our own ideas and   involve our customers better . What we also experienced is that often an idea looks amazing but   does not necessarily have to be better than an existing alternative . Finally , we are looking to   implement more aspects of design thinking in the idea generation process and are thinking of   already including customers in that stage of the process . 

 5 . Approach : Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same 

 tool you selected or a different one -- and the reason(s ) why . 

 We will keep applying the learning launch tool within our service development process as it has   brought us a faster and economically more efficient innovation process . However we also   experienced that doing the proof of concepts and validation sessions with customers became a   purpose in itself at one moment . The ease of testing and validating new services or technologies   through proof of concepts below market value with our customers became very popular with our   account managers and consultants . Therefore we had one intervention to realign the mindset of   our employees that the purpose of the learning launch process was to create financially viable   innovative new services . Personally , I have become more open minded to testing new ideas   quickly and relying less upon making assumptions within big business cases .
### Output: 