Example reflection – Storytelling , Mind mapping & visualization 

 Challenge and selection 

 In this case I ’m going to talk about how I have used storytelling , mind mapping and visualization   and the applications that have resulted from using them in one of my entrepreneurial projects since   the beginning of my youth . 

 I find it very funny that I ’ve applied most of the design thinking tools without even being aware that   this concept even existed . To give a little bit of context , the example that I will talk about goes all   the way back when I was 16 years old and decided to open my very own business . I was just   beginning my first year of high school and started to discover how the world works , how many   problems there are to solve and that you can actually contribute in the solution of a specific problem   through entrepreneurship . I ’m convinced that , as we saw in this course , one of the main goals of   business is to solve problems through value delivery . 

 To continue with the background context , I live in a country that has a huge problem with obesity   within children population and given that junk food is unfortunately VERY popular and almost an   actual part of children ’s diet in my country , the problem is in plain sight . 

 In short , I decided to open a vending machine business that would provide healthy food not only for   children , but for all ages , no matter if you ’re in high school , university , in an office or in a factory ,   my goal with this business is and always will be to contribute to this national issue through healthy   food for everyone . 

 The thing here is how did I started the business without having my parents funding it ? That ’s exactly   how storytelling , visualization and mind mapping ended up having a crucial role during my   entrepreneurial journey . 

 Turns out that just about 2 weeks after having the actual idea of the healthy vending machines my   high school principal announced that the school had a project with a business incubator and that if   enough students were to participate , the project would go on . And so , it happened , I registered my   project and they accepted my idea . The problem was that I had just 2 months to make up a business   plan and everything necessary to pull it through . I started from scratch . 

 Application 

 This is when visualization comes into place because I spent nights thinking about different designs ,   software functions but nothing came through until I started actually drawing it . I drew the vending   machine design like 30 times and made a pre - prototype of it with a 3D printer . Then I built a 6 - foot- tall vending machine out of styrofoam . Then I started to draw how the software ( mobile app ) of the   vending machine should look like , but unfortunately , I did n’t have enough programing skills at the   time , so I found one on the Appstore that suited my needs . 

 I got the chance to have 2 mentors , which were very experienced in the business world and helped   me through the process . During that process I learned things that are just coming up in my university   ( business school ) classes and lectures . Anyway , I applied visualization and even Mind mapping   while I was building the entire business model and I think I can assure that it is very helpful because   it lets you visualize an idea and allows others to collaborate , work and add value to the idea itself . 

 In short , I ’m convinced that those 2 design tools had a definitive impact on what my business looks   like till this day , even during COVID-19 times in which like many of you , I ’ve been having to deal with   a lot of tough decisions . 

 Getting back to the main subject , here ’s how I got from having no money for my business idea to   where I ’m now , almost 4 years later ; the business incubator president told us that there was going   to be a “ Shark Tank ” – like contest , in which all participants would pitch their business ideas and the   winner would get a partnership with the investors so that the business idea could go on . 

 Just a couple of weeks before the event , once I had everything in order , meaning : the business   model , the vending machine ’s designs , the mobile app , corporate logos , the food suppliers and   many other functionalities and benefits of using the service and products that the potential   customers could experience , plus the financial projections ( the viability of the business plan ) . 

 I had to come up with a way of explaining such a relatively complicated and new idea ( vending   machines with sophisticated tech were not that common at the time in my country ) to 6   “ sharks”/investors in less than 5 minutes . So , imagine yourself with 16 years of age , in a business   center with around 200 people looking at you and 6 investors questioning your idea every 30   seconds and having time pressure … . was n’t easy , but eventually I won the contest . More of that in   just a second . 

 Previously , when I was thinking about how was I gona explain / pitch the idea I came up with what   now I known as storytelling , again , at the time I had no even a clue that the term existed , but during   my pitch in the business incubator I told the story of how I came up with the idea , what problem   was I trying to solve , how people would use it and the benefits the idea had for the customer both   in health and in practicality . All of that in a way that the investors and attendees could imagine a   story in their heads and at the same time everyone could get the overall idea of how the business   would work . 

 Insight and approach 

 After a few hours the investors reviewed all of the ideas from all of the participants and after they   told me that my project got selected , I asked them in private , why me ? And they said : “ you were   the only participant that really had a purpose , a problem to solve and the only one that knew how   to convey an idea for everyone to understand ” . 

 Since then , I ’ve been growing my business and helped a lot of people from my city to better their   health and change their diets to have a better lifestyle and avoid health issues in the long term , all   thanks to these design thinking tools . 

 Now , with what I have learned during this course , I ’ll apply the concepts in my university and future   entrepreneurial projects that will surely have the purpose to solve problems and contribute to   stakeholders wellbeing . 

 This course made me more aware of how design thinking could be used as a tool not only for creating   a new product or service , but as a way of solving problems in your lifestyle and in whatever   occupation you may have . I ’m thankful for this course and the professors that participated in it , 

 because having this knowledge at my young age opens a whole lot of possibilities that can turn into   opportunities for me to keep on contributing into creating a better society . 

 Kind regards . 


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: Example reflection – Storytelling , Mind mapping & visualization 

 Challenge and selection 

 In this case I ’m going to talk about how I have used storytelling , mind mapping and visualization   and the applications that have resulted from using them in one of my entrepreneurial projects since   the beginning of my youth . 

 I find it very funny that I ’ve applied most of the design thinking tools without even being aware that   this concept even existed . To give a little bit of context , the example that I will talk about goes all   the way back when I was 16 years old and decided to open my very own business . I was just   beginning my first year of high school and started to discover how the world works , how many   problems there are to solve and that you can actually contribute in the solution of a specific problem   through entrepreneurship . I ’m convinced that , as we saw in this course , one of the main goals of   business is to solve problems through value delivery . 

 To continue with the background context , I live in a country that has a huge problem with obesity   within children population and given that junk food is unfortunately VERY popular and almost an   actual part of children ’s diet in my country , the problem is in plain sight . 

 In short , I decided to open a vending machine business that would provide healthy food not only for   children , but for all ages , no matter if you ’re in high school , university , in an office or in a factory ,   my goal with this business is and always will be to contribute to this national issue through healthy   food for everyone . 

 The thing here is how did I started the business without having my parents funding it ? That ’s exactly   how storytelling , visualization and mind mapping ended up having a crucial role during my   entrepreneurial journey . 

 Turns out that just about 2 weeks after having the actual idea of the healthy vending machines my   high school principal announced that the school had a project with a business incubator and that if   enough students were to participate , the project would go on . And so , it happened , I registered my   project and they accepted my idea . The problem was that I had just 2 months to make up a business   plan and everything necessary to pull it through . I started from scratch . 

 Application 

 This is when visualization comes into place because I spent nights thinking about different designs ,   software functions but nothing came through until I started actually drawing it . I drew the vending   machine design like 30 times and made a pre - prototype of it with a 3D printer . Then I built a 6 - foot- tall vending machine out of styrofoam . Then I started to draw how the software ( mobile app ) of the   vending machine should look like , but unfortunately , I did n’t have enough programing skills at the   time , so I found one on the Appstore that suited my needs . 

 I got the chance to have 2 mentors , which were very experienced in the business world and helped   me through the process . During that process I learned things that are just coming up in my university   ( business school ) classes and lectures . Anyway , I applied visualization and even Mind mapping   while I was building the entire business model and I think I can assure that it is very helpful because   it lets you visualize an idea and allows others to collaborate , work and add value to the idea itself . 

 In short , I ’m convinced that those 2 design tools had a definitive impact on what my business looks   like till this day , even during COVID-19 times in which like many of you , I ’ve been having to deal with   a lot of tough decisions . 

 Getting back to the main subject , here ’s how I got from having no money for my business idea to   where I ’m now , almost 4 years later ; the business incubator president told us that there was going   to be a “ Shark Tank ” – like contest , in which all participants would pitch their business ideas and the   winner would get a partnership with the investors so that the business idea could go on . 

 Just a couple of weeks before the event , once I had everything in order , meaning : the business   model , the vending machine ’s designs , the mobile app , corporate logos , the food suppliers and   many other functionalities and benefits of using the service and products that the potential   customers could experience , plus the financial projections ( the viability of the business plan ) . 

 I had to come up with a way of explaining such a relatively complicated and new idea ( vending   machines with sophisticated tech were not that common at the time in my country ) to 6   “ sharks”/investors in less than 5 minutes . So , imagine yourself with 16 years of age , in a business   center with around 200 people looking at you and 6 investors questioning your idea every 30   seconds and having time pressure … . was n’t easy , but eventually I won the contest . More of that in   just a second . 

 Previously , when I was thinking about how was I gona explain / pitch the idea I came up with what   now I known as storytelling , again , at the time I had no even a clue that the term existed , but during   my pitch in the business incubator I told the story of how I came up with the idea , what problem   was I trying to solve , how people would use it and the benefits the idea had for the customer both   in health and in practicality . All of that in a way that the investors and attendees could imagine a   story in their heads and at the same time everyone could get the overall idea of how the business   would work . 

 Insight and approach 

 After a few hours the investors reviewed all of the ideas from all of the participants and after they   told me that my project got selected , I asked them in private , why me ? And they said : “ you were   the only participant that really had a purpose , a problem to solve and the only one that knew how   to convey an idea for everyone to understand ” . 

 Since then , I ’ve been growing my business and helped a lot of people from my city to better their   health and change their diets to have a better lifestyle and avoid health issues in the long term , all   thanks to these design thinking tools . 

 Now , with what I have learned during this course , I ’ll apply the concepts in my university and future   entrepreneurial projects that will surely have the purpose to solve problems and contribute to   stakeholders wellbeing . 

 This course made me more aware of how design thinking could be used as a tool not only for creating   a new product or service , but as a way of solving problems in your lifestyle and in whatever   occupation you may have . I ’m thankful for this course and the professors that participated in it , 

 because having this knowledge at my young age opens a whole lot of possibilities that can turn into   opportunities for me to keep on contributing into creating a better society . 

 Kind regards .
### Output: 