Blog 6 - Project Reflection - Due 2-May

Here is your final blog assignment. 

For this one, I'd like you to spend some time reflecting on the innovation group project that you have been working on all semester. This blog is fairly structured, so please read and consider this one before completing your blog entry. This is your last one, so enjoy it! (oh, remember that you only need to complete 5 out of the 6 total)

First Paragraph

Pick one main idea, core concept, topic, or skill (or a combined set of any of those) from this course that you believe you understand better as a result of working on this group project. Describe what it is and give a specific example of how the project helped you gain a better understanding of it.

Second Paragraph

Pick another main idea, core concept, topic, or skill (or a combined set of any of those) from this course that you believe you understand better as a result of working on this group project. As above, describe what it is and give a specific example of how the project helped you gain a better understanding of it.

Third Paragraph

What part of the project was not useful or do you feel like was not of value in working on this group project. As above, describe as best you can and provide specific examples.

Fourth Paragraph

Lastly, describe the emotional reactions you had along the way as you worked on this project. Reflect on the experiences you had with your teammates, the instructor (me), and the process of the project. Do you feel like working with your group contributed to your learning and/or enjoyment of this material? Explain why or why not.

Blog 5 - Integrating Social Media Experiences - Due 16-Apr

Since you all are, in general, more native to social media than I am, I would really like for you all to expand my understanding and knowledge base of how to create and sustain social media experiences and, specifically, how brands and companies should think about integrating social media into the broader experiences they are trying to create for customers (both B2C and B2B environments).

You can think of this as more of a free form blog, in that you have a lot more latitude than usual to write this.  The overall grading guidelines apply (again, check the syllabus or the upper right column of this class blog as a reminder).

I would like you to integrate at least one of the articles I assigned (include the Groundswell chapter) or at least one article of your choosing (of course, you can reference more than one) as you provide support for your opinions and positions as an anchor for a counter-argument that you may want to assert on this topic.

Perhaps you can think about this as if it is an interview question from an employer with which you would very much like to work.  What if they asked you to articulate a framework for understanding and executing a social media strategy relative to what the company/brand is trying to achieve in the marketplace.

One other approach that strikes me as interesting (I'm looking at you, K) is think of this as an article in the popular press, with some of your best tips for executing in social media today, from whatever angle you think is most important or overlooked.

You are welcome to deep-dive into a specific social media platform, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, or any other that I may not even be aware of yet.  If you are already writing your individual paper about one of these, then please do NOT take that approach so that you will have something new to write about for this assignment.

Teach me something.  And, as always, have fun with it!

Blog 4 - Creativity - Due 21-Mar

There have been a number of assertions and many pages of research about creativity and there still seems to be a good bit of debate about what makes people and organizations more creative (and, then, assumedly, more innovative).  The article, "How to be Creative" by Jonah Leher, appeared in the Wall Street Journal just over a week ago and provides another take on the topic.

The response for this is a bit more open than the previous blog topics.  Overall, I want to hear your thoughts about creativity and innovation as an individual and within organizations.  Here are some questions you can consider, but you can address other issues related to this topic if you have other things to say on this.

1.  What are you personal experiences with individual creativity?  Have you had times when you felt especially creative or, even, especially uncreative?

2.  What are your personal experiences with organizational creativity?  Have you worked at companies that felt or behaved in ways that made them more creative or, even, especially uncreative?

3.  Do you think you, as an individual, are even capable of being creative by yourself?  And, better yet, do you think a group within an organization is capable of being creative?  

4.  What do you think about this article and the way this author describes different creative types of problems and, thus, different creative processes?  Should we trust ourselves just to know or sense when we need one type of approach versus another?

As always, please keep the blog guidelines in mind, which are posted in top right column of the page.

Blog 3 - Current Topic Report Idea - Due 21-Feb

I want you to use this next blog as an opportunity for you to explore your paper topic. This is not a final contract on your topic - you can certainly change your topic after you write this. The whole point of this blog is to explore the topic enough so that you and I feel comfortable about your ability to create a full paper out of it. Here is what I would like to see included:

- Idea for the topic, fleshed out as much as possible - this can also include all the questions you have about the topic at this point. Use the blog as a brainstorming session for yourself to get your ideas out there and make this a first attempt at organizing your thoughts around the topic.

- Why is this topic interesting to you? Remember: this is a big goal for the assignment!

- What is the connection to the gathering and identification of customer insights, the design of valuable customer experiences, and/or the design thinking process? (at least, as you see it right now)

- Cite and briefly describe at least one article that is related to your topic (this can be either an academic article or trade article, at this point). Do your best to find an article that might be a central source or guidepost for your paper.

Do not forget the minimum length guidelines. Also, try NOT to write in sentence fragments, although a list here and there is fine.

I will be reading all of these posts so that I can provide feedback on what you have thus far.

Someone asked me for example topics, so I thought I would post the ones I provided for all of you to see.  Please keep in mind that the goal of this paper is for you to choose something YOU are interested in rather than choosing a topic that would really be of interest to someone else.

"Hispanics as Early Tablet Adopters: What does this mean for technology companies in the future?"

"The Modern Man, Post-Divorce"

"Take a Shot: Using Design Thinking to Develop a New Bar Concept"

"Using Augmented Reality to Create Enriching Customer Experiences"

"Who Will Win: Apple, Google, Facebook, or Amazon?"

"Rise of Collaborative Consumption and Its Relevance to Our Startup"

Have fun with it!

Blog 2 - Generative Research Design - Due 14-Feb

This one snuck up on me, somehow, so I am going to push the due date back just a bit to Feb 14.

For this one, I'd like you to get some experience with a couple of tasks that we'll review in class as examples of generative research.  Blogger will only allow me to upload images, so I am going to add these tasks as a PowerPoint file to Blackboard under Course Documents/Blog Materials, in case you prefer to work with an electronic copy.  If you can, please save whatever you do as an image file (i.e., take a picture or complete it electronically) and upload it to your blog.  If you need to bring a physical copy, please speak with Allison about that.  The writing length guidelines for this one will not be as strictly applied - we will be judging effort based on the instructions provided below.

1.  Close to You
There are 2 concentric circles on the page.  First, identify the "stuff" you can not live without (5-6 items should be good).  This "stuff" can truly be anything that comes to mind.  If you can, take a photograph of the item or, if a photograph isn't possible, then feel free to capture an image from the web, draw a representation of it, or, as a last resort, just type it/write it down on the page.  Place of these artifacts in the inner circle, closest to the icon of a person. 
In the outer circle, identify the stuff (again, 5 or 6 items) that you care about but may not rise to the level of "can't live without" and do the same thing (photograph, image, drawing, or type/write). 
In addition to what you placed in the circles, please give a very brief description of the item, if it's not obvious, and provide a VERY brief reason for why you either can't live without it or care about it so much.  You do not have to do this for every item, just the 2 or 3 in each circle that you want to tell us more about.

2.  Digital Ecosystem
For this exercise, we would like to understand your digital or online world, especially in terms of how you receive news, information, updates, and other content.  Please indicate which of these digital and online sources you commonly use to get news, information, updates, or other content by drawing a line from the appropriate circle to the image of the person in the center. 
Next, if there are any sources that you use a lot more frequently than the others, please draw a second line from the appropriate circle to the image of the person in the center.
If you use something that you believe does not fit well in the categories provided, describe what that is and how you use it in one of the corners of the document. 
Finally, for the 2 or 3 you use most often, please explain for what, how, and/or why you use that source.

3.  Typical Weekday
Using the timeline towards the bottom half of the page, divide up your day from when you wake up until you go to sleep.  Please draw small lines intersecting this timeline at points where you transition from one part of your day to the next and please write some very brief description of that part of the day just above or right on the timeline.
Next, browse through the categories of information/content that we have provided in the top half of the page and, for the information that you might receive or access during a typical weekday, draw a line from that category box to the appropriate place on the timeline for when you receive or access it.  If it makes it more visually clear which content you are drawing from, then circle or highlight the box - if it does not help, don't worry about doing that.
Finally, look across your timeline and see if there are any parts of you day during which you seem to access a bit more information categories and, just below the timeline for that part of the day, provide a brief description of what is going on that time of day and why you are more likely to access this information then.  If there is anything else about your timeline and information accessed that you would like to describe, also provide that just below the timeline in the most appropriate place.

Blog 1 - Persona & Empathy Map - Due 24-Jan

Well, here it is... your first blog topic. Think about the kind of information that a marketer would need to create a detailed and rich persona of someone you know fairly well, but who does not fit within your segmentation profile (skeleton).  The goal is to play with a tool that is intended to help you begin to gain empathy for someone who has a background and/or experiences that are different from yours.  With that in mind, choose someone who is more than 5 years younger or older, not your gender, and is not in the MBA or MPA program (or just finished or about to enter).  Beyond that, I'll let you figure out if the person is dissimilar enough from you to benefit from the exercise (so there is no need to clear your choice with me or Allison).  

Keep in mind that this is public blog and that it is probably best not to use real names, so consider using an alias for the person. I'd be curious to know your relationship with this person, but if you have any concerns that they might read this and be upset, you can certainly choose not to tell me that.

With that in mind, create a persona for this person in a way that would be very valuable for marketers. Remember, what we are looking for here are detailed and nuanced descriptions about them that would lead a marketer to discover or identify key insights.  Of course, what you provide may just be the first nugget and the researcher might have to dig deeper to uncover the real insight, but the information you provide should be a great start.

To give you structure, I would like you to use the Empathy Map in the creation of your persona (which is on our class slides, the Business Model Generation book, and I also describe it below without the visual canvas).  I will also encourage you to use this in your project. The Empathy Map has 6 sections (numbered) and sub questions (bulleted) for you to consider:

1. What does he or she think and feel?

-- what really counts?

-- major preoccupations?

-- worries & aspirations?

2. What does he or she see?

-- environment?

-- friends?

-- what the market offers?

3. What does he or she say and do?

-- attitude in public?

-- appearance?

-- behavior towards others?

4. What does he or she hear?

-- what friends say?

-- what bosses say?

-- what influencers say?

5. What are his or her pain points?

-- Fears?

-- Frustrations?

-- Obstacles?

6. What does he or she hope to gain?

-- Wants/needs?

-- Measures of success?

-- Obstacles?

Please remember the length requirements for blogs as well as the grading criteria (all of which are available in the syllabus and on this class blog home page). Have fun with it!