Workshops designed to cultivate middle-school social entrepreneurs
3-part workshop challenge (designed for Covid over Zoom or on-campus) designed to inspire middle-schoolers to become social entrepreneurs
Year
2020-2021
Tools
Premiere Pro
Google Slides
Camera
Project type
3-part workshop series
My role
Project management
Videographer
Video editor
Research
Concept
UX Design
Prototype testing
Other roles
Manali Purohit - Research, Concept, Analysis, Design
Nestor Robles - Research, Concept, Analysis, Design
Overview
The problem
We thought the initial problem was the lack of infrastructure—networks, mentors, capital—to support the youth and their social entrepreneurial ideas. However, our research revealed that our users didn't even know what social entrepreneurship was.
The solution
A 3-part workshop series to introduce social entrepreneurship on school campus or over Zoom (during Covid), through a hands-on challenge.
Students will identify an in-home problem, research and design a solution, and present their idea. These introductory workshops will then connect students with companies already working with the youth to further develop their social entrepreneurial skills.
The deliverables
Nestor, Manali, and I worked together to research, brainstorm, and test our solution. I created, filmed, and edited the marketing video to pitch to schools, as well as the first workshop video.
Before we dive in, here's some background information
Acumen Academy partnered with IDEO.org to facilitate a global design challenge, where Manali from India, Nestor from Brazil, and I implemented IDEO's design thinking process to develop the next wave of youth social entrepreneurs.
And context on the problem: the why
Social entrepreneurs create a more inclusive world by solving critical problems through innovation and improving the lives of underserved groups. The youth are our future leaders, and have innovative and creative ideas to solve the world’s problems. However, the infrastructure—networks, mentors, capital—to support them beyond the initial idea phase is lacking.
Before research, we established what we knew, didn't know, & needed to know
We shared our current knowledge about the challenge, defined the unknowns, and reviewed constraints before selecting our research methods.
Our goal was to understand everything about our users and their knowledge of social enterprise. Immersing ourselves in a school environment would've provided key insights, but in the midst of Covid, this was not possible. Still, we gained insight through our other research methods.
Then embarked on holistic research that gave us a well-rounded perspective on our users, the problem, & existing solutions
Interviews informed us of our user's values, motivations, barriers, and opportunities. Online research provided context on social entrepreneurship and existing programs that cultivate youth social entrepreneurs. Analogous research highlighted the importance of how our users should feel in response to our solution.
I created the interview questions & interviewed 5 users, conducted analogous research by observing a church group meeting, and secondary research. Nestor & Manali also interviewed 3 users and conducted online research.
Post-its on Miro helped us to collaborate remotely, visualize our findings, & identify key insights
Our process to convert interviews to insights was:
Shared interview insights (one idea per Post-it)
Grouped Post-its into 10 categories
Picked the 15 most insightful and interesting ideas
Consolidated the 15 into 4 main insights
Our most important insight was that our users didn't know what a social entrepreneur was
If we had built the infrastructure (networks, mentors, capital) to support our users, we would've wasted time and resources solving the wrong problem.
Our research revealed that educating the youth about social entrepreneurship could spark interest—if done right. We also found that peers, tangible incentives, and out-of-the-classroom real-world application of ideas are most effective with students. We used these insights to support our ideas during our mega-brainstorming session.
So equipped with research, the problem we tried to solve was...
How might we enable more youth to become social entrepreneurs if they don't even know what a social entrepreneur is?
After we defined the problem, we used “how might we questions” to turn user challenges into opportunities
From our insights, we created 4 “how might we...” questions to approach the problem from different angles. We then brainstormed 83 ideas, and moved forward with the most innovative, exciting, and likely to succeed idea.
I brought in a user I had previously interviewed to get feedback on our ideas. Since she initially expressed the pressure to teach to an outdated curriculum, I thought she'd favor my idea to replace a social studies project with a project we'd create. To my surprise, rather than relieving stress on teachers, she voiced that it would create more stress, and favored the low buy-in ideas of field trips and workshops instead.
To identify what to prototype & test, we used a storyboard
To make prototype testing easier and faster, we utilized a storyboard to visualize and break down the end-to-end experience a user might have with our concept into bite-sized pieces.
Each of us creating a storyboard revealed that each person's interpretation of the idea was different. We were then able to re-align and move forward.
I considered the worst case scenario for each user interaction & brainstormed questions for us to determine what to test
We decided that if students are not engaged from the introductory presentation, then they might lack motivation to participate in the workshops.
What else can we include in our prototype testing?
I also came up with 3 different prototyping kits to help students develop their ideas, and Nestor brainstormed the in-home problem-solving experiment.
6 days before deadline, Manali communicated that her workload increased due to 2 of her coworkers getting Covid, and wanted to drop out. I was initially stressed since we had many incomplete tasks, but took a step back before responding right away. When I replied, I put myself in her shoes, empathizing that she must have felt burned out, how valuable she was as a member of our team, and how she could fill in when possible. Thankfully, she stayed on board until the end. (Phew! crisis averted 😅)
Nestor tested our idea on users, which revealed existing social entrepreneurial & problem-solving skills
I created the script of our idea for Nestor to test on users.
We were surprised to find that although the students thought social entrepreneurship was boring, they exhibited social entrepreneurial skills of self-awareness, the desire to help others and the environment, and the ability to identify problems and solutions. They were also excited by all 3 kits to help them prototype their ideas.
I also created a marketing video of our idea to test buy-in from teachers, & the full first workshop video to test on students
To get more realistic feedback on our idea, I created a marketing video and the full video presentation of the first workshop.
I learned that even though the kits excited students, new technology might overwhelm or distract them from the main goal of learning social entrepreneurial concepts. User feedback explained that the prize incentives were enough.
Marketing Video
First workshop summary video
The video below is a 2-minute condensed version of the full workshop video.
How did I put together the content of the video?
Below are some screenshots from different parts of the workshop video, with an explanation of the 'why' behind each scene.
Utilized insights to communicate in a fun & easy way for users
Simplifying social entrepreneurship as solving the problems of others helps the youth to understand a complex term.
I used a short, lighthearted, animated video narrated by a cow about a superhero social entrepreneur named Mervyn.
Made the abstract relatable with examples of youth social entrepreneurs
Showing 3 examples of youth social entrepreneurs and their process—how they got their idea, inspiration, creativity, product creation—helps the youth visualize that if other young people can start a business, they can too.
World view: a social entrepreneur from a different culture
Exposing the youth to problem-solving from a different perspective can help them develop empathy and understanding for others.
Hearing Susan from Uganda’s story can help students realize that not everyone has access to the same opportunities, but can still create effective solutions.
Icebreaker: marshmallow structure mini design challenge
We learned from research that students learn best from hands-on activities, collaboration with friends, and get excited about games/challenges. This icebreaker challenge motivates students to get up, move around, problem solve, work with others, and have fun building and eating marshmallows! User testing reflected more engagement and excitement among students, and being more receptive to the actual design challenge.
Incentivize the youth
We also learned from both students and teachers that incentives are excellent motivators. There’s 4 different types of incentives to motivate as many students as possible to actively participate in the challenge.
Problem-solving challenge: Applying and developing social entrepreneurial skills
In collaboration with Manali’s design for Covid and Nestor’s in-home problem-solving idea to inspire the most empathy among students, middle-schoolers will practice and develop social entrepreneurial skills of observation, empathy, ideation, collaboration, presentation, and more.
Next steps: what is needed to bring this product to market?
We first need to realistically assess how much of a lift (resources, time, people, money) this would take. The Business Model Canvas helped us to visualize key internal and external partners, customers, and marketing and advertising opportunities.
Next steps would look like:
- More testing of the first workshop with students and consulting with teachers
- Testing the 2nd and 3rd workshop portion of our idea; establish who the moderators would be—internal teachers or external social entrepreneur volunteers
- Establish relationships with social entrepreneurs as mentors
- Establish relationships with companies already developing the youth as social entrepreneurs for recommendation post-workshop
- Hire a web developer to create the website showcasing students' projects, social enterprise resources, etc.
Even though we received positive feedback in user testing and our idea has potential, I'm not quite sure if it's the most feasible solution for our team.
Reflection
Working on a global team limited active collaboration time, but was an invaluable experience learning from others with different occupations, unique perspectives, and sets of strengths.
As a junior product designer, my goal was to learn and take direction from other designers. However, Manali’s and Nestor’s demanding jobs gave me the opportunity to project manage and lead our team while also designing. I delegated tasks, created guidelines to maximize our meetings, action items to complete post-meetings, and organized our work on our Miro board to move the project forward.
In retrospect, with a short time frame of 9 weeks, we might have created a more finished solution if we had worked with existing social enterprise infrastructures that already support the youth, identify their challenges, and design solutions—rather than our new workshop concept.
What I learned & what I'd do differently
Bring stakeholders along through the process. Narrowing 83 ideas to 1 was no easy task. We were really excited about 23 of them, and replacing an outdated curriculum project with a hands-on current events project seemed like a no brainer solution. Bringing in teacher Stephanie instrumentally helped us to avoid a potential roadblock down the road.
Be able to adapt. My initial response to conflict-resolution has always been to react with emotion, and reflect later that it could have gone better. Many times during this design challenge, divergent ideas arose after we had spent limited time making tough decisions. This gave me the opportunity to practice stepping away from the problem, and coming back with a clearer mind to respond constructively.
Less critical, more building on ideas of others. Critiques in art school have developed my critical eye for evaluating my work and the work of others. I’ve learned that the importance of exploring and building on the ideas of others is more constructive than shutting down ideas that I don’t initially agree with.
Have compassion for my team. This was especially important when Manali wanted to drop out when her coworkers got Covid, which increased her workload. I think putting myself in her shoes and communicating that had convinced her to stay on board.
Testimonials
"Over the course of 6 weeks, I saw her not only excel at the core elements required to be successful in developing a prototype to resolve this challenge–like researching, developing interview guides and conducting interviews with key stakeholders–but also learn other tasks that extended well beyond the scope of the assignment, like planning group meetings, preparing agendas to keep everyone engaged and even championing our group's internal communications. It was a truly enriching experience for me and I learned a lot from her during the process. This rare mix of productivity and ambition set a great example for the rest of our team, and explains why everyone enjoyed working with Natasha."