Today's session (19 September 2016)

Hi everyone

Today we met Priscilla Loong from The Misprint Co (http://misprint.co/) and Mahuki (http://www.mahuki.org/).

Priscilla's background is as a designer. She started Misprint as part of a compulsory student project for a paper that she was taking. The paper required that she and her team find a business problem and then apply a solution. They decided to tackle a really big business problem: What to do about all of the waste paper generated in offices?

Her team started by mulching up used office paper and drying it to create sheets of recycled paper. However, making and drying the paper took far too long and was very labour intensive. So they set about finding a solution to this new problem.

Their solution was to pivot their production model. Instead of re-working paper which had been used on both sides, the Misprint team started using paper which had only been used on one side. They sorted and collated this paper into sewn books so that customers could write on the clean side of each page.

Along-the-way, Priscilla’s team has been through the Massey Spring programme and the Lightning Lab accelerator. They have used the opportunity to validate their business idea and to develop it from a basic concept. They now staple their books (instead of sewing them, which takes longer). They also found that their original customers (students) found their product too expensive although mums buying gifts at craft shows in the lead-up to Xmas were quite happy to pay more for the same product.

Misprint is now thinking about developing its model further and grappling with the problem of how to scale the business quickly. This may involve setting up recycling and marketing hubs in different parts of New Zealand.

Priscilla then moved on to talk about her involvement in Mahuki, which is part of Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand. Mahuki assists innovators in the museum sector by providing them with cash, office space and support in return for a share of the business (typically 6%). Some of these businesses are working on projects involving virtual reality, augmented reality and hologram displays.

Te Papa also has its ‘12 Challenges’ (http://www.mahuki.org/programme/our-challenges) which form a focus for the businesses at Muhuki. These challenges involve creating new experiences, making innovative connections and inspiring people.

Using the 12 Challenges as a starting point, Priscilla asked us to do a problem solving exercise using the brainwriting technique. We put our ideas on paper and passed them around the room for other people to add to. Priscilla then asked us to read out our results.

You can find out more about the brainwriting technique under ‘Creative PSDM tools’ in the PSDM Resource Book.

Priscilla then talked about lean methodology and the business canvas. Instead of writing lengthy and detailed business plans, we can use these two approaches to quickly sketch out our business ideas so that we can test our assumptions before investing too much time in a project. The business canvas tool allows us to address key issues (such as problem, solution, customers, channels, unique selling point, etc.)

Effectively, the business canvas can be used as a problem solving tool. You can use the canvas to quickly identify, test and rectify ideas by generating hypotheses and testing ideas. I have included a business canvas on Moodle, under Session 9.

After the break we had our final look at the Great Jellybean Challenge. Today was the last class for the term so we HAD to award to jar to the student who came closest to calculating the actual number of jellybeans in the jar.

We went around the class, taking calculations and noting the different methods which had been used. The winner this year used a very rigorous method to calculate the number and he came very close to the actual number in the jar (546 v 570, which meant he was within 5% of the actual total). Well done!

So, with the jellybean jar carefully disposed of, we came to the end of our last session for the term. Remember that we are on holiday for the next two weeks and that we meet again on Monday 10 October.

Over the holiday break I will be posting a roster for class presentations of Assignment 2, starting in October. Keep your eyes open for this and make a note of when you are presenting. You should have planned your class presentation as part of your assignment so I am not expecting any requests for extensions in October.

After class, some of us talked briefly about the weekly updates for Assignment 1 and I think it is worth mentioning again some of the key points about this assignment.

Remember that this assignment is intended to help you to organise and manage your personal study for this paper. As this is a second year paper, you should be doing somewhere around 110 hours of independent study outside the classroom. Some of this will be work on assignments, some of it will be reading through the textbook, some of this will be reading and note taking using other sources and some will be personal-interest study as you develop and extend your own knowledge of PSDM.

You can use any of this independent study in the work that you submit for Assignment 1.

Remember also that I am not looking for detailed and lengthy work from you, for this assignment each week. There is a bit of an art to being able to extract important information from your readings and being able to tell me what that core learning is all about. This is something that you should be developing as part of your tertiary level study and this assignment is an opportunity to hone your reduction skills.

You might also like to use some of the tips that I gave you earlier in the semester:

* I suggested that one way to successfully manage this assignment is to have a regular piece of time blocked out each day when you can grab a quiet cup of coffee and some time on your laptop or with a book. This might only need to be 10 or 15 minutes and you should find something that interests you in the PSDM area. For instance, you might be interested in something which we discussed in class or you might want to dip into a textbook at random to see what it has to say or you might like to reflect on something that you have done recently.

* Try 'banking' some of your readings for use in other weeks. If you have found a lot of interesting things when researching Assignment 2 then store some of these away for writing up in future weeks. Alternatively, you could write them up now and keep them in reserve for when you need them (e.g. if you are going on holiday).

* Review a PSDM tool or a technique from the Resource Book. There are close to 100 tools and techniques discussed under ‘Creative PSDM Tools’ in the Resource Book so you won’t run out of things to write about.

* Use some of your readings for other assignments (e.g. Assignment 2).

* Reading a whole chapter in a book is good but you can probably break your chapter into several different 'bites' which you can use in different weeks.

If you are finding it difficult to apply your readings to real-life examples then you might like to use some of the tools and techniques that you have been reading about. One particularly useful PSDM tool that you can use in Assignment 1 is to reverse-engineer your work. So (rather than reading something first and then trying to think of a real-life example that you can apply it to) try thinking of a PSDM situation that you have been in and then work out what you did (or could have done) to resolve it. Once you know what tool or technique you used (e.g. rubber ducking, Crawford's Slip, etc.) then find that tool in the Resource Book (hint: Look under Creative PSDM Tools) and then tell me about what you have just read!

(BTW, you might also like to note that version 7 of the Resource Book is now available on Moodle).

Have a good break over the next few weeks!

Cheers

Phil