Empathize and Define

Design Thinking

~ Sirisha Bhamidipati

The Challenge … Redefined

Context : Children from Indian Middle Class families where parents are mostly salaried and are keen and focused on their children settling down

Context Description

The usual flow for the majority of the middle class Indians is to complete school, complete

graduation, and then get into a job. Post that, it usually ends up with them getting into a rat

race, getting stressed in the process. The majority take the road frequently treaded. This

results in fewer innovators, ideators being born, fewer people pursuing their dreams, fewer

entrepreneurs, fewer people ready to take risks, face failures and get up and move on – in

spirit and in action.

The Challenge

Is school to ‘working on an

area of passion’ transition

possible?

Some Potential Stakeholders

Stakeholders interviewed

Employees who have just gotten into the workforce

Interviews

# people interviewed – 4

Average Age : 23

Qualification : Graduates/ Post Graduates

Demography : Urban ; Tier 1 cities

Family background : From urban middle class families

Interview coverage

• Current area of work • Dream job (Preferred area of work) • Concerns of current education system • Wishlist • Support from other sources • Opinions on a few aspects of the current system • What can be changed – could be different from the wish list

Observations ( from one interview)

1. “I am working as a professional analyst – designing new funds and marketing them globally” 2. “I am fine with what I am doing today but this is not what I aspire to be .” 3. “I think I have the ability to run my own company or an arm of a large company” 4. “A few areas of what I learnt in my formal education are useful for me to take the plunge but I am still

scared because I never learnt anything in the experiential way . We just studied to clear exams. Nobody bothered to think of application”

5. “I have a feeling that there is a lot of knowledge on running a company /business which is in literature but will be better learnt if it is done in a practical way”

6. “I want to try out a few things of running a business, get my hands dirty, get the frameworks right before taking the plunge”

7. “The biggest thing is learning the softer aspects of running a business, the true life skills or characteristics of being an entrepreneur, the attitude, exposure to risk – all these will only help boost confidence on self. I think the education system should definitely do it – as it is essential – entrepreneurship or mainstream as a career”

8. “Next comes team work and collaboration. There were courses in university and activities in school that helped us work together in teams, learn to present our work, discuss to understand concepts etc. But these should be the norm than the exception.”

9. “We should leverage and network more with the alumni as we get to learn a lot from their experiences”

10. To bridge the gap, I am actively networking, reading, trying out few aspects of management in stand alone projects, attending lot of external workshops, conferences”

Empathy map - Think

Think

Say Feel

Do

• Ability to run own company • Experiential Learning will be more useful, practical • Need to up skill on nuances of running a company • Education system should change • Education should focus on attitude and mindset also

apart from other skills • There should be focus and usage of team work and

collaboration

Empathy map - Say

Think

Say Feel

Do

• “Education should not just focus on marks but focus on application”

• “I want to try out a few things of running a business, get my hands dirty, get the frameworks right before taking the plunge”

• “I have a feeling that there is a lot of knowledge on running a company /business which is in literature but will be better learnt if it is done in a practical way”

Empathy map – Feel

Think

Say Feel

Do

• Lack of confidence • Not sure if I am ready to take the plunge • Not sure if I am a team player • Never really collaborated while studying • Attitude of an entrepreneur • Good in ideation

Empathy map - Do

Think

Say Feel

Do • Networking with Alumni • Social networking to meet people with similar

interests • Read • Attend workshops, conferences • Try things out and learn through mistakes

Insights

• To be confident to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, one needs to have

– Opportunities to meet people who have been there,

done that – to learn practical lessons from them

– To try out tools, frameworks in a non- damaging

environment

– To learn and experience collaboration and people

management skills

The Problem Statement

A sincere , hardworking and smart post-graduate who

has studied in reputed Universities, got great ambitions

in life and perseveres to achieve his dreams

My Stakeholder

Needs a way to To try out what he has learnt and learn more by doing,

especially by doing with others

because He needs to build his confidence to take the plunge into entrepreneurship