Hyunmi’s reflective essay: Theory and Reality

I am here to learn to know how to support start-up in their side not policy maker’s eyes since I was responsible for a boosting tourism start-up projects in Seoul Metropolitan Government. The projects was done for start-ups which have went through over 3 years because we wanted to implement new services or product for tourists. I think at least over half of them were well proceeded, however, some of them has issues such as not targeted and worst thing was when they did not have any will or capacity to proceed project they proposed. At that time, tourist’s behavior and tastes are changing and personalizing, however, the government cannot follow all various needs of tourists from all over the world. So, we supported Tourism Start-up financially in order to meet very different tourist’s needs. As a result, I learned I think it was basically difficult mission, however, I believe my understanding for business, especially of Start-up is much increased for almost 8 months at Kingston. During welcome week, we were supposed to suggest a solution to make students more creative and playful plan for university as and innovation agency, ‘Whatif’. It was too intensive, we had to go outside and questioning people who I did never talk to. And set a customer demographic and brainstorm ideas and have to make a prototype and pitch it. It was so challenging time for me. However, it turned out just a beginning. I learned theories and tools. Also, I experienced to open business and I felt the gap between theory and reality. In this essay, I would like to explain the Theory and tools I learned and lessons from Practice.

1. Design Thinking

Design Thinking is our basic line, starting point. Then, what is Design Thinking? I think Design thinking is a problem-solving tool with the human-centered view. I think that it can be applied to business as well as public policy when it comes to considering people’s need. Today, environment is changing rapidly and market is full of competitive and uncertainty. Problems are getting difficult to solve. I believe that Design thinking can provide a different, relevant approach to see the problems and find solutions.

As far as I understand, this approach is similar to that of designers to create something. According to Dorst, Design Thinking is a process to find solutions: what & how about open question. It can be like exploring the vast, unknown and no-answer universe by forming circumstances deliberately. In order to work those ways, Lawson and Dorst stated that there are 5 core design activities: formulating, representing, moving, evaluating and managing (Lawson & Dorst 2009, cited in Alice Comi’s deck).

Dorst described this process that “they are exploring the broader problem situation, gathering clues that can lead to the emergence of themes.” (Kees Dorst, 2011) Also, this undetermined and unlimited process is explained like this ‘Design projects are hard to plan and control, because they are a mix of a fairly linear problem solving process and an iterative learning process that is driven by the reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action’ (see Valkenburg et al. 1998 cited in Alice Comi’s deck).

 

This can be understood with Activity theory which was developed from Vygotsky who made concept ‘mediation’ between Subject and Object. This theory provides a framework which we can consider people’s action as well as knowledge, language, custom and materials in the respect of relation and interdependence. In the below triangle, all factors are associated and inter-related and I think the most important concept is ‘Contradiction’. According to Engestrom’ theory, Contradiction can lead to innovation and develop the system of activity. This view is related to that of ‘Job to be done’ “Jobs are never simply about function — they have powerful social and emotional dimensions.” From this view, I think we are required to think phenomenon or human activity as a result of interdependent actions with holistic perspective. In doing so, I believe we can tackle problems with proper tools and lead to the big and fundamental change. This understanding is useful to me as a public officer to solve problems or initiate new policies and programs because otherwise, it can be happened that fragmentary approach often fails to deal with problems.

2 Design thinking Tools – bodystorming, brainstorming, prototyping

2-1 bodystorming

To discover problems and user’s unspecific needs, we learned some techniques: observation, Role playing, brainstorm, Bodystorm, persona and so on. For me, the most impressive and unique method was bodystorming. It is literally testing with body physically. It can be used in empathy work, ideation and prototyping. I think it provides physical context and make our idea or approach much more clear and specific. We wandered sitting on the chair and we could see the many obstacles and felt desperation deeply as wheel chair users. I think among different tactics, this is the most helpful way to put myself in user’s shoes.

2-2 Brainstorm

Through IDEO Shopping CART Video, I learned how idea come easily and people are willing to add great idea. In the process, they observed how people use the shopping cart in the market and listened to people related to the shopping cart from the customers to the employees. The most interesting point was diversity of members. Even though they don’t have expertise in shopping cart, they made it. Secondly, I love the climate of team. It was friendly and free to be able to talk anything. No judging and negative criticism. I just felt positive atmosphere and collaborative culture. Decision-making process was democratic by putting post-its. Lastly, they communicate with tangible prototype like a drawing. Through this, I learned visualizing idea is essential to exchange opinion and develop together.

2-3 prototyping

I think prototyping is one of the most important tools for start-up when it comes to narrowing the gap between realities by getting user’s feedback. Tom and David Kelly advise ‘prototyping is the low-cost experiments’ to decrease possibilities of failure in their book, Creative Confidence. D.school guide says that ‘A prototype can be anything that a user can interact with – be it a wall of post-it notes, a gadget you put together, a role-playing activity, or even a storyboard’ However, the prototype should meet needs of users by equipping main ideas and its virtue. Eric Ries mentioned ‘Minimum Viable Product’ to ‘test fundamental business hypotheses’. In order to make prototype effectively, according to IDEO, firstly we need to create experience map and define questions what to prototype. Then to get feedback from potential end users and focus on user experience and encourage open conversation with users instead of suggesting presentation. Last tip is to build on feedback. This means that based on feedback we need to improve and this stage should be repeated continuously. (OpenIDEO Blog)

3. Practice. The gap between Theories with Global Song’s practice.

While we leaned theories and tools, we jumped into the start-up world where 9 of 10 start-ups (ideas) failed. However, we armed ourselves with design thinking mindset. As a matter of fact, I were struggling with all stages. Having experienced, I now feel it could be normal. To make products or service for users is not easy, especially for start-up which do not have much resources, funds and experience. So, I would like to share my experience in terms of Business Model canvas, Pivoting, pitching.

3.1 Problem-Idea-Product: Make a Business Model Canvas

My team, Global Song’s team members were Rachel, Mo, Yun and me. However a week after Mo disappeared without any talks but it was okay at that time. To build a business, we were supposed to focus on problems at first.  At that time, I was so passionate and whenever met people I talked about networking issue. They liked my story and in this process, we found many of their concerns can be solved by bringing them together. From this experience, ShareShare was born as a social network platform to communicate and solve problems as international students. At this stage, we tried to engage with users, students like me. We were looking for problems around us. We followed ‘Empathy’ stage of D.school’s Deign thinking Guide. According to D.School, “core-principle of design thinking is engaging with real people – particularly the users and customers of your work. Deep understanding of your users leads to new perspectives which, in turn, spawn novel solutions.”(Understand mixtape) D.school emphasize to “engage with users in order to uncover needs that people have which they may or may not be aware of. Also this can guide innovation efforts, identify the right users to design for and Discover the emotions that guide behaviors.”(Understand mixtape) For me, ‘empathy’ is meaningful and valuable lesson because I believe this approach can provide relevant and meaningful solutions to people.

So, based on interview with friends, we decided ShareShare’s core area depending on top needs of students: entertainment, living, study. ShareShare project started. At mock dragon’s day, we tried to talk from the heart and this was because we had empathy and same feeling with students. We finished first pitch, however, it cannot be launched because we lost key resources, Rachel who has computing skills to make a platform.

To prevent this situation, start-up needs to build a solid Business Model by using Business Model Canvas. This can tell business’s whole process and asset at first sight. For us, according to Business Model Canvas, which consists of 9 blocks: Value Proposition, Customer Segments, Channels, Customer Relationships, Revenue Streams, Key resources, Key Partners, Key Activities, Cost Structure, it was impossible idea to articulate after Rachel  dropped the course due to health issue. In this case, start-up can not react easily at this situation because of limited resources. In this respect, do not forget to maintain key resources and  review present risks and make backup plans. Likewise, Business Model Canvas gives information about customers, products/services, infrastructure and finance. This can provide a frame to evaluate business’s capabilities whether have key resources or can accomplish key activities. As a start-up, I believe that making business model canvas is required in advance launching new product. If we were adhere to ShareShare project, we would be broke. Again, make sure to build clear and solid business strategy based on business model canvas.

3.2 Pivoting when necessary

According to CBnight, “Not pivoting away or quickly enough from a bad product, a bad hire or a bad decision” is analyzed as a reason for failure in 7% after destruction of startup business. From the very beginning, we advised that do not have attachment your idea, however, even though we understand we cannot make it because of loss of Rachel. We did not move quickly and spent winter break without pivoting unlike team One minute. After they got critics that initial business model was a bit vague at mock dragons, they started to pivoting right after. However, I and Yun pivoted just a week before Trade fair. I think it’s simply because I was afraid of the change or taking new idea. From this experience, I now understand that timing is very important, especially for start-ups. Furthermore, we need to challenge our idea to develop and meet customer needs. This is because it is dangerous to put money and resources in bad ideas then they cannot pivot when they want to because time is too late and they are not capable of any more.

       3.3 Pitching and again Design thinking! Think people!

Our new product, MyDrawer can be personalized smart file holder. This is made in collaboration with art students in Kingston. In the process, they were willing to help me and liked our product. We were confident with our product. However, we were struggle with pitching because of language barriers and unfavourable judges. They did not seem to understand our product at all. I lost energy fight with that. However I miss one principle to persuade judges at pitching. Remember who your audience is! Most of the judges were old aged male. Our target group was art students and there are a big gap between them. However, I did not consider it. After Janja mentioned that “think about children” at the mock dragon’s den and gave advice at the class, we changed our tactics to expand our customer group to be able to scale up by focusing on children anyone who can be interested in without changing any of our product. Now I felt our story sounds more convincing and persuasive to anyone. So, do not forget to the audience! Pitching is highly important to get funding to commercialize idea. So we need to remember who audience is. I am not comfortable with public speaking, however, as a public officer to persuade people, I need to accept this weakness and develop further. Tips is considering listeners and practice! practice! practice! Practice only would alleviate my nerve.(Guardian)

From this journey, I have learned a lot of tools and knowledge how to see problems and how to make solutions from idea. In addition to this, I experienced building a business and in this process, I fully understand the limitation of start-up and advantages of it. If I would take a same role to boost tourism start-ups after go back to Korea, I might have reviewed their business model carefully and to meet the needs I want to support a testing program iteratively especially. However, the most important learning is that I have confidence to explore solutions to any difficult problems. This means public administration also has faced different and difficult problems to deal with. I believe that Design thinking will help me to lead much more relevant and effective solutions through human-centered and citizen-centered thinking.

 

<Reference>

ABC, 13th July 1999, the Nightline: the Deep Dive with IDEO, website https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M66ZU2PCIcM

Christensen, C, Hall, T, Dillon, K, & Duncan, D (2016), ‘Know Your Customers’ “Jobs to Be Done”. (cover story)’, Harvard Business Review, 94, 9, pp. 54-

CBInsight, The Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail

Dorst, K. (2011). The core of ‘design thinking’ and its application

D.school, An introduction to design thinking process guide

D.school, Bodystorming, available at https://dschool-old.stanford.edu/groups/k12/wiki/48c54/Bodystorming.html

Eric Ries, 2011, The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses

Guardian(2015) Master your nerves: four steps to delivering a great business pitch available at: https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2015/jul/07/master-nerves-four-steps-delivering-great-business-pitch

OpenIDEO Blog, 2013, Tips and Tricks to Run an Effective Prototype, Website: https://challenges.openideo.com/blog/testing-prototyping-tips

Osterwalder, Alexander, et al.(2014). Value Proposition Design, John Wiley & Sons.

Osterwalder, Alexander, et al.(2010), Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

Startup Genome, 2017, Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2017

Tom Kelley and David Kelley, 2014, Creative Confidence published by William Collins

Don’t forget to Go and Talk to people: Collaboration

For me, the whole journey was about collaboration. MyDrawer is in collaboration with many art students in Kingson. We advised just to go and talk to people. When I worked on ShareShare idea, problem-solving social platform, I deliberately came up some issues which normally students went through. I couldn’t this time because we did not have much time. However, a miracle happened when I did not intend. Here’s the thing. When I visited dormitory of my friend, Grace and it has been a long time after we met because of many assignments. We were in the kitchen and I met Ching, illustration students. I saw her portfolio and I talked about MyDrawer. She really liked it and she said she was willing to paint for the project. After that, when I meet art students, I could ask actively to collaborate with us.

 

So I went Knights Park to put a poster looking for collaboration and there I met many illustration students. They liked our product because of the fact that they can express their ability. I thought I found right partners. I saw some of them drawing at the library until midnight. While dealing with many projects got from their module, they gave precious time and share their talents.

 

 

 

Ching 

 

This is an amazing and valuable experience for me! They put their collaboration work at their social media and I found this is much influential than our account. Their work was exposed to many followers and got a good response. In this process, I experienced a way to communicate with customers and brought their ability to the product.

 

She exposed MyDrawer account 🙂

 

 

Nayoung_Sketch

In terms of making prototype, Yun’s friend, Chloe made for us, however, she was extremely busy at that time. If I were fighting with this problem, I needed to give one piece to each art students then they would use structures of MyDrawer.

 

As a result, I felt grateful for students who gave me hands on this process and power of collaboration.

Collaboration makes it happen! I will talk and go directly again! And I keep that in mind I got help from others without giving anything, I would be willing to help others when they ask.

Thank you all of you! I won’t forget you, creators!

 

 

 

Don’t forget audience

For me, pitching is so difficult.

Whenever we had to move to next stages, we’ve been struggling with barriers such as lack of resources and experience. Sometimes we were frustrated, however, we did not stop to step forward and overcame hurdles and eventually got there

Above is what I wrote at ‘global song’s business report

However, we were frustrated with pitching. Firstly I was not confident in speaking English and public speaking. It was like a big hurdle. We only two people and then there were many portions that I have to cover. At the beginning of pitching, I was really panicked I did not know what I am talking about. The only solution to this phobia is to practice. I know but I think it was not enough and I did not in the classroom.

Another thing is about the judge. When we did at first pitch and we thought they are not going to understand this product ever.  I had no energy to fight with this problem however, Janja gave some advice to consider the audience. Most of the judges were old aged male. They looked do not understand at all. Our target group is too narrow and it’s difficult to draw judge’s attention. Actually, Janja mentioned this before saying that “think about children” at the mock dragon’s den but I did not understand at that time. I did not think who is the audience. So we changed our tactic to focus on children anyone who can be interested in. Plus, Clare also helped us. She brought me another classroom and she pointed out that I needed to speak up otherwise speaking delivery is getting low.

We fixed customer part from 2~30 people to young students and parents. After revising Business Canvas Model, we found some confidence and we think we were more persuasive than before.

 

The one thing I was sorry is that I did not think about storytelling. I did not get used to this at all, however, to give an impression I need to deliver a story instead of just explaining. And practice practice practice. Don’t forget the audience!

 

<Reference>

Guardian(2015) Master your nerves: four steps to delivering a great business pitch available at: https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2015/jul/07/master-nerves-four-steps-delivering-great-business-pitch

Don’t forget Value Proposition Canvas

We were told that our value proposition is not clear. I wrote in the previous blog. We cannot lose two good things: tools which help manage papers and can customize. So as we advised, we decided to work on value proposition again. We reviewed the book, Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want. The Value Proposition Canvas helps us see the details of ‘value proposition’ and ‘customer segment’ in the Business Model Canvas. ‘Value Proposition Canvas’ consists of Customer Profile and Value Map. “In terms of ‘Customer Profile’, it helps to break down customers segment:  what they Gain, Customer job, Pains related to their job. At the gain of the profile, we need to describe the outcomes customers want to achieve or the concrete benefits they are seeking. “(Value Proposition Design) Through mapping value proposition, we can match our product with customer’s pain.

 

In this era, creativity is currency and it’s not only for the Creative Industries. Jack Ma: He warned if education is not changed we are going to be in trouble at Davos(2018). He said, “Everything we teach should be different from machines.” And to achieve this, he suggested teaching creative activity such as painting. As above, we also believe in the power of creativity to tackle serious problems our planet has faced. So we want to do something to support to nurture creativity and show people talents. Plus, this will help to relieve people’s stress.

So we stick to this value proposition. For entrepreneurs, breaking down their value proposition in detail is inevitable. This is because it can reduce time to make various decision in terms of branding, promotion and so on.

“Avoid wasting time with ideas that won’t work. Relentlessly test the most important hypothesis underlying your business ideas in order to reduce the risk of failure. This will allow you to pursue big bold ideas without having to break the bank. Your processes to shape new ideas will be fit for the task and complement your existing processes that help you run your business.”(Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want)

So, don’t forget to review this canvas!

 

<Refernece>

 

Osterwalder, Alexander, et al.(2014). Value Proposition Design, John Wiley & Sons.

World Economic Forum(2018), Meet the Leader with Jack Ma available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zzVjonyHcQ

Don’t forget consistency.

After getting the mission to create promotion video, I was panicked. We were not sure we could make it. Because I had to go Korea during Reading week and Yun had to go Milan a week after reading week. So we didn’t have much time to do. However, we made it for 1 day. The problem is a concept but we decided to show problems of previous products in the market and benefit of our products. This was because we talked with potential customers who attracted various advantages of our product. At first, we came up with some movie scale idea, however, we faced limitation soon. Yun was a great great actor!! We focused on showing a changed life of a customer who is satisfied with our product in terms of managing papers, waterproof, transformation and painting and stress-reliever sides. ( Now I got that this is too much) I filmed with my cell phone. To make a video, I had to search how to do it on the Internet. There were many reviews so I could make a short clip by using free editing video software. I used a copyright free music provided by YouTube and put subtitles to deliver messages clear.

 

As a result, messages were too much in that. Alice gave feedback focus one point is much easier to communicate with customers. It contained too many information in terms of customizing side. Riddhmar told emphasizing the product at the beginning would be much better and Anthony mentioned in the ending, put some information for customers to drive customer actions such as where to buy this product.

From Alice’s feedback, I realized I did not consider consistency regarding our business model. So we sent a confusing message via promotion video. After I thought commercial advertisement which normally repeats their product name over and over again to make viewer remember it, I found that delivering only one message is still difficult and we had better focus on our target customer. In the future, I will keep this lesson! Don’t forget consistency! We need to decide based on ‘business model’ Do not arbitrarily!

Don’t forget to ask early

 

At first trade fair, I think we learned a lot on that day. It was the first day to meet customer and we learned from visitors. We had only one prototype. We prepared in order to communicate with potential customers as much as possible since we had made it late and we didn’t get any feedback from others. So we installed trial zone because the material is important to understand our product. And we asked visitors to get feedback with surveys. Through surveys, we found some clues. Firstly, it’s about pricing. Actually, we were struggling with pricing. So we wanted to find how much customers are willing to pay. They answered between 6~7 pounds mostly. So we can have the answer about the price of MyDrawer after this survey.

 

survey result

 

Secondly, we found that MyDrawer has a lot of advantages and customers attract different points. We set a target customer who is interested in Creative Industries so we emphasize the point that customer can personalize with our product. However, some of them like the sustainability the material has. Few liked its function and at that time we also did not know its strength that much. So Through the conversation with potential customers, we could understand our product’s strengths well. (However, this became the reason we lost the concept later in terms of promotion later. I will reveal it next blog) But Janja questioned why she bought this item and we got advise to fix value proposition. From this, we had to examine whether our product is enough to sell.

Lastly, it was empowering moment. We met some art students who liked our product. Our collaborators visited our stance. Especially, Sumi-Kim, added idea when making the product name, really liked our product after tried the materials. Then she promoted our stance to her flatmates so we had many customers. I appreciated her!

 

Sumi-Kim testing our product

 

From this event, the meaningful learning was that entrepreneur needs to meet customers often to get feedback. Otherwise, it will be far away from the needs of people and ignored by customers. Plus, I learned to sell the product among many items, an entrepreneur needs to have a compelling value proposition. I think that we could not pick one advantage of our product to sell at that time and that’s why our selling pitching might be less persuasive.  So, don’t forget to ask early!

Don’t forget 7 days

D-7

Just 1 week before the fair, we could have a baby in our hands but we don’t have much time. We divided our task. Yun took a pricing part and prototypes for the Fair because his girlfriend has a sewing machine and skills. Regarding a brand name, I came up with ‘Draw-er’ which contains 2 meaning with literally a drawer preserving items and people who can paint. Still, it wasn’t enough. Sumi, an art student suggested adding ‘My’ so the name was made finally. Our new baby finally has the name, ‘My drawer’.

D-4

Fortunately, materials we ordered via Amazon arrived on Monday so Yun could start to make a prototype for the fair. Thank you for the Prime Amazon! However, the pen did not come eariler.

D-3

I wanted to hold a private meeting to collaborate with art students, my friends. I asked them to come to my house to explain our product and make them try on them However, they were all busy and said they were available during weekends not that day so our luck was over. Collaboration project is delayed.

D-2

Luckily, 2 days before, I met the New World, Canva.com which allows people to make any designs by using their templates! Cellina gave a lecture about tools to make prototypes and deliverables for contests. I was into it! This tool was so useful for people without design skills just like me. I opened the twitter account to communicate with customers!

 

MY_DRAWER Twitter

 

D-1

Yun and I gathered and rehearsed the display in Penryn Campus. I prepared a survey with Surveymonkey.com because we didn’t meet any customer. We prepared promotion slides (made with Canva.com), an experience zone to test the material. I saw some flyers on the desk so I decided to make a flyer for customers. Yun brought a nice prototype. We were satisfied with it because we don’t have much time. Working on this, I overcame the grief that I couldn’t raise our first idea and felt so released! I appreciated Yun to bring a nice idea again.

 

rehearse trade fair 

 

 

From 7 days, we worked very hard. We tried to prepare and do what we can as much as possible. Most of them that we planned was accomplished, however, there is something not happening such as delivery and collaboration. In terms of the delivery, Tyvek was delivered on time, however, the pen was not so we couldn’t ask art students at that time. We asked so late and everyone had own schedule so it couldn’t make it. Our situation was emergency but there are some lessons from this experience. I will keep that in mind that make schedule carefully and act early because there is what I cannot control, especially when it comes to need to be done by others.

Don’t forget to kill your b*by

I must admit that killing ideas is much difficult than I expected before.

Finally, Yun and I said goodbye to the ShareShare project, a social problem-solving platform for uni students. This decision was made just 1 week before the trade fair. I might have an attachment to the idea and just want to believe that we can do this huge work even though Rachel who has skills to make websites dropped the course. After the discussion, we decided to move on different tasks if a good idea comes up. However, I resist to make ideas. It was weird that I knew and learned the lesson that we have to kill your idea at the first session of our course but it was not easy at all. This is because I lived almost 3 months with this idea from the very beginning and it was from my experiences. Luckily, Yun brought a great idea making a wallet with Tyvek, synthetic fiber! I found there is a value that Tyvek allows a customer to draw on it. I fell in love with this and one of my worries disappeared. However, I wanted to change the shape of the product because Amazon sells similar ones already. So, our new baby is a DIY file folder made of Tyvek. Thanks to this, customers can make only one item by express their creativity! People can draw, doodle, show off calligraphy skills and make patterns by putting stamps with ball-pen, oil based pen or fabric markers. We set our demographic is 10~30 young creator who want to show their inspiration and talents! Also, they can give the unique present to leave their message or paintings.

From this process, I remind danger of group thinking about the importance of discussion. Because we could have spent too much time and effort on the impossible solution. I just wanted to ignore our weaknesses which is so obvious. In the future, I will see my capability cautiously and realistically. And don’t forget to listen to others! Don’t forget to kill your baby soon!

My Creative Journey to ‘Creativity’

 

In the last class of MACE, I heard a nice word like ‘general specialist’ or ‘special generalist’ something referring to the person who has special skills and broad experience and low level of other skills. That was exactly I aimed when applying to this course. In Korea, administration organization consists of public officers who employed by national tests basically. Most of them work as a generalist moving divisions regularly, however, there are many competitive seniors and colleagues have a specialty such as planning, making presentation and Photoshop, PR or networks in this organization. I wanted to equip something. I think I have equipped lenses and tools of Creative Industries and Creative Economy.

 

A year of a creative person: Eun-yi Song

I am into this person recently. Looking at her I could apply the knowledge I learned here and see issues and dynamics around happening in the Creative Industries. I want to introduce Eun-yi Song, a comedian as a year of a creative person (announced by SongSong Award) in Korea. She recently is working on her career as a content creator and producer releasing popular projects in a row. The popular financial self-help program “Kim Saeng-min’s Receipt” on KBS(Korean BBC channel) has been broadcasted and this is starting from her podcast “Song Eun-yi and Kim Sook’s Confidentiality,” which she has worked since 2015.

 

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3043969

Here, you can see more about her achievements.

 

She said that the podcast started after her colleague, Kim Sook wanted to leave the entertainment industry because she wasn’t cast at a show at that time and was shocked after firing one day before shooting a program. They are so talented however there wasn’t few and limited opportunity for middle age female comedians because they are not cast in male-centred entertainment industry environment.

 

They wanted something that they can continue showing their ability without firing or avoid just waiting for a casting call. She opened ‘contents lab-VIVO’. To manage the business, she had to learn Excel program and open website herself to communicate with listeners at her age late 40s. This has attracted listeners more and more because it was fun and new. It was different from male-centred previous shows. Also, it has quality like a studio show, unlike other social media independent contents. She communicates actively with her listeners by calling her listeners and make them contribute to the show. She made her royal followers like a family group. They recorded no 1 podcast and this popularity led to a regular radio program but they did not stop and still do it after they became extremely busy.

 

How this works? Because of budget limitation, all her work has to be collaborative. She has gathered talented but not- noticed colleagues and made several pilot-typed shows to make them shine. She knows what their colleagues are good at and how to apply it. She connects people. Then people come around her. Sometimes she listened to her colleagues idea and excited directly and this becomes one of big hits.(name of the project was ‘open the stage/project/scene’ 판 벌려) After seeing this success, many of her colleagues have started their independent podcast and YouTube channels to do what they want as contents creators without worrying about firing instead of waiting or to show their creativity by themselves. The development of technology blurred boundaries between performer and producer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmEmYdnGKdY

According to Teresa Amabile definition of creativity: “a product is creative when experts in the domain agree it is creative, meaning that the appropriateness is defined by social groups, and it’s culturally and historically determined.” (Amabile T., Social Psychology of Creativity, NY Springer-Verlag, 1983), I think she seems to fit the definition of creativity. She started this for fun and self-reconcilement but now it becomes a huge success and gives impact on the industry.

However, “Kim Saeng-min’s Receipt season 2” which got many loves from views was cancelled after Kim Saeng-min, Eun-yi Song’s college friend, was accused of sexual harassment regarding female staffs happened a decade ago in his another show after seeing #MeToo campaign. But her activities will not stop because of his fault.

I am happy to have the ability to apply knowledge to the social phenomenon and I love seeing her career to make her own world and crack the Korean entertainment industry. Celebrate ‘the birth of new leader unseen but waited for a long time’(quoted from GQ Korea’s article)

 

Creative Process

Secondly, I learned the creative process to be applicable to my future works.Tom and Kelly brothers, founder of IDEO believe that everyone can be creative and creativity can be nurtured. In their book, Creative Confidence they reveal the specific steps and methods how to build something from an idea. Amabile(2012) introduced three creative individual components: domain-relevant skills expertise in the relevant domain or domains, creativity-relevant processes (cognitive and personality processes conducive to novel thinking), and task motivation (specifically, the intrinsic motivation to engage in the activity out of interest, enjoyment, or a personal sense of challenge) in working paper.

 

In terms of above components, I think we learned ‘creativity-relevant processes’ practically. We learned how to apply creative skills to a real task, DanAD New blood Awards. This competition provides an opportunity for young students to submit a solution to different briefs set by companies. Through the briefs, we can see that company faces similar challenges which need to tackle with changing environment due to the development of technology. Through this journey, we learned how to make solutions to open questions and real challenges. We learned how to develop relevant ideas while exploring ideas and considering needs, environment and context from us.  In this process, we had to iterate prototypes and ideas. Through conversations with others, ideas were carved to the specific shape week by week and in the end, we can get great solution our own. In this process, Stephany’s advice and all questions were powerful and relevant to develop my idea to the final solution. She kept telling me to make it tangible and think about how to present my idea. At first, I did not understand the meaning ‘presenting idea’ well. While explaining a concept that I wanted to deliver something with figures and numbers which was so vague at that time, however, after she suggested to show effectively to catch people’s eye by using comparison and contrast the scales, it turned into something very exciting and great things. I was so happy to learn how to ‘do’ it and I would apply this experience and learning to my future career because the government also is struggling with difficult and new problems to deal with.

 

#Londonisopen

My chosen brief is JCDecaux’s #Londonisopen and My solution is 300+ Love London Campaign. I want to celebrate London’s diversity which is a power of London as the creative capital in the world. According to the Creative Industries Federation(2017), diversity is not only a matter of justice but also a matter of economic growth and they show evidence that diverse companies in gender and ethnic have more financial returns than the average one in London.

In London over 300 languages are spoken. I think this fact represents London’s diversity literally. Based on this incredible number I designed that people from different cultures tell their love for London via JCDecaux’s bus shelter screen and social media. Because I found previous campaign was one-way communication so I want to make it more interactive.

 

Through 300+ Love London, people can learn different versions of ‘I Love You’ and exchange each other’s culture. I hope that this campaign will enhance cultural understanding among Londoners and experience their loving city, London’s diversity. Actually, at pitching day, I wanted to prepare a poster written in Punjabi because I saw this language is second most spoken and in the class and we have 3 students from India. I thought Punjabi is a language for people from India. So I asked Riddhma, a classmate and great advisor from India, however, she said she cannot read Punjabi so I had to change it to Hindi. From this experience, I learned that there are different languages used depending on the region of India. So I think that launching campaign website is nice to explain all these cultural information for people who don’t have knowledge about different language because poster cannot be understood by other language users. Plus, I added emoji expression as a shared language to attract global audiences and this can be funny like a play so I hope anyone who can join and enjoy this love confession for London. I believe through this co-creation project, #Londonisopen will be spoken more and more by people from all over the world.

In my blog, My creative journey to DandAD #Londonisopen(on the road), I mentioned listening to others is inevitable. However, I wanted to talk about procrastination at this time. I think I lost an opportunity to present my idea well. At pitching day I found there is still much room to develop even from inside me. This happened when I pushed back things to do so I felt not good at this. At Agile Project management, refinement/iteration need to put 60~80% of effort but my journey wasn’t going like that only seeing the time I worked on. In the Agile Project Management, ‘Time, Cost, Quality’ of a project are fixed but ‘feature’ varied. I experienced that timescale has definitely to do with quality. No matter how an idea is good, ultimate results can be downgraded because of procrastination issue. I won’t do like this again. So I will stick to Agile attitude and approach at work in the future.

 

Knowing myself

Through this journey with Mace, it was like walking along the Growth Mindset Road. We stand on shared belief: anyone can be creative. We learned how to look me and recognize good and weak of myself. Then, we practised how to strengthen and overcome it. Through twice personality tests, I learned myself more clear and in professional perspective. It can be explained many things I have done so far. According to the results, I got terribly low score at self-regulation so I can take a positive role in change something to challenge the status quo but I need to consider more deeply and make sure important tasks are monitored. I got a very high score at openness.

 

Generally, I have looked for opportunities and chose the ways to be able to learn in the professional journeys. Why did I choose this course? Many said why do you make trouble for yourself because my colleagues usually go to administration MPA course where colleagues went before, however, I felt it must be boring because same kinds of people would be there and I wanted to learn something helpful for self-development. I think it was the right choice in terms of opportunity to learn in spite of the difficult process more than I guess. Looking at details, it wasn’t enough for me looking at the degree that I use this opportunity well. I need to accept my weakness, however, keep fighting against it. (About pitching problem I want to write in another blog related to the Design Thinking Module) The Mindset tells that admitting fixed mindset also is part of me and is the step to have the growth mindset. From the book, I found a good excuse (that I am ‘shy growth-minded’) and some tips: I need more questions and answers continuously. “What are the opportunities for learning and growth today? For myself? For the people around me? As you think of opportunities, for a plan, and ask: When, where , and how will I embark on my plan?”(The Mindset)

 

“But even if we practise dilligently, we still endure real-world failure from time to time. And it is often in these circumstances, when failure is most threatening to our ego, when we need to learn most of all. Practice is not a substitute for learning from real-world failure, it is complementary to it. They are in many ways, two sides of the same coin.”(Black Box Thinking)

 

I found this paragraph in the book, Black Box Thinking (2015). This is intended for an organization and system, however, this is meaningful for me too. Practice and learn from failure. I consider documenting to mitigate procrastinating issue for my self-development based on Personal Development Plan.

 

At the last class, we were so fresh and we were like ready to do something. It was weird and this was maybe because of a stunning weather and sunlight. I felt a bit sad and that feeling was almost like that of the final day of a trip that I have to finish but I don’t want. On the road, there were good and bad happenings and difficulties such as running out of energy. However, I met a lot of wonderful moment to learn from people including a great captain and crews. I always said myself when leaving a beautiful place that I will come again. I want to say at this time that I will do again in better and great way fulfilled with Mace Spirit: True Grit.

 

<Reference>

Amabile TM, Hennessey BA, (2010). Creativity. Annual Review of Psychology, 2010, Vol.61, p.569-598

Amabile, TM. “Componential Theory of Creativity. (pdf)” Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-096, April 2012.

Boden, M. (2003) The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms. 2nd ed. Routledge.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper/Ccjllins

Carol., D. (2012) Mindset : how you can fulfil your potential / Carol Dweck. London :, Constable & Robinson.

Creative Industries Federation(2017), Creative Diversity, available at: https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/sites/default/files/2017-06/30183-CIF%20Access%20&%20Diversity%20Booklet_A4_Web%20(1)(1).pdf

Kelley, T and Kelley, D. (2014) Creative Confidence. William Collins

Syed, M. (2015). Black box thinking: The surprising truth about success (and why some people never learn from their mistakes).

World Economic Forum(2018), Creative Disruption: The impact of emerging technologies on the creative economy, available at http://www3.weforum.org/docs/39655_CREATIVE-DISRUPTION.pdf

My Creative journey to the platform

In the film industry, we can see a tension between streaming service with traditional industry. Netflix’s movie is not allowed at Cannes Film Festival because they are not screened at a cinema. Netflix’s another movie, Okja was invited at Cannes last year, however, boycotted by Korean major theatre consisting of 97% of total screens because of simultaneous online streaming. However, Netflix is becoming a powerful channel and contents creator at the same time. They have bought many movies and drama. According to the Nielsen research, old famous series such as Friends, The Office and Gossip Girl attracts much as 80% of the service’s traffic. In this sense, I hope other streaming services keep releasing better contents like The Handmaid’s Tale. Otherwise, Netflix will monopolize someday then they might not create good contents. Film lovers are worried about losing cinematic cultures or grammar which is a made after considering screening at a theatre. Whether their worry will be realized or not, in terms of digital publishers, the characteristics of the platform seems to influence the type of contents. This is not always content with high artistic or civic values, but rather content that is likely to spread quickly online. And this requires the specific type to reduce loading time. So their concerns are not reasonable. For examples, I am worried about NETFLIX to see launching a Korean comedy show casting many male comedians and few pretty faces which is identically done by many. I choose Netflix because I can see something different from broadcasting stations in my country.

 

Blockchain

Furthermore, benefits of contents are not divided into content creators well. According to World Economic Forum(2018), “Five companies take almost 80% of global mobile advertising revenue, and by some estimates, almost 90% of the growth is going to just two companies, Google and Facebook.” This becomes a problem that big platforms take a great deal of benefit on the other hand, individual or small group of creative people are not able to share it appropriately in return to their contribution to flourished contents of the platform.

Recently due to big channel’s disadvantage such as Facebook’s data scandal, Youtube’s stronger censorship some creators look for alternative channels to commercialize their individual creativity. Blockchain technology which can link consumers to suppliers directly is regarded as applicable for creators in many ways. Dan Novaes, co-founder and CEO of Current, a blockchain-based streaming site. “With blockchain, people will finally have the chance to be rewarded for their time, attention, and data. No longer will their valuable data be controlled by a few giant companies.”

world economic forum

https://steem.io/

Steemit is cryptocurrency-based social media platform where Creators can earn money from their posting. Previously, there is some news platform to encourage paying or supporting from audiences pocket. What made difference is nobody needs to purchase real money to support writers. I can see that some articles record over 1,000 pounds. From Steemit, people have started to make a different version of Steemit for video creation or music. I think that that blockchain based platform is not developed yet but blockchain technology has a lot of possibilities for creative individuals in the future.

 

Reference

World Economic Forum(2018), Creative Disruption: The impact of emerging technologies on the creative economy

R, Camila, youtube-and-facebook-are-losing-creators-to-blockchain-powered-rivals, Bloomberg Business Week, available at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-10/youtube-and-facebook-are-losing-creators-to-blockchain-powered-rivals(accessed at 23th 4 2018)