ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET RAGC

ASSIGNMENT COVER PAGE

Course Code: BUSM4535

Course Name: BUSM4535 - Design Thinking for Business

Location & Campus: RMIT Hanoi Vietnam

Title of Assignment: Part 2.2 - Final Annotated portfolio.

File (s) Submitted: s3634993_part2.2_final annotated portfolio

Team Name/Group #:

Student Name Student ID Student Contribution to Assessment

Number
Vu Anh Quang S3634993

Assignment Due Date: 24/05/2021

Date of Submission: 24/05/2021

Number of Pages including this one: 13

Word Count 2002

Main content, excluding appendices
and references)

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Table of Contents

An empathy map / Interview questions ................................................................................................ 3

A design briefs ...................................................................................................................................... 4
Methods of brainstorming / ideation ..................................................................................................... 6
1.IDEO Approach ............................................................................................................................. 6
2.Business Model Canvas ................................................................................................................. 7
HMW questions .................................................................................................................................... 8
Potential solutions to the chosen problem ............................................................................................ 8
Experiments conducted ....................................................................................................................... 11
Personal reflection .............................................................................................................................. 12
Reference: ........................................................................................................................................... 13

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An empathy map / Interview questions

The purpose of interview for empathy mapping is to understand a person perspectives, moods and
motivation to determine what factors will influence him or her decision making. By understanding
the behaviors and desires of that person, the researcher can identify their needs and then design
concepts to satisfy their demands. As reported by Liedtka & Ogilvie (2011), an empathy map is a
collaborative tool to visualize deeper insights of level of emotions and reactions of customers toward
a specific products or service. In the case of Know One Teach One (KOTO), an empathy map with a
set of interview questions were conducted in order to examine its target customer which are partners
from local universities and donators. From that, we can understand common issues, concerns that
KOTO partners might have at that moment as well as the way they approach KOTO and become its
partner. I was delegated to build a customer empathy map of KOTO for our team presentation.

Figure 1: Empathy map

To emphasize how partner’s demand in KOTO, a set of questions were conducts and interview 2
focus groups. The first group was our class members pretend as KOTO clients seeking for a long-
term partnership. The second group is KOTO founder as known as Jimmy Pham, who understand
KOTO the most. On the other hand, customers feedbacks, reviews from KOTO website and social
media will be collected to visualize the empathy map. There are some questions were asked during
the in-class client interview session such as:
1. What are benefits you think you will be achieved if become partner with KOTO?
2. Key factors that influence you donate KOTO?

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3. What section can KOTO improve to attract investment from not only locally but also
internationally?

A design briefs
Before applying design thinking tools, have a good understanding about the current business case is
important to generate the most possible solution for the firm. Therefore, a design brief is a document
that contains all the relevant information about the company such as its background, goals and
constrain. The purpose is to point out the business issues as well as its desired target. Fortunately, on
the second intensive day, I had a chance to meet Jimmy Pham and got a concise overview about
KOTO vision, its current financial situation and business model. Moreover, by researching and
generating some key questions to ask Jimmy, a design thinking brief table consists not only
fundamental data to describe the project but also expected outcomes so we have more time to focus
in designing the best solution. While participating in the group project, design thinking brief is like a
short summary of a company with its expectation to keep track and clarify each opinion of member.
However, the design brief was forgotten to include in our in our presentation as well as group report.
Hence, artifacts below are Design Thinking Brief with our Napkin Pitch

Figure 2: Napkin Pitch

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Design Brief
Project Description • Not enough cash to maintain
business during Covid-19 pandemic
• Unstable funding
• Lack of diversity in training program
• Ineffective marketing strategies

Scope • Spread out inspiring stories about

people of KOTO on blogs, websites
and social media
• Increase/improve fundraising and
partnerships from local colleges and
individual donators
• Offers more study and training
programs with valuable certificates.
Constraints • Lack of incentives to attract
institutional partners/donors
• Covid pandemic impact on
hospitality industry and food &
beverage industry
Target Users • Company or organization
• Donators
• Local institutions
• End user: Age 18-60
Exploration Question • Set of HMWs question
• Prepared questions for Focus Group
session
Expected Outcomes • Long-term contract with universities
• Sustainable business model
• Diversify source of income

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Success metrics • Hypothesis test

• Customer mapping journey
• Popularity on Facebook, YouTube
• Financial statement

Methods of brainstorming / ideation

1.IDEO Approach
Tim Brown, the founder of IDEO has demonstrated the raising application of design thinking as a
core for development. (Gruber et al. 2015, p. 1) The IDEO Approach is our first artifact to analyze
KOTO case study. As a design thinking tool, the IDEO approach helps developing the idea from
problem identification into testable experiments for possible solution. (Liedtka et al. 2011) In
addition, this IDEO framework is designed to enhance my creative ability in order to brainstorming
ideas based on user’s perspective, thought and desire. Theoretically, IDEO framework breaks down
complex problem through 5 stages:
a) Empathize
The first step of this framework is to summarize all the information and understand the problems.
While making these artifacts, researching, active listening and empathizing with KOTO founder are
required to understand the influence stories and motivations of KOTO, as well as immersing myself
as KOTO customer’s perspective to approach problem in different ways.
b) Define
During this stage, information from the first stage was collected and summarized into short form or
“Problem statement”. After meeting session with Jimmy, transcripts and his answers were recorded
and condense into context in order to define key problems as my team have identified.
c) Ideate
The following stage required us to brainstorming, generating as much ideas as possible. In this case,
it is important to have a discussion session between team members and apply some ideation
techniques such as How Might We?, Napkin Pitch,… to find the most effective ways or factors
needed to improve current situation of KOTO.
d) Prototype
In this stage, solutions generated from the previous steps will be evaluate based on feasibility and
efficiency. Our team did some experiments by apply solutions

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within the prototype, and then investigated each case to decide whether it being accepted, rejected
or need to improve as client vision.
e) Test
The final stage of the design thinking process is testing with real customer to collect real result. The
focus group talk created a chance for me to run a test with real customer which were my classmates.
During the testing phase, results and customer’s comments were recorded to redefine and adjust for
better solution. This testing stage is the most important stage because I have a chance to approach
real customers to interview their thoughts and inspect how they react with my solution.

Figure 3: IDEO Approach

2.Business Model Canvas
The business model canvas is the second artifact my team was created on the first day of intensive.
From my perspective, business model canvas is an effective thinking approach to examine not only
illustrate the operating activities of KOTO but also its stakeholders and relevant parties.

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Figure 4: Business Model Canvas

HMW questions
According to Warren (2012), How Might We? (HMWs) approach encourages creativity by using
HMWs form of questioning. Using How Might We question helped my team generate a lot of
creative idea just one question. However, for the KOTO case, the HMWs artifact was created in the
first intensive day. Thus, our team should have been more specific when asking HMWs question and
more focus on the desired outcome. Here is my own version of 5 HMWs questions for KOTO:
- How might we diversify KOTO revenue streams?
- How might we attract online users?
- How might we convince individual or organization donate KOTO?
- How might we increase KOTO brand awareness
- How might we help KOTO reduce financially dependent on donation?

Potential solutions to the chosen problem

Based on our research, KOTO desires to expand its brand locally by apply some marketing
strategies. Moreover, the Jimmy want to use the profit of restaurants to funding for the training
program instead of calling for money. Unfortunately, the Covid pandemic created a huge impact on
the F&B industry that forced KOTO to close its restaurants. Therefore, the organization want to

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maintain its operation through this pandemic by calling for another source of money. In that
condition, our team has raised up 3 potential solutions to overcome these problems:
- Create an e-platform training program and implement a subscription service.
- Invite a celebrity or influencer to become KOTO ambassador
- Long-term partnership with local institution

• The decision-making process used to identify solutions to test

During the artifact design stage, our team did some methods such as Standford d-school approach,
Business Model canvas to brainstorm for ideas. In addition, partnership canvas is also used to
analyze the value of KOTO in order to identify a partnering chance. This design thinking tools
functions as an extension of business model canvas. (Doorneweert, 2014)

Figure 5: Partnership canvas

Furthermore, before the presentation session, we also implement more design thinking tools like
Journey Mapping, Three Lense of Innovation (Desirability, Feasibility, Viability) and customer
persona. Luckily, I found an online website provides free templates for my team to fill up with our
ideas.

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Figure 6: Customer Journey Mapping

• Hypothesis and assumptions identified for testing
Every new concept needs a hypothesis, which is a set of experiments to examine the desire of
shareholder and key values. The assumption learning card was chosen to capture customer insights
as well as their reactions to our solution. This task was delegated to one member after the team
discussion. From my own opinion, our team did not focus in this section due to time limitation.
Meanwhile, it is so important to make an assumption testing to minimize the risk of failure when
launching our project to the public. (Liedka & Oglivie 2011)

• Prioritization of possible experiments

Due to time constraints, our team did not have enough time to create more artifact for better solution.
As a consequence, we could only use Three lenses of innovation to screening for possible
experiment.

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Figure 7: Three lenses of innovation

We created 3 different experiments with 3 solutions we chose in the previous stage to see the
feasibility. We evaluate our experiments based on some criteria such as implementation costs,
financial status, human resource, based on KOTO business model, this company is focusing in 3
areas: education, donation, and restaurant. Therefore, we want to design sustainable solution that
will improve all 3 areas together simultaneously. Trying to get a long-term contract with local
schools and universities in Vietnam is our priority experience because it will be a win-win situation
for both KOTO and University. For KOTO, having long-term contracts will help the organization
more sustainable especially during the pandemic. KOTO could ask its partner to use the school
facility for its training programs without any costs. Moreover, by cooperating with universities,
KOTO can create motivation as well as improve class quality by offering scholarships for
outstanding individuals. KOTO could also use international institution like RMIT University as a
bridge to expand globally. Local colleges such as Foreign Trade University or National Economics
University could see KOTO as a good opportunity to enhance social responsibility. On the other
hand, University could improve the meal quality for students by recruiting KOTO’s alumni who has
qualified to work in 5-star resorts.

Experiments conducted
After participating in a focused group and visualizing data from our interview question, I have a
chance to be the “IT guy” and knew how to use NVivo. Therefore, I created word tree, word cloud
and cluster analysis for my team.

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Figure 8: Word cloud and Word tree

Figure 9: Cluster analysis

Personal reflection
Throughout the Design Thinking for business course, I have realized that it is not just about the
methods that me with my team used to generate the solution, it is the entire process we went through
including assignments and in-class activities. From my opinion, this learning experience is similar to
Gibb reflective model from the description stage (brief description of KOTO) to action plan
(implement the most suitable solution from the hypothesis test). I have learned a lot of important
knowledge and skills from not only lecturer but also from my teammates which are essential for my
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future career. After a valuable experience or event, it is important to do a reflection to allow

upcoming similar situations to be tackled quickly and effectively. (Gibbs 1988) To conclude, it
cannot be refusing that Design Thinking plays an important role in business workplace in order to
achieve innovation. This course provided me not only thinking tools to approach problem quicker,
generate solution more feasible and sustainable but also think like an industry leader.

Reference:

Gibbs, G 1988, Gibbs’ reflective cycle, University of Cumbria, viewed 5 May 2021,
<https://my.cumbria.ac.uk/media/MyCumbria/Documents/ReflectiveCycleGibbs.pdf>.

Johnson, Erik A. J. “Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and
Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
281   Iv Pages. US$34.95.” Journal of Product Innovation Management, vol. 29, no. 6, 2012, pp.
1099–1100.

Liedtka, J & Ogilvie, T, 2011, ‘Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers’,
New York: Columbia University Press, viewed 1 December 2020, EBSCOhost Ebooks Database.
Richard Buchanan, "Wicked Problems in Design Thinking", Design Issues, Vol 8, No 2 (Spring
1992) pp 5-21 MIT Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511637

Warren, B 2012, “The Secret Phrase Top Innovators Use”, Harvard Business Review, viewed 9
May 2021, <https://hbr.org/2012/09/the-secret-phrase-top-innovato>.

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