Blog 3: Generative Research

“what I can’t live without”

1. Faith “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies” -Mother Teresa: My faith and religious beliefs are very important to me, giving me passion for life and a perspective on what is important. Without my faith my life would feel empty and meaningless.

2. Family “Family is the most important thing in the world” -Princess Diana: My family keeps me grounded, inspires me, supports me, and encourages me. My mom is one of my best friends and my dad is my “#1 fan”. My brother always is down for a laugh and some fun, even if it is misguided. Without them I wouldn’t have the same joy I have today.

3. Friends “Friends are the family you get to choose”: My friends make me laugh, hold me when I cry, go on fun adventures with me, and hold me accountable to being a better person. Even if we are total opposites, we still love each other and can help each other as we go through these college experiences together. Without them I would be lost and lonely because I rely so much on their advice, and we can always have a good time.

4. Physical nutrients “This one seems obvious…”: I literally could not physically survive without food and water. It keeps me alive with replenishing my body, as well as giving me happiness when I get to eat delicious meals. Also, I have fairly extensive dietary restrictions, as I am allergic to wheat, and lactose intolerant. If I do not abide with my rules, I could quickly become malnourished. Without food and water my physical body would deteriorate and die fairly quickly.

5. Education “Education is the key to success”: Education is so important to our lives. It enriches our experiences by expanding our mental capacity and widening our views through contact with people who are different from you and who may have opposing ideas. Being knowledgeable about our world and the things in it allow for a greater appreciation for life, history, and other people. Without education my world would be limited and, although maybe less confusing, definitely less interesting.

6. Exercise “Just working on my fitness” -Fergie: I use exercise as a stress relief, an endorphin booster, and just as a way of keeping my body functioning at an optimal level. Health is important to me, and this has been instilled in me from a very early age. I was always active and in sports, and I typically just feel better when I regularly exercise. Without exercise I would feel sluggish, unhealthy, and probably fairly grumpy most of the time.

“what I care about”

1. Traveling: I love to travel the world, see new things, and experience cultures that are so different from my own. Traveling gives you an appreciation for what you have and also allows you to be more flexible in everyday circumstances even when you are not traveling due to your experiences. My passion for traveling lets me see beauty and people all over and expands my knowledge of how people operate differently from me, which gives me a greater appreciation for people in general.

2. Sports: All my life I have played sports and attended sporting events. I love watching baseball and football on TV or in person. It makes me happy and has a way of bonding people and bringing people together in a fun way to enjoy the sport together.

3. Music: Growing up in Austin I am fortunate enough to have been able to take advantage of an amazing live music scene. Music is an escape and an amazing art form that is appreciated by all people in so many different ways. I also love to sing so this allows me to express that desire as well.

4: Nature: Mountains, lakes, sunsets, forests, and all the elements of pure nature is my favorite expression of beauty. Being able to fully appreciate nature gives me a sense of peace and awe over the unfathomable expanse of beautiful wildness. I love being so far away from big cities that you can gaze at the stars with no bright lights overshadowing them, being able to hear the rush of a river instead of cars, and feeling like you are alone in the wilderness with just nature surrounding you. There is a sense of pride after accomplishing that and also a connection that you get after experiencing that with someone else.

5. Animals: I love my dog, Buddy. He, along with many other dogs and pets, give me so much joy when I can play with and pet them. It is such a reassurance to feel that kind of unconditional love from them when you see your dog run up to you after you’ve been gone all day. 

Many times I will see interesting or relevant news stories on my Facebook news feed, as I check that most frequently of all my potential sources of news. It works for me because people have become more open about sharing news stories, world happenings, and their opinion on events or decisions being made. Also, I follow many news sources on Twitter, giving me access to their immediate reports. I enjoy this because I can hear about things before they hit the newspapers due to the ease of Twitter to share instantly. Even though this my not give me the whole story, many times it will suffice. If I feel like I need to go out and find more information on the subject or event at hand, I will Google it to find articles about it to do a little more research. I also use web searching when I overhear an interesting conversation about something I didn't know was happening, or when people are talking about an event that I do not know much about. In addition sometimes when I am online I will stumble upon or look up videos or online newspapers to see what they are writing about at the time.  

In the mornings, I drive to my work outs, so I receive  traffic and weather updates on the radio on my way to my destination. I work out with a personal trainer with my mother and several other moms that live around where my parents live. Here I hear all of the gossip from the area, including information about the local kids as well as general Austin information, as well as information about fitness. In class sometimes I learn about relevant business and financial current events as they apply to some of my classes. In the afternoons I sometimes work at a sno cone stand in the area with many of my friends, and we talk a lot about clothes, trends, local events or happenings in our community, or whatever is current that day. When having dinner and hanging out with my roommates and friends, we talk about typical girl things like celebrities, clothes, our friends, the events we coming up, etc.

Blog 2 - Journey Mapping

My roommate Amanda* is going to graduate in May 2014 with a BBA in Finance with a minor in Marketing. She is grateful to have a background in finance, but is looking forward to starting a career in the marketing field. Some may say it was impractical for her to get her degree in finance when she ended up in marketing, but many factors went into her graduating with this specific degree plan. This blog is a walk through her journey to successfully choose a major at the University of Texas in the McCombs School of Business, as well as a visual representation of her “journey map” from her senior year of high school until now, her senior year of college. Journey maps can be useful in discovering and understanding the customer experience and journey while in contact with a brand or product. A good journey map can highlight how the customer views, values, and uses a good or service by seeing their interactions with the brand. Here we have a specific example of how one girl made a decision about college majors.

Before coming into college, Amanda’s parents had raised her to value education. Her parents were both well educated, with her dad earning his MBA and being a successful business man and role model. As Amanda did not know exactly what she wanted to do, her parents suggested business as it gave her a wide range of career options and had the potential to provide her with a wider choice of jobs with a good starting salary upon graduation. Her mom suggested that Amanda apply for the Business Honors Program, and she was accepted and immediately decided to commit to studying at Texas. She did not know where specifically in business she wanted to end up, but she was also considering the idea of a Spanish minor as she loved her Spanish classes in high school.

In her first 2 semesters, she became overwhelmed by the fervor of the business school and the competition in the consulting sector of finance. She quickly dropped the idea of focusing on Spanish as it did not fit into her degree plan, but felt drawn to the “glamor” of big banking and consulting by her peers, older mentor figures, and influential professors. She trusted their judgment and wanted to make them proud of her. Amanda has always been good with numbers, but more importantly, she has always been very competitive. In high school she was very involved with the school’s swim team and won many awards with her team. The competition she saw within the finance students intrigued her. In addition, the marketing department caught her eye due to her desire to understand people and their decision-making processes. During the second semester in her BA 324 class she realized that business communication appealed to her from a career viewpoint and realized marketing could combine her love of numbers and also qualitative data. She was torn between these two majors as she drew closer to the time where she would be able to declare a major.

During the summer after her freshman year, Amanda worked as a marketing intern with a real estate firm in Dallas and truly hated working there. This poor experience made her lean towards finance as a potential major. Her sophomore year she decided to declare a major in Finance which was reinforced by several different influential mediums. Many of her older peers conveyed to her that it was easier to recruit for finance and get a good internship and job. In addition, Amanda studied abroad with the BHP finance department in Prague and loved the classes and the professors. Amanda decided that she was going to minor in marketing because she still enjoyed the classes and felt as though it was a good skill to have in addition to just finance.

 

Over the course of the first semester of her junior year, Amanda’s decision to major in Finance didn’t exactly change, but her attitude towards finance did. She took more marketing classes and loved them. In addition, she gave up on consulting recruiting because of the overwhelming amounts of unnecessary pressure she felt like surrounded it and also didn’t feel very passionate about a career in consulting. Instead, she learned about great opportunities in marketing where she could combine her analytical financial skills with her love of understanding consumers better as a marketing analyst. She got an amazing internship as a marketing analyst for a giant consumer goods company and combined her consumer decision analysis with bid data analytics. This definitely confirmed her choice to minor in marketing.

Amanda loved her experience in her most recent marketing internship, but she has no regrets or ever had much desire to change her major from finance to marketing. She has the experience and natural instinct for marketing, but with a finance major she will so flexible in any job she could be put into because of her financial knowledge as well. Along the road after many bumps, nudges, and self-motivated steps, Amanda has arrived at her senior year pursuing a finance degree with 100% confidence that it is what she wants to graduate with, ready to explore where the knowledge she has learned will take her. Below is a visual representation of the journey that Amanda went through to end up where she is today.

*Names have been changed

Blog 1: Empathy Map

To better understand how to empathize with people and consumers that are different from myself and therefore have different needs, wants, and problems, I have created this empathy map. To build empathy with the consumer increases your chance at successfully designing. If you understand the consumer, you can better anticipate their problems, understand their wants and needs, and overall improve the design thinking process by streamlining the ideation process to target the right customer. This map explores the thoughts, actions, and inner desires of my friend Bill*, who is currently a sophomore in high school in Austin, TX.

At this point in Bill’s life, his world revolves around school, sports, friends and family. He is currently very excited about playing football for his high school football team. He plays for a smaller school and is a starting defensive player. This gives him a sense of ownership, manhood and power that he did not have before or outside of football. His confidence is increased whenever he plays well and is recognized for his efforts. The approval of his coaches, father, and men he looks up to in the sports world is very important to him. As a young impressionable kid just beginning to build his high school “image”, he wants to be seen as cool, but he is actually a genuinely kind-hearted would. An important part of the high school image that every “cool guy” strives for is attention from girls. Athletic success, charm, looks and style all matter at this stage of Bill’s life to gain such attention. Soon enough, Bill will be looking to get his driving permit and maybe even start asking or saving for a car. Of course he will want to be able to drive himself around so that he no longer has to be under the direct control of his parents, and does not have to be seen with them in public around his friends. This desire for independence is in contrast to Bill’s natural instinct, which is to strongly value his family and their love and approval. Bill is starting to try to accurately balance on the line between “momma’s boy” and independent teen, pleasing his family and his friends by dividing his loyalty.

Attending a small private high school, Bill’s environment at school is very structured and orderly, with his friends being from generally middle class to upper-middle class families and some religious background. His friends all strive to have the coolest things, be it phones, video games, sports equipment, or Nike shoes. Bill and his friends want to impress each other, of course, and also impress girls. This grows their confidence and self-esteem, and gives them an advantage over their peers. There are many products aimed at this category and demographic of consumer. Bill is being targeted by advertisers of men’s shoes endorsed by professional athletes, the latest model of video games with the “best” visuals of a graphic nature that Bill plays to feel power over others (even if they are animated), and clothing worn by handsome men surrounded by beautiful women. Body wash designed to attract girls, headphones that make you look “cool”, and manly trucks all target Bill to promise him that these things will help him fit in and be the coolest guy on campus.

Bill is a very nice guy. He is always smiling and trying to make people happy. He is generally very nice to his parents in public, never wanting to disappoint anyone, especially his family or friends. Although he will try to say otherwise, he is a fairly shy person and will be nervous to talk to people that he does not know well. He is always kind, though, with a gentle and happy spirit that is contagious to those around him. Even his outward appearance is welcoming. His caring parents want him to look his best when he goes out in the public, always making sure his clothes fit right, his pants don’t sag, his hair is not too long, and his outfits at least somewhat coordinate. Although not overly dressed and formal, Bill is typically dressed appropriately and in a put-together manner. 

Many people have influence over Bill, as he is such an open-hearted guy. The other kids at school say that he should put his worth into being good at sports, and this is reinforced when his parents and coaches are so proud of him when he plays well. Also, when he sees on TV his sports idols and hears that he needs to work harder to become more like them, he craves that popularity and athletic success. He hears from his teachers and mother that he needs to get all A’s in school to be successful. He tries to study, but he can’t focus because his friends want to hang out and if a girl texts him, that immediately becomes first priority. As a teenager, he wants to make his own decisions, but the desire to fit in skews his decisions towards what he hears around him.

Disappointment is a fear for many teenagers, and Bill is no different. In this stage of his life, there are many people that Bill could feel like he is disappointing in certain circumstances, and he is still young enough and has the personality to care deeply about others’ opinions of him. It doesn’t help that as a teenager in high school there are so many things going on and he is always so busy. With different activities going on all of the time and being involved with so many extra-curricular activities, it is hard for Bill to sit and reflect upon his thoughts and ideas. It is hard for him to be at peace and focus on what he truly loves and wants to pursue when the biggest aim in his friend group is to be involved with as many things as possible. It is frustrating for Bill to feel the need to impress people all the time and feeling like he is too young to be taken seriously. He just wants to be a kid. 

Bill wants to help people. Not in the sense that he desires to travel to third-world countries and build wells and adopt orphans, but in the sense that he wants the people around him to be happy and comfortable in his company. He values his family and is close to his relatives because he feels valued by them. He measures success by how people react to him. He wants his parents, coaches or friends, depending on who he was targeting with the action, to think what he did was a good idea. Bill is a sweet kid who loves his family and friends, and just wants them to reciprocate that love with approval and respect. 

*Names were changed

Pictures found via Google Images through these sources:

http://www.thecoreinstitute.com/patient-and-visitor-information/sports-medicine-program/high-school-coverage-benefits.html

http://hiswayphotography.com/senior-pictures-york-pa-photographer/

http://thewire.sheknows.com/2010/10/26/lebron-james-nike-commercial-breaks-500000-views-in-record-time/ 
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2010/02/isaiah-mustafa-old-spice-commercial.html 
http://hiphopwired.com/2012/11/21/will-i-am-2-chainz-azealia-banks-and-lil-wayne-star-in-new-beats-by-dre-ad-video/ 
http://www.jcpenney.com/dotcom/jsp/search/results.jsp?containerId=JCP|Welcome&cmJCP_C=Feature&cmJCP_T=T1&fromSearch=true&Ntt=uniform%20school&ruleZoneName=XGNSZone&N=4294966567&cm_re=S2-_-CAT-_-UNIFORMS 
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-8867176/stock-photo-typical-american-family.html 
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http://www.maxpreps.com/news/J8fQxtHJEeC-rAAmVebEWg/colerain-snaps-cocoas-38-game-football-win-streak.htm