Personal Takeways - Z. Edition

The most significant learning from this class was that in order to really try to understand the customers and what they are thinking, I must first try my best to abandon my pre-exciting thought about them. Often times, I was too confident in myself and my opinions that even before I conducted the research on my target, I was sure that prototype of the customers I made was accurate. For example, our project was on wealthy high school teens and their use of back yard. Since I was once a high schooler from a rich neighborhood myself not long ago, I thought the activities that these high schooler will engage in their backyards should be about the same as what I used to do. For my experience, we seldom used our backyards, and when we did, it was for parties or use of drugs. Therefore I thought the backyard still serves the same function to today's rich high school teens as a outlet for specific and often rare occasions. But I was completely wrong. It turned out that today's wealthy teens make almost daily use of the backyard and are really trying to make their backyards into another living room by bringing more indoor technology to the outside. When I was in high school, this kind of tendency was completely missing. I learned a good lesson that I should not impose my experience excessively when I am trying to create a persona. I remember this was one of the main point that was highlighted during the class in discussing about creating persona as well topic covered by our guest speaker (Kate?, her name was I believe). I remember she was telling us to always look for “extra ordinaries” and “surprises” and perhaps she meant that it is indeed these surprises are the ones that show the key insight of the customers of which we were previously unaware of and can be an important factor leading to creating a successful products for them.

I also realized the progress of the technology and how this advancement is impacting the people today. We need to stay updated in technology if we want to target the young/ upcoming generations. I was absolutely surprised how much technology these teens have these days. For example, I did not get a cell phone until during the middle of my high school while the teens are having not just cell phones but those that are top brand (such as iphone) as early as since they were in middle school. They have their own flat screen TV and DVD players in their room ( something my family bought while I was in high school). It became clear to me that technology is developing at even faster pace than when I was in high school and that younger generation are even more sensitive to the changes in technology and have stronger desire for the newer, better technology than people of my age. Furthermore, these teens seem to want to have technology around them the whole time probably because they are comfortable with these items, or shall we say, that the products of technology makes them feel comfortable of the environment. All the teens that we interviewed stated that for improvement of their backyards, they would want to have more technology incorporated (such as bringing out better sound system, TV, etc) and many of them listed activities such as being of the cell phone or being on the computer as one of the main activities they do at backyards.

I am usually a shy man around the strangers so it is usually hard for me to speak in the beginning. As the time went on, I became more comfortable with my teammates and started to state more opinions that I thought and hope were valuable to the group. I think that I should correct myself on the initial hesitation to participate, because I have so much ideas and it is just that I am not comfortable enough in the environment to speak out and up. Comes down to it, it is all just matter of “getting over” the nervousness or the fear of speaking up. I do absolutely believe that the more natural I become, the better contributor and team member I become so, I must constantly challenge myself to be actively engaged from the beginning. I also felt as if my demeanor and postures gave my team members negative impression in the beginning. I was not speaking very much and on top of that, I probably looked very lazy due to how I stand or talk or walk, that these actions might lead my team members to think that I did not care too much about the project, which was not the case. I think that in addition to try to overcome my fear/discomfort more, I will try my best act less-lazy at least in the beginning.