The evaluating & feedback process has been not only my favorite part of the process thus far, but the one that also challenged my mindset the most. Before we could even begin the feedback process, we needed to shift our mindset, to step away from the bonds we had built in creating our prototype (kind of like watching your child go off to college for the firs time, and watching them be shaped by sources outside of your control; watching them make mistakes and being okay with that). To be honest, when we first presented our presentation in-class to our peers, we completely fell into the marketing trap. Every question we received was met with an answer, and when we didn’t have an answer we tried to quickly scramble for one, when really we should have been saying “That’s a good point, thank you for your feedback. How would you incorporate ___?”
When it came to the actual pitch day, however, we were able to grow from our initial mistakes. Instead of adaptive a defensive, marketing mindset, we tried to be open and inviting to criticisms, changes, possible improvements, and what consumers really liked. Rather than the set up we had in class where we presented as a group, I found myself doing the pitch myself (explaining our persona, goals, product, and how it achieves our initial goals) on my own. Doing the pitch individually really helped me keep an open mindset, because it allowed me to have one-on-one conversations with people and really delve into their thoughts. After pitching, I found myself probing them with questions, asking why x or y mattered to them and whether this was a service they would incorporate into their lifestyle and if not, why not? This really helped me get into the heart of the way people were processing the information; not only did it tell me where there were gaps in our product design, it also told me where there were gaps in my explanation of the prototype, things that I could explain better. As I continued on, I found myself adding in the feedback I had been given just moments before. For example, one thing I began to incorporate into my pitch was the idea of having different sized containers. I did this by asking individuals: “What are your thoughts on having the reusable container in multiple sizes? Would this be something that added benefit to the product in your viewpoint?” And the answer was unanimously yes.
Receiving feedback deeply added value to our prototype. Before going into this stage, we had been developing our prototype with a homogeneous mindset (4 girls in college who are familiar with Olay products). While that may have inadvertently helped us during the earlier stages, we also found that that left large gaps in trying to pitch to a more diverse consumer market. Even though our persona–Uptown Girl–was not someone we personally identified with, it was a person we were able to at least imagine the mindset of. Whereas many consumers (particularly older men) told us: “I like this idea, but I just don’t see how it applies to me or my lifestyle.” While it is an impossible task to try to cater our prototype to everyone, it at least gave us the added benefit of stepping outside the walls we had been working in within the past several weeks; it added perspective. One of the business professionals suggested incorporating skin scanner technology rather than having consumers fill out a quiz, and that was something we never would have thought of. His business perspective allowed us to think about incorporating cutting-edge technology, technology that may not even be developed yet, into our prototype design. It allowed us to think outside the parameters we had given ourselves.
When we came back to class on Tuesday, it was easy to see where there were gaps in our prototype and we were even able to identify three different categories of ideas:
- Things that we actually had incorporated into our design, but had not been explained enough
- Innovative ideas, things we had not thought of
- Logistical/technical issues that were outside the realm of the “prototype concept”
By sorting our feedback into these three categories, we were able to easily identify things we only needed to touch on vs. new ideas we could incorporate into our prototype. As we move forward in this process and reach the end of our project, I have found that the innovation mindset has not turned off. Even if it applies to things outside our prototype, it’s fun to imagine a new way of looking at sustainable products and/or services and what the future may hold as people continue to push the boundaries of our thinking capacities. Pitch day really opened up my mind to the creativity of my fellow peers, and let me imagine where the future is headed.