From Aalto Design Factory product development project. I have learned (still learning) that co-creation, collaboration, brainstorming, designing and working with others from different backgrounds, is challenging but also rewarding. Not only challenging from a skill point of view, but also from work culture point of view.
Our team’s product development project (PdP) is based on our sponsors idea of researching and developing a co-creation space for industry. In our case, we are using the ZAL Tech Center as a base location in Hamburg, where this space would possibly be in, as our sponsors request. Also, during the PdP I attended extra workshops, which helped me gather a wider experience from different categories. Be it electronics and coding with Arduino or creating ideas through brainstorming with other PdP students. More info about my PdP project experience and our team visit to ZAL can be read in HAMK Design Factory blog.
Thus far, most of my “lessons” learnt have been through co-operation, communication and creation with my PdP team. Because our experience range is wide and nobody in the team is specialized into our project idea. We all are learning as we move along and are communicating with one another. Our team consists of engineers from different areas, few designers me included and few business students. All of us have many ideas, on how this project could be developed, which requires us to find common ground on many different matters. Be it, how we develop the communication possibilities between the users or what kind of tools the space would contain?
Some ideas were pointed towards developing an interactive noticeboard or the center of the building, which would be an open space. This open space could then be surrounded by smaller workshops with a clear window wall towards the shared space. The boards could show the location of certain individuals, who maintain the workspace or could help with idea development process.
Some of our team members are studying and attending the PdP as an extra course. While others are attending during their work life and aren’t really looking for anything more than the experience gain. Because of this, we still are finding ways to get everyone to bring something to idea development and research.
In summary of all this, I have learnt and still am learning new ways of communicating with different mindsets. With an added bonus of learning extra skills into categories, that I didn’t know or understand before the PdP experience. Thus, I highly encourage everyone to give a go to the PdP and let your knowledge base develop even further.
-Markku
