PDT does "Dragons Den"

Week 5 was possibly the most enjoyable and intense experience of design in the real world we have got all semester. Thanks to the BlackBox team who provided a 4-hour challenge for us to participate in. I think for me personally, the way BlackBox went about this challenge was excellent. It gave us a “Dragons Den” like experience from trying to design with limited resources and ending up pitching our ideas to their staff board.

This project was a full exposure to every step involved in setting up a business. We started off divided up in groups of 4-5 and we then had to assign roles; CEO, Chairperson etc, to each member of the team. As we were restricted to 4 hours we were under severe time pressure in order to get our idea up and running. We were informed that the task we were given would normally take 4-5 months and we had 4 hours. No pressure at all! In our group the pressure was welcomed as we started producing some good ideas given what we had to work with.

We decided to follow a few guidelines like sustainability and positive social impact. There is a huge market out there for sustainable products, so it was a good area to focus on as it produced rapid but good ideation which led us down the route of emissions, waste management and recycling. Each stage we entered was timed for a certain while. Theses stages included idea generation, evaluation, selection of idea and development. Our group got into the swing of things quickly which might have differed if this were a 3-4-week project.

It was very interesting to see how each member performed under their given title. It let the whole group focus on 4 specifics rather than having one “leader” doing all the donkey work. The work one person would do sometimes led into another members work leading to a good flow of work getting done. As a group we did not really dismiss any idea we had. We assumed it as possible but then tried to make it more relating and realistic to the sector we were focusing on. Unfortunately, there were a few extreme outlying ideas, and these were very far fetched so it would be nearly impossible to develop these ideas.

This was the most enjoyable 4-hour period we have had this semester. I will always remember it as it opened my mind and my eyes to the process in creating a start-up process or business-like action or movement. The pitch at the end was something I’d never experienced before, and I hope it has improved my communication and presentation skills for the future.