Journal Entry #2

  1. What is design thinking?
    • Using ideation, prototypes, and testing to broaden perspectives when assessing an issue. This way, different alternatives may be brought to light as a result of expanding points of view. Instead of using traditional means, this non-linear process uses interdisciplinary teams to hopefully understand users, their culture, and challenges that the users might face. This will help create more innovative solutions moving forward.
  2. How has design thinking influenced a product I use?
    • I have personally seen design thinking used in hair products made for black people. These brands, such as Mielle, Tgin, and Aunt Jackie’s have helped those with type 3 and 4 hair find products that work for them. As a kid, I used to look up products for my hair on Google, and unless I used “black people” in the search, I would only see straight and ‘wavy’ hair, usually on white people. It is just nice to have more popular brands out now to make hair care more accessible to everyone with type 3 and 4 hair.
  3. What are the connections between opportunities and planning?
    • Although opportunity may come to you, planning greatly expands the occurrence of opportunities. This is because you are able to put yourself in situations where opportunities may present themselves. Planning helps one to hone in on what they really want, whether it is financially, academically, or in other aspects. Either way, they would be beneficial to the person.
  4. What opportunities have I missed?
    • There may be many opportunities that I might have missed due to a lack of awareness, understanding, or outright ignorance of the event/thing. I know that I have missed out on an internship last summer. Although they had just reached out 3 weeks before they needed me, I had to take care of my grandfather who had just had his second stroke. Now, I believe I could have tried to plan a little better by contacting family to get my stuff in order, but I had to decline due to the timeliness of everything.
  5. Can a successful venture be unethical?
    • A successful venture can definitely be unethical. Success only means that they were able to follow through with their plans to meet their goals. Knowing this, we can see that scammers who make fake companies online (usually found in retail) may recreate the entirety of a certain well-known company. Everything is similar, including the link, but all they do is take the card information and money and have nothing in stock. Again, they are successful in what they do, but it is obvious that it is unethical.