BUSM4550 Innovation Management

Assessment 3: Reflective Piece

Tutorial: Monday 14:30

Tutor: Dr Faisal Wali

Student Name: Maan Kiu Yip

Student Number: s3754495

Word count: 1067

Date: 27-05-2022
Introduction
As a commerce student, my goal is to develop my own online jewellery business.
Though, I used to think that "addressing problems" is simply one step. By acquiring
knowledge within this course, I have now understood that solving real world
problems involves creativity and innovativeness along with multiple stages as well as
various design techniques and tools. So continuously discovering and gaining
understanding about business operations and ways to resolve difficulties within
organisations is important for me as well as students who study Business. Because
the successful exploitation of novel ideas is crucial to improvements, efficiency and
profitability in entrepreneurship. Throughout the classes of Innovation Management, I
have experienced and learned to overcome challenges and comprehended an
essential concept of developing solutions for organisational problems which I find
extremely beneficial for my business plan in the future. This is also the main factor
why I think this course is advantageous for all business students as well.

Event
I learned to overcome challenges during this course when I was doing Assessment
Task 2. It was about deriving ideas to address the negative impacts caused by a
diverse workforce. Since I was not familiar with addressing problems back then, I
struggled to conduct divergent thinking and convergent thinking at the beginning so I
was somewhat nervous when our class was conducting our discussion. However,
during discussions, we got to exchange ideas and opinions from different
perspectives which helped me to start picking up the important process for solving
problems - that is Design Thinking. Because business startup and operation involves
risks and uncertainties, many problems can occur; therefore fully understanding the
design thinking process is helpful for tackling issues. Even though some challenges
were faced, this aligns with a quote by professional, T.S. Eliot, “Only those who will
risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go”. (Hutton, 2016) I
believe going through these difficulties have gained my experience and familiarity
with the innovation management processes and aspects.

Interpretation
In terms of Design Thinking, I have learned that it allows individuals to follow varied
styles of thinking and explore open-ended options to derive actionable solutions.
Within tutorials, I was allocated into groups for discussions and listened to our tutor
Dr Faisal Wali explain the Design Thinking process and relevant tools.
Firstly, I learned the 5 stages of Design Thinking which helps me to understand
targeted populations, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and generate
creative solutions to prototype and evaluate. It involves taking action and requires
continuous practice. As instructed, I began with researching issues related to the
topic of my Assignment 2 - workplace diversity; thus collecting a list of data.
Numbers and evidential statistics identify and reflect how, and how deeply are
employees within diverse workforces impacted negatively. Then I defined their real
needs and problems to come up with assumptions and ideas. Eventually, one
solution was narrowed down to, and it was a mobile application that consists of
various functions that addresses the factors identified in the previous step. The
whole process was to pool a diverse variety of perspectives and creativities, which
leads to innovation. And it means to open up a new way to think and methods to
apply new mindsets, which I felt challenging yet exciting at the same time.
Secondly, I have mastered useful design thinking tools such as empathy mapping,
value proposition mapping as well as prototyping. This set of tools incorporates the
skills of empathy, reflection and creation. By utilising these tools, I managed to
define the scope and goals of my targeted users; gather and synthesise related
information, thus focusing on value creation. I also explored and planned to test
hypotheses then iterated on derived ideas. I used these tools because they were
recommended in the learning materials; and I truly felt the convenience and
effectiveness of them. They mean help and usefulness to me as they provide a clear
direction for my thinking process.
In fact, in Entrepreneurship processes, it is necessary for individuals to acquire
innovation and an entrepreneur mindset. Because businesses often require
innovation to adapt and overcome risks or the challenges of change. (Purcell, 2019)
Putting the thinking process into practice really helped me understand how it works
and expanded my perspectives.

Evaluation
To me, some of the most important aspects of this course to me are Design Thinking
as well as tools and strategies. It is also what the whole process aims to achieve. I
now believe that following along to each step of the DT process and actively utilising
tools plays an integral role in resolving problems.
I found Design Thinking very useful because it gives a clear framework of the
required steps for deriving solutions for issues. It helped me in structuring my
research and ideas generation, thus breaking free of counterproductive tendencies
that affect innovation. Throughout completion of assessment tasks and tutorials, I
was taught so much about innovation management. Recordings, interactions and
sharing ideas with my tutor enhanced my knowledge by a very large extent as
information is reviewed, communicated and refined.

How the learning will be applied

As mentioned, my objective is to develop my own online jewellery business and
make decent profit out of it. But the jewellery market in Australia is large and the
competition is high. Therefore, it is essential to master the principles of creativity as
well as tools for innovativeness. These aspects were fully, and well taught during the
course activities.
For example, I appreciate learning the Design Thinking Process the most because it
assisted me a lot in carrying out a preferred solution. In the future, I will explore
further into the jewellery market in Australia By integrating smooth implementation as
well as utilisation of relevant tools, my product design process in the future should be
scaled to achieve better, human-centred disruptive products and user experiences.or
even overseas to find opportunities. By collecting datas of the market including
users’ goals, pain points and the trend; I will implement the design thinking process
to emphasise, define, ideate, prototype and test step by step in order to create a
product that fits my target market’s needs and address their pain points.

Conclusion
In conclusion, I highly appreciate and recommend the course Innovation
Management because I have finally learned how generating solutions really work,
and how they can be achieved effectively and efficiently. By putting Design Thinking
as well as related tools and strategies into practice, I managed to overcome the
challenges faced during my assignment. I consider it as a persuasive, interactive
process that must be known by entrepreneurs because entrepreneurship is highly
associated with risks and challenges, which Design Thinking aims to solve. I will
definitely address the problems within the market of my business in the future with
the skills acquired from this course. The most suitable product is expected to be
carried out to fulfil my target users’ needs and solve their pain points. I believe this
will help me as an entrepreneur and ensure effectiveness as well as profitability of
my business.
Reference

Hutton, L. (2016). Why Entrepreneurs Must Take Risks. [online] Australian Institute of
Business. Available at: https://www.aib.edu.au/blog/entrepreneurship/5-reasons-
entrepreneurs-take-risks/.

Purcell, W. (2019). The Importance of Innovation in Business. [online] Northeastern

University Graduate Programs. Available at:
https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/importance-of-innovation/.