This prior week, I was unfortunately absent from the second lecture, and as there were no seminar I will largely reflect on the first lecture and the theme’s questions.
In the first lecture which was about Design research by Haibo Li, I think the main subject could be seen as ‘ideas’. Haibo’s theory was that you should put 90% effort on the defining of a problem, and 10% on solving them.
Furthermore, it was said in the lecture that it is in the technical evaluation where we have use of skills such as math.
In order to validate your idea, you may use a proof-of-concept. If this is gonna be something of great potential, you probably will need to to validate for example the effectiveness of the concept.
One of the things talked about in the later part of the lecture was how to communicate the idea. As I understood it, as an entrepreneur you would need a good overall approach to presenting the idea to an investor, as it probably would not be enough to just have the skills of a salesman in order to sell the idea, and probably not be enough to have just the skills of explaining your idea as a researcher.
I thought the “90% problem 10% solving”-theory was interesting so if I was to choose one thing I take with me from this lecture it would probably be this.
I think these weeks question’s had a good balance in both looking up facts and building up your own thoughts on the theme and I could work my way through it. I was not entirely sure about each question though, but hopefully I was not too far off in the overall idea.
Two questions that I think the lecture complemented to in my answers were:
How can media technologies be evaluated?
Here I would add that skills in for example natural science such as math for example would aid in the technical evaluation.
How can design research be communicated/presented?
Probably as engineer, I got the impression that you would need to present the idea as an entrepreneur by backing up your ideas with proof-of-concepts, be able to tell the potential in the market by for example quantitative research and probably even have a financial plan if it’s gonna go from an idea to a reality.
You have done a really good job reflecting on the first lecture and I think you have understood the most important aspects from the lecture. Good job! What I feel were the main concepts of the second lecture was why prototypes are useful, that the purpose of research is at its core to gain knowledge and that choosing a method does not in itself mean that research is being conducted. It is the analysis that turns something into research.
SvaraRaderaHi,
SvaraRaderaI think that you have a great reflection on what you have learnt. I like that you have developed your discussion further by presenting your thoughts on for example how one as an engineer can communicate design research.
To add to earlier comment made on what was being said during the second lecture:
It was also mentioned that prototypes in themselves do not have to be the solution in a study.
I interpreted that Anders, who held the second lecture, meant that they instead allow for feedback to be generated that later on can be analysed and help answer the research question.
Great reflection with interesting discussions of your own thoughts!
You have written an interesting reflection by including the main elements of the first lecture and spicing it up with your own thoughts! I like your statement on how you can communicate your idea the best: by being a mixture of a salesperson, an entrepreneur and a researcher - this really captures the challenges of success. When the idea itself is validated and likely profitable, you still need to unify your skills and create opportunities, in order for your idea to make it in reality. Besides, I agree with your answers on the last questions, which summarizes the other arguments in your text. Well done!
SvaraRaderaIn my opinion you made a good summary of the first lecture. I agree with you that Haibo’s main focus was probably to make us keep in mind that it is very important to define a problem properly. Moreover, I think your description of a proof-of-concept as something that you need to validate an idea is accurate.
SvaraRaderaSince you have not attended the second lecture I want to add the most important concept the lecturer introduced. For me it was the definition of a research prototype as something that you use to find solutions and nothing which is already a solution in itself.
Hi!
SvaraRaderaYou have managed to make a really good reflection from the first lecture pointing out the main points that I also felt where the one that I felt most helpful to keep in mind. Interesting point you felt to bring up about the salesman and researchers skills needed to be combined in order to manage having a good pitch. I agree on that, and I feel that sometimes as an engineer student we tend to have more courses where the focus is on building the idea and less on the talking and selling part. The rpecious comments have added the main parts of the second lecture, the only thing I could add would be that the purpose of prototyping is primarily gaining knowledge when it comes to design research. Nice work on adding to your own pre reflections it really shows that you have taken the time to reflect on the whole theme from beginning to end. Keep it up!
I agree with you that a communicating an idea or a research outcome is a vital key in a research endeavor, without which an idea would never be implemented or even improved. I like that you mention Haibo’s idea as his “theory” I think it is quite interesting. However, I do not agree with him, because if you spend 10% of our time on a given task and 90% on defining it , you end up doing little and spending huge amount of time thinking. That being said, one can not deny the importance of reflecting on a problem, but, I think, this percentage is a little exaggerated. I think you talk about some interesting points here in your blogpost. Good job!
SvaraRaderaHey!
SvaraRaderaSorry that you didn't make it to the Friday lecture, I really enjoyed it.
I agree with your main points from the Haibo lecture. I also think that the theory of trying to define the problem for 90% of time and use only 10% of time is the key point. Only thing that confuses me a bit from lecture is that Haibo is mixing problems from research and the industry. I am not 100% sure in how stuff exactly work in the research field, but I doubt you will have to present a lot of your ideas to investors. This seems to me more like practice from the industry and my first impression is that he started talking about problems and projects in research.
I think your understanding of the lecture you attened is very good. Something that came to mind when reading your final point was that Haibo's lecture seemed rather focused on research for a financial reason, and not so much as an academic endeavour. The market gain, finacial plan, that is not really something you need to have as your main focus if the research is just in the pursuit of knowledge, do you agree?
SvaraRaderaOthers have already given you some points from the second lecture that you missed, but I will add something I felt was important as well. When conducting design research your empirical data will be different from that in a study using quantitative/qualitative methods. Here the data and knowledge contribution can be seen as the lessons learned during the study.
SvaraRaderaOthers have already given you some points from the second lecture that you missed, but I will add something I felt was important as well. When conducting design research your empirical data will be different from that in a study using quantitative/qualitative methods. Here the data and knowledge contribution can be seen as the lessons learned during the study.
SvaraRaderaHello.
SvaraRaderaGreat reflections on the first lecture. I also thought that what Haibo said about defining the problem versus solving the problem was interesting. Though, I think it is a bit misleading to say that we should spend 90% on defining the problem and then 10% solving it. What I mean is that when we are defining the problem we are also trying to solve it. A very good definition of a problem will also give an answer more easy.
Hi, it's a really nice reflection, thank you for sharing. Your wrote the things that I didn't notice from the lecture, and they are very useful. And it's really nice you considered as an entrepreneur, I think this is a very special way, but obvious a good way for you to express your opinion and feeling, I would say good job!
SvaraRadera