Business & Entrepreneurship.
While Business & Entrepreneurship was not intended to be my primary focus, I now acknowledge its vital role in the design process, and I value how important it is to have background knowledge and competency in this area to be able to excel in others.
Seeking to bridge my knowledge gap from Year 1, I chose the elective ‘Trends and Forecasting’ in Year 2. I was surprised to learn that trend-catching is less about statistics and more about proactive networking, inspiration, and historical context. My lecturer's words "to know the future, one must know the past" shifted my perspective, coming to the realization of how crucial design developments in history have been, where the thought of bringing together all expertise areas to produce an innovative product tackling a design problem statement greatly inspired me and granted me a more entrepreneurial and innovative mindset.
In the ‘Business Innovation Methods’ course, I learned and applied theoretical principles to both group and individual work. For Sephora, my team developed a personalized experience using an AI-powered smart mirror to scan facial features and automate exclusive home deliveries. Individually, applying business models and canvases to my Project 3 was a turning point. It revealed to me the deep connection between B&E and User & Society, showing how business strategies can help designers analyze target users and identify specific areas for product innovation.
As for my B3.1 semester, B&E can be outlined as one of my biggest learning developments. Not only by taking part in a 9 to 5 work every day, but also getting fully integrated into the workplace and experiencing weekly meetings, kick offs, lunch discussions and project management meetings I have gotten insights on the general workflow of a running company, the available roles, employee expectations and engagement and company-client communication. Going further, I also learned about the different required regulations and formalities involved within the creation of a product, revealing many differences between my university experience with the workplace. I was taught about their used marketing strategies, purchasing methods for components and parts, and supply chain management. Nonetheless, even though I fully appreciate these learning points, I do think they are necessary as underlying background learning points, and can enhance the expertise areas I want to be fully proficient in for my vision; C&A and T&R.
