WHEELIT

This was the prototype designed by our team Innouniverse for the design thinking for the startup’s module. The day when our lecturer Miss Janja told us to redesign a product or service everyone in the class stuck and tensed. This was our first pitch to develop a product or a prototype. As the Managing Director of my team, I was really worried about the task and thought how to pitch into the development.

Although we had a tight schedule for the assignments of the other modules. Our team members joined hands for building the product. We shared our different ideas and thoughts of different designs but we couldn`t figure out, what to do exactly.

Identifying a real problem

Even though we shared many problems with different products, but those problems were not a real problem for its users. Then I brought a real problem which I had faced during the shifting of my home. The problem was that to lift the heavy furniture’s like the wardrobe and the tables and I was alone at home.

Finding the solution

Once we got the idea, we team members had started to think about what will be the real solution to solve this problem of shifting the heavy furniture. We friends came up with different ideas and suddenly we got an idea, we will be putting a heavy steel wheel, which would help anyone to move the furniture by themselves.

Designing and building the prototype

Even though we had framed our idea, our next step is to pitch into the building of the prototype. For this, we had taken the designs of the wheels available currently in the market. Then we started to redesign, during the building of our product we were stuck in many areas like to make wheel role and what are the components used for building our product. Finally, we got the product wheelit done. The wheelit is a product that can be fitted into any heavy furniture, the wheelit has a steel base and it would be standing on this base, during this position the wheels will be staying on the upper portion of the base. For moving the furniture, wheels of the wheelit has to be pulled down by a lever with our hands. At this position, the base will be moved upward direction and the wheels touch the floor. This mechanism makes the wheels stays safe, even though the furniture is so heavy. To stop the wheels one should again pull the wheel to the upward direction so that the wheels go up and the base come down.

Presenting to the class

As every team had completed with their prototype. The lecturer Miss Janja had asked the teams to present a prototype in front of the class. This is to demonstrate how the product works and what problem or need it to solve. So most of the team members had done their job well. Even though this was our first presentation to the class, our team had also done a great job. We had created a prototype and also a powerpoint presentation for explaining our product. Completing this task makes all the team members more confident and enthusiastic.

My First Semester at Kingston University

What made me to come to London and Kingston University?

 After I had completed my graduation from Pune, India. I had joined with my dad`s business in Kerala, India. I was so happy working with him; he had taught me many things which none of my business teachers had taught. Doing PostGraduation was one of my goals and from my childhood, I had a wish to study abroad. This is because I had a big family in which most of the people work abroad. So after a few years of working with my father and with the experiences from it, I thought this is the right time to empower my knowledge and skills. Then I had discussed with my family and at the earlier, they were not happy with my decision to study abroad. But my mom supported me a lot and then the whole family approved. Getting all the sanctions from my close family members I had started applying to different Universities and finally, I had received my offer letter from Kingston University, London.

How I had pitched into my new ways of learning?

Everything was new for me the place, the harsh cold climate and way of learning at the University. Especially, back in India, we have exams in every term or semester, but here we have to face several assignments and live projects. All these create an initial challenging phase for me. But I had got some great advice from one of my brother’s friend Mr Nabeel who is a Professor at the University. Who had instructed a few guidelines and the pitch to the learning at University? I had spent most of my time at the library doing various activities of my course and learning new things.

Friends and classmates

This is the part of my University life which I can`t express my emotions with endless words. The bunch of good friends who helps and supports me a lot. We always share our thoughts and food. Even though I had joined a little bit late into my course I had got great support from my friends how to figure out my studies, especially from Rahath and Bettina who had supported me to pitch into the canvas and other learning material.

The game-changing modules and lecturers

We had three modules in the first-semester Entrepreneurship & Growth of Innovative Business which is taken by the Dr Evy Sakellariou FHEA FCIM Senior Lecturer Course Director, Management, Strategy and International Entrepreneurship is taken by Peter Martins da Silva Senior Lecturer, International Business and last but not least, the most brainstorming and innovative module of our course Design Thinking for Start-ups which is taken by Janja Song Module Leader, Course Director. Our University also supports students for learning the extra skills in the English language and a few foreign languages.

Assignments and the challenging phase

This was the time in which most of the students were worried and confused about how to figure out the things. We had got two assignments in the first semester, first assignment is Strategic Decision Making in International Entrepreneurship and the second assignment is Opportunities and Barriers for Innovative Business/Portfolio. During this I spent most of my time in the library, even I had spent a few nights doing my assignments at the library. The guidelines from the library team and the librarian were remarkable, they had supported us in figuring out the right choices for doing our assignments.

Notable lectures and the events at the University

Even though I had a few delays in the joining into my course, but luckily I had got chance to participate in the Hackathon Competition, we had a chance to visit design museum and the science museum in London. The guest speakers had taught about the IP rights and the briefing of the country Ireland. The classes by Janja how to redesign a shoe, Developed wheelit, made the product called healthy while you roll by Innouniverse team members for the Dragons` Den.

Union of Kingston Students

I was an active member of the University Union and had supported many events of the Union. Even though I had lost in the campus representative elections for 45 votes. I had got a very friendly relationship with Union President Mr Feisal and Mr Kamal who is the president of the International Students Society.

Teamwork and Yanya

This is the vital part of my learning which I had seen the real game-changing. The Yanya helped us a lot to understand the value of the teamwork and duties and responsibilities that every team member need to follow when you are in a team and I am thankful to Yanya for your support and coordination.

My First Teamwork at the University

During one of our design thinking for start-ups module lecture, our lecturer Miss Janja brought some craft papers to the class. Most of the students were curious to know why she had brought these things to the class. So she started with discussions on the reading topic that she had given to us, for this week. It was about the ‘The $3,000 Nike Air Max 97 ‘Jesus Shoes’ from MSCHF is the sneaker troll of the year’. If those shoes — godly kicks made by the great man himself — would be accurate in (the amended) John 3:16, it would be the $1,425 MSCHF “Jesus shoes.” A pilgrim Nike Air Max 97 was adapted by the Brooklyn based product design company: the Holy Water from the Jordan River (injected with sneaker bubbles and naturally hurt by a priest), Vatican-red insoles fragrant with Frankincense, a stainless steel crucifix and an inscription on Matthew 14.25. This was a Nike shoe story.

What Janja want us to do?

As we were thinking of the Nike shoe story, she had dumped the next task to us. She wanted us to go through our University premises and look at different shoes with different characteristics. The task never ends with this and we should have to pick up one of the best and nice speciality shoes from it.

Journey to find the best shoes

Although the Janja said a silly thing to find an interesting shoe, that wasn`t that much easy to find different design shoes. Most of the shoes were common in their features. We were sent in a team to see the shoes and in my team, I had got Hamza, Abike and Shivani.

We went to different people wearing different shoes and started to ask many questions about the features of their shoes. We went to the atrium of the Business School, library, but we couldn`t find the exact design of our choices. Finally, we had seen a student who is wearing a boot, who was heading to the university canteen. We guys ran and chased back of him and had stopped him for asking the speciality of his shoes, which he was wearing. The shoes were manufactured by a brand called Timberland. It was made up of leather and brown. The most attractive feature of that it is fireproof and waterproof. The faces of the team members show happiness, that we had founded a nice pair of shoe design.

The main challenge

All the team members were back into the class and started to share their shoe experiences with people in the class. Suddenly, the JanJa had emptied her craft box on to the table and asked the teams to design a prototype of a shoes. All the students were started to move on to the Janja`s table and picked up some papers and some sticky notes.

Building the prototype

As this was the first entry into making a product all the team members were stuck, but the talent and skill of the team members were so amazing. Finally, every team of the class had made their designs of the shoes and presented in front of the class and Janja. I will say that this was one of the best experience that I had got from my design thinking module and thanks Janja for making us do it.

Walking through the Science

One day our Entrepreneurship & Growth of Innovative Business Module lecturer Evy Sakellariou had informed our class that we are going for a visit to the Science Museum. This is to see the Special Exhibition on Artificial Intelligence: Driverless Who is in Control & Tomorrow’s World. In this module we were mainly focused on the innovation in the businesses, so most of us know that science plays a vital role in the innovations of the world.

All the students were asked to present there at the science museum by 10 AM on the 15th of October 2019 for the visit. On that day all the students were present for the visit. The opening timings of the Science Museum were from 10.00 AM to 6 PM.

As told before the museum had opened at 10 AM itself, as there was no delay on timings. Our lecturer guided us to the entry to the museum and she made us in different teams. In a team consisting of three members. In my team, I had got Hamza and the Mai. Then Miss Evy asked Mr Hamza for taking the photographs of our classmates and some of the collections of the museum.

Why Evy had made us in a team?

 

The reason behind the team formation is that Miss Evy needed us to create a small presentation about the innovative ideas make us strike our mind in the museum. For this, she had given us a questionnaire for explaining why is it relevant and for commenting on the advantages of those products in brief at the class.

The science museum is located at the SCIENCE MUSEUM, EXHIBITION ROAD, SOUTH KENSINGTON, LONDON. It was founded in the 1857—South Kensington Museum (SKM) opens on the site of what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum. Premises also host The Patent Office Museum, a collection of contemporary and historical machinery.

 

Watching the Exhibits

The science museum is filled with various articles from ancient times to the latest innovative artificial intelligence objects. It has got objects from various sectors, namely from Machines that were used for the manufacturing purposes in the olden times, which were used in the olden times, the Products from the Health and medical field, the innovations from the Information Technology. As a motor enthusiast, I was curious to know the automobiles and their innovations which were displayed at the Museum and I had stood near to it and was happy to take some of the pictures with it.

 

What are the self- driving vehicles and how it works?

They transport people, goods or equipment, as everyone knows, without a human driver or a pilot. We, people, use different senses to get around. Nevertheless, self-driving cameras and artificial intelligence are used. The senses of humans perceive the world. Their brains store large quantities of information for safe driving. The automobiles perceive the world utilizing their sensors. The AI of the car processes vast quantities of data for safe driving. The AI system consists of various forms of computer software. It is intended to develop solutions which are not designed in advance by software engineers. AI allows cars to respond to unpredictable situations in self-driving situations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My pitch into the lean canvas

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One day, our Professor of Design Thinking brought in some charts. She then started explaining that this is the Lean Canvas Model. Everyone began to think about how a Lean Canvas model works. This is how I had pitched into the Lean Canvas concept through my understanding of the class.

Lean Canvas is a 1page business plan template that allows you to deconstruct your concept with nine basic elements in your key assumptions. A Lean Canvas is designed to help you build a quick snapshot of your idea, share it with someone for feedback, and iteratively refine it, unlike a business plan that takes too long to compose, and more importantly, no one reads.

How the Lean Canvas came into existence?

Lean Canvas is tailored to the Lean Start-up Methodology with great emphasis on finding solutions for consumer challenges from the Alex Osterwalder Business Model Canvas.

The nine basic elements in the Lean Canvas

1. Identify the Problems

It is very important to determine problems. The challenges that people face are most of the time so large that they are obvious and not feasible. In this case, the problems must be addressed as well as current market solutions to the problems. These steps help us know if our problem is significant. 

2. Solution

A real problem has been found; we should find the right way to solve the problem.

3.Key metrics

It helps us to understand that our concept and solution function well, the main metrics are established as an indicator of our progress. Some of the key metrics are:

• Number of new customers per month
• Costs to develop product/service
• Estimated life of product/service
• Monthly marketing costs
• Monthly maintenance costs

4.Cost structure

It is a listing of all variable costs and fixed costs. Cost structure problems are to be discussed here. How much does our business need to run in a month? How much does an analysis on the market cost? and so on. The costs and potential revenue streams can then be calculated from a rough break-even point.

5.Unique Value Proposition 

Unique value proposition is a clear message explaining the benefits of our product offering, which separates our product from the competition.

6.Unfair advantage

 A startup should always be able to see if it has an unfair advantage over other people or not. In various ways, unfair advantages will come from specialists, a dream team, insides, existing customers, etc.

7.Channels

The easiest way to access the consumer group is by using channels. The emphasis is on understanding the networks rather than worrying about scale in the first phases. Free and paid platforms can be used directly for reaching the customer. E.g. social media, trade shows, newsletters, CPC advertising, radio and TV, forums, webinars, posts, etc.

8.Customer Segments

The goal is to attract more than one set of clients, including engineers and accountants, it was observed that a toilet should be produced for each one. Problem Box and CS can be seen as intrinsically linked, i.e. without a consumer category, we can’t think about problems and vice versa. 

9.Revenue Streams

Model type decides your rating for our product. In the beginning, startups often lower their costs or even offer them for free. What is critical is that it delays or even fails validity tests. It was seen that people should be asked to subscribe to something for free, as they are more interested in free goods.

Exploring the design museum, London

This was the first task that was assigned to all the teams of the design thinking module. Every team was asked to visit the design museum. Especially for seeing the Beazley Designs of the year by our Professor Miss Janja Song. The goal of Miss Janja was to make all the teams for getting ideas about how to develop their products simple and precise.

 SO, me and my teammates visited on a Saturday morning. The museum was located in Kensington, London. The product it covers is industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design. For entering the Beazley designs we need to purchase the tickets from the museum. Then I, Shreya, Shivani, and Hamza together went to see what`s going on at the Beazley designs.

The Beazley designs were running on the basement floor of the design museum. I think my readers are quite anxious about knowing much about the Beazley designs and the design museum from me in this post. 

At Beazley’s designs, it Explores worldwide innovations and inventions which promote accessibility, women’s design, and global ideas. Beazley Designs of the Year now marks its 12th annual year to celebrate the world’s most original and innovative products, ideas and designers. Nominators have been asked to choose their favourite designs to encourage change and capture this moment. 

The Designs picked by our team

We were asked by Miss Janja to pickup three products, which were attracted to us from the Beazley Designs. The three products which make us more interesting are the Elvie pump, The Shed and the Gacha.

 

Elvie Pump

 

Talking about the Elvie Pump is an intimate product used on the female breast, and especially for women when they are very vulnerable and often excessively tired, during a period of change. Something as simple as technology can make a difference. Thrittially, more than eight out of ten women regret that they stop giving their babies breast milk at an early age so that the pump has a direct effect on women and children`s health.

 

The Shed

The shed was truly an innovative architectural design that we had seen at the design museum. The Shed is a new art location in New York City. The building will expand and contract, allowing the site, on-demand, to schedule large-scales interior and outdoor programming by rolling the telescoping shell on rails. There are two gallery floors within the main building, a flexible theatre, a dance studio, a design laboratory, and an event space. The accessible architecture of the Shed can be constantly versatile for an uncertain future and sensitive to scale, media, technology and artists ‘ changing needs. 

The GACHA Self-driving Shuttle Bus

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GACHA is a ‘ self-driving ‘ bus running in every weather conditions, working together with the minimalist Japanese lifestyle group MUJI and a Finnish self-employed driven company Sensible 4. The gently rounded square bus without a designated front or back serves the populous areas that have experienced a decline and the elderly people who can no longer drive safely. It is now being tested in three Finnish towns and has a timeline for launching the vehicle in 2020.

I hope this would help everyone to guide some knowledge about the Design Museum. I would recommend to all the Innovators to visit and I also thank you Miss Janja for sending us to the Museum.

I myself Fazil Abbas

I am writing this blog to exhibit everyone my experiences at Kingston University, London.

I think blogging will be a perfect platform to share my experiences.

I had joined on the September intake into my University. There were many good and bad days for me at the University. I am studying the course called the MSc in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. It has got some nice modules especially the Design Thinking for the Startups. The lecturers were so friendly and support anything in the learning process of the course.