Ugoo | Full-time job
Innovation | Sustainability
Ugoo consults technical development companies for their business models. The process starts with doing sales to recruit clients. It continues with creating a business strategy. After that we held technical interviews with developers to catechize the technical details. It ends with writing grant applications.
What I learned…
- From consulting clients on their business models and grant applications I learned about both, the technical and business side of those companies.
- By applying for grants I learned how to make business models sustainable for the clients.
- From managing the process from A to Z for the clients I learned to create plans, work detailled and communicate pro-actively towards colleagues and clients.
Futureproof | Start-up
Innovation | Sustainability
From creating this start-up I learned how to implement a concept after creating it.
By following the workshops of Futureproof I learned about possibilities of the financial side of starting a startup.
From collaborating with other start-ups I got a broader understanding of impact entrepreneurship in general and the challenges of implementation for those.
What I learned…
SPATE is a game for teams in (non)profit organisations to help them create social en environmental impact based on the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The interactive game enhances collaborations between the teammembers and uses the metaphor of a caterpillar transitioning to a butterfly. After the organisation played the game it can be passed along to another organisation to innovate and accellerate transitions.
Six Fingers & VGZ | Internship
Innovation
Together with consultancy agency Six Fingers I helped VGZ health insurance innovating their customer journey. The analysis lead to the main problem of the patients having to wait long before being helped at the GP centre. Ideating during co-design sessions lead to the creation of a website on which patients can indicate their own problems. The implementation required VGZ and GP centres to apply and communicate about this new tool.
What I learned…
- From the analysis phase I learned how to formulate main problems from conducting interviews with stakeholders.
- While facilitating co-design sessions I learned how to inspire people to come up with solutions by showing solutions from different branches.
- During the implementation phase, I learned how to trigger transitions by targeting the right people and applying change gradually.
Team Energy | Student team
Sustainability
The student team aims to inform, inspire and connect (non) profit organizations and students on the topic of the energy transition. One task of mine was to manage public relations and to create the team. This contains managing the (social) media and organizing small events and promotion actions. Another thing I did was educating at primary and secondary schools in Eindhoven about the energy transition.
What I learned…
When teaching I found out that most children did not yet have an opinion on the topics presented. By informing them on multiple sides of the statements I was able to inspire them to create an opinion. This inspiration showed to work best when storytelling.
I learned from the ambitions and perspectives of like-minded students and alumni of the team.
I gained knowledge and understanding of underlying problems of the energy transition and other challenges in sustainable development.
GO Green Office TU/e | Side job
Sustainability
With a team of ten students, the GO Green Office aims to make the TU/e more sustainable by focusing on operations, education, and people. Next to functioning as a team and helping team members out, my responsibility was to inspire and motivate employees and students to move toward sustainability. This contains managing (social) media channels as well as being responsible to create a community and organizing events like the yearly Green Week.
What I learned…
By doing I learned how to inspire and motivate people by interacting with them.
I learned how to act based on what people need to make a change and get involved. Organizing events showed to be a huge part of this.
By working in a team I helped others with ideas for their projects on operations and education of the TU/e.
Empati | Research project
Sustainability | Innovation | Inclusivity
This project is about inclusivity in the energy transition. Dutch citizens with a Turkish immigrant background (DCTIB) as a minority group are chosen as a target group. The focus to reach inclusivity is on policymakers. They are chosen since they create laws and therefore have a big impact. Through critical-making sessions, stories and values of the DCTIB were gathered. We wanted to create empathy among policymakers for the DCTIB so that the policymakers know how to play in on these values and problems of the DCTIB. This is why we created a Virtual Reality movie about the lives of the DCTIB. This movie serves as an experiential speculative story and an immersive experience.
What I learned…
While conducting user research I learned that not everyone values energy transition although the aim was to include everyone. This means that value-sensitive design can be helpful to inspire people.
The design of an experience showed to be helpful but time and energy intensive. Next to this, this specific research showed not to be universally applicable. Therefore, it can be helpful to think about how solutions can be more standardized.
From acting as a communication tool between minority groups and policymakers, the question arose if the connection should go via design(ers) at all.
Chamyleon | Graduation project
Sustainability | Innovation
This project shows an example of how to motivate people to use less energy in the home. This is scoped down to cooling air for summer comfort. The outcome shows a practice design of how a future system and habit could look like, as well as a speculative design artifact on how the future could look like.
Chamyleon functions as a thermostat in the shape of an artificial plant. The better one cares for the plant, the more energy that is being saved. The thermostat holds three different interactions to set time, energy source, and temperature. Feedback is being received in the form of multi-modal interactions by a light show and sound.
What I learned…
By experimenting and user testing I learned how to motivate people to change behavior creatively, using multi-modal interactions.
Next to this I found ways to inspire people on what the future could look like by creating radical designs.
I learned to design aesthetic interactions. Therefore I had to think out scenarios to play in on consequences. The system should not fully be automized, but room for input by people is needed since it makes them feel like they are part of the system.
Green Week TU/e | Side job
Sustainability | Inclusivity
The Green Week of the TU/e is a yearly week filled with sustainability related events. This week is organized by TGD, GO Green Office and Studium Generale. As an event manager I was responsible for creating the program, co-organizing the events and I was responsible for the public relations. The two editions of the green week held events like a clothing swap, lectures from speakers like Rob Greenfield, a panel disussion with student teams, vegan cooking workshops, ecology tours, exhibitions, case nights, a sustainable product market, and a clothing repair workshop.
What I learned…
Organizing events and being responsible for public relations helped me expand my network in professionals, organizations and businesses.
Organizing online and offline events helped me gain skills in planning and organization.
Leading a team thaught me motivating, inspiring and helping team members.
Six Fingers | Internship
Innovation
Six Fingers is an innovation consultancy agency supporting (non)profit organizations. They help create services or business innovations for example. Six Fingers’ process consists of doing research, ideating, and implementing. Here, I helped to conduct desk research, do user research and analysis, prepare co-design sessions and analyze its results, and create plans for implementation. Next to this, I created a ritual design process by making worksheets.
What I learned…
By creating the ritual design process, I learned how to create a design process individually. I also learned from the process when supporting co-design sessions.
From conducting user research and analysis individually I learned what to take into account to come up with meaningful outcomes.
When innovating, the focus should be on learning through experimenting on small scale and not necessarily on the direct outcomes.
TU/e Towards Together | Individual Project
Inclusivity
This project is an own initiative for the Diversity Fund of the TU/e which challenges to create inclusion among the people of the university. To create empathy among students I collected stories of students anonymously by using voice only. To create an experience I filmed the campus using a 360 camera lens and a drone and created a Virtual Reality movie of it. You stand in a big cardboard ‘shoe of someone else’ while watching the VR movie and hearing the stories. Afterward, students could share experiences with other participants.
What I learned…
Doing a project on my own showed to be quite a challenge and it taught me a lot of skills in organizing.
Design and experiencing something showed to be helpful to make people enthusiastic to try something new and to start a discussion or conversation.
People showed to be open to reflect afterward and share their own stories and inspirations.