Week 4: Changing
Monday:
We begun to think of ideas of who might use our clothing swap service. Lizzie showed us a short video explaining personas. Then we wrote out different groups of who we might target this service towards, for example; young people, parents etc. After this we met back with Lizzie to try and find which target group we should aim for, and thought what market men would go for. For lunch Leah made us some yummy food helping bring our energy levels back up.
After this we began evaluating options for different ideas and models, then went through a criteria given to us by Lizzie:
- Affordability
- Fashion focused
- Quality
- Inclusivity
- Fun
- Sustainability
- Achievable
We went through our ideas to check if they met the criteria. Lizzie then gave us all post-its and pretty much said there were 3 rules:
- No idea is a bad idea
- High speed
- No writing
Everyone felt really good after this exercise because it helped us picture our ideas and get them out of our heads.
As our Monday Edventure “check-out” , everyone made a noise to show how they were feeling and said what we appreciated about the day.
Tuesday:
I walked to Forward Space and met Amelia, Laura, Leah and Roasanna. Here we brainstormed pros for each group to try and cater for at our clothes swapping event, i.e. what would bring them to the service? We began organising the presentation. We were then given a system criteria:
- Location
- Timing
- User(s)
- Swapping model
- What problem will it solve for people?
- Auxiliary/additional services
- How will it solve problems of the fashion industry?
We then did rapid prototyping to meet these criteria. Our next step was filtering these personas for presenting. In pairs we worked on 3 persona groups. The objectives of the presentation was to inform supporters of progress, to present service ideas, to get feedback on our ideas, find possible personas, and to get feedback on ideas personally and collectively.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday we ran through the presentation. We all got great feedback which was really exciting. It was great to get an outside perspective on what we are working towards. After our presentation we brainstormed feedback ideas that we might take forward. Then we met back with Amelia and Liz. We thought about how we could introduce sustainable fashion to people that are unfamiliar with this concept, and how we can change the fashion system in Frome, in hopes of stopping big chain clothing stores. We would like to raise awareness through our clothing swap service. We then pitched our ideas to take forward to Amelia and Liz, and they gave us some questions and feedback. After we left for the day some of us watched the documentary ‘The True Cost’. It really echoes what we wish to stop and I personally recommend that everyone watches it, but be warned it is quite sad.
Thursday:
We did a presentation review where we spoke about accepting and stretching ourselves and saying what feels right for us personally. Next time we thought of having a talk pen so everyone has a chance to talk if they like. Also to know it’s okay if we don’t know the answer to the question yet. After this we went through ideas, refining, changing and looking at what needs to be done.
After thinking of Mondays priorities, we begun on a user’s journey. With each persona we walked through how they’d find themselves coming to the clothes swap. After we re-grouped and spoke about each user journeys, raising problems they may face or questions they may have, we had a talk with Migrants and Refugees as re-builders. They hope to improve the lives of other migrants and refugees using education, learning from the model Edventure have used. This will help their UK based communities and help back in their home countries.
www.uk.iofc.org/M-R-Rebuilders
@M&R_Rebuilders
This conversation was very inspiring, hearing what they’ve been through and what they wish to achieve.
After they left, we then were told to close our eyes and think of who inspires us. This shows the different types of leaders, these were some words that represent what collectively inspires us:
- Helpful
- Inspiring
- Kind
- Understanding
- Role model
- Aspirations
- Eye opening
- Wow!
- Confident
- Calm
- Knowledgeable
- Experienced
- Listener
- Considerate
- Challenging
- Guiding
This led to Amelia telling us about different types of leadership. We then split into pairs to talk about what kind of leader we are/wish to be.
To finish we went through the agendas of the week to come:
- Reaching out to contacts
- Survey results
- Weekend work
- Work distribution/roles
- Branding
All in all it’s been an exciting week full of ups and downs, finally figuring out what kind of route we want to take.