What is the $20Boss Program?

In Year 8 Term 3 InnovatED, we were privileged to participate in $20Boss. $20Boss is a nationwide program that teaches students the important skills (such as collaboration, problem solving and ethical thinking) and the design thinking process of creating a business.

What did I initially think of the project?

When we first got introduced to $20Boss, I initially thought that creating a business just included coming up with a product or service idea, executing the idea and receiving the money. I went in a group with Kat, and we followed the design thinking process and thought about how we could innovate an idea by connecting our interests, skills and problems that we want to solve. My interests included sport, working with textiles, and cooking which are enhanced through my skills of collaboration, teamwork and problem solving. The two main problems that Kat and I thought of were the current COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. After a few lessons, I soon figured out that running a business includes much more work than I thought. Thinking of an idea that was not only innovative but also something that our potential consumers would want to buy was extremely difficult. Some of our ideas were making beeswax wraps, creating a car washing company and making dog food however none of these were fully developed. There was a lot competition between other groups and us because we had the same ideas. This put us off and was the reasoning behind us not progressing onto prototyping and completing $20Boss.

What would I do differently?

I would put more time into the empathy stage of the design thinking process by surveying our potential customers on what they care about, their interests and most importantly what they would spend their money on. This would ensure that I have a clear idea of what my customers would buy to create a product or service that they would need.

Design Thinking

What part of the Design Thinking Process was I the best at?

I felt that I was the most comfortable with the Define stage of the Design Thinking Process. This is because after we had empathised with our consumers, we could think of the problems that they might face in their day to day life. We also thought of the many large issues in the world such as global warming, and the pandemic of COVID-19. These extremely big issues could be slightly improved by helping those affected by it. For example we thought of COVID-19, which has largely impacted those who are in lockdown who are moving to more online things. So a solution could be to create something online to entertain them. And an idea to help global warming, a product could be made out of recycled plastic.

What part of the Design Thinking Process did I find the hardest?

I found the Empathise part of the Design thinking process the most difficult because we had to empathise with parents and adults as they were going to be the consumers of the $20Boss end product. I have not been a parent nor been an adult before so it makes it hard to put myself into their shoes to know what they would feel the need to spend their money on. Adults generally think differently to teenagers which makes empathising really hard. In the year 7 Christmas market, we only had to empathise with others around the same age as ourselves, which meant we knew what most of them would and would not purchase.

Capabilities

Two capabilities that I relied on

During my time working in $20Boss, I relied on and developed the capability resilience. I used this capability when Kat and I first pitched our two best ideas and got told that they needed more thought. We received their feedback and tried to brainstorm on how we could improve our ideas to become better.

I also relied on my collaboration skills when working on the $20Boss Program. Collaboration was important in working with others to create the best ideas that you can and to figure out problems together. By collaborating with Kat, we could share each others knowledge and become more effective and efficient at working.

One capability that I need to improve on

The capability that I want to significantly improve on is creativity. I would like to develop my creativity because it will enhance my problem solving skills by viewing problems from a different perspective to better deal with it. Creativity also involves generating new and original ideas. To improve my creativity, I can seek new experiences to produce more ideas based on them. By not trying to achieve perfection, it would boost my creativity and I would not have the fear of being wrong.