Problem solving as basis for everything you do in life
1 hour class for school students
I thought about questions I had when I was younger, questions University students have at events, what my younger brother asked me recently.
How did you know what you wanted to do?
It is a painful question, loaded with uncertainty of younger generation in their ability to decide or choose “correctly”. I love it because the point of it is not to answer the question but to make them comfortable with not knowing.
Not taking too long to ponder, I reached out to a teacher friend to see if she would be keen to free up a lesson slot when I could come to talk to her students.
We both studied biomedical sciences at the University. She went onto doing her teaching degree afterwards and I became a Product Manager for a music education start-up. My friend was really keen for people come and speak to her students about life decisions, careers and generally, “scary” stuff.
“Sweet, you are coming at 11am to teach a 1 hour class next Monday,” — my friend doesn’t screw around much ❤
It was quite clear to me what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to show students that no matter what they will choose to do in this life, problem solving will be at the heart of it.
Problem solving is one of these core skills that are labelled “soft” and can be a bit too fluffy. Perception of it changed with all the buzz that design thinking brought in. A structured approach to solving issues and designing solutions.
What I love about the whole idea is not the numerous methods and processes but the idea of empathy being at the core of everything you do.
When you are young, you might not retain specific details or methods or theories, but you could retain the idea of being open minded and have some of your fears alleviated by some sweet sweet affirmations that no one really knows what they are doing with their lives… and it is totally fine.
So what did I end up talking to a full class of 15 year old girls about?
- My background that included research, government strategy consulting, and now, product management. I wanted to show them the diversity of roles out there and what unites all of them.
Do you girls know what product managers do?— Miss….mmmm…they manage products?
2. We talked about the differences between traditional (or what is referred to as “waterfall”) way of solving problems and how adding more iteration, testing and empathy (putting yourself in people’s shoes) could improve an approach to creating better services and products for people.
3. We discussed possible things that could be designed and created. It might sound simple and even silly but it was so important to show that everything around us was created at some point to bring value. And no matter what you choose to do, you will be creating or leading a service or a product to help someone with their problem.
4. We looked at 5 stages of problem solving as described in design thinking approach and applied it to create a “perfect backpack for their teacher” in just under 40 min by going through a process of:
- Empathy — uncovering human elements of a problem through interviewing and observing
- Defining what their teacher needed — being clear on the issue
- Ideating or brainstorming on possible ways to solve these problems
- Prototyping — creating a cardboard and paper version of what ideal backpack might look like
- Testing — with their teacher and recording the feedback
It was such a fun experience to see the girls apply what we learned and unleash their creativity.
5. After we have finished with the backpacks, I showed them how I apply these principles in real life and conduct user testing sessions with customers that use our music software and what changes can be achieved just by placing empathy at the heart of your work.
So why are you telling me this?
It was my very first session and I was very excited and nervous to show the younglings that you could study one thing and end up working for 3 absolutely different companies only 3 years after graduating.
Don’t worry about not knowing what you want to do in life. Learn to solve problems instead.
Coincidentally, I have just started reading Mark Manson’s “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck” and he puts problem solving at the core of life, really.
Problems never stop; they merely get exchanged and/or upgrade. Happiness comes from solving these problems.
Problem solving as a way of living and creating value by focusing on the right things. Now, this is something I believe in.
