Host a Brainstorming
Problem Statements:
Anna, a full-time college student, needs an easier way to get sexual health products because they are not available where and when she needs them.
Anna, a full-time college student, needs a way to feel more comfortable when purchasing sexual health products because ways of currently buying them are uncomfortable.
Changed into...
How Might We Questions:
How might we make sexual health products easier to access for female college students?
How might we make purchasing sexual health products less uncomfortable for female college students?
How might we make sexual health products easier to access for female college students?
How might we make purchasing sexual health products less uncomfortable for female college students?
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The Brainstorm. I asked four of my friends, who I knew would be comfortable brainstorming about sexual health, to come over to my apartment for a brainstorming session. The four friends were: Kim*, a first year grad student, Hannah*, a Women's Studies college graduate, Allison*, a college senior and passionate feminist, and Brian*, a very opinionated college graduate. I asked them to think of ideas related to my "how might we" questions ahead of time. This is how it went...
*Names changed for privacy.
Inspiration/Warm-up. When my friends arrived at my apartment I had my living room set up with a round table in the middle and comfortable seating surrounding it. I put out chocolate for people to munch on during the session. For the warm-up activity I wanted to do something that would make people feel more relaxed and comfortable talking openly about sex. So I asked everyone to go around and tell the funniest story they had related to dating. It wasn't long before everyone was laughing hysterically at the hilarious experiences of everyone in the room.
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Easier Access to Sexual Products. I then explained the process that we were going to use for the brainstorming session. I decided to use the same method of brainstorming we used in class with talking and building on other people's ideas and posting the ideas on the wall. I told them the first "how might we" question, which was "How might we make sexual health products easier to access for female college students?" I put the timer on for 20 minutes and we got to it.
Conclusions
I noticed that the group was really good at coming up with ideas that were really empowering to women and were sex positive. Since my friends in the session are all passionate feminists, I think that theme was pretty evident throughout the brainstorming ideas.
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Making Purchasing Sexual Products Less Uncomfortable. After the first session we took a break for a bit and told some more funny stories. We then moved onto the second session with the topic of "How might we make purchasing sexual health products less awkward for female college students.
Conclusions
For this session the group really focused on female sexuality and empowering women. A lot of the ideas were less products and more changes to be made to society or advocacy for women to make them feel more confident about purchasing sexual health products.
_________________________________________________________________ Top Ten Ideas. After both brainstorming sessions we had a lot of ideas up on the wall. We sorted the ideas into categories and then each voted on our top ten favorite ideas (I know it was supposed to be top five in each category, but I didn't realize this until after the session, so it's the overall top ten. Oops.)
Minimalist Branding, Idea by Brian*
A Classy, Female Oriented Brand, Idea by Me
Sexual Health Kit for Women, Idea by Me
Vending Machine for Sexual Health Products, Idea by Kim*
Female-oriented Sex Shop, Idea by Allison*
Female Empowerment Campaign with Related Merchandise, Idea by Allison*
Branding with Humor, Idea by Me
Monthly Sex Gift Boxes, Idea by Kim*
"Finding your Fetish" Kits and Workshops, Idea by Allison*
Secret Wearable Sex Toys/Protection, Idea by Kim*
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Ideas Per Minute Per Person. In total we brainstormed for 40 minutes about sexual health products. We came up with 74 ideas, among 5 people. So the total ideas/minute/person equaled 0.37.
Hey Kira!
ReplyDeleteI like your topic a lot. Buttloads of potential, and I think you're just a great drawer, so keep that going.
I wish you hadn't participated in your brainstorm, because I know you have awesome ideas, but I would rather see more ideas from the people in your brainstorm.
This is something of an 'i wish' and 'what if' but what I see that your problem statements are female oriented... What if you took it a step further (in my opinion) and created an awesome, classy, all-inclusive gender neutral line of products for everyone?
And furthermore, I say that I wish, because, as I guy, I think all of your brainstorms would all be awesome products for immature, embarrassed dudes in college, too, so why not just transcend gender for everything.
ReplyDeleteI LIKE your "HMW" questions. These questions are open questions and point out the potential need of college students.
ReplyDeleteI WISH you could have more text to describe how you lead the brainstorming process. Also, if there were more visuals, it would be better.
WHAT IF you invited people at different ages ? It seems like the participant are about the same age. If some participants who are 30s' , you might have a wider perspective.