The best thing what could happen at the beginning of a seminar is when students bring in their own challenge like in SS 2011, when my students asked themselves: „How might we avoid the waste of 3.145.000 coffee to go cups used at the universities in Berlin each year?“ At this time, people used to take their coffee in paper cups even when they were sitting in the canteen of their university where they had the choice for porcelain cups to stay.
Finding a strategy and a product which could change the behavior of these people and all who were involved became considerably challenging for the students in this Design Thinking seminar.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of the students, einleuchtend e.V., Studentenwerk Berlin, Asta HTW Berlin, BSR, Förderfonds Trenntstadt Berlin, Stiftung Naturschutz Berlin and everyone else - especially head and employees of the canteen at HTW Berlin - who was engaged in this project, the reusable Campus Cup was invented one year later. Furthermore, the project won an award at the competition of Trenntstadt Berlin und co2online!
The students attended my seminar had only 32 hours of time to find a solution because each seminar ends after this time. For that reason, they went out for field research to observe and interview the customer and the stakeholder of the project in order to get a deeper insight in the behavior of the customer and in the operational procedures in the canteen where the employees of the Studentenwerk sold the coffee to go in paper cups. In addition, they worked on a study about the question which material might be the most sustainable for a reusable cup.
Fortunately, they could gather data from students of the department "Betriebliche Umweltinformatik" who conducted a research about the waste amount of coffee to go cups at the same time. At the end of the seminar, they developed a prototype for a reusable coffee to go cup from porcelain; however, they could not bring it to market in only 32 hours. So they continued working for this goal.
They learned how important it is for a Design Thinking Process to "spread out the message" (Tim Brown) to find people for support. In this way, the INI Campus Cup was founded by students from HTW Berlin, the students initiative einleuchtend e.V., ASTA HTW Berlin and Studentenwerk Berlin. On 29th of May 2012, the first reusable Campus Cup from porcelain was sold at the canteen of HTW Berlin. From that time on, people can get their coffee to go in the Campus Cup at all canteens of Studentenwerk Berlin thanks to the funding of Förderfonds Trenntstadt Berlin, Stiftung Naturschutz Berlin.
The tool kit of the Design Thinking method enables students to find solutions for complex challenges and bring products to market which are desirable and contributes to sustainability in a rather short time.
Walking the six steps of the Design Thinking Process in a mindful team helps people to believe in their ideas, stay focused, and find an inner purpose for their activities.
