Improve the Financial Health
of Vulnerable DC Citizens
2018 DT:DC Summer of Design course
Note: I realize showing coursework in the portfolio of a designer with more than two decades of experience may be unusual. Over the years I haven’t had the opportunity to use the Business Model Canvas framework before, and was impressed with how much value it adds. It is something I now use on projects, although those are covered by NDA.
Course Overview
Summer of Design, DT:DC, is a course offered by the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, through a partnership with Capital One and Design Thinking DC. This is part one of a two-part design thinking specialization. I am learning different ways of seeing, thinking, innovating, and communicating — from a business point of view.
Assignment Description
Business Model Design — “How might we improve the financial health of vulnerable DC citizens through entrepreneurship and/or public-private partnerships?”
Weekly Course Deliverables
Moving very quickly, collaborating with a business team, exploring questions to develop a concept pitch
- What is?
- Who is our target user? ad hoc personas [397kb PDF] - The assignment was to choose one, but we documented two of the three identified users to uncover insights.
- What is their experience? ad hoc journey map [102kb PDF] - This quick journey map highlighted the difference between Users A and C, why one had the daring to take on student loan debt: User A had parental financial support and guidance, whereas User C was on their own. What if everyone had financial support and guidance?
- What if?
- How can we meet their needs? design criteria [121kb PDF]
- More specifically, how can we meet the user needs and align with business goals? business model canvas [115kb PDF]
- What wows/works?
- Do users want this? storyboard prototype - Test the concept [2.9MB PDF]
- Final Pitch Presentation [1.4MB PDF]