Check-in Guidelines
You are helping to support our students’ learning journeys by bridging the gap between industry and education.
By getting direct feedback from multiple industry Mentors, students will gain advice and knowledge that will help them progress their projects and develop creative skills that they can use forever. Your support and advice will help to foster their enthusiasm, confidence and energy and give them tangible actions to develop their B!G Idea.
For so many of our students this is their first experience of creative thinking and we want this experience to be just the start of a lifelong learning experience. Thank you for being such a crucial part of their B!G journey!
Reading the Pitch
Here are some questions to consider:
- Do they know who they are solving the problem for? Do they mention their Hero and/or empathy map?
- Have they offered any information on their Hero? Have they outlined the challenges their Hero faces in relation to the brief?
- Have they defined the problem they are solving?
- Does their idea touch on the key points in their student guidelines?
- Do they have more than one idea? If so, how can you help them to focus on one idea, or go back to the research to start to shape one idea?
- Are they unsure about which category they are working in? Do you have any resources or tips that will help them focus on the problem and the solution that best fits?
- In their research were they open to curiosity and exploration or do you feel they are stuck on their first idea? Sometimes students can feel vulnerable about putting their ideas out there and so can fix on their first idea. This is typically a confidence issue and as a mentor you are really well placed to positively support them to embrace the process and to advise on how they can expand their thinking.
Providing Feedback
Here are some guidelines to help give students the best information/advice/support:
- Start with the positive, recognise their achievements so far and be encouraging!
- Keep any actionable advice very focused and manageable, nothing too complex or vague.
- Use clear and concise language when describing the process and imparting your advice. Check out the B!G Idea glossary to see the language they are used to using and hearing during this process.
- Refer them back to the project briefs, to their Hero/Heroes and to their empathy maps.
- Challenge them to take a step further by investigating an area that would help develop their project. Do you have specific resources? Can you point them to something that will help develop their idea? Any useful website links you can share?
- Be willing, when appropriate, to share your own work experiences.
- Motivate them to keep up the good work with a word of encouragement.
- Don’t stress about getting it perfect and have fun with it!
Remember – you can always email us at mentors@thebigidea.ie or reach out to fellow mentors on the B!G Mentor Community App to chat through anything.
Example Template
We have kept a word count in place to keep it manageable for you and the students (there will be other mentors commenting on the projects).
Well done, I love how this idea is developing. You have clearly stated one of the barriers within the fashion industry to reducing their carbon footprint.
I think your research around shopping habits, social media and fast fashion has uncovered a real problem that needs to be tackled and something that more young people are starting to be aware of and address.
What other products or services in this space are out there and what are they offering? Who are they targeting? Will you target the same audience?
Your product ideally needs to create something that is missing from anything out there, or do it better.
How are you going to differentiate your product from others? What will it look like? Do you have examples you like? Or ones you don’t?
You have thought about your hero in detail, which is great. Don’t worry about trying to solve all of their problems, sometimes it’s best to focus on one or two key items, otherwise you can feel under way too much pressure. Narrowing your focus a little more at the start rather than starting out too big will help you get the basics right and you can build out from there if you’d like.
What are the needs and wants for the audience you are focusing on? Can you gather some more information from friends and family?
Think about the questions above and figure out what one thing will make your product different and more appealing than others out there. Always bring it back to that problem you are trying to solve – are you helping to solve it?
You could create a storyboard, to illustrate the problem your Hero is facing. This is just a visual story, like a comic, that you can create to get a better understanding of your Hero and their problem. You could do this together or work individually first so that everyone creates their own storyboard and then talks the group through it – that way you can take the best parts and make a final version.
Check out the video at the end of this article for a good example of a quick and easy storyboard design – instead of the whiteboard he uses you could just find a desk or space and use your paper, pens and post it notes to map it out. Be creative and have fun with it. Your job here is to just show their story in the best way you can – it really doesn’t have to be perfect!
https://relab.academy/design-sprint/storyboard-for-beginners-in-product-design/
Well done again, I’m really impressed with how you have developed your thinking and identified a real problem to solve. Climate change and reaching net zero is a big issue for us as a society and it’s so great to see some new fresh thinking from you on this topic! Best of luck and don’t forget to enjoy the next part too! I look forward to the next stage and seeing where you go with this.