These pretty cool cats are my team. Clockwise from the left: Megha, Lucas, Me, Johnny
It’s quite a bit harder to sit down and brainstorm a fabulous idea for a startup – for me anyway – but I sat and I sat, twiddling my thumbs, until I could put pen to paper with some ideas. After I stopped being so overly critical towards my thoughts, I wrote down some ideas, anything that came to mind. I jetted off the Edinburgh for a weekend and when I returned, feeling somewhat refreshed, I met with my group for our ‘Designing a Business’ module and we went over our ideas until we had boiled it down to one we thought might really work. It was a book, not a novel or a poetry collection, but a little business guide. However, we quickly realised this idea was perhaps too large for our project, so we went back to the drawing board. I realise I am not describing much about the book idea and that’s because it’s something I think I might pursue when this course is done and dusted!
What MACE has taught us, as a class and as individuals is how to think critically in these situations; How to apply to Design Thinking. I sat with my group in the foyer of the Knight’s Park campus and we thought about solving problems and a few ideas were shared, but nothing had really clicked.
UNTIL…
Megha’s first prototype!
Megha came up with the brilliant idea of creating an ergonomic grip or handle that helps evenly distributes the weight of sore and annoying shopping bag handles by fitting snuggly in your palm. It almost has a little channel in the middle, so the handles can fit in, without sliding off. A simple idea, but glorious as well. It solves a problem, whilst remaining discreet and stylish because it’s handmade from wood. Rather than my continuous waffle, trying to explain and define what exactly this product is, I will post pictures of our first prototypes. Now, I am not a skilled craftsman/craftswoman(?), but luckily Megha (being a sassy product designer) and Johnny also being good with woodwork, meant we could get some prototypes made really quickly.
SO, over the last few weeks we have been shaping our business into something sustainable, personable and most of all, into something we see success in. The name for this product is Helping Hands, which I proudly say I came up with. It makes perfect sense for the product. It’s cute and represents what we are trying to sell. We’ve come along way since we began and it’s been an amazing personal journey as well as a group one and I couldn’t be happier or more proud of my new friends.
I would like to share more about our product, Helping Hands, but I don’t want to reveal too much at this stage until some of the particulars have been finalised, sooooo… watch this space!
Hannah's Growing Up 