Week 3 - Choose a problem (11-18\11)

Focusing on 3 leading issues, continuing research and interviews with experts, and formulating a naive initial persona.

“Good research is to see what everybody else has seen, and think what nobody else has thought”

(Albert Szent-Gyorgyi)

This week we had to focus on 1 main domain of the two that were brought up in discussions the previous week. Following the insights, we drew from the interviews, we believed that the domain of Dogs should be continued.

We were sent to conduct additional interviews with experts to delve deeper into the field in order to identify and focus on 3 key issues that emerge from the research.

The 4 main problems highlighted in the study:

1. There is no match between the character of the dog and the owner in the stages of dog selection or adoption.

2. There is not enough awareness and information about what it takes to raise a dog (financially, medically, training, etc).

3. There is a need to find a playmate when walking the dog.

4. Need to understand the behavior of the dog in terms of needs, desires, and body language.

Furthermore, this week we interviewed 3 more experts - a veterinarian, veterinary student and administrative director, for over 8 years, at the "Let the Animals Live" organization.

Additional insights that emerged from the interviews:

- The misunderstanding between the dog and its owner is usually due to communication - that is, due to a failure in the explanation given to the owner, the important points were not emphasized enough or the owner may not have understood what was said.

- The failure to understand the owner about vital details about his dog can be eradicated by a process that includes an in-depth, patient explanation, tailored to the person specifically, including and including analogies from the owner's worlds of occupation.

- Dog care is a complex and necessary subject to know what the process is before a person enters it.

- There are many cases where people refuse medical care for the dog due to its cost. This is due to a lack of understanding of the importance and lack of budget base required before entering the process.

- There is a widespread phenomenon whereby dog ​​owners tend to attribute human traits to their animals, thus drawing erroneous conclusions about the desires and needs of their dogs.

- The process that a person who wants to adopt an animal goes through is minimalist and unsatisfactory.

To sum up the week, we met all the team members for a video chat in Zoom, to discuss the main problem that stood out in all the interviews with the experts. The main problem is: the lack of awareness between what people tend to think is involved in the process of raising a dog, and how it actually is. Following this, we prepared an initial draft of a naive persona based on a synthesis of the leading topics raised in the last two weeks in the various interviews.

Attached is a copy of the persona:

Week 2 - Become Experts In Our Domain (04-11\11)

The first acquaintance with group members and brainstorming around the issue of transparency while focusing on 2-3 domains.

“ Creativity is contagious - pass it on”

(Albert Einstein)

This week we officially started the project. At the beginning, we met for the first time, all five members of the group for a zoom video call, in the center of which we exchanged impressions, came up with ideas and brainstormed, to focus on a limited number of possible domains that communicate transparency, emphasizing personal connection, passion and feasibility.

At the end of the session, the selected domains were:

1. Financial Education.

2. Areas of employment.

3. Kindergarten education.

4. Working from home.

After selecting the domains, we were asked to go out and look for experts in the selected fields and conduct interviews to delve deeper into the field and identify the main points of pain and needs in each of them.

We met again for a zoom call in order to set schedules and assign tasks for the effective execution of the task. Each team member was asked to look for an expert who might be suitable for the selected areas and we pre-defined that in about three days we would meet again, to understand where we stand and calculate our steps forward.

Change In Plans

Three days later we had another zoom call that lasted about an hour and a half. This meeting was critical and essential to the continuation of the process. During the conversation each group member brought up his feelings and the impressions he received about the domains after the personal inquiry. Finally, we decided to make a change in the selected domains, emphasizing the connection of the group members to each issue and the common belief in finding the right domain for us, as a group. The final domain selected was: Animals & Pets.

The Interviews

We first conducted 3 interviews in total: In the field of animals we interviewed a dog trainer and a dog owner. In the field of travel culture we interviewed an inspector at the Nature and Parks Authority, In order to streamline the work processes we divided the responsibility evenly among the group members.

The insights gained from the interviews:

- There is a misunderstanding between what you think involves raising a pet and how it actually works.

- Owners need to understand the language to get to the dog and this is the way to create a better life routine for this transparency.

- Even though there are many pet training institutions, there is a failure in supervision and organization while avoiding the use of established and reliable methods.

- According to the interviewee, the correct dog training process is based on positive communication that is created from understanding the dog's body language and relies on scientific learning theories that provide a basis and evidence for this. According to her, people are unfamiliar or unaware of the variety of methods and their effectiveness and are content to search for unfounded articles that may write mostly false and misleading information.

Week 1 - Exploring The Different Aspects Of Transparency (28\10 - 4\11)

Inspiration, Division Into Groups And Getting Starting.

This week we were exposed for the first time to the main theme of the annual project: the value of transparency and the "double diamond" model that will guide us in work practice.

Different Aspects Of Transparency

“ Explore the different aspects of transparency and submit a one-page report of your findings with relevant links.”

Each group member was asked to search and research existing cases and examples in the market, which were aimed at implementing the value of transparency while examining the issue in depth in various aspects. We were exposed to a number of examples such as:

Mine - Your Smart Data Assistant

A product of the Israeli start-up company, whose goal is to enable users to regain control of personal information and allow them to delete the information from the hands of various foreign parties.

“ 94% of consumers, tend to be more loyal to brands that are committed to full transparency. While almost 40% indicated that they would pursue new brands, to achieve increased transparency.”

Engie The Israeli start-up company offers a tiny component that connects to the vehicle and provides the customer with monitoring of the condition of the vehicle into an app on the smartphone thus, the service is accessible and reflects the user in a convenient, friendly, and clear manner.

Me

An Israeli app that enables the identification of unknown phone numbers. By joining “Me” users let the naming of their contact list be transparent to other users, and as a result, the users gain the transparency of caller identity, which has numerous benefits as well as avoiding spam calls

SHEIN Expressing transparency for its customers by emphasizing the production processes, logistics, quality assurance, deliveries, customer service, and taking sole responsibility for every product that is offered for purchase on the site.

HaMagen

An app that is endorsed by the Ministry of Health. It can tell you have been in the presence of anyone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus.

The app cross-checks the GPS history of your mobile phone with historical geographic data of patients from the Ministry of Health.

All of these are just some of the findings that were raised in the initial research we conducted, intending to deepen and get to know more about the modern environment that is increasingly strengthening the value of transparency and access to information.