The define process started off rocky for our group. Southwest from the beginning seemed like it could be a difficult company to develop a sustainability model/pitch an idea for because airlines are large, and, in my mind, are inherently unsustainable (when we first started this project my idea of sustainability was limited to the environment, so going off of that, planes are incredibly wasteful).
The persona was difficult to develop because air travel is an every man’s adventure. We originally had three personas: a businessman, a mom or two, and a millennial. Once we talked about it, we came to a consensus. As stated earlier, and for Southwest specifically, airlines need to improve upon their environmental impact. Millennials especially are the demographic most concerned currently about the future of the environment, and we thought that would be the perfect persona to target with our sustainability pitch.
The ‘How Might We…’ statements were also easy. As a group, we were able to come up with many HMW ideas and pare those down quickly as well. We settled on a couple that I am really excited about.
Group work, in general, is difficult. It is hard for everyone to pull the same amount, to reach a consensus on ideas, and find times for everyone to get together and work on the project. I have been in many groups where reaching a consensus took the majority of the time, and this time I didn’t feel that was a problem. I like the process of everyone fielding their own individual ideas without anyone else’s input, and then discussing them. It creates a judgment-free zone and also saves time.