On the 17th of July, the University Alliances Team - France hosted a great “young thinkers” session in Levallois, France. It took place at SAP labs Paris who kindly lend its facilities (Design Thinking rooms) to perform this event.
The participants: 16 children (SAP colleagues) who first accepted to experiment a “Design Thinking for Children” session were present.
The children arrived at 9.00 and were offered UA tee-shirts. The coaches briefly explained the methodology (Design Thinking approach adapted for children) and program of the day.
The children were first proposed a “chamallow challenge” wake up where they could demonstrate their creativity, and imagination to solve the problem.
Once the basic concepts were presented, it was time to get to know the challenge of the day !!
The children were proposed a unique challenge that is “live one week without any screen”
They started to think about all the screens which would suddenly disappear from their daily environment and all the problems that would consequently occur….
Again, answers, post it and ideas impressed positively the coaches.
The coaches Silvia NAUERMANN, Virginie DEMONET, Aurélie URBAIN, Mélina VERGER worked very dynamically with each of their team helping them to get the most out of the challenge.
Design Thinking !!!
Then, the children started to think about questions they would ask to our colleagues and conducted interviews in the building to get their feedback on the topic.
After a brilliant debriefing, they started the solution space part in order to create the prototype of the future.
The children were again very creative and let their imagination go on several concepts with nearly no financial nor technical restriction.
They mainly choose to orientate their creation through “wild ideas” and built very original and unexpected prototypes with careful guidance from their coaches.
Presentation Time:
By the end of the afternoon children were asked to stop working and present their final prototypes and functionalities associated to it.
For evaluating the presentations, we invited 3 special guests for becoming the jury of that afternoon.
This Jury was composed by :
- Gwendoline TABOURIN
- Assia MOULOUDI
- Johan RAFFIN
Children gave wonderful presentations, impressed the jury with their enthusiasm, spontaneity and creativity. They appreciated this session very much and gave very positive feedback.
It was amazing to see how in 1 day, all children could imagine and create around the topic proposed.
And the Winner is?
After a long discussion, the jury awarded 4 special prices to the 4 teams:
- The most innovative concept
- The most original concept
- The most viable concept
- The most connected concept
This new young Thinkers experience was great, not only for participants but also organizers who both enjoyed this discovery journey very much.
Special Thanks:
Design Thinking coaches
- Silvia NAUERMANN
- Virginie DEMONET
- Aurélie URBAIN
- Melina Verger
Jury members
- Gwendoline TABOURIN
- Assia MOULOUDI
- Johan RAFFIN
Thank you very much everyone for your effort and enthusiasm! We are hoping to do it again!!
University Alliances Team - France & Maghreb