A study shows that, in average, a person in the 10% of the poorer population, would possibly take 9 generations to leave the current situation and reach the country's average income. In this poorer population, 78% are black men and women.
How can technology help this population to reach a higher position in society in a shorter period of time?
The question above was our challenge during a Design Thinking session promoted by Ethnicities@SAP group during our People Weeks at SAP Labs Latin America.
Design thinking helps us to solve problems or challenges in creative way, always considering the user's or person's needs, so, it's a human-centered approach and I would say that in our challenge empathy was our main tool.
During our discussions we tried first to understand the possible reasons for this reality in our country(this may also happens in other countries, but our focus was in Brazil) and then, we came up with some interesting and out of the box ideas. Our working hours passed very fast, all the colleagues who joined the session were very motivated and engaged.
Our task is not completely finished, we are planning to have an additional session to refine our prototypes.
But, refining our prototypes is not the only reason why our job is not done yet. After our session I am confident that everyone left the room reflecting about what can "I" do for problems like this one around me? This is a everyday exercise and with this spirit, human touch and empathy I am sure that our session was a success. This way, somehow we are doing our part and following our company's purpose to help the world run better and improve people’s lives.
Last, but not least, as said by Paul Shane Spear: "
As one person I cannot change the world, but I can change the world of one person".
And this is exactly how we felt after the session! We can make the difference for a better world!
henrique.santos3, from Ethnicities@SAP, thanks a lot for bringing this topic for the People Weeks' agenda and also for invitation to work as a Design Thinking Coach with my colleague
douglas.rohmann.
I really loved to work on this session!
I would like also to thank all the colleagues who joined the session: Matheus Souza, Daniela Oliveira, Raquel Ramos, Rafael Lawisch, Juliana Warken and Rachel Lyra, You Rock!
Now I would like to challenge my colleague
henrique.santos3 to create a new blog post telling more about the Ethnicities@SAP group and also about how was his experience during this session.
Thanks a lot for SAP Labs Latin America, this is really a wonderful place to work!