[OFFLINE] Real World Learning with Explorium

Summer 2020

OWN Academy’s Real World Learning is a career taster program designed to bridge classrooms to industries and for students to have a crash course in the professional fields. Each industry experience is designed and taught by a talented and passionate professional. Transfer their knowledge, share their crafts, and work with students on an authentic project to experience what it is like to work in the field.

Our programs focus on the disciplines of Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Environmental embedding the 21st-century skills of Imagination, Collaboration and Teamwork, Critical thinking, and Problem-solving.

SUMMER 2020

This summer, OWN Academy is collaborating with Explorium, the innovation academy of Li & Fung, on Real World Learning. Students will experience becoming a business consultant, learning the techniques, strategies, skills, and framework used by professionals.

The client students will be consulting for are two businesses owned by Li & Fung – Circle K and Toys R Us. At the start of the program, a brief will be given about the objective of the consultation, students will then be taught the design thinking framework, work in teams, do field research, prototype, test and formulate their ideas.

Throughout these two weeks, students will receive mentorship and coaching by business professionals and field trips are to be expected. At the end of the two weeks, the teams will pitch their best solutions back to the businesses for businesses to consider the implementation of students’ solutions.

We are looking for students who are independent, creative thinkers, bold, and ready to be challenged. This is unlike a regular summer school, it is similar to a work experience training and will require students to be self-directed and behave like a professional.

Students who complete this program will gain business acumen, learn how to think and work like a professional, strengthen critical thinking, deepen communication skills, and exercise non-academic creativity.

Program Duration: July 6 to July 17, 2020 (Monday to Friday)

Time: 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

Ages: 12 – 19 years old

Location: Explorium, LiFung Tower

868 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Sign Ups: Minimum 8 needed to start class and a maximum of 25 students.

What To Bring: Laptops, octopus cards, a sustainable water bottle.

Program Fee: $8,750 HKD / Student

Pair Sign Up discount: Sign up in pairs and get $200 HKD off per student

DELIVERY METHOD

The course is built to be offline with use of digital assets, laptop etc. Incase of online, virtual conferencing tool and digital facilitation tools will implemented as mentioned below.

Virtual conferencing tool, Zoom will be used to conduct the session. This allows for seamless conversations, team activities and client liaison.
Use of Digital workspace tool, Mural. Mural is a digital workspace for collaboration and brainstorming. Students will use this tool within their teams to collect notes, research, and ideas throughout the session.
Powerpoint templates: Most of the activities will sit on digital templates and frameworks and will be shared with students online on Zoom or Google Drive.

AGENDA

DAY	TOPIC	CONTENT	DELIVERY METHOD
DAY 1	Introduction: Set the foundation of the course, learn from case studies and hear from industry experts on a real-life creative problem	Intro to Design thinking Case examples by LiFung Team Bonding activity Brief delivery for students by Client (ToysRUs or CircleK) Intro to the company TRU/CircleK Share-back with consulting lessons Break into teams of 4-5 students	Online/Offline
DAY 2 & 3	EMPATHY: Dive into using empathy to understand customers better; techniques and mindsets	Introduction to Empathy and relevance in the delivering optimum customer experience to clients 3 Empathy Activities – Desktop research, *user interviews and immersion into real-life stores Research Data synthesis: Process what we read, heard, and observed. Look for common themes and patterns. Anything people love about the experience, anything they really dislike? Persona development: Identifying 2-3 personas of customers to make solutions for.	*In case of online session, user interviews will be conducted on Zoom, & immersion into stores can be done in student’s own neighbourhood in convenient areas.
Day 4	HOW MIGHT WE + IDEATION: Now that we know who our customers are, and a bit about what they like/dislike, we can start thinking a bit deeper about their needs, jobs-to-be-done, and other places that might fulfill these needs.	Introduction into “How Might We” statements Create ‘How Might We’ statement to frame an opportunity for customers. These statements set up potential solution spaces. Introduction into Brainstorming Brainstorming ideas: Finally, time to start brainstorming ideas for new or improved experiences, product or services for customers.	Online/Offline
Day 5	DEFINITION Group ideas and start prioritising them into those that would provide real impact for the user. Understand the difference between viable, feasible, desirable ideas in business.	Clustering of ideas and voting the best idea to prototype	Online/Offline
*End the week with a clear idea about the kind of experience we want to create.*
DAY 6 & 7	PROTOTYPE Learn the concept of rapid prototyping, iteration and testing of experiences, product or services in a real-life setting. Maximise feedback and learning.	Introduction to prototyping and importance of ‘fail fast, fail often’ Create prototypes, whether physical models, app, service, or role-play. Test your prototypes with Explorium team to get feedback. Iterate and improve your prototypes Taking the prototype to actual users. (Can be friends, people from Explorium, actual customers at the store.)	*If online, students will be asked to work remotely in their teams to finish creating prototypes. Testing of the prototypes can be done online on Zoom.
DAY 8	BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS	Introduction to Business Model Canvas template Think about the 'service blueprint' and user journey(s) around your prototypes	Offline/Online
Day 9	STORYTELLING / PITCHING Learn to create a compelling pitch-deck of your solution and the art of storytelling your ideas to clients.Content 7	Introduction to ‘Creating an effective Pitch’ Create your pitch-deck and outline market potential. (Optional) Create a short video to support your solution. Test your pitch with facilitators	Offline/Online
DAY 10	FINAL PITCH PRESENTATIONS	Present Pitches to a panel consisting of the client, facilitator as well as Explorium innovation team and get feedback. Students will also be asked to give their own feedback on new customer pain-points discovered and ideas on improving customer experience to incorporate an idea of reverse mentoring.	Offline/Online
*End of camp! Walk away with great connections and friends*

MEET YOUR FACILITATORS

Content Delivery: Mikkel Hansen, Explorium Hong Kong

Mikkel Hansen connects creative and commercial methodologies as an innovation consultant specialized in transformation — mostly within lifestyle categories.

He currently leads program innovation at Explorium HK, the ‘collaboration hub’ of the Fung Group conglomerate. At Explorium, a global network of tech startups, VCs, corporates, and a network of innovators are brought together, in order to build programs that create new opportunities in retail, logistics, and other areas of the fashion value chain.

Mikkel has previously worked with customer and employee experience implementation, brand strategy, and business design for numerous major lifestyle brands, startups, and social enterprises in New York, London, Paris, Singapore, and, now, Hong Kong.

Education: MBA (luxury brand management) from HEC Paris; MA (innovation) from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London; BA (media-sociology) Hunter College, New York City.

Facilitator: Sunhera Cariappa, Founder & Design Consultant, Feel Good Design

Sunhera has over 9+ years of experience in using design as a strategic and visual tool to impact products, services and environments on a humanized level.

She is passionate about understanding problems through careful observation and rapidly prototyping ideas to solve relevant needs. Her strengths lie in synthesizing research and uncovering unique insights and directions to inform and inspire design solutions.

Most recently, she has been designing platforms and programs to enable a culture of innovation at the Fung Group with the objectives of implementing a design-thinking approach to product development, new business models, collaborations and culture change. She has facilitated over 50 Design Thinking & Innovation workshops across Global Fung offices in India, Bangladesh, New York, Hong Kong and China.

Sunhera also holds a Master’s degree in Design Practices with specialisation in Design Research and Service Design from the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

**First 8 people who sign up get 5% off ($8,312.5 HKD ) (pair discount does not apply for the first 8)

Note: Students who win the online competition, Real World Challenge, will receive a complimentary spot for this program.

***Due to potential unforeseen factors such as the summer weather or protest in Hong Kong, we have created this offline program with the ability to transition seamlessly online when needed.

We will keep the physical location available at all times, so if students are unable to join us offline, students can join us online. As a result, we will not cancel any days of the program and will run the full program.

If Typhoon 8 or Black Rain signal is hoisted, a decision will be made by 8:00 AM on the day about the physical attendance and parents will be notified and we will transition online.

Any days where students fail to attend the program either offline or online will not be refunded.