{"id":14862,"date":"2016-02-23T14:29:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T14:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?p=14862"},"modified":"2016-02-23T14:29:12","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T14:29:12","slug":"prototyping-detachment-and-why-a-jv-has-the-makings-of-a-design-thinker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/prototyping-detachment-and-why-a-jv-has-the-makings-of-a-design-thinker\/","title":{"rendered":"Prototyping, Detachment, and Why a JV Has the Makings of a Design Thinker"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post goes out to my JVs (Jesuit Volunteers) and why they\u2019d be great design thinkers (and hence should apply to Challenge Detroit).<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been shy about integrating my work and my faith, so here goes, I\u2019m going to connect design thinking with values I learned from my year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC). When I\u00a0entered a year of service with JVC, I knew I would be impacted for life as I sought to\u00a0better understand their core values,\u00a0simple living, social justice, community, and spirituality.\u00a0In delving into these values, I gained deeper knowledge about listening, ministry of presence, imaginative\/contemplative prayer, and the link between freedom and detachment.\u00a0These values and styles of prayer, rooted in Ignatian spirituality, assist us in becoming \u2018contemplatives in action.\u2019 They\u2019ve also helped me on my quest to become an expert design thinker.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For those unfamiliar, design thinking consists of six steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and iterate. Design-thinking shifts problem-solving from an impersonal effort to a human-centered experience. In becoming a better empathizer<\/strong>, ideator<\/strong>, and prototyper<\/strong>, I\u2019ve found myself incorporating aspects of my spiritual life to design better.<\/p>\n

Empathy:<\/strong> The practice of empathy\u00a0is probably the easiest connection to make to Ignatian values. In JVC, we heard over and over again to try and \u201cmeet others where they are at\u201d and truly listen. In empathizing, it is important to put aside your bias and focus on the user\u2019s needs and struggles. You aren\u2019t designing for you; you are desiging\u00a0for the human user. Their needs are more important than your biases.<\/p>\n

Ideate:<\/strong> Imaginative prayer is a huge style of prayer championed by St. Ignatius and adopted by the Jesuits. In imaginative prayer, you pick a person from a Scripture story and imagine yourself in the story. Not only are you empathizing, but, for a few minutes,\u00a0 you are\u00a0stepping out of the world, into an unbounded reality. In ideation, for\u00a0a few minutes also,\u00a0you suspend reality and come up with as many ideas-big, small, crazy, normal, out-of-this-world, whatever-as you can to aid the user in solving a problem. A good ideator needs a good imagination-the ability to put themselves in the user\u2019s shoes and imagine new solutions.<\/p>\n

Prototyping:<\/strong> Aside from the JV\u2019s typical love of crafting and feeling like a kindergartener, the Ignatian value of detachment assists greatly in the prototyping phase. When you start building an idea out, it is hard not to become attached to your idea. You start pitching it, instead of listening. Just as quickly as you imagined solutions in ideation, you need to step away and let go of your ideas. It\u2019s time to refine and test, and attachment is a huge barrier to success through this step. Jesuits teach detachment so we can reach our full capacity to love and serve. It just happens to make good prototypers too.<\/p>\n

There you have it: why a JV has the makings of a great design thinker.\u00a0Here’s\u00a0the part of the post\u00a0where I disclaim this being the view of Challenge Detroit and Jesuit Volunteer Corps and assert this is just my opinion. So, yes,\u00a0this is my opinion. It\u2019s my opinion that FJVs are well on their way to being expert empathizers, ideators, prototypers, and hence-design thinkers. Y\u2019all should apply to Challenge Detroit.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

P.S.- For those unfamiliar with Ignatian spirituality and the Jesuits and want to learn more, I’d highly recommend The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything<\/em> by Reverend James Martin, SJ.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post goes out to my JVs (Jesuit Volunteers) and why they\u2019d be great design thinkers (and hence should apply to Challenge Detroit). I\u2019ve never been shy about integrating my work and my faith, so here goes, I\u2019m going to connect design thinking with values I learned from my year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}