Clarify & Converge
During the Clarifying & Converging stage, the team attempts to make sense of and coalesce the data and insights generated during the Discovery phase. Gentle guardrails are applied to the information to lead to a central team question.
“I Wish”
Design thinkers have realized that one of the easiest way to crystalize a team’s point of view on a design challenge is to leap from sense making with simple “I wish” statements. These make the transition to the team’s central question much easier to suss out.
Team members wrote as many post-its as they could develop within the limited time frame, and posted them on a common board, explaining each as they added them. While this was happening, the facilitator gathered (or converged) the “I Wish” post-its into common shared theme areas on the board.
Key realizations from Table 5 included:
- Access to the arts is closely tied to DEI work that is needed in the arts.
- Funding for the arts needs to not only include organizations that create art but compensation for artists themselves.
- They had a desire to create a community meeting setting that was non-digital.
- What Do You Wish?
Go to our “I Wish” page to see a smattering of the wishes that were shared during this event, and add your own wish on this subject!
Dot Voting
This sharing was then Dot Voted by all table participants (each participant was given 3 dots to use to vote wherever they favored an idea), resulting in 2 focus statements to take forward: “If you can successfully create an inclusive hybrid model emphasizing in-person interaction, then artists can be better compensated.” and “Tied to fair compensation is protections around intellectual property for the artist.”
Central Question
Finally, it was a simple step to take their passionate aspirational “wish” and convert it into and actionable design challenge, by replacing “I wish” with “How might we…” In that, each team was able to form their own central question within the overall central question, and was excited and prepared to ideate on a challenge that they themselves defined and owned.
This work led to the central question for Table 5: “How might we design an inclusive hybrid model that elevates and amplifies the artists’ compensation and art in both modalities?”
