Sympathy for the Intern: an intro post

Sympathy for the Intern: an intro post

Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of unconventional taste. I am not the stereotypical Boothie, I have not recruited for banking nor management consulting. I do not understand NFL’s rules and do not live in MPP. So, if you expect to learn about Wall Street networking, I am sorry to disappoint you. I will be sharing my experiences at Booth from the eyes of a passionate nerd. Often enough, I will be writing about the Soccer Club, off-campus recruiting, life as an international student, the social scene, Innovation Consulting, Random Walk, long-distance relationships, and food.

Let’s start with my summer internship. Outside the fogged windowpanes of my office, Madrid is a 105°F oven. While people are taking their daily siestas, I am working at the biggest strategic design consultancy in Europe, Designit. But wait, what does ‘strategic design consulting’ even mean?! In a nutshell, it is a specific type of consulting that uses design-thinking tools to drive innovation. These consultancies develop new products, services, experiences and business models, using a creative user-centered process.

As a Business Designer, it is my job to help clients grow by crafting new business models that meet consumer’s needs and expectations. I am working on a project with a top British bank related to car finance. For research purposes, we travelled to London to interview car buyers, dealers, fleet managers and our client’s c-suite stakeholders. I even walked into a showroom pretending to be a car buyer!

Using all the gathered insights, we began to ideate potential solutions. For one week, our interdisciplinary team was locked up in a room plastered with post-it notes, brainstorming about the future of the automobile industry. It was pretty intense.

sala designit

Next, we depurated all the ideas to create four different scenarios. Here is when all the stuff that I learned at Booth became handy. We designed different business strategies, modeling them on to a spreadsheet. We also walked through the user journey, understanding how our client could deliver a better customer experience.

In the upcoming days, we will present our work to the client and co-create a refined solution. I look forward to seeing what comes out of that session!

Now the summer internship is almost over, it is about time to go back to Chicago… just for a few days before heading to Japan for my Random Walk! Will keep you posted.

Pleased to meet you,

Madrid w/mauro

London Boothies