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.
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,
