Essay on impacts and outcomes of COVID-19

1. Introduction

Welcome to week 10. This session is dedicated to your final assessments. This is because this assessment is worth 50% and as such, we believe is worthy of a week dedicated to it. The information discussed last week and this week, in conjunction with your own research means that your essay should be starting to take shape. As a starting point*, have a look at these resources to help support your contentions according to the scenario you select.

• Scenario 1: Sports team relationships
• Scenario 2: Charity situation

*This is just a starting point, there are plenty resources out there but you also have to apply solutions based on Design Thinking principles. 

2. Individual Essay - Assessment Details

• Due Date: Sunday 11:59pm (AEDT) -  Week 6
• Value: 50% of final grade (a lot, so recommend doing it well)
• Word count: 2,000 (+-10%)
• Submit: Via Turnitin link

3. Instructions

3.1. Description and Purpose

Success amid salient global trends in business and society has emphasised the need to develop various skill sets. One of these skills is that of design thinking. Design thinking is a crucial user-centric approach, aiming to produce effective solutions that meet social and business needs. 

The purpose of this task is to use design thinking processes and its application to impacts and outcomes of COVID-19 as well as reflect on the process of using design thinking as you move forward with your careers. Students must consider their learning experience, and the successful (or unsuccessful) application of design thinking to overcome the challenges of COVID-19. 

This reflection should demonstrate understanding of key concepts and consider the effectiveness of application to one of the two scenarios outlined in the next chapter. In addition, students should reflect upon how these skills may apply to their future career and include critical self-analysis of the personal development connected to their own strengths and weaknesses.

3. Instructions

3.2. Scenarios

Scenario 1: 

COVID-19 has again stopped most professional sports globally. This means that fans are unable to watch their favourite team on television or attend matches. This presents a big problem to professional sport teams as they rely on this to generate much needed revenue and to develop long-lasting relationships with fans. Given this major issue, you have been hired as consultant by Manchester United to provide solutions to help them deal with this. Using design thinking theory and application, demonstrate how Manchester United can appropriately deal with this issue and ensure that the relationship between themselves and fans is not overly impacted by COVID-19? 

Scenario 2: 

The impact of COVID-19 on charities has been staggering. Not only are charities unable to service the clients that need their help, but the impact of COVID-19 on discretionary income has meant that donations have also been dramatically reduced. Solving these two issues are pertinent to charities so they can survive and service those in need. Given the above, Homelessness Australia, the national peak body for homelessness in Australia has asked you to provide some ideas to help overcome one or both of these issues (i.e. lack of client service and/or decrease in donations). Using design thinking principles, provide various options for Homelessness Australia to ensure they can maintain their service offerings to those in need.

Hint: Select the scenario that mostly aligns with your interests and/or career choice

3. Instructions

3.3. Steps

Step 1: Select one of two scenarios to address

Step 2: Discuss and apply design thinking principles to the problem(s) 

Step 3: Reflect on the process of using design thinking and how you will take these principles with you into the workforce

Steps 2 & 3 will be discussed in more detail in the next chapters

3.4. Step 2 - Design Thinking

Design Thinking Recap

Design Thinking is a method used to solve problems, mostly through innovative solutions. Used to (to name a few):

• Create new products/services
• Design innovative systems
• Benefit society

You can read more about Design thinking from last week

Design Thinking Model

We covered 4 models of Design Thinking in topic 9 with a focus on the Stanford Model. This is because the Stanford Model will form the theoretical base of your essay: