The first appearance, on Tuesday, February 12, 2008, I was asked to facilitate and guide a brainstorming session for the new direction of research for the department of Design Engineering at the TU Delft’s Faculty of Design Engineering. This session came as a direct result from my previous work for the research visitation, and mostly consisted of introducing the different perspectives on the research, plus facilitating a discussion between the different researchers on the commonalities of their research.
The second appearance, on Friday, February 15, 2008, was related to a real-world example of using contextmapping to get insights and empathy with a target group. In this case my task was to present and facilitate discussion on the results of several research projects by a large Dutch insurance company to find out what moves and shakes their target group.
At the end of this week it was clear that the only thing that prepared me for the unexpected reactions of these diverse crowds is my experience of playing in dramas and theatre. Then again, these unexpected reactions have always been part of my fascination for people using products.
