We finally decided that we want to pursue the idea of “heelless heels” as our business project. This decision came from our group’s passion and interests in fashion industry, and we were all inspired by the fact that many people blamed about wearing high heels during occasions such as proms and formal dinners, which we also struggled with. Therefore, I think that this topic is quite fun and worth pursuing, so that hopefully it will motivate us to persist on doing the project for a long time.
As a team, we have collaboratively discussed the targeted audiences, our vision and expectations of the products. Since we are only in group of three, it is easier for us to listen to each other and participate in the discussion, allowing everyone to have equal chance to contribute. Although we sometimes have different ideas, we can explain them clearly and then find out the better and more reasonable ones. I think this is the main advantage of working in small groups, that we have more time to put in actions instead of prolonged discussions and arguments.
During this process, I have become more aware of my strengths and areas of growth. Due to my passions on business, I have a solid understanding of various business concepts and can give advices on how we could make the products more attractive and some strategies we could apply. I am taking IB HL Business Management course, which I found to be very useful as I can apply the knowledge on the textbook to the real life project that we are doing. This solid academic foundation allows me to understand our business project better and think in a wider perspective. Nevertheless, I am also aware that my designing and practical working skills are limited, especially when it comes to making prototypes. I tried hard to make sense of mechanisms of our products how it will work in my mind, but when we were really making the prototypes, I found myself so confused that I couldn’t get my head around this. I think this is because that I am not used to transferring knowledge into geometric and visual forms, so that I make visual connections to the knowledge as a real product. However, it is actually a very important skill, so that I plan to improve my design and working skills through various ways: For example, I could build a Lego to improve my practical skills while having fun. I can also try to change the lightbulb by myself when it breaks etc. I think building practical working skills are very useful in daily life, and it could help me to become more independent as I can make things by my own according to my needs. This could also improve my creativity skills, because many inventions are inspired by daily lives.
Overall, I think this business project is a very interesting way of learning. Hope that we can actually make the products and sell them like an actual business!
LO1: AWARENESS (Increased awareness of strength and area of growth)
LO5: COLLABORATION (Working together to achieve an outcome)