Brief: Design a way for people to manage complex risk together
This week, our primary aim was to narrow down our focus from our brief to an area we could develop into an outcome. The area we found most interesting was in the field of artificial intelligence, as it combined our desire to look speculatively towards the future with a risk that very much exists in the present, allowing us to ground our more extravagant ideas in something real.
Primarily, we focused our attention on a literature review, which we conducted as a group of 8 rather than the 2 smaller groups we will be presenting our outcome in. I would have not wanted to take this approach in a shorter brief, as the need to reach decisions by committee greatly slowed down our ability to change creative direction, but with the luxury of time dedicated to research we were able to cover a significantly higher amount of ground.
When we presented our research, we received the following feedback:
- We’re drifting heavily away from where AXA would expect us to be, developing products very unaligned with their goals (N.B. this was not a concern for us, as AXA had specified in meetings that they did not want to be seen as clients, and that whatever we made should conform more to the brief than to their goals)
- “Managing risk” is a very ambiguous phrase, that could refer to minimising damage, preventing any harm at all, or simply existing alongside it – perhaps we could focus on narrowing our aims to something more concrete
As the first week of a five week brief, I did feel frustrated that we were not immediately constructing a version of our outcomes, and so this week felt significantly slower. However, in the long term, I do think this is a very viable way to spend our time, and so it will take some adjusting to our new schedule.
Harry Solomons 