1. Design Thinking Action Lab assignment
Empathize and Define
Description of stakeholders
Interviewees A and B have recently graduated and found work
A is in her early twenties and a recent marketing grad from large university
in the South of England. She performed reasonably well academically.
She works as a project manager at a large online publisher in the UK,
having previously done work experience with a small web design agency.
She is active on social media, and introduced Twitter to her previous
company. She is enthusiastic, polite and friendly, and an excellent team
player. Overall, she comes across as intelligent and is a very dedicated
employee.
B is a design grad from a week known specialist design university. She is
in her early twenties. She works as a mid level visual designer. She is
currently learning more design skills in additional to those learnt at
university. She is talented and efficient, and persists with a problem until
it's successfully solved. She is a very calm problem solver too. She
doesn't get impatient. She has an excellent eye for detail. She performed
very well academically, and in her internships before her current role. She
is well known and popular in her current office. She is friendly and funny,
but not afraid to speak her mind. She is well respected and she seen as
very mature for her age.
Interviewee C manages a small company, and has recently hired
graduates
C is in his late thirties, and is an experienced CTO of a medium sizes tech
company. The company is developing cutting edge tools for companies to
manage their advertising in social media. He performed very well
academically. He is also a consultant to the government because of his
success in a previous role. He is intelligent, analytical and pragmatic.
Not so single minded that he's inflexible, but he is very confident in his
ability to always find the best solution. He is friendly, helpful and polite. He
is also honest and direct. He has recently hired graduate programmers as
their business is growing.

2. SAY
A and B recently graduated and found work
1. A says there is no good way to find companies which are hiring at
the appropriate level of experience, offering good roles.
2. A does not know where to find information outside of the tried and
tested channels
3. A says there isn't enough information on importance of soft skills
(fitting in, approach, communication skills, etc.)
4. A says that the importance of good marks at university are
overstated.
5. A says that in big universities, grad fairs are not good as they are
attended by same companies over and over and everyone from
every class seems to attend.
6. A says her university was good compared to those attended by
some friends who struggled to find jobs.
7. A was surprised to learn about opportunities for
advancement outside of interning, e.g. learning more through
MOOGs, participating in relevant online communities or attending
free lectures.
8. A says it's harder to find work with 'fluffier' degrees. Marketing or
psychology students, for example, don't have a good way of
showing prospective employees their work.
9. A and B say that internships are key for two reasons
a. A says it looks good on the CV, showing successful
completion of relevant jobs to prospective employers
b. A and B say it gives recent grad valuable experience in the
workplace, crucial for building character, confidence and

3. developing real work skills.
10. A and B says they didn't get enough feedback on why
applications were not successful after interviews or from job
websites
11. A and B says there is no way of finding enough information
about the team or their prospective manager
12. A and B says that location is important in deciding what
career to follow, as smaller cities often don't offer many relevant
opportunities for some degrees.
13. B says friends have used specialist design recruiting sites
successfully
14. B says that some friends have found work through attending
Silicon Roundabout and other industry events
15. B says that if you do enough research, you will find
companies you want to apply to
C manages a small company
1. C says has no problem with availability and quantity of recent grads
regard to their computer science skills. Getting in touch with the
right people for the right role is difficult. Systems don't have that
facility. No one marketplace that can filter accurately to suit his
specific project or company needs.
2. C says a lack of education of where to go to make useful
connections appears to be on both sides (grads and
employers). Has no idea which services students are applying
through.
3. C wants a reliable marketplace. Assumes there is one somewhere.
Doesn't know it.
4. C says internships are too risky in a small company, doesn't want to
invest in someone who may not join the company in the end.

4. 5. C says you should hire a few and fire a few.
6. C suggests that grads try to get involved in the actual domain, like
doing open source projects. Bootstrapping is hard though, but it's
easy to be proactive in this industry. Says that in tech, students
who can't find jobs are not good prospects, given how easy it is to
demonstrate programming skills.
7. C says that universities charge to get access to their students, like
at grad fairs. This stops people hiring in small companies.

5. DO
A and B have recently graduated and found work
1. A applied to many generic websites
2. A didn't attend the university grad fairs
3. A used university connections to find work
4. A and B both interviewed with many companies
5. A and B both used the university placement/career programs
6. A and B both did internships
7. A and B used friends
8. B used Twitter to contact employers directly
9. B did research over time to identify prospective employers
10. B used Linkedin
11. B ensured that all their relevant work was available during
interviews, recent and archived (visual designs in sleeves)
Interviewee C manages a small company
1. During the interview, C has recent grads perform an element of the
programming job at stake. Sets a task to test their skills.
2. C often researches good interview practices.
3. C finds our where the best recent grads hang out (forums,
communities), then sneakily advertisers.
4. C avoids approaching universities as the costs are prohibitive

6. THINK
A and B have recently graduated and found work
1. A thinks that universities need to do more for their students.
2. A thinks that most well known websites are not useful. She thinks
they are not precise enough in matching employers and employees,
and there is no good feedback mechanism.
3. A believes those with work/internship experience on their CV
appear to be more attractive to employers.
4. A and B believe proactivity is still a useful approach.
5. A and B think that it would be useful to get feedback after
interviews.
6. B thinks that if you look efficiently, you will find the right employers.
C manages a small company
1. It makes sense to C that there should be a trusted marketplace for
both grads and employers, perhaps outside of control the traditional
third parties.
2. C thinks a good interview process should tests the right skills.
3. C thinks positive long term employment signals are vital important
during the interview and probation period.
4. C thinks domain knowledge allows him to find the best grads.
Recruiters won't have this knowledge.
5. C thinks new grads too inexperienced to know where to look for
work or to self organize enough to find creative methods to find
work.

7. FEELS
A and B have recently graduated and found work
1. A is not confident in herself to challenge more competitive grads
2. A was not confident at grad level to stand out from other grads
3. A feels that working experience has improved her character and
made her more confident in impressing during future interviews.
4. A wanted the university to make more effort in finding her work
5. B has always been confident in her work and ability, and therefore
was confident in finding a good job
6. B is more concerned with finding the right environment to express
herself
7. B was smart and confident enough to find and then to directly
contact prospective employers
8. B was only concerned by the efficiencies of job hunting systems,
only wanted to find the best one
9. Both A and B felt that while employers can use a probation period,
it's unfair that grads have to stick it out in horrible jobs or with bad
managers
C manages a small company
1. C knows it's important to find great employees, but will only employ
methods that appear to favour the employer.
2. C believes his approach is mutually beneficial in the long run given

8. that he thinks employees who can't cut it will be happier
somewhere else.
3. C is not afraid to terminate an employee during the probation period.
4. C presumes Comp Science grads need to be creative in how they
find prospective employers
5. C feels some intelligent grads are too arrogant in their own ability,
regardless of evidence presented to them during their initial working
experience that is contrary to their beliefs.
Problem Statement
Neither employers or graduates know of a trusted, broadly used service
that offers a specific enough match between opportunities from
employers and the graduates who would be most interested in those
opportunities.
Insights
The CTO used his domain knowledge to find where the most skilled grads
where congregating online, and approached them there. He had no
reliable other way of finding the right new grads outside of his current
network of contacts. He was looking for specialist skills and so could have
approached a university with a good specialist graduate program, but was
unwilling to pay the university, and therefore did not believe that they were
acting in the best interests of their graduates
The visual designer was proactive and diligent in her job search, using all
means at her disposal, but also had the benefit of a good grad placement
program. She believes that specialist design recruitments sites are good,
but she is said that no website that provided good feedback.
The marketing grad was the least proactive in her search, and her current
role was found more through chance than proactivity. She didn't benefit
from the same market knowledge and contacts from her university as the
designer though.