Pre-expectations varied - but attitude was a key factor
Students' expectations of InnoFlash varied. "The pre-course exercises were nice, especially the personality tests. However, it was kind of nervous because I knew in advance that it would be an intense week, but I didn't really know what to expect," said nursing student Alyssa.
A second student described the beginning of the InnoFlash week as a source of doubt. "My expectations were low because I had heard stories about InnoFlash beforehand from other students and from social media," revealed Santeri, who is studying business administration.
"I was quite calm about the week; it's a compulsory course that you just have to do during your studies. I feel that even in working life, not all jobs are pleasant, but you still have to do them," said Sami, who is studying for a BIT degree in Business Administration.
Many students pointed out the importance of their own attitude. "If you think a course is terrible, it probably is. If you have the attitude that this is going to be fun, you'll have a better starting point for the week and teamwork," said Silja, who is studying Civil and Municipal Engineering.
InnoFlash's main lessons for students focused on how to interact with customers and how to work in a team
No one was familiar with the fields of assignments beforehand, which created a similar starting point for all students to learn something new. However, the students were positively surprised during the week, and most of the students who responded to the interviews found the week rewarding and interesting. In particular, the customer interviews came up in the speeches of many interviewees as lessons from the course, being a new and exciting experience for many students.
"Talking to strangers and interviewing them felt difficult at first, but was really teachable. We interviewed people on the street. Pretty quickly I learned how to start a conversation so that people stay to talk. 'Do you have a minute to help with school work' worked well as an icebreaker," said Jyri, who is studying to become an IT engineer.
"Conducting interviews at this scale and under time pressure was new and gave me a lot of experience. I was surprised how much the ideas and process would have differed if we hadn't done the interviews," said Alyssa.
Although not everyone was as enthusiastic about group work at first, by the end of the week, students reported being happy with what they had achieved as a group. Many students said that the group dynamic had a big impact on how the week turned out.
"The results of the week and how you feel about InnoFlash are very much affected by the group. Even one negative group member can affect the spirit and attitude of the whole group. We were lucky to have a very good group, where everyone had the attitude that we will finish this task together," Silja said. As the week progressed, the students' experiences became more positive, even for the most sceptical participants.
Although many disciplines involve a lot of group work, multidisciplinary teamwork is different from what students are used to.
"For me, my background in team sports definitely helped with teamwork," said Julius, who is studying civil and environmental engineering.
Students believe that teamwork skills are crucial in working life
Students also reflect on how the skills they learned during the week could be used in their future studies or working life. Many stressed the importance of teamwork and a customer-oriented approach to future challenges in their field.
"As a nurse, you have to collaborate a lot with many different people from many different fields on a daily basis. In addition, a customer-oriented approach and empathy are important in the work of a nurse. I believe that innovation tools are also useful in the healthcare sector, because there is a lot of room for improvement in this area. In addition, during the InnoFlash week I was a team leader, which is not the most natural role for me, but it gave me a lot of valuable experience, and it was also very developmental in that sense," said Alyssa. Isa, a physiotherapy student, also highlighted the multidisciplinary nature of her field: "I feel that there is a lot of talk about multidisciplinary cooperation."
Sami, who is studying game business, was the most sceptical about multidisciplinarity: "Customer-oriented development is also important in the game industry, and customers' opinions are listened to, because in the end it is the customers who vote with their feet and whether to buy a game. Teamwork and team management skills are also important, as games are often developed in teams. However, in my experience in the games industry, teams are mainly made up of people from the same field."
There were also some sceptical thoughts about customer-oriented development from Isa, who is studying civil engineering: "The methods of brainstorming and customer personas were useful, but I doubt that there is time in working life to listen to customers' wishes and do client personal descriptions."
Some useful advice for incoming students:
- Go to InnoFlash week with an open mind. You don't need to know in advance what will happen.
- Decide beforehand that it will be a fun week and that you will get along with the group - this way your own attitude will be good from the start, and you will influence the attitude of the rest of the group. Not everyone has to do everything, as long as the workload is evenly distributed in the end.
- Interviews should be carefully planned in advance.
- The best situation to approach an interviewee is when the other person wants to help. Tell them that it is a school assignment. Interviews can be arranged so that everyone does at least one more challenging interview to gain experience, and then the other interviews can be easier.
The assignments to be solved during the InnoFlash course are collected from working life and the assignment opportunity can be winked at, for example, at your own workplace or internship! Read more about being an assignor.
