“Everyone says so, so it must be true” Quiz (10 minutes)

Goal: Use your critical thinking to answer the maximum number of questions on the quiz.

In your groups, start with a quiz called “Everyone says so, so it must be true” here.

1. Go to the link and answer as many questions as you can in 10 min.
2. The group should agree on what is the right answer, without long discussions.
3. The goal is to answer as many questions as possible in this short time.

Developing the ultimate chocolate bar (25 minutes)

Goal: To use critical thinking skills

For the next exercise, you will use critical thinking skills to develop the ultimate chocolate bar. The goal of the activity is to create the most appealing/attractive chocolate bar for your customer.

Instructions

1. Stay in the same groups of 4
2. One person is the creator of the chocolate bar and the rest of the group are the customers/users
3. There are 4 steps to the exercise.

Step 1

• Set a timer for 3 minutes.
• The creator thinks of an example of the most appealing chocolate bar and writes all the aspects of their chocolate bar down.

Step 2

• The creator has 1 minute to present the chocolate bar to the customers/users.
• The customers can give feedback or comment on the chocolate bar, maximum 5 minutes

Step 3

• Based on the feedback/comments to the creator will redesign their chocolate bar for another 3 minutes.

Repeat step 2

Reflect on the exercise (25 minutes)

Goal: Reflect on the learning of today’s session

Organise the cohort in a big circle for the reflection.

Creator to share

• How did you decide how to design your chocolate bar in each phase? How did you measure the value of the chocolate bar to the customer each time to make improvements? 
• Every creator can share, but if everyone already said your ideas, you are welcome to pass to avoid repetitive discussion

Customers to share

• What influenced your recommendations? What were the aspects of the chocolate bar you valued in this product? 
• Ask 1 customer of each group to share. Again, if all reflection has been said, it’s fine to just say “same as what was mentioned by X person”

Conclusions

When developing a product for a customer/user, we cannot merely rely on our gut feelings or preferences. Using critical thinking, we employ different types of research in our development. Critical thinking requires you to think beyond your opinions/facts that you know and your own experiences. It involves good decision-making and using other sources to form a sound judgement.

Good versus Poor decision making

• Poor Decisions are subjective: heavily rely on Feelings, Common sense, Gut Instinct, and Guessing.
• Good decisions are objective: Rely on facts, Evidence, Reasoning, and Informed opinion.