Leaving the safety of school and entering the big wide working world can be a scary endeavor -- but Bay of Plenty students that attended the BOP Young Grower of the Year - Cultivate Your Career event are now one step ahead of the rest.

Students from around the Bay gathered at Mills Reef to learn critical skills that can support them in their transition from school to work, as well as learning about horticulture and how they can get a leg up in the competitive globalised industry. We, along with NZ Avocado, went along to take part in the event and held four presentations followed by four quick-fire workshops for 160 local students.

Initiative and entrepreneurship
Generating Insights showed students that understanding people’s needs and requirements is the key to unlocking insights, but is not enough on its own. It must be coupled with a broader understanding of the business, product, and technical context - the product system. The presentation aimed to inspire initiative and entrepreneurship as well as how to interpret information and create insights.

With the background information set in place, the question was asked: how might we provide consumers a better in-store experience when buying avocados? Students jumped right into generating their own insights, starting with creating personas and journey maps. We had Martha the vegan, Martin the Mexican Chef and Ellie the Elderly (among many others), all struggling to find the perfect avocado for their meals (or face masks).

Students worked together to come up creative solutions to the issue. We had 'fresh fruit & vege scanners', arranging fruit by ripeness, colour charts, as well as corporal punishment for squeezing and bruising avocados... Some more feasible than others, the solutions provided lots of laughs around the marquee - thankfully allowing Martin the Mexican Chef to make his guacamole just in time for his patrons.

In all seriousness, if you would like to know how to choose the perfect avocado, click here.

Generating Insights: The Resource
Research is the primary risk management tool you have in product development. It is also the biggest driver of insight and breakthrough ideas. The challenge many people face is doing it in a way that retains creativity and objectivity. Balancing the technical and human centred approaches can be a challenge but the results are worth it.

Our approach to Generating Insights has been developed from a range of other approaches and our own experiences. It provides a common approach that can be applied across all types of research.

To read more about Generating Insights, click here.