Process Document
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Pizza Challenge Objectives
Create and pitch a unique pizza dish for the new SSU pub at the HMC campus. The pizza should:
· Exemplify Sheridan’s commitment to creativity by being unique and original in comparison to other pizza options around campus and, more broadly, Mississauga
· Affordable so that it appeals to Sheridan students and their budgets
· Appeal to Sheridan faculty and staff
· Be prototypeable in Brandon’s kitchen
And it’d be nice if the pizza could:
· Reflect Sheridan’s and Mississauga’s cultural diversity
· Attract non-Sheridan customers from Square One
Clarification: The Reception of Pizza Novelty (9 November 2022)
Step 1: Determining Pizza Novelty This part needs to be done
We begin the clarification process by establishing what constitutes pizza novelty in the marketplace. To do this, we’re going to analyze a couple of case studies.
Attributes of the Classic Pizza
Briefly outline the key attributes and characteristics of the ‘classic’ pizza. Add additional bullets for each major point.
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Attributes of Novel Pizza
What are the attributes and characteristics of highly novel pizzas currently in the marketplace? Add more bullet points as appropriate.
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Resistance to Novelty
What are some common reasons people reject novel pizza dishes (such as pineapple on pizza)? Add more bullet points as appropriate.
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Step 2: Vision of Success
The second step in the clarification phase is to create a vision of success. To do this, you’ll imagine visiting the pub at the HMC campus and ordering a pizza dish with your friends. The goal, here, is to imagine the entire customer journey and what role the pizza can play in that journey. For each of the prompts in this section, try to list as many responses as possible.
You are visiting the new pub at the HMC campus with three other classmates. Why might you or other students be excited to share a really novel pizza with friends?
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What might an ideal pizza experience look like? Provide tangible details that describe the entire journey from traveling to the pub to talking about the experience afterwards.
Before visiting the pub:
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At the pub:
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After leaving the pub:
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Step 3: Clarify Design Attributes
Based upon the research you conducted in steps 1 and 2, what are the key attributes or characteristics of a novel pizza experience? Add more bullet points as relevant.
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Divergence (16 November 2022)
Ground Rules for Divergent Thinking
Before applying each divergent thinking tool, review the ‘Ground Rules for Divergent Thinking.”
· Generate as many ideas as possible
· Deliberately seek wild and unusual ideas
· Listen carefully to colleagues and build upon their ideas
· Only share appropriate ideas
· Defer judgement
Brainstorming (Approximately 10 minutes, 20 Ideas Minimum)
Prompt: “What are all the creative ideas for pizza that you can think of?”
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1. Pizza with bacon and blue cheese 2. Pizza with shrimp and jalapeño peppers 3. Pizza with roasted red peppers 4. Pizza with black olives and sundried tomatoes 5. Pizza with roasted garlic |
6. Pizza with roasted red onions 7. Pizza with Portobello mushrooms and mozzarella 8. Pizza with chicken and pineapple 9. Pizza with roasted sweet potatoes and chives 10. Pizza with roasted cauliflower and goat cheese |
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11. Pizza with roasted Brussels sprouts and bacon 12. Pizza with roasted butternut squash and ricotta 13. Pizza with roasted red potatoes and cheddar 14. Pizza with roasted garlic and goat cheese 15. Pizza with roasted sweet potatoes and mozzarella |
16. Pizza with roasted carrots and mozzarella 17. Pizza with roasted apples and cheddar 18. Pizza with roasted red pepper and feta 19. Pizza with roasted pumpkin and goat cheese 20. Pizza with roasted spaghetti squash and mozzarella |
Hits I (Approximately 5 minutes)
Instructions
· Review the Pizza Challenge Objectives.
· Apply those criteria to identify the 5 most promising ideas (i.e. hits) generated while brainstorming.
· Each team member can select one ‘hit’. To do so, simply highlight the relevant ideas.
Metaphoric Thinking (Approximately 15 minutes, 15 ideas minimum)
Instructions
· Select an object or picture entirely unrelated to the challenge.
· Think about the object to generate 3-5 associations.
· Relate each association back to the Pizza Challenge. Ask, “What ideas does this give me?
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Object: |
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Association 1: A slice of pizza |
What ideas does this give me? 1. A slice of pizza can be a quick and easy snack 2. A slice of pizza can be a fun way to enjoy a meal with friends 3. A slice of pizza can be a way to satisfy your hunger 4. A slice of pizza can be a way to take your mind off of things 5. A slice of pizza can be a way to enjoy a new flavor. |
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Association 2: A group of friends gathered around a pizza |
1. Connecting with friends and sharing experiences. 2. 2. Creating a positive atmosphere and creating a space to be yourself. 3. 3. Learning new things and expanding your knowledge. 4. 4. Creating memories that will last a lifetime. 5. 5. Getting to know new people and forming new relationships. |
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Association 3: A party |
1. I get to try new pizza flavors 2. I get to make new friends 3. I get to eat pizza 4. I get to compete with friends 5. I get to learn new pizza making techniques. |
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Association 4: A night out |
1. A sense of accomplishment from completing a difficult task 2. A sense of community 3. A sense of fun 4. A new appreciation for pizza 5. A new appreciation for friends |
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Association 5: A delicious meal |
1. A sense of accomplishment after completing a tough challenge. 2. Sharing a moment with friends and family over a delicious pizza. 3. Discovering new toppings that you might not have tried before. 4. Becoming more creative in the kitchen. 5. Having a great time while eating something delicious! |
Hits 2 (Approximately 5 minutes)
Instructions
· Review the Pizza Challenge Objectives.
· Apply those criteria to identify the 5 most promising ideas (i.e. hits) generated while applying Metaphoric Thinking.
· Each team member can select one ‘hit’. To do so, simply highlight the relevant ideas.
Minimalist Thinking (Approximately 10 minutes, 15 ideas minimum)
Instructions
Minimalist thinking involves eliminating everything that is ultimately unnecessary. Minimalist poetry involves eliminating or cutting every word possible. Minimalist design involves identifying an individual’s basic needs and designing a space around those core needs.
This divergent thinking tool invokes a number of prompts that facilitate minimalist thinking.
Apply the ground rules of divergent thinking to generate as many responses as possible to the minimalist prompts below.
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What might a ‘micro’ pizza look like? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. |
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If we made a number of very, very small pizzas. What type of dishes could we make, that we couldn’t before? 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. |
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What if we cut all the toppings into very, very small pieces? What could we do now that we couldn’t do before? 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. |
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What if we made a pizza that emphasized the smallest toppings (oregano, pepper, salt, olive, seasoning, and spices)? What types of pizza could we make if we just focused on novel seasoning and spices? 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. |
Hits 3 (Approximately 5 minutes)
Instructions
· Review the Pizza Challenge Objectives.
· Apply those criteria to identify the 5 most promising ideas (i.e. hits) generated while applying Minimalist Thinking.
· Each team member can select one ‘hit’. To do so, simply highlight the relevant ideas.
Baroque Thinking (Approximately 10 minutes, 10 ideas minimum)
Baroque is an aesthetic that emerged in 17th century Italy and gradually spread across Europe. It is characterized by ornamentation, excessive decoration without repetition, decadence, gold and other rich materials, grandeur, and awe. We’re going to use some Baroque thinking to imagine very novel but potentially excessive ideas for pizza.
Generate as many ideas as possible in response to the following prompts:
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What might the most decadent pizza in human history look like? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. |
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How might we make a pizza that is ornamental (like a Christmas tree decoration or Fabergé egg)? 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. |
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What are all the ideas for an inspirational or awe-inspiring pizza? 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. |
Hits 4 (Approximately 5 minutes)
Instructions
· Review the Pizza Challenge Objectives.
· Apply those criteria to identify the 5 most promising ideas (i.e. hits) generated while applying Baroque Thinking.
· Each team member can select one ‘hit’. To do so, simply highlight the relevant ideas.
Expressionist Thinking (Approximately 15 minutes, 5 ideas minimum)
Instructions
Expressionism is an aesthetic that, well, uses abstract forms to express a personal and highly subjective emotional or psychological state.
Edvard Munch’s
The Scream
is perhaps the most famous example. We’re going to relate personal stories or anecdotes to pizza to generate ideas. This process is much slower than the others because it involves multiple steps that make abstract and distant associations.
Step 1: Choose an object, person, event, etc. that is important to you.
Example: I’m a die-hard Ottawa Senators fan. They didn’t make the playoffs last year but, as they say, there is always next year.
Step 2: Reflect upon the thing you selected in step 1. What emotions do you associate with that thing? How does it make you feel?
Example: This makes me feel both disappointed and excited. There were a lot of injuries this year, and the Ottawa Senators were unfairly disadvantaged by the NHL’s covid-19 policies. They didn’t have enough players for several games, and often dressed line ups with only one or two regular NHL players due to covid-19 outbreaks and, later, flu. But the team really improved all season and should (should!) be able to make the playoffs this year which is exciting. I’m anticipating a very, very fun 2022-23 season!
Step 3: Relate those feelings and emotions back to pizza. How might you design a pizza to express those feelings?
Example: I want to express the Ottawa Senators and optimism. So, what If made a pizza based upon the team colours (white, red, white, and gold)? I could dye the dough black with food colouring. I could use just a little cheese so the red sauce shows after it is cooked. And I could top it with maple syrup (to get some gold colouring and sweetness) and maybe chili peppers (to get some more red and the emphasize the Sens will be ‘red hot’ to start the next season).
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Hits 3 (Approximately 5 minutes)
Instructions
· Review the Pizza Challenge Objectives.
· Apply those criteria to identify the 5 most promising ideas (i.e. hits) generated while applying Expressionist Thinking.
· Each team member can select one ‘hit’. To do so, simply highlight the relevant ideas.
Longlist
Your team should now have applied Hits 5 times to the five different divergent thinking tools for a total of 25 hits. Copy and paste all those previous hits and place them in a list below. Next week, we’ll identify the most promising options and decide which 2-3 ideas to prototype.
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Convergence: Decision-Making that Prioritizes Novelty (23 November 2022)
Today’s challenge is to critically analyze and evaluate options generated last week to identify a shortlist of the top 3-5 ideas. The team will then collaboratively decide which top ideas they’ll prototype the following class.
Pizza Challenge Objectives
Before evaluating ideas, it is necessary to review the core objectives.
Create and pitch a unique pizza dish for the new SSU pub at the HMC campus. The pizza should:
· Exemplify Sheridan’s commitment to creativity by being unique and original in comparison to other pizza options around campus and, more broadly, Mississauga
· Affordable so that it appeals to Sheridan students and their budgets
· Appeal to Sheridan faculty and staff
· Be prototypeable in Brandon’s kitchen
And it’d be nice if the pizza could:
· Reflect Sheridan’s and Mississauga’s cultural diversity
· Attract non-Sheridan customers from Square One
Ground Rules for Convergent Thinking
When evaluating ideas, apply the ‘ground rules for convergent thinking.’
1. Check objectives.
2. Prioritize creativity and keep it alive.
3. Be affirmative—transform critiques into new challenges that can be solved.
4. Improve ideas.
Hits
The team currently has 25 promising ideas. The first challenge is to further reduce that list with the aim of isolating the most creative and high-potential ideas. Apply the ‘ground rules for convergent thinking’ while applying hits, each team member can assign 2 hits. This will leave the team with 10 (or fewer) promising options. Copy and paste the 10 hits here.
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Targeting
Targeting is a tool that helps establish how close an idea comes to reaching an idealized state. It is a quick and visual way to assess ideas.
Step 1: Imagine it is the mid-December and the team has just finished a busy fall semester. The team ‘destroyed’ a multi-week innovation challenge earning an A+ and are heading over to the GSU pub for some celebratory pizza. Imagine that visit and what an ideal pizza experience might involve. You can draw upon some of the imaginative work you completed in the clarification phase.
· What’s it like reading the menu and ordering the pizza?
· How does everyone feel when that pizza arrives at the table?
· What is it like to take that first bite?
· How does the team share the pizza (or do they share at all)?
· How does everyone feel at the end of the meal (are there leftovers?)
· What about when the bill arrives?
· What might they post on social media throughout the visit?
· What might you tell your friends afterwards about the incredible pizza?
Record some rough notes and point-form details below.
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Step 2: The ideal experience the team just imagined is our target. Categorize the top ten pizza ideas in terms of how well that might achieve that ideal state. Have detailed and respectful debate regarding how each idea should be categorized.
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Ideal |
Close |
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Step 3: Analyze the Target to generate the Final Shortlist. Review the results of the targeting exercise. Based upon your critical conversations, generate your Final Shortlist of the top 5 ideas. If the team can’t reach an agreement through conversation, vote.
Final Shortlist
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Evaluation Matrix
Evaluation Matrix involves creating a rubric to evaluate ideas.
Step 1: Review the ground rules for convergent thinking and, importantly, check your objectives.
Step 2: Generate a list of potential evaluation criteria that are informed by the Pizza Challenge’s core objectives.
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Step 3: Select the most important and relevant criteria, add them to the table below (blue column). Use your judgement regarding how many criteria to select, you can add additional rows to the evaluation matrix via right click. This is the most important step.
Step 4: Score each idea via the selected criteria. You can score by number, letter, or emojis. Just make sure all the team-members understand the scoring range (1-5, A-D, to )
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{insert idea 1} |
{insert idea 2} |
{insert idea 3} |
{insert idea 4} |
{insert idea 5} |
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{insert criteria 1} |
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{insert criteria 2} |
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SCORE |
Step 5: Analyze the Evaluation Matrix to identify the top 3 ideas. Do note that the idea with the highest score may not necessarily be the ‘best’ or ‘most promising’ idea. Critically evaluate results because some criteria are more important than others. Record the top three ideas below.
Top 3 Ideas
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Identify which ideas the team will prototype between now and next class. The team should prototype at least two ideas but are welcome to do more if able and motivated.
Prototyping & Collaborative Decision-Making (30 November 2022)
Our goal today is to select the most promising idea that will be pitched for the Pizza Challenge. To do this, the team will apply a POINT analysis to the prototyped pizzas. Applying POINT will help further improve the top ideas and, eventually, inform which final idea to pitch.
When applying POINT remember to take into consideration the entire parameters of the Pizza Challenge (see objectives) and any issues that emerged during the prototyping process.
Pizza Challenge Objectives
Create and pitch a unique pizza dish for the new SSU pub at the HMC campus. The pizza should:
· Exemplify Sheridan’s commitment to creativity by being unique and original in comparison to other pizza options around campus and, more broadly, Mississauga
· Affordable so that it appeals to Sheridan students and their budgets
· Appeal to Sheridan faculty and staff
· Be prototypeable in Brandon’s kitchen
And it’d be nice if the pizza could:
· Reflect Sheridan’s and Mississauga’s cultural diversity
· Attract non-Sheridan customers from Square One
Ground Rules for Convergent Thinking
When evaluating ideas, apply the ‘ground rules for convergent thinking.;
1. Check objectives.
2. Prioritize creativity and keep it alive.
3. Be affirmative—transform critiques into new challenges that can be solved.
4. Improve ideas.
POINT
POINT is short for
Pluses,
Opportunities,
Issues, &
New
Thinking.
When applying this tool, it is super important to be affirmative:
· The order is important and affirmative. Start with positives (pluses and opportunities).
· Use affirmative language. When raising an issue, restate the criticism as a problem that can be solved.
· NOT: This is too expensive. It’ll never work.
· BUT: How might we improve the margin? Or, How might we reduce the cost of production? Or, What different sizes can we make to control costs?
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{insert description and/or picture of pizza prototype #1} |
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1. Pluses: What are all the pluses? · · · · · · · · |
2. Opportunities: Imagine the pizza has been successfully implemented. What new opportunities does this open up? · · · · · · · |
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3. Issues: · · · · · · · |
4. New Thinking: Select the most pertinent issues. For each, conduct a brief brainstorming session to solve the issue and improve the overall idea. Copy and paste issues as appropriate. Keep brainstorming until the issues has (ideally) been addressed or resolved. Issue One: · · · · Issue Two: · · · · |
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{insert description and/or picture of pizza prototype #2} |
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1. Pluses: What are all the pluses? · · · · · · · · |
2. Opportunities: Imagine the pizza has been successfully implemented. What new opportunities does this open up? · · · · · · · |
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3. Issues: · · · · · · · |
4. New Thinking: Select the most pertinent issues. For each, conduct a brief brainstorming session to solve the issue and improve the overall idea. Copy and paste issues as appropriate. Keep brainstorming until the issues has (ideally) been addressed or resolved. Issue One: · · · · Issue Two: · · · · |
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{insert description and/or picture of pizza prototype #3} |
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1. Pluses: What are all the pluses? · · · · · · · · |
2. Opportunities: Imagine the pizza has been successfully implemented. What new opportunities does this open up? · · · · · · · |
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3. Issues: · · · · · · · |
4. New Thinking: Select the most pertinent issues. For each, conduct a brief brainstorming session to solve the issue and improve the overall idea. Copy and paste issues as appropriate. Keep brainstorming until the issues has (ideally) been addressed or resolved. Issue One: · · · · Issue Two: · · · · |
Final Decision
Analysis all the POINTs to determine which pizza to pitch for the Pizza Challenge.
Pizza name:
Description of pizza and/or recipe:
Justification (why was it chosen):
Pizza Challenge: Presentation
Introduction
There is substantial research indicating that the uncanny ability to identify an incredible problem or opportunity is the defining characteristic of exceptionally innovative people. World-changing innovators have an almost artistic ability to notice challenges and/or imagine desirable future states that others simply do not. As such, one of the most important components of any innovation process is research: gathering a broad range of data, information, facts, perspectives, opinions, observations, etc. with the aim of truly understanding and fully imagining an opportunity.
We begin the Pizza Challenge with a research phase. Each team member will become an ‘expert’ on one of the topics below. They’ll research the topic and share key insights through a brief presentation. We have three goals:
1. practice and further develop your research skills,
2. practice sharing expert knowledge to non-expert teammates,
3. and better appreciate that research fundamentally drives innovation.
Deliverables
All deliverables are due on 9 November 2022
· A presentation to your teammates that spans approximately 5-10 minutes. You do not have to appear on camera but you will be required to narrate the presentation.
· A conversation in which teammates ask follow-up and clarifying questions spanning approximately 5-10 minutes.
· Teams will then synthesize insights from the presentations into the Process Document. To be clear, the presentations are not evaluated but the Process Document will be at the conclusion of the Pizza Challenge.
Research Topics
Team members will decide who will present on the topics outlined below. If, for some reason, the group size is reduced to 4, the team is not responsible for covering the final topic.
The presentations should be researched and designed individually. Your professor has provided a couple of recommended sources for each topic; you are encouraged to conduct further research. Be critical when engaging with sources—marketing copy from a pizzeria is probably not the most authoritative or objective source. The ultimate goal is to provide your teammates with the knowledge they need to take action and excel on the Pizza Challenge.
Topic 1: Hawaiian Pizza Controversy and the Reception of Pizza Novelty Aya’s part
Not all creative and innovative ideas are well received by the public, even if they are super tasty. The contentious debate about Hawaiian pizza demonstrates that innovators need to think critically about how an audience will react to a new idea. Many perceive new ideas to be inherently threatening and the introduction of novelty may provoke harsh reactions from traditionalists. People are passionate about pizza and are not afraid to flood social media with their opinions.
Assignment: Provide an introduction to the Hawaiian pizza controversy and share key conclusions about the reception of pizza novelty. This presentation will be essential for helping the team anticipate how audiences might react to their novel pizza pitch.
Starting Sources
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“Pineapple on pizza may be divisive, but a new pool finds most Canadians like it.”
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“Love pineapple on pizza? Hate it? However you feel, this adorable animation tells its origin story.” Notably animated by Sheridan Professor Hyein Lee.
Topic 2: Market Research on Pizza Options Around HMC
The pub in the new student centre wants this pizza dish to be a major draw. It needs to be radically different from everything else available around the HMC campus and, more broadly, Mississauga. The team needs to know what types of pizzas neighboring businesses are making so they can effectively determine if their pizza ideas are indeed novel and original. If possible, consider spending some time walking around Square One and examining the physical spaces too—often, many specials and one-off menu items aren’t included on online menus. Similarly, many mom & pop shops do not have an online presence, and they often have more original options than chains.
Assignment: Find and research the menus of food-based businesses around the HMC campus. Analyze your research findings to determine market saturation (i.e. what’s overdone?), novel options offered by the competition (i.e. what’s new and exciting?), and areas for innovation (i.e. what gaps exist?)
Starting Source
https://www.google.com/maps/search/pizza/@43.5759432,-79.6673601,13z/data=!3m1!4b1
Topic 3: Pizza Creativity in the Greater Toronto Area
There’s a vibrant pizza scene in the GTA and it is distinct due to the region’s cultural diversity. People from across the world come to live and study in the GTA which naturally results in some really interesting fusions. There’s an opportunity to take inspiration in what other businesses are doing and bring some of that creativity to Sheridan College’s new pub.
Assignment: Research some success stories about innovative pizzerias in the GTA. Analyze the stories to identify what inspires these businesses to innovate, common strategies that are applied to generate novel ideas for pizzas, and other relevant tips or insights that might meaningfully inform the team’s work on the pizza challenge.
Starting Sources
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“Brampton pizza: Why ordering ‘Indian-style’ might become a bigger thing in Canada.”
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“Brampton’s Indian-style pizza could be coming to you.”
Topic 4: History of Pizza
Pizza has a long and interesting history. It is important to be knowledgeable about this history as there are traditionalist and purist in any culture. Understanding how pizza was originally made and what forces influenced the evolution of pizza is super-important context.
Assignment: Research the history of pizza to define the core elements of pizza. Your major challenge is to establish what is pizza which will inform the rest of the creative process. For example, imagine someone suggested that they just get rid of the dough entirely (e.g. baking a mix of sauce, cheese, and toppings in a ceramic dish). Is that still a pizza? Or, what if someone suggested they eliminate cheese because that’s the most expensive ingredient. Is a no cheese pizza still a pizza?
Starting Sources
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“Pizza three ways.” Note, this source allows you to access one article a month. If you clear your browser’s cookies, you should be able to access it again.
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“The 2,000-year history of Italy’s favorite dish.”
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“Pizza” from
The Oxford Companion to Food.
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“Pizza” from
Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink.
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“Pizza” from
Encyclopedia of Popular Culture.
Topic 5: Research on Target Consumer Segments
The primary audience for the new student pub is, well, students at Sheridan College followed by faculty and staff. A secondary potential audience comprises of shoppers and commuters at Square One. We need to think creatively and critically about the needs, expectations, and desires of target users. And mobilize those insights to design a highly novel but effective pizza.
Assignment: Research and design personas for three key stakeholders: 1) a student attending a program at the HMC campus & 2) a professor or staff member working at the HMC campus, 3) a potential customer who regularly visits Square One but might not know there is amazing pizza to be eaten at Sheridan College. The personas should address 3 questions: what sort of experience is the customer looking for at the pub? What might motivate them to come to the pub and try out a novel pizza? What might discourage them from visiting the pub and trying out a novel pizza?
Starting Sources
You can primarily draw upon your personal experience and imagination to design the personas.
But, if you’d like to learn more about personas, both in terms of product design and marketing,
check out and browse this resource from the library. To be clear, it is a book and there is no expectation that you’ll read it for the purposes of the presentation.
Assessment
Key insights generated from the research presentations will be recorded in the Process Document. This phase of the creative process will be assessed via Likert-type scale and the following prompts:
1. Identified key attributes of ‘classic’ pizza.
2. Identified key attributes of novel pizza.
3. Identified sources of resistance to pizza novelty.
4. Imagined a detailed customer journey to envision success.
5. Synthesized insights to establish the key attributes and characteristics of a novel pizza.
Pizza Challenge
Introduction
The Pizza Challenge is a multiweek, collaborative innovation project. From November 2nd to December 7th, you’ll be working with your team to generate a highly novel idea for a pizza. But, the real purpose of this assignment is to learn about the creative process and to practice strategies for generating original ideas in a collaborative, innovation context.
Scenario
The new student centre at the HMC campus was opened in spring 2022. It features a gym, hang out spaces, offices for the GSU, and a student pub/restaurant (much like
The Marquee in Oakville and
The Den in Brampton). The Senior Manager of the pub wants to create a signature pizza dish inspired by the Sheridan community, and they need your help to come up with a remarkable idea.
Your team will generate a large list of potential options, prototype a few ideas, and then pitch the most novel and effective option the team developed.
Essential Criteria
The pitched pizza must meaningfully respond to these three key criteria:
Novel and Original
Creativity defines and differentiates the Sheridan learning experience. There is no other college like Sheridan and the community highly values creativity. The pizza must be unlike anything else offered in Mississauga.
Affordable
The pizza is designed for Sheridan students. Hence, affordability is a priority. The pub is open to different sizes such as a very small personal pizza or a larger dish intended for sharing (or both!). The typical margin on a pizza is around 20% but they are willing to sacrifice some of that margin to reduce the price. The hope is that the pizza will be signature draw that might extend the amount of time someone or a group spends in the pub each visit, thereby providing opportunities for up-selling on other menu items especially beverages and desserts.
Practicality
Because we’re working online and your instructor does not own a restaurant, the pizza you pitch must be able to be made in Dr. Brandon McFarlane’s home kitchen or on a BBQ. If you know a pizzeria with the ability to prototype some pizzas, do let your instructor know. Dr. McFarlane can make wood-oven style, pan, and deep dish pizza.
Secondary Criteria
It’d be great but not essential if the pitched pizza also responded to two more criteria:
Cultural Diversity
Mississauga is one of the most diverse places in the world. Sheridan College is no different. Sheridan hosts over 120 programs and 25 degrees. And people from across the world come to learn at Sheridan College. It’d be great if the pizza reflected or expressed that diversity.
Non-Sheridan Customers
The pub is a business. While it primarily serves Sheridan students and employees, it’d be great if people from the broader community came to campus just to check out the pizza. Right next door are City Hall and Square One. Every day, tens of thousands of people come to the places right beside campus, it’d be great if they also visited Sheridan. Square One hosts the
Food District which attracts citizens and tourists due to its high quality and creative offerings. There’s a great opportunity to attract some of those foodies.
Timeline
Clarification: The Reception of Pizza Novelty | November 2 and 9
The creative process begins by researching the opportunity and building (or finding) the skills necessary for innovating in a given industry. In short, we need to know a little bit about pizza and how to make it before we can create a highly novel pizza.
On November 9th, each team member will be responsible for researching a pizza related topic and making a brief presentation. Full details about the non-assessed presentations and associated requirements are posted on SLATE. Teams will then synthesize key insights into the Process Document, which we’ll be using throughout the Pizza Challenge to facilitate and document process work.
Divergence: Achieving Fluency, Flexibility, and Novelty | November 16
The second phase of the creative process involves generating as many novel ideas as possible. On November 16tht, you’ll be introduced to a number of creative problem solving strategies that your team will apply to generate ideas. By the end of the session, the team will have generated over 65 ideas.
Convergence: Decision-Making That Prioritizes Novelty | November 23
The third phase involves identifying, critiquing, and further developing novel options. Importantly, research shows that creative process often fails in critical and evaluative phases: due to a lack of openness and risk-taking, people often advance safe and familiar ideas. We’ll apply some creative problem solving strategies that prioritize novelty and effectiveness when making critical decisions. After identifying and developing a couple of top options, pizza making volunteers will prototype a couple of promising ideas.
Prototyping and Collaborative Decision-Making | November 30
The fourth phase involves making final decisions based upon the results of prototyping. Teams will reflect upon the prototypes to reassess the top options and submit the Process Document (which is primarily evaluated based upon degree of completion). The rest of the class is provided to create a
pitch via a brief PowerPoint presentation and which will be due by the end of the work week: Friday, 2 December 2022 @ 5:00 PM. The Pitch is competitive and is worth 15% towards the final grade. 5% will be assessed via degree of completion and effectiveness; 5% will be awarded by classmates who will select a top pitch via voting (1st place = 5%, and 2nd place = 2.5%); 5% will be awarded by the professor who will select two top pitches which will be prototyped over the weekend and a third-party judge will taste-test the top two options and crown a winner (1st place = 5% and 2nd place = 2.5%).
Celebration & Debrief | December 7th
We’ll begin class by announcing the winners of the pizza challenge. The professor will share some thoughts about each pitch and why he was so impressed by the top option. The team will then
debrief their creative process by reflecting upon successes, strengths, and areas for improvement. The debrief will be due by the end of class and is worth 10% towards the final grade.
The following week, we conclude the semester with a
reflection upon and celebration of creativity. You’ll be presented with a final making challenge. You’ll post results onto our class’s discussion board. How we’ll reflect upon your experience will be a surprise. BUT, it won’t be stressful, rather it will be a fun and rewarding experience. A nice way to conclude the semester by celebrating what you learned and your classmates’ accomplishments.
