design process model for high-end cake bakers

Design process model developed to help communicate to high-end cake bakers their current process of designing and baking cakes, and how they can improve their craft. Focused on increasing imagination, teamwork, and client communication.

Collaborators: Emily Allen, Lynn Dombrowsky, Joseph Wilkerson

problem space

We were tasked with understanding and critiquing the current work process of a hypothetical team of high-end cake designers. (We constucted the hypothetical team by watching episodes of Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss.) We identified members of the team, skills that a team of cake bakers would require, and considered how different members employed those skills.

The core problems we identified in cake baking teams were based in insufficient ideation and cake concept generation, as well as insufficient investigation into client needs. The hypothetical team took the client's initial request at face value, rather than helping the client explore a wealth of options for their cake. Because the cakes are very meaningful to the clients (as they are often for events such as weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.), we developed structured activities the cake bakers could use to tease out the clients' desiderata, or that which the client wants but doesn't necessarily know.

We also worked with the integration of multiple team members' abilities into the cake concept generation process. The range of skills necessary to bake such extravagant cakes is too wide for a single member to tackle, so teams must be constructed of multi-talented individuals. Traditionally, the bakers were led by the 'head' of the team, who would design the concept, engineer the architecture (for particularly tall or wide or otherwise unsteady cakes), and hand the 'grunt work' off to the rest of his team. We designed a process model built to communicate the importance of discussion and input from the entire team--by giving each member of the team more input into the design of the cake, we also increased their investment in the job.

presentation

This project was presented before the class. It was my role to introduce our team and the problem space, as well as to describe the differences between 'regular' cakes and those baked by our high-end bakers. I presented slides 1 to 11 not only from an experiential standpoint (how it feels to bake such a cake, how it feels to present such a cake, etc.), but also from a theoretical standpoint.

models (click to expand)

	1. Original design process model used to explain to the cake bakers their current process for determining client needs and appropriate methods of execution.		2. Subsequent design process model built to describe a more client-centered and creative process for designing and crafting cakes.