What I Learned...

My first learning from the course would be about customer experience. I learned about the methods to evaluate customer experience, including marketing/UX audit, customer journey mapping, importance-performance analysis, participant observation and social media monitoring. The course teaches me not only about what these methods were, but also about how to appropriately utilize them to substantiate an insight or a recommendation. I learned about how to evaluate a restaurant, lodging or attraction by using a multi-method approach. Each method was unique in its performance and sourcing. The methods can be used together to support each recommendation that we proposed. I found the whole process is really interesting yet also quite challenging that we needed to give rankings and collect all data. I think the methods are truly useful for future usage or learning.

My second learning from the course is about culture, which would be a non-academic takeaway. As a Chinese, this was the first time I travel with American people spending about ten days. Initially, I was a bit nervous to go on this trip. However, I had a great time with all my classmates and appreciated culture differences between us. It was a great trip and I was able to meet many new friends. Moreover, I also learned Cuban culture during that trip. Before that trip, I almost knew nothing about Cuba except knowing that it’s a socialist country. I got deeper information about Cuba culture by getting great connections with local people. I felt Cuba people were really friendly and nice to us, and the hosts of casas that I stayed in were so friendly and made us feel comfortable to stay in.

The third thing I learned from that course is group work. We had tough days after went back from Cuba. A lot of work needed to be done by us to work as a team. I was so stressed out to prepare for the presentation, but working together did strengthen my confidence. Thanks to all my classmates that we did a great job finally!