Week 5: Design Thinking Evolution Phase (Phase 5)
We started off this phase by holding a Google Hangout session early on in the week. Not everyone was able to make it to the Google Hangout session for a variety of reasons, but as soon as we finished our Google Hangout, we e-mailed all members of our group to recap what we had collaborated on during our Google Hangout and to inform everyone of “next steps” so that everyone would be clear with respect to their individual contributions for this phase.
During our Google Hangout we decided to get started by initiating a Google Doc so that we could have a running record of our Phase 5 Check-off List. We remained connected online during our Google Hangout Session so that we could discuss and reflect on each section before agreeing on what to write for each section. We work so well together! Our ideas just continue to flow as we think aloud and bounce ideas off of each other. Once we were done collaborating on part 1 of our check-off list we talked about our next steps. We created a plan for each team member to share the presentation with one outside audience member and we generated ideas for pitching the solution to different audiences. We agreed to meet the next day to report to each other on how things were going regarding sharing our presentation with others who are not in our field of work.
The next night, during our Google Hangout Session, we checked in with each other to see if anyone had had a chance yet to share the presentation with outside audience members and we started adding the feedback we received to our checklist. We agreed it would be an ongoing work in progress throughout the rest of the week. After generating more ideas about how to pitch our presentation to others so that they feel inclined to watch our presentation and give us feedback, we moved on to our Group Reflection. Together we talked about our collaboration throughout the DT Project, initial versus final impressions of the product, and overall achievement. As we reflected on the process together, one of us agreed to start typing our thoughts and if anyone thought of something extra throughout the week, we agreed that it would be okay to go back and add or edit as long as we kept everyone else informed of any changes to our group reflection so that everyone would be aware. The last thing we did before ending our Google Hangout Session was agree that everyone would just do their individual reflection on their own time and add a link to their individual reflection to our Phase 5 Check-off List.
My individual contribution to this week’s work consisted of writing my individual reflection regarding our collaboration throughout the DT process, per the Phase 5 Check-off List, and finding at least two different audience members to review our presentation and provide us with feedback. It was not easy finding two people whose opinions I value to agree to watch our presentation and to provide us with feedback. Many people replied to my request by saying that as much as they’d like to help, they were swamped with their own job responsibilities and that once home they must prioritize and put their families first, which is completely understandable. Luckily, a music teacher from Virginia agreed to review our presentation and she actually provided us with great feedback! I also had a friend, who is an event coordinator in Laguna Beach, agree to review the presentation and give us feedback. Thanks to “the revolutionized idea of collaboration in the 21st century” I was able to get friends who do not even live in the same city to review our presentation! At first I was a little worried about how I would get anyone at all to review our presentation because I was in New Orleans that week and all the people I know are back in San Diego. I don’t know what I was thinking when I thought I had to physically be in the same room as my outside audience members in order for me to be able to show them our presentation! It wasn’t until I felt the pressure to get this done that I started to reach out to people, whose opinions I value, via Facebook. Whomever would agree to help out would then receive the link to our Blendspace Project. I don’t know why I am still so amazed and impressed by the magic of technology. I work with technology a lot more than many people in my field and even though I am constantly working with it, I am still impressed by what we can do with it!
As I mentioned previously, some of the challenges we faced this week included schedule conflicts. Not everyone was able to participate during our Google Hangouts for various reasons. However, that didn’t stop anyone from actively participating in all the work we were doing because at the end of each session we always made sure to email all members of the group in order to debrief everyone. Effective communication is definitely key when collaborating with a group and that is the main way we solved most obstacles, through constant communication. As I’m writing this about how important communication is I am realizing that that’s actually the key to success in ANY and EVERY area of our lives. We courteously and respectfully communicated with each other constantly throughout the entire process and that made everything else go so much smoother!
I don’t think I would do anything differently next time for this particular phase, except for one thing. I would have reached out to people via the internet a lot sooner so that they could have a wider window of time to review our project. I was very pleased with the fact that we started off strong by holding a Google Hangout session VERY early on in the week and everyone knew what their individual responsibilities were and what steps they needed to take in order to accomplish them.
We started off this phase by holding a Google Hangout session early on in the week. Not everyone was able to make it to the Google Hangout session for a variety of reasons, but as soon as we finished our Google Hangout, we e-mailed all members of our group to recap what we had collaborated on during our Google Hangout and to inform everyone of “next steps” so that everyone would be clear with respect to their individual contributions for this phase.
During our Google Hangout we decided to get started by initiating a Google Doc so that we could have a running record of our Phase 5 Check-off List. We remained connected online during our Google Hangout Session so that we could discuss and reflect on each section before agreeing on what to write for each section. We work so well together! Our ideas just continue to flow as we think aloud and bounce ideas off of each other. Once we were done collaborating on part 1 of our check-off list we talked about our next steps. We created a plan for each team member to share the presentation with one outside audience member and we generated ideas for pitching the solution to different audiences. We agreed to meet the next day to report to each other on how things were going regarding sharing our presentation with others who are not in our field of work.
The next night, during our Google Hangout Session, we checked in with each other to see if anyone had had a chance yet to share the presentation with outside audience members and we started adding the feedback we received to our checklist. We agreed it would be an ongoing work in progress throughout the rest of the week. After generating more ideas about how to pitch our presentation to others so that they feel inclined to watch our presentation and give us feedback, we moved on to our Group Reflection. Together we talked about our collaboration throughout the DT Project, initial versus final impressions of the product, and overall achievement. As we reflected on the process together, one of us agreed to start typing our thoughts and if anyone thought of something extra throughout the week, we agreed that it would be okay to go back and add or edit as long as we kept everyone else informed of any changes to our group reflection so that everyone would be aware. The last thing we did before ending our Google Hangout Session was agree that everyone would just do their individual reflection on their own time and add a link to their individual reflection to our Phase 5 Check-off List.
My individual contribution to this week’s work consisted of writing my individual reflection regarding our collaboration throughout the DT process, per the Phase 5 Check-off List, and finding at least two different audience members to review our presentation and provide us with feedback. It was not easy finding two people whose opinions I value to agree to watch our presentation and to provide us with feedback. Many people replied to my request by saying that as much as they’d like to help, they were swamped with their own job responsibilities and that once home they must prioritize and put their families first, which is completely understandable. Luckily, a music teacher from Virginia agreed to review our presentation and she actually provided us with great feedback! I also had a friend, who is an event coordinator in Laguna Beach, agree to review the presentation and give us feedback. Thanks to “the revolutionized idea of collaboration in the 21st century” I was able to get friends who do not even live in the same city to review our presentation! At first I was a little worried about how I would get anyone at all to review our presentation because I was in New Orleans that week and all the people I know are back in San Diego. I don’t know what I was thinking when I thought I had to physically be in the same room as my outside audience members in order for me to be able to show them our presentation! It wasn’t until I felt the pressure to get this done that I started to reach out to people, whose opinions I value, via Facebook. Whomever would agree to help out would then receive the link to our Blendspace Project. I don’t know why I am still so amazed and impressed by the magic of technology. I work with technology a lot more than many people in my field and even though I am constantly working with it, I am still impressed by what we can do with it!
As I mentioned previously, some of the challenges we faced this week included schedule conflicts. Not everyone was able to participate during our Google Hangouts for various reasons. However, that didn’t stop anyone from actively participating in all the work we were doing because at the end of each session we always made sure to email all members of the group in order to debrief everyone. Effective communication is definitely key when collaborating with a group and that is the main way we solved most obstacles, through constant communication. As I’m writing this about how important communication is I am realizing that that’s actually the key to success in ANY and EVERY area of our lives. We courteously and respectfully communicated with each other constantly throughout the entire process and that made everything else go so much smoother!
I don’t think I would do anything differently next time for this particular phase, except for one thing. I would have reached out to people via the internet a lot sooner so that they could have a wider window of time to review our project. I was very pleased with the fact that we started off strong by holding a Google Hangout session VERY early on in the week and everyone knew what their individual responsibilities were and what steps they needed to take in order to accomplish them.