This group project was very intense,
and, in the end of the day, it went
much better than I expected. Most of
the team has been very involved from
the very beginning of the project,
thanks to our Team leader, who has
been instrumental to our progress
and orchestrated our work very well.
In my opinion, it could be useful to
incorporate some sort of physical
prototyping (body storming, desktop
walkthrough etc.) on earlier stages.
The Desktop walkthrough that we
did in a last couple of days was
a breakthrough, in my opinion.
On the other hand, I attribute are
relative success in the scope of
the brief to the strict structure of our
work and clear division of it into
stages. Despite it, we stumbled a little
bit because some sessions were
practically lost thanks to the external
factors we had no power over.
On
the
sessions
themselves
the discipline was good enough, but
it could be even better, in which case
we could do more in the same amount
of time. Deadlines were mostly
respected by the members of the team
and materials/reports etc.
Going into this project I had mixed
feelings concerning the team,
precisely the amount of members
in it. The maximum team members
I’ve had before was 4 and I perceive
myself more of an individualist when
it comes to working. So I was quite
anxious about having to compromise
and cooperate with 6 other people.
And I have to admit it was hard at first
for me to adjust to other members’
ways of working and expressing
their ideas, but with time I got
more and more comfortable with
the team, we’ve found our flow —
much thanks to Ksenia’s brilliant
leadership skills and every member’s
desire to contribute — and went head
and shoulders into the work. I don’t
think I’ve ever produced such solid
research documentation and analysis
in such a short period of time. Many
of the techniques I’ve learned I will
continue to use in the future, seeing as
I’ve already used the profiling method
for the Brand project with Stepa.
I think this short and intense project
was exactly what I needed to get
more out of limits built by myself:
fears of teamwork and cooperative
contribution. I do want to especially
recognize Ksenia’s steel balls for
putting up with us and guiding us
to the right tracks. As well as every
member’s input and efforts —
at the end it was a pleasure to work
with this team in the scope of this
project. It changed a lot of the views
I had on group works, leadership and
other people’s potentials.
At the very beginning of a project,
I was very worried about the lineup
of the team: I never worked with
two team members, and our leader
scared me a little with her hyper
responsibility. But now, when
the project is finished, I understand
that it was almost an ideal experience
of teamwork for me. All members
of the team are working smoothly
and were doing their best, the leader
assigns roles and taking into account
the wishes of each of us, and the team
in turn tries not to screw up and
perform all what we’ve promised.
Yes, I will not hide the fact that
at the beginning of a project the team
of such a large number of people
irritated me and scared at the same
time, because I always have a fear
that I will let the team down or that
other members will treat the project
differently from me. But for me it was
a great experience in terms of team
support (when I got sick, for example,
the team still tried to bring me up
to date, explain some points and
give the opportunity to do something
useful for the team) and work under
a clear guidance in the design process.
I liked the fact that the team works
very effectively together, that each
member can express themselves in
something and speak on any occasion
as all our opinions are valuable.
At the end of the project, I still have
a little fear that I didn’t do enough
for the team, as I missed three days
of hard work during my illness. But
I tried to do my best and compensate
for it by working at home and then
participating in the life of the team.
In General, I consider myself a person
who does not know how to work
under someone’s leadership, but this
time I did not feel much pressure
and therefore it was easier to work
than I expected. I hope I will have
an opportunity to work with those
people again!
Within the framework of this project,
it was necessary to make a deep
multidirectional primary and secondary
research and use different creative
methodic, but the project was headed
by team work. The team consisted
of 7 people. In order to organize and
increase the productivity of such
a number of people, it was necessary
to appoint the chief, and also partially
differentiate the duties of the team
members.
Based
on
personal
experience, our teamwork, although it
was not perfect, however, was at a high
enough level, in my opinion due to
the organization and competence of our
head Ksenia. In the course of numerous
general discussions, its leadership has
allowed us to avoid significant losses
of time and unpromising wanderings.
The distribution of responsibilities,
scheduling meetings and stages of
research and idea development, as well
as setting specific tasks and outlining
possible directions on the way to the goal,
all these components were organized
at a high level, it also concerns the
creation of a permanent motivational
background that sets the mood of
teamwork. Despite certain difficulties
and obstacles related to the complexity
of the chosen topic, delays in the
cooperation of information caused by
objective reasons or other factors, for
example, my lack of professionalism
regarding the deadlines set, the project
was successful, without any irreversible
timing. The team members showed
themselves
accordingly,
showing
respect and understanding for each
other, each was in conditions in which
he could express his point of view and
be heard, which ultimately, during
the discussion, allowed the team to
come to a compromise or solidarity
regarding questions posed. In my
opinion, this experience allowed
us to better understand and feel
the importance of harmonious and
harmonious teamwork, especially in
the context of a relatively large team.
The design team for work on this
project was chosen spontaneously.
Who came on the first day of study,
those people were united in one group.
Our team consisted of seven people,
seven different personalities, each
of us was good in our way. As during
this project we needed to work as
a professional design team, we
designated roles in our group. In my
opinion, our team leader was perfect.
From the very beginning, team leader
(Ksenia) chose the tactics on which
we worked. There were established
dates for different stages of work.
In my opinion, most of the team
members have been very involved
from the very beginning of the project.
Though periodically we delayed terms
of delivery of the duties it to us did not
prevent to conduct excellent research.
Sometimes our views and opinions
were different and because of these
disputes in the group were born, yet
they lasted not long. Arguments well
influenced us as we had more topics
to discuss and ideas to get inspired
from. However, work in a big team
affected the results. The problem
of missing deadlines led us to the
fact that the final topic was revealed
very late and we had a small amount
of time to create the design solution.
Dmitrii
101
I think that as a team we performed
well. Every team member contributed
to the project when we had separated
tasks and everyone showed the level
of responsibility and professionalism.
Regarding team work I think that we
managed to collaborate with each
other like if we were a professional
design team, we used different
techniques
for
brainstorming,
ideation and idea development which
were based on a deep research we
conducted in previous stage.
Obviously, our working process
did not flow perfectly, we had some
problems with time management
since we finished almost all the tasks
with 1 day delay from assigned
deadlines. Also, since we have chosen
quite a complex topic , which would
require conducting deep research
into multiple areas that are specific,
we did not manage to make any
“rendered” outcome, because as
we tested different scenarios, we
kept finding new problems which
we could possibly find a solution for
by conducting more research that
we were not able to do due to time
constraints.