The Garage Experience

Sam Pullstudent: Team Ewenowichwun WEEK ONE

Summary of my time this week: 8 hours in class (mostly project work), 4 hours in library research,4 in the field researching, about 4 brainstorming with team, and we had 2 one hour project advisor meetings. #WhereDidTheTimeGo link.

In addition to getting organized logistically, the objective for the week was to hit the ground running on the research front. We wanted to make sure we "got it started" rather than just talking and thinking about it.

First, let's review what we actually did.

Library research was cataloging existing higher ed software solutions in our space. Reviewed about 25 and created five categories.

Field research was interviews with 4 faculty members about their frustrations with existing products. Notes for team file produced.

Brainstorming was really free-wheeling discussion between me and Marc on the different directions the project could take. Both wrote up notes and deposited in the project archive.

In project advisor meeting we discussed OKRs and came up with our customized milestones and objectives. Write up deposited in archive and shared with advisor. Next week we need to work out key results and get sign-off on OKRs for the semester with advisor.

While we were successful in terms of getting the research ball rolling right away, I think we figured out pretty quickly that we did not spend enough time thinking about and writing down (so we'd be on the same page and so we would be more deliberate in what we sought out) our research plan. Frankly, we started talking to people and "looking stuff up" without having formulated any questions we were trying to answer. It was great to follow interesting threads and we probably learned a lot, but it wasn't a really efficient use of our time in every case and didn't always get us any closer to our objectives.

Lesson for us: stop and write up and organize what our unknowns and need-to-find-out and need-to-learn-abouts and need-some-familiarity-with things and then let those guide our research plans.

Lesson for others: pretty much the same thing.