It was made clear to us last night that there is a slim, slim chance we will conclude this project before the end of the semester. Unfortunate news for all three of us; two of us are graduating and one has a full summer semester awaiting her. However, we were warned in the beginning that this was the nature of the project- constructed to reflect real world challenges with no hard and fast rules or guidelines to follow. And if this were an easy process, having a master's degree wouldn't be that special. Even though our timeline may continue longer... Continue reading

I feel like I could copy and paste my blog from last week and it would still be appropriate. We haven't moved too far since then. We do though have a former DAAP student who has agreed to do our design work for us. Once that is completed, we can test those images and then wrap up our research. Simple, right? I am hesitant to feel optimistic because it seems as though every time we get slightly ahead, something comes along to delay our progress. Regardless, I want to feel positive about the remainder of the project so I'll go... Continue reading

This class has by far been the most difficult course in my grad school career. Though it is not difficult because of the material we are using or trying to use. It is difficult because we are working with a real company who has their own real agenda and objectives. In the past, we would get hypothetical cases and while they were based on real companies, we were able to manipulate small details to make the projects run smoothly. Not anymore. Now every small bump in the road seems like a course altering pothole and no matter how fast we... Continue reading

It's weird to think about spring break now and how I used to think about it. In undergrad, spring break was a wonderful free week of doing nothing-- and not feeling guilty about it. Now spring break rolls around and nothing changes. We're still expected at work and the capstone project still expects progress to be made throughout. For the first time this semester, I think I can finally say that I feel really good about where we are as a group with our findings, research, and progress. We had some slight delays along the way but we've realigned our... Continue reading

Another week closer to the end.. My team and I have been trying very hard to determine ways to research our product, its benefits, and our consumers' perspectives / habits / thoughts. In theory this seem straight forward. Go ask consumers what they think, if they use the product, and why or why not. Then you remember that phrase that's always repeated in classes that consumers will tell you anything because they know nothing (exaggerated slightly, but not much). Now my team is trying to accomplish all of the above goals without actually 'asking' our consumers for the answers. It's... Continue reading

We are finally up and moving with our project! It's good to finally know where we are going. My team and I spent the last week conducting qualitative research. We interviewed people on our product-- their perceptions of what it is and does (seems silly considering everyone thinks they know what fabric softener is, but not everyone knows all it does), what benefits it offers (again, people assume they know all of the benefits, but most do not), how they use it (again, most people do not use it correctly), and what benefits would attract them the most to the... Continue reading

We are finally back in gear and moving forward! We were able to redefine our scope with our client and it thankfully is not far from where we had originally started. That's good news because that means the research we had previously completed will not go to waste and it means that we are not starting from scratch halfway through the semester (though it does sort of feel that way). We are beginning our qualitative research this week. We all are trying to complete as many interviews with respondents as quickly as we can. Luckily the target populations we are... Continue reading

For the majority of the last month our team has been on pause waiting to hear what the new scope of the project will be. It's been difficult remaining patient with the clock constantly ticking in the background reminding us how little time we have left. Good news came yesterday, though! We finally saw the two possible options from which the client will choose. I feel comfortable with both. One is exactly what we started the semester doing, so that would be perfect to jump back into that frame of mind. The second is not far off and I believe... Continue reading

Another week has passed in the progress of the semester but not our capstone project. It was decided a little over a week ago that our focus and goals need to be redefined. We are waiting for the results of the conversation now. In the meantime, the group has decided to pause briefly on the weekly meetings. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves with work considering we have yet to learn what our new constraints and overall goals are. Though we have not met in person in the past week, none of us have stopped working forward in... Continue reading

It's common to hear the warnings and advice but it's less common to really listen to everything with the intent of using it. That's becoming more and more clear with this project. We heard that time is the enemy, building and maintaining client rapport is important yet difficult, and alignment is key. I'm starting to reflect on the previously given advice with a different perspective because almost all of what we were warned about it happening to us. While we have a good working relationship with the client, the alignment for what the deliverables will be is still TBD. And... Continue reading

The next steps of our project will be interesting and challenging. Our clients have expressed their goals for the product and how they would like us to get there - using the SIT techniques. Unfortunately, we are not completely confident those techniques will be lead us to many results. But, like we've always been told, we stayed true to the process, met for 4 hours yesterday and tried every technique with the appropriate constraints in mind. I believe we came up with some good ideas. Today we have a meeting with the client to go over what we have learned... Continue reading

A couple weeks into the semester and I still don’t think it’s hit me that this is the last class- and the biggest challenge I’ve encountered so far… My team is paired with P&G for the next three months- specifically with the Downy team. I wouldn’t have thought that I’d be excited to focus so much attention on fabric softener for the next three months, but the energy given off by the team makes it hard not to be. I’m also excited for the possibility to be able to see the fruits of our labor in the real world. Through... Continue reading