Let the Genie Out!

The last 2 weeks were quite eventful. Andre and I went into the city to test the Genie design idea. It was quite difficult to get anyone to speak to us at first; especially when we went to the banks and law firms around. We then decided to change our strategy by just waiting on the sidewalk and apporaching people we felt fit into our target group. Two I.T recruiters actually liked our drive and wanted us to add them on LinkedIn.

We also shot the promo video for the app that same day.

Come the day of our preliminary presentation, Ali who wasnt feeling too well did quite well, Andre was nervous but scaled through, Atabak took laws into his own hands (yet again!) to demo the app outside of the presentation and Richard didnt like that, The feedback from someone for my part was that my back was towards the audience while trying to point to the table in the presentation and Rajeev didnt have enough time to say anything.

I'm hoping we are more disciplined this week and that nerves dont get the best of anyone.

The New Guy

Just as we were trying to settle down as a team after Ronja left, Richard asked if we could have someone else join the team. Instinctively because we were 3 weeks into the unit, it naturally would have been a reluctant thing to do. Suprisingly the rest of the guys in the team agreed.

Rajeev, the new guys seems quite cool and i think we will all work well. We insisted Richard help us conclude with an app choice and he finally did. Hopefully Ata and Andre will deliver on a nice prototype and presentation with the story board/narration i gave.

Ali is finally behaving himself by posting his ideas on google docs. We are yet to see what rajeev is capable of

Frustrations...

This week was a bit eventful, we finally put out a medium fidelity prototype and a storyboard. Some team members are however more frustating than others in this whole process. I thought Ali was bad but i think Atabak has moved up the list with Rajeev in second place. Ata sometimes feels too important with himself because he worked on the prototype. He changes the designs without telling anyone or dictates how we should communicate with him in terms of feedback. He also did something extremely annoying in the last workshop by asking the tutor to tell the team he should be excused from interviewing anyone (in my mind i punched him...by the  way im not a violent person). I found this highly unecessary and ungentlemanly like.

Andre and i should work on a video today. I 'm hoping its fun. Ali will edit the video. Rajeev is almost non-existent at this point but we'll see what happens in the coming weeks.

Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing

It is now quite apparent that effective communication is key in order for us to achieve results as a team. Clarity of direction has also helped in two ways. First, there is no longer confusion as to what tasks need to be carried out and what results we need. Secondly, it is now easier to know those hiding under the guise of confusion not to do anything or take direction. A major culprit is Ali. Even though we clearly set aside tasks that we need to do we are all yet to feel his impact in any way. Ata on the other hand is an exchange student from Germany and his English is not so good so now that we understand that, we try to spend a bit more time explaining and clariying things with him and he's really doing quite better.

I feel we are just getting out of the storming stage (casualty=Ronja) and gradually into the Norming stage of team development. Lets see what will happen next week.

If You Can't Stand The Heat Get Out of The Kitchen!

The team had a bit of trouble over the weekend regarding when and where to meet. It was however concluded that we should try to collaborate more online. Amidst all the confusion and try to figure out the next steps, Ronja has opted out of the team and unit as a whole. It was quite a big blow but everyone took it well. Ata and i have created a structure for the app on google docs so Ali and Andre can contribute. We will however need a structured feedback as well from potential users which will help the testing of our assumptions and eventually aid our design and prototyping. I prepared some test questions which we will use and i have shared them with the team. Hopefully we should get results this week.

Good bye Ronja! You will be missed!