Demonstrating Commitment To A Team Project – Reflections And Successes

Importance of Demonstrating Team Commitment

The first responsibility as a manager was to arrange a team of several expertise who can carry forward the project without any delinquent along with my expectation. After selecting some precise expertise it was essential to understand their engagements and the field of skill. Then I started arranging them according to their skills and divided the work responsibility between them. It was kind of an elegant experience as I had to communicate and understand new peoples from several fields of expertise. After being familiar with the team members and fixed the responsibility we started our primary research to conduct basic information. We made some basic plans after listing all the ideas from team members.

We had to visit the site so we appeared at the site with required tools and some field expertise. We measure the site thoroughly and had interviews with the local shop owner and staffs to get practical information. After getting some valid information we started analyzing the data and based on the observation I did research on many dog, strollers and children and conduct related information. From this information, I was able to understand the case and draw some simple sketch of dog holders, chair, and strollers. Among those sketches the team picked some of them also we made some plan of branding strategies for clients. 

We contacted our client for conducting a meeting and chose the time and date to present our project pitch. We presented all of the plans and ideas to all clients.  A client liked our branding strategy as we are planned to hold a small market for local shops and stakeholders to make an interaction between them.  However, they are not satisfied with our design for the lake of creativity, according to them it was too simple. So we decided to revise the information and recreate the design that would satisfy the client. Apart from this failure, I tried to find some creative design of chair and benches.

There are some certain problems occurred to implement the design as we had work hard and waste much time on getting this results. It also influences our team members in a demotivated manner.  A subtle difference of opinion has arisen between team members so to find a way of emphasis to solving this problem, we had conversations a lot and did research more. It was very depressing though we overcome the situation and tried to find more optimal design. It was just a matter of time everybody was motivated again to establish a proper design. Another problem occurs to select a creative design as we had to change our whole design idea because they want to achieve a more creative outcome. So we did research a lot and found really good inspiration. This inspiration had an effect on our final design. This time we made some creative design through discussing the ideas thoroughly with every group member. This idea helped to enhance our group power and establish a creative solution.

Role and Responsibility in a Group Project

After creating the new design we needed to plan another meeting to confirm the designs. However, unfortunately, the client was unable to meet due to some emergency school trip. So we email soft copies of the design to the clients for confirmation and validation to progress in our project. Though we wanted face to face meeting and confirmed the design it was not possible in this week due to some certain problems. It created certain problems as we would not move to the next process if the design was not confirmed. However, tutors gave us the certain platform where we could share all the designs. Then the tutors had chosen some particular design and we had to work according to the design.

We design our new bench inspired by Korean bench for disabled people and Jeff Burwell’s parklet in San Francisco. We had a Group tutorial with tutors, they liked our design and branding so we decided it to do for our final outcome. After fixed the design we had to hold a team meeting for preparing the model according to the design. I started to research about the materials and found some cheap and appropriate material for the suitable and required outcome. After discussed with the team members we decided to use Polyethylene and recycled rubber for its wide availability and cost efficiency. Then we finalize our branding, design and material prototype with the clients. For design the prototype we pushed a spatial student to make the 2 dimensional and 3-dimensional modeling. With the three dimensional model I prepared a presentation including the finalize branding strategies and material details. I helped a spatial design student to choose final materials based on my budget research and previous experience. We preferred and advised to use Acrylic resin, recycled rubber after doing budget research and utilizing my previous experience. There are some certain problems occurred during this weeks. I was so stressful because some of our members were not that punctual so it is hard to gather information and works at the same time. Because the lake of individual responsibility some works were going out of schedules and I had to put extra effort to maintain the schedule. However, it helped me to gain new experiences and knowledge.

Finally, we got the chance to present the slides to the clients. Our whole team ware worried that how the tutors will react about the prototype. Marvelously they liked our presentation and gave their approval for the project. Tutors liked the new model and prototype for its uniqueness and cost benefits. They motivated us to finish the project and advised to continue communicating with them. It relieved us from anxiety and the whole team was extra motivated and focused to complete the project successfully. After spending a lot of time with each other our team bond was also strong and team members were also showing punctuality and responsibility that reduced my stress and helped me to be familiar with my team members.

Reflections on Working as a Team

We had a tutorial with tutors and visited the 3D workshop place to book a laser cutting machine and ordered materials for our prototype mock-up with a spatial student. After finalizing every aspect I started making the bond paper in an A3 bond document. This document was very crucial where the budgets, timeline and process ware included. After consulting with team members and analyzing all aspects we created a project plan and got the proper idea about the time and cost estimation. Then I started working on branding strategies along with my team. We already planned our superior branding plan and started making coupons and posters to implement the plan. We also faced some issue regarding the materials as it was hard to make the shape from them and we were unable to find a suitable workshop where this material can be used accordingly with the 3D model. However, after communicating with all team members and clients we found a 3D workshop where our requirement can be full field. It was possible for the all over the effort of your team members.

I made a template for our final A2 boards and sent it to everybody to get their opinions about the projects. We tried to get every possibility from all of our team members and clients for optimal result.

At final stage I gathered all the images and information related to the project from all the team members. Spatial student finished the prototype and I made final A2 PDF presentation board and share it with the tutors. Then we printed the final A2 board for afterward processes. It was successful because we did our whole works right on time and we got such a good final outcome. As a conclusion, this experience gave me the chance to acquire knowledge in my specialist field. Furthermore, I was fortunate to benefit from an opportunity to meet and work with new people in the other field as a design manager and assistant. Although this now working form represented considerable challenges for me, I was also able to gain hands-on design experience using In-design, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Excel. Also I was glad to be able to help them in the design section regard because I have experience with several 3D programmers such as 3D Max, Rhino, and Keynote which I obtained from my first degree. In addition, I learned the importance of working as part of a team and the power of positive thinking, particularly when understanding how design factors influence our society. It also confirmed to me the importance of human interaction within life in general. Although I still have a long way to go to be a perfect manager and a lot to learn, I was able to grow and develop through this collaboration project.