By Devin Yeatter

List ten non-obvious assumptions about your target customers (or organizations) that you need to validate

1. The women of the Paradise Village co-op have the ability to learn how to utilize the machines we are developing
2. They will be able to innovate and develop product designs
3. Upon developing these products, they will be able to find outlets to ensure they can manufacture them, i.e. creating or finding a way to acquire injection molds of the products
4. The products they develop will find a market base in the Philippines
5. Recycled products will be marketable within the Philippines
6. The government (especially local) will be willing to cooperate and assist our project and the women’s co-op
7. We have chosen the correct people to be present at the women’s co-op during our workshop
8. Ramon will help us in developing our ecosystem and fleshing out our contacts
9. Locally made products will be valued more highly
10. We know who will be supplying the plastic waste/how we will be acquiring it

List ten hypotheses about your project that you need to test during fieldwork

1. Dividing workshop participants into smaller groups will be more effective in teaching them
2. Jumping right into working with the machines after a very brief introduction is the best method of teaching/knowledge acquisition
3. The machines will work exactly as planned with minimal problems
4. The machines can be run day and night
5. The machines can be operated with just the women of the co-op
6. We will be able to effectively sort the plastic waste to avoid cross contamination
7. The goods the women will create will either be very durable or able to reenter the recycling cycle again easily
8. The rented space for the machines will have enough electricity and be big enough to house them
9. Creating a recycling system that is effective for one community will lead to its spread in neighboring communities
10. The process of conducting a workshop with the women’s co-op will be different than the process of conducting a workshop in the US for college students

What do you think you bring to your team? How has your perception of your own strengths and weaknesses changed over the course of the class? Please be specific

I believe currently my experience writing proposals for grants and writing experience in general is quite helpful to the team as we begin working in earnest on our paper. In addition, as the general lead on working with the sus dev class on the completion of our ecosystem map, I believe some of the experience I have working in business environments (although less than desired) is still helpful at this juncture. I believe I bring a generally positive attitude about the project and life in general to the team, seeing the work ahead of us and knowing we have the ability to do it and do it well. This attitude can be helpful when we have great amounts of work ahead and could become discouraged at the prospect.

I believe this project has reinforced my ability to see to see the forest for the trees and look beyond the day to day tasks and towards the goal and end result being worked towards. With such an early stage project, this has become especially important. At the beginning of the project I believed myself to be good at communication within groups and above average at time management. However, this semester has seen quite a few issues arise within both of these aspects of myself as my schedule grew more full than I anticipated. My abilities within both of these aspects need to continue improving, especially with an increase in workload overall. I know I am more than able to handle all that is on my plate and I’m passionate about everything I’ve been working on, it’s just a matter of budgeting my time better and staying on top of communicating with all the other stakeholders who are invested in the work I am involved in.