Jack Sherman

Blog #9: Team Prompts:

1. What are the common personal goals within the members of your team, and how can you leverage those goals to build collaboration

For starters, I would say that the common personal goals within the members of our team add up together to form a much larger goal that we all have. Jashlyn’s personal goals are to successfully find testing kits for the bacteria that we currently have growing in our system along with testing different NFT variables. For the design aspect of the team, Sofia is currently working on developing a couple versions of designs that the EcoRealms could potentially have. Then Bella is working on utilizing those designs to speak with interior designers, architects, and people in corporate office spaces to determine which design we should pursue. For the more financial aspect of our project, Jack’s personal goals for the project revolve around applying for funding so that we could develop a prototype. 

2. What are the common project goals within the members of your team, and how can you leverage those goals to make progress?

For one, the team aims to improve our EcoRealm partitions to make them more visually appealing and enhance the vision of being immersed in an environmental space. To achieve this goal, we are redesigning our current prototype and contacting interior designers for guidance, feedback, and insights to improve our partition further. We also strive to create a self-maintaining partition. Reducing the need for regular upkeep will make the partitions more convenient and cost-effective for users. This coincides with the improvement of our NFT systems, in which we plan to observe how the plants react to certain test variables.The team also recognizes the importance of clear communication and accountability in achieving our goals. Communicating with one another ensures that everyone is on the same page, working towards the same objectives, and making progress within our project. 

3. What are some biases that might become a barrier to your project goals?

From time to time, we experience each of the biases in the article. Primarily, we need to overcome the bandwagon effect and confirmation bias. As new members on a team that has already existed for 2 years, it can be easy for us to defer to the tenured members and agree with whatever input/advice/recommendations they make in regards to our action plan. We can avoid this bias by ensuring that everyone understands the scientific facts relevant to our project and make decisions based on factual evidence. The blind spot bias is another important factor in our work because we all specialize in different components of the project and have different priorities in regards to which courses of action to take. We encountered projection bias this week. Two members of our team had conflicting views of our business model, and we disagreed on whether or not a subscription model works well with a wholesaler. We seemed to be speaking past each other because we made different assumptions about our supplier relationships. The last bias that we need to overcome the functional fixedness bias. Our team members have identifiable roles, which makes some sense because we are far along in our product development and need to fill many responsibilities. However, we succumb to the bias by delegating work that specifically fits our role, instead of adjusting our roles to handle the work. For example, the design of our product is a huge priority that needs to be completed before we can make further progress in our business model, technical development, etc. Since  this is a relevant bias for us, we are working to overcome it by holding a design retreat in which all team members can contribute to the product design.

4. What type of decision-making system will you use and why?

We do a lot of differences with experts in this group. We are all incredibly specialized in our knowledge sets so it is easy to just let the person who specializes in the specific discipline to make the call. This allows everyone to contribute to the group in a meaningful way and have a voice with a specific topic. If there are general ideas to discuss, we go with the majority based on reasonable conclusions garnered from group discussion. 

Jack Sherman

1. Identify FIVE specific things in your slides that you could have done differently

• In one of the questions we received from the judges he was confused on whether our project was actually a hydroponic system or whether it was grown in soil. I think that since this was unclear we could have created a slide that was fully dedicated to explaining how our product is a hydroponic system and why we chose this. 
• Also, since we had technical difficulties with our slides we can ensure next time that this won’t happen by having it downloaded and making sure that it would work with the conductor of the presentations before it came time for us to present. Since we didn’t realize that half of the presentation slides were missing and it was hard for our speakers to keep presenting without showing the slides that we created.
• I think it would have been beneficial to include even more visuals of pictures that we have taken. Certain slides like the microbe research slide, I think would have been made better by adding a few visuals.  Perhaps there was a picture or some visual related to the microbe to research. 
• I did notice that when we were speaking about biophilia and the meaning behind it we didn’t have a slide that actually had the definition of it on it. We kind of just supported it through the pictures we included of ourselves in nature. I think that next time we could have utilized a slide specifically for that in order to really establish that idea. My professor utilizes the saying “one thought per slide” and I think there was room for improvement in enforcing that. 
• Additionally, it would have been beneficial to add a slide that explains how we are utilizing the data we are collecting from the sensors and applying it to continue learning about our project and how we can further implement into establishing our prototype of what we want our project to actually look like.

2. Identify FIVE specific ways in which you could have delivered your presentation is better.

• In my portion of the presentation, I could have delivered the presentation better by having more confidence behind my words. This could have minimized the stuttering and sound more convincing to the judges. 
• I could have given more clarification and an in depth explanation of each slide. I feel as though I touched each slide on a surface-based level. I could have elaborated more on the hydroponic bacteria we were researching and explained our NFT system a little more clearly in a way so that the judges could understand the workings of it.  
• During the majority of the presentation, I kept on looking back at the presentation board rather than the audience. In this case, I lost a lot of that connection with the audience. If I am not engaged with the audience, then they won’t be engaged in what we have to say either. So in other, I should maintain eye contact with the audience in order to keep them engaged.
• Similarly to the last point, for next time, I should reduce the amount of times I look back at the presentation for guidance. This may lead judges to think that I do not know enough about the project or that I was not well prepared.
• In delivering the presentation, I should take more pauses between my sentences in order to gain more time in thinking what to say. If I attempt to go through the presentation quickly, I tend to mess up. So to reduce such mistakes, I should take pauses, not only to prevent stuttering and mistakes to happen, but so that the audience can follow along at a generous pace. 

 

3. Identify FIVE specific ways you could have built your credibility further.

 

• Our first scores to create an IRB approved to psych study. We want to specifically show that our product has the desired effects. This will help us sell our product to the judges and hopefully one day I actually sell our product to a market.
• In my presentation portion, are used a lot of statistical facts. I definitely could’ve done a better job making sure that I showed the credibility of where they’re from.
• I also think throughout the process the more time we have interviews and new opportunities to speak with judges, we will be better equipped to answer questions that we are tackling. Our new team is taking on challenges that go above and beyond development. This is a fun and exciting time but it’s also a lot of work to answer all these questions. The more we have a team work hard and develop answers the better credibility we will gain. 
• When we actually have customer interviews, we will be able to list people we have spoken with and companies we have reached out to. This will help a show the depth of industries we have spoken with about this product, and it will further guarantee that there is a market for it.
• Developing an actual prototype that is fully automated, and self sustaining will be probably one of the most impressive things we need to accomplish. Once this is actually been done, we will actually have something to show and definitively say that the system can work. 

4. Identify FIVE specific questions that you could have answered better. What was the question, how did you respond, how should you have responded?

 

• We could have answered the question about our target audience better. Our answer was too limiting and we should have explained why corporate markets are a more viable option than healthcare or schools.
• Related to the first question, I think we could have done a better job responding to the panelist’s comment on putting this in elementary and middle schools, and explaining how the cost of production in the beginning stages of our product development would cause high prices that might eliminate this sector as a potential market.
• We were asked if our plant selection is customizable. We responded by saying yes, although I think it would have been better if we said that we plan for customization once we have tested enough plant species to be confident that our nutrient system can successfully regulate a larger variety of plants.
• We were asked about how we control the hazards of soil indoors- even though our plants use hydroponics so there is no soil involved. I think we could have better explained the core concept of our engineering design to avoid this question altogether.
• We were asked if we could put EcoRealms in more spaces on campus. I gave too lengthy of a response, the better answer would have been a simple, “Yes, absolutely”.

Jack Sherman

Identify three different primary stakeholders on your project, and come up with a list of 10 distinct questions you would ask each of them. Remember the aspirational / emotional /functional categories of needs and desires and try to find a balance of questions that might give you information in each of those areas.

End Users- Corporate Employees

• How do you envision a successful combination of greenery and office work space? 
• Have you noticed a difference in employee happiness in the office?
• In the past have you tried to incorporate greenery in the office space?
• Do you have any feedback on how we could improve our product?
• Could you describe the process of trying to get employees back in the office?
• How can we work on improving our product to benefit you better? 
• Does the noise our automation system produces affect your employees in any way?
• What are specific examples of how you feel our product improves your emotional wellbeing?
• We have conducted a psychological study previously proving that our product can improve the office work environment, do you feel that our product has this effect?

Customers- HR Department 

• Has your company previously enforced any similar products that improve mental health?
• What is your HR Department currently doing to improve the emotional wellbeing of consumers? 
• How can working in a cubicle environment feel taxing at times?
• Do you believe that changing the environment you work in to a more positive manner can increase work productivity?
• How does your company’s HR department compare to others?
• In what way do you feel our product can relate to the movement of enforcing self care and emotional well being in the employees?
• What gap is your HR Department currently trying to fulfill?
• Are you supportive of how our product can positively impact your HR department?

Grants/Investors

• We often struggle with defining what niche our product would be best to find grants, would you recommend gearing towards mental health or interior design?
• If investing in our company, what do you expect to receive after investing in our company?
• What would be the outcome of the grant? Do you expect to relieve something in return?
• After receiving a grant would we have to undergo a specific process to retrieve the money?
• Does the money received from grants or investments need to be recorded on taxes?
• Could we do something to better attract the types of investestors and grants we seek to obtain?

Identify all of the key customers for your product/service/creation/solution. List specific ways that you will ensure that your product will meet their aspirational, emotional, and functional needs and desires.

• Corporate Employees
  • We will network with corporate offices near the Lehigh Valley in order to start off with our product close to home. Our team member currently specializing in marketing right now is posing our product to the HR Department of many companies.
  • We want to make sure we attract these corporate employees by emphasizing how our product will change the work place environment. 
  • We will also explain the technological side of our product  to the people who are in charge of the technological department so they can ensure that our product will be functional.
• B2B Plant scapers 
  • Since our product is dealing with incorporating nature into the environment another customer that we hope to seek out are B2B Plant scapers. 
  • Through our marketing research we have found that a common key audience for starting business is a solid business to business marketing strategy.
  • We are aiming to develop an official prototype soon and once this is done we will be able to implement our product in lehigh offices and we will utilize this avenue of proving that our product is functional when attracting B2B Plant scapers. 
  • Our product aims to be almost entirely self-sustaining, with the only human involvement required being the occasional trimming of plants. This means that plant scapers can leverage our product to pick up customers who might require less frequent maintenance.
• Interior Designers
  • We are currently looking for grants that deal with interior design and architectural design. In the future, we are planning on working with the interior designers of companies.
  • By continuing to pitch our product as something that will improve the physical qualities of a corporate office space we will attract interior designers currently already working with the corporate office spaces we plan to employ.

Articulate your value propositions for each of your customer segments (using the format presented in class).

Corporate Employees – The value for this group would be in their enjoyment of the office space. We are here to provide them with a product that causes them to want to come to work and to be productive when they are present. 

B2B Plant scapers – The value we bring to the plant scapers is that we are able to give them a hands-off product that they can offer to customers, still make money off of, but not have to use as much manual labor. We also offer them ways to incorporate plants into the interior design of offices in a low-maintenance and modular way. 

HR – HR is looking to increase productivity and lower stress in their employees using the benefits of plants. Their job is to maintain good employees and ensure that they are pleased with their working conditions. This would help HR to prove to their employees that they care about them and for the company to prove to the stakeholders that their employees are happy and well-treated in the organization. 

Interior Designers- Unique and easy way to incorporate low-maintenance greenery into a design space. A great alternative to messy potted plants and expensive walls. Adds a unique opportunity for them to suggest these structures.