final reflection

4th Quarter Project

     Our assignment was to invent a product to essentially 'Shark Tank' pitch it. Our product was a pill that makes introverts more confident in themselves, and less uncomfortable in social situations. We worked on this project all fourth quarter, collaborating  in small groups. A few challenges we faced, were staying on schedule, especially when someone missed class without telling us ahead of time, so we couldn't plan our filming schedule for our commercial around this. While working on this project, I learned how to pitch a product, and how to work with people who didn't seem to care about the project as much as you do. I think our biggest issue was thinking through some of the details, especially since it is a prescription medication. Some of the questions we got were the side affects, or if we had liquid or chewable forms of the pill. If we had thought this through more, we could have even added more to our websites, advertisements, and our commercial. Another issue that lots of groups had, ours included, were the suggested videos after our commercial was played. The groups who presented the next couple days, had the benefit of fixing this before they presented. Since we were one of the groups who presented on the first day, we weren't able to address these minor issues for our presentation. I think that I realized what a lot of the concepts were that I didn't know or remember and now I can review those concepts before I go into my E-comm classes next year. 

Time Management

     As mentioned before, when a group member missed class without telling us, it messed with our schedule, putting us behind. This was especially an issue during the commercial filming portion of the project, since the member who missed was supposed to be an actor in our commercial. The day we were planning to film, she was gone, so we waited to film the next day, putting us behind schedule. The next day, the group member was gone again, so we just had to find someone else to act since we only had about seven days to film and edit our commercial. During the graphic design rotation, we created our logo and icon, our ad, and the coupon. This rotation went more smoothly, maybe because it was less dependent on every group member being there. For the animation rotation, I think I struggled the most, probably because there are so many small specific steps you have to remember to animate something. 

Strengths

     My biggest strengths are collaboration, and staying positive while under stress. I think that these skills were very beneficial in this project, because we didn't have very much time to work on this project, and there were definitely some times when I was frustrated with my group.

Weaknesses

     My biggest struggle was remembering the specific tools and steps to animate, edit a video, etc. This was the best thing about having a group-having people to ask about certain things that I didn't remember. 

My Favorite Part This Quarter

     I loved the initial process of this project, coming up with a product and designing it. The main thing I would do differently would be to review some skills needed to do basic things in E-comm, so I wouldn't be so stressed about not knowing how to do certain things during the project. The biggest thing I learned was how to pitch a product to an investor, or just your teachers. This is very valuable in this century, with so many people coming up with new products. The main goal I have set for myself for next year, is to remember all the basic concepts we learned this year. Especially since I am going into animation and video next year, I need to touch base with what I remember and what I need to know before sophomore year. I really liked this project, and how we could create basically anything we wanted, since the products were hypothetical, and didn't really need to be practical or realistic.