+School To Work Transition

Pretotypes

Wendy Elman 08.19.13

Design Thinking Action LabStanford Venture Lab

+Initial Stakeholder Profile

Meet Sean L., age 22 Attended University of Connecticut to major in Physics with intention of

pursuing a related career once he got his degree. Realized after two semesters he did not actually like his chosen field. Emerging interest in product design and music He switched to math because he was proficient at it and was required to

choose an alternative in the college he originally applied to Attempted (unsuccessfully) to minor in marketing, a subject which he

thought would to support his growing interest in a more creative field Dropped out after 2 years.

Passion: collaborative work with designers and manufacturers to develop new products.

Current Work Production of technical drawings and product visualizations via 3D

Modeling software Reverse-engineering of products to improve upon existing designs Teaching Assistant for High School Marching Band

+Problem Statement

Student needs a better way to explore and develop skills related to subjects and/or areas of interest in a learning environment in order to better inform and prepare for a career.

+PRETOTYPE #1 – JOB GENIE

What it is

Online application for students to discover careers, job skill requirements, and salary range related to their specific curriculum and course of study. Also included are links to resources, peer rated/reviewed company profiles, blog posts from recent grads, and integration of a alumni networking database. Customizable for each College/University.

Contributors

Students, alumni professionals, hiring managers (recruiting talent), faculty, grad students, career coaches and experts.

+Job Genie Home Page Survey AppLEARN ABOUT JOBS OPPORTUNITIES & SKILLS RELATED TO YOUR CURRICULUM

Step 1: Select College and Course Step 2: Choose a Related Industry

Step 3: Select Employment Options

Step 4: Results Page View Roles & Responsibilities Skills Required Salary Range Sample Job Description(s) Link to Job Sites Link to Alumni Network

+Job Genie - Results Page

Related Links

Job Resources Check Out famous people

who majored in [Economics] Alumni Network

Results Detail• Role• Responsibilities• Skills Required• Salary Range• Sample Job Descriptions

LEARN ABOUT JOBS OPPORTUNITIES & SKILLS RELATED TO YOUR CURRICULUM

+Pretotype Review –Student Liberal Arts College 

“I think this would be really interesting. My school has a career services website with but its general information and assumes you already know what career you are interested in, which I don’t.”

“The career services websites I have looked at always start with what we students interested in NOT what they are actually majoring in.”  

“As I really have no idea yet what I want to do this would be really helpful.”

“Not sure yet what my career goals are related to my major because I am in the humanities and other than obvious choices like art historian or social worker I don’t know enough about all related options. “

“Helps me understand range of options.” “Having access to active alumni’s and this all in one place would be

really useful. There is a lot of information but its not all in one place. “

“My school encourages me to go and talk with alumni about career opportunities but I rely on them to help facilitate connecting. “

“Peer review Company Profiles would be better than general Company info as I can get that anywhere. “

+Pretotype #2: M.E.E.Ts

Mock Employment Education Training (MEETS)

Description: Cross curriculum collaboration module

Cross curriculum collaboration projects with students from different disciplines. Built into the actual curriculum, this module is intended for students to learn from each other, take on real world jobs and roles, and learn how to use tools needed for employment (e.g. excel, PowerPoint, website builders, Google analytics,).

The goal is for teams to work together in teams to solve and/or present finding based on a real world example from an existing company. Students take different roles and responsibilities and utilizing available tools to develop real world skills.

Example: Physics team discovers a signature breakthrough which could have major consequences for several industries. In order to gain recognition they must clearly articulate findings, make a business case, generate supporters, and get their researched published in Nature Publishing Journal.

Roles:

Researcher

Marketing Manager

Project Manager

Analyst

Product Designer

+PROTOTYPE #2: MEETS

What it is

Cross discipline collaboration projects

Built into the course curriculum, this module is intended to foster collaboration and teamwork while building everyday workplace skills.

Example: physics, marketing, and economic students collaborate on developing a business plan and promoting results of new research breakthrough to be published in an academic Journal in order to gain funding for bringing a product to market.

Goals:

For teams to collaborate and learn how different roles and responsibilities intersect in order to achieve results in a timeframe.

To introduce Agile project management methodology currently deployed in many workplace settings.

To gain hands on experience and basic knowledge of common software and applications being used in the workplace environment (Excel, Website builders, Google Analytics, DropBox, Google Docs).

Mock Employment Education Training (M.E.E.Ts]

+Pretotype: ME.E.T. s

Structure

Faculty selects companies and/or non-profit organizations to develop mock challenges based on actual case studies. Two classes from different disciplines are identified. Class participants are split into self organizing /governing teams and are expected to define specific tasks to be completed within 2 week increments over a period of 2 months.

Tasks are defined and may include activity related to:

Define Vision & Mission – team

Marketing – e.g. create marketing plan, build a “mock” website using web tool application such as Weebly

Market Research –e.g. identify competitors with similar offerings, market size, feature set

Define Key Performance Indicators –e.g. define how success will be measured and how KPI’s will be tracked e.g. Google Analytics

+Key Requirements

• Three artifacts Project Requirements (“Backlog’) Task “Sprint” Backlog (what still needs to be completed) Potentially shippable incremental Product, Service or Result

• Four Activities Planning Meeting (beginning of initial 2 week period) Daily Meeting (can be 15 min.) Demo (End of 2 weeks) Retrospective (review accomplishments and challenges)

•Primary roles Project Team members “Sprint” Manager – should rotate for each new 2 week period Product Owner – owns product vision Marketing Manager – defines communication strategy and related tasks

+Step 1- Define the Vision

Class Exercise: Define the Vision

Each person takes a blank post-it / sticky note and writes the 15 word vision for assigned Company and/or product (word-for-word)

Each person does this on their own No discussion between team members

Put all of the Vision statements up on wall under a post-it note labeled “Vision”

+Step 2 - Teams Self Organize

Choose team member roles Link to Vision Link to Strategy Fill-in the details

Who, what, when, where and why

+Create Task “Backlog”

Prioritize / Order the Backlog of items If there is time, the Product Owner can prioritize / order the

items based on Business Value / Priority

Teams can also use an ordering methodology based on

Must haves

Should haves

Could haves

Won’t haves

+Step 3 – Deliver defined tasks

A maximum two (2) week project iterations (i.e. “Sprint”) At the end of the two weeks, the goal of the project team is to

have produced a potentially shippable (incremental) product, service or result

The cross-functional, self-organizing and self-governing teams will be required to have, manage and maintain an “ordered product backlog” for the duration of the project and own the results for the iteration Teams get to choose how to get their work done and what

available tools and applications they will use to do so.

Requirements are to have a) a backlog of upcoming tasks defined and b) to have a potentially shippable (incremental) product, service or result

+Weekly Update [each team member]

Last weeks Accomplishments

Blockers/Obstacles

Today’s Objectives

Resources that can help remove obstacles

+Stakeholder Interview Comments

“We talk a lot about needing to collaborate more at my school so this could be great”

“I feel like I really need to learn how to do basic things you would do in a job, like HTML or use Excel.”

“I like that this would be part of the curriculum. My school has something like this but it’s a separate course and its focused on hoe to be an entrepreneur. Not everyone gets a chance to take it.”

+ Reflections

I had a lot of ideas but had to think hard about what would actually fill an unmet need and be different than what already exists.

Some of my ideas overlapped.

Designing one aspect of the pretotype was really challenging as integration of other features were important to the overall offering.

My student interviews went pretty well in that both pretotypes proved to be deliver on an unmet need. One interviewee had ideas for enhancing the experience which I took to be a good sign.

I learned from my interviews about features which exist already elsewhere which meant I needed further iteration in order to be worth the cost and effort.

I am actually considering building Pretotype #1 out further.