The aim of today’ workshop was to cover any final questions we had regarding the assignment. Following last week’s workshop, I researched more into Assignment 1 and gathered questions on information I felt was unclear. I took advantage of one to one time with my tutor to ask these questions, such as the layout of the Appendix as I didn’t understand the extent to which my portfolio of work must be included. We then came together as a group, to begin creating our interview. We created a semi-structured interview, creating professional yet insightful questions that mirrored the demands of our brief. We set out a list of businesses we were each going to approach to ensure that we did not approach the same businesses, as this looks unprofessional for Toilet Twinning. The interview can be seen above. Finally, before we left this session, we ensured our team was ready to begin data collection, by ensuring we were all on the same page with our interview structure, and that we each had a business to email.
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Before this session we had to ensure that our competitor analysis had been completed consisting of a PESTLE analysis and Porter’s 5 Forces, as well as addressing the legal issues surrounding our project.
We then began to shape our primary research, by learning about the different types of data collection methods. We learnt about qualitative and quantitative data, and concluded qualitative data was the most beneficial for our project, as it is primarily concerned with exploring new territory, something we were exploring through B2B markets. Prior to this session, I found that quantitate data was the most insightful, as this was all I had collected in my academia experiences to date. However, from learning about qualitative data, I can now conclude I was wrong, and that this type of data is more insightful as you are able to change and adapt to it throughout the data collection. Moreover, the penultimate part of this session was the briefing of our first assignment, where we gained a more insightful view on the impending PDR, that encourages you to engage with structured reflective and practical activities, enabling me to creatively think about personal, academic and career goals. This was important, as I felt my current view of a PDR was unclear, therefore I was able to clarify my understanding in order to achieve the best possible outcome. Prior to this session, it was important that we had our ethics forms signed off by our tutor so that we could begin our primary research.
The focus on today’s session was competitor analysis and legal issues. We firstly, focused on Porter’s five forces, something I have already used in previous assignments in my first year. It was harder to apply this to a B2B market, as the information of the theory is mostly centered around B2C markets. However, we worked as a group to create our own forces model for Toilet Twinning. Furthermore, we learnt of any legal issues that may impact our project. Before this session, I did not understand the overwhelming impact that these may have, however following the session, I had a larger understanding of these issues such as legislations and how they restrict an organisation. Finally, before the session concluded, we set out the main objectives for our primary research in order for the following session to begin immediately and remain efficient. We decided that a semi-structured interview with business’ would be the most helpful form of data collection, to allow a more personal insight to the B2B market. However, we were aware of the risks this may involve, as some businesses may feel too busy to take time to participate in our interview, however we felt that this was the best way to gain valuable information, as we are able to adjust the interview whilst in motion and enable it to be more personal. Once again, we began the session with a stand-up meeting. As a reflection on last weeks stand up meeting, this weeks had definitely improved, as we had witnessed the positive impacts on last weeks on the session therefore knew this was important to put all our effort into. Following this, we learnt about databases made available to us through MMU’s library, such as Mintel. I was already aware of these from previous assignments, however the recap was useful in applying these to research for this project. Mintel is extremely useful in helping you find detailed market research, however, it doesn't often cover all aspects of what you are looking for such as detailed explanations.
The rest of this session was set aside for group research. From our brief, we understood that Toilet Twinning required a greater insight into the digital trends within the B2B market, therefore half of our group began work on this, whilst the other half began researching companies that we may approach to work with Toilet Twinning, following our client providing us with the companies they had already worked with. We learnt that they had already approached an extensive range of companies, therefore we decided to approach business’ local to Manchester as Toilet Twinning are based in Bournemouth. Today we began ‘Stand-Up Meetings’, to discuss what we have accomplished so far, what we will accomplish today, and any obstacles impeding this progress. Before this, I had never heard of a stand-up meeting, however understood the importance of these for a status update before our sessions. I believe learning about these will help me in my upcoming placement year, so I can increase the efficiency of my working day, and ensure I am up to date with my colleagues. You can read more about stand up meetings here – Stand Up Meetings.
Furthermore, I received feedback on my blog posts and PDP’s. I learnt that I must relate my plan to my career more, and include measurable aspects to display how I will provide evidence of achieving this. It gave me time to reflect on certain things I aim to achieve before I begin my placement year, such as individuality, which I currently believe is a weakness of mine when completing work. I aim to improve my strengths and initiative of which I can apply to upcoming work. Finally, prior to the session, I looked at the presentation slides to inform myself what we should have completed by this session. We had completed every task that should have been at this date, therefore decided we should use this session to research Toilet Twinning in further detail online. This displays my trait as a driver in the group, as I was keen to ensure we were constantly moving forward. Prior to this session, we arranged a day to Skype our client, to run over the questions we had about the brief. The questions we had formulated were:
In the session, I learnt about Project Management, delving into the facets of what it entails such as risk management and project planning. I found this interesting, as before this session I was not aware of the importance of a project plan, however I now know we can use it to show tasks that must be completed over time, and highlights documents to be monitored or reviewed. It is important that our group considers that tasks depend on other tasks, and ensures that tasks are completed by set deadlines so that the project completion time is met. In this session, my team and I created a Gantt chart (using TomsPlanner) and risk analysis. I already knew the importance of using these, as risks must be identified so we can avoid these and risk seeming unprofessional to the client. Furthermore, our Gantt chart shows key milestones of the project and assists in understanding the progress of the project. Prior to this week’s session, my team and I ensured that we had contacted the company for our project, introducing ourselves and acknowledging we had received the brief following the success of our presentation.
Furthermore, we went over the feedback our tutor had sent us regarding our presentations in the previous week. She explained that we had a ‘good understanding of the charity’, and ‘acted confidently when dealing with the questions from the group’, however needed to ‘improve our strategy’, and ‘pin our focus onto B2B markets more,’ which we took on board before beginning our project by researching the current B2B market finding out their competitors and the sector they operate in. I arrived to the lesson on time, and we clarified as a group that we understood our brief, and took the opportunity to ask any questions we may have about this, when having a one to one with our tutor. We discussed the types of companies Toilet Twinning are interested in, and prepared questions to ask our client when speaking to them in the upcoming week. We wanted to understand if they had done any work like this before, and what companies they had approached, so that we did not approach the same business’ and act unprofessional. Furthermore, we wanted to clarify how they currently communicate with their target audience. Our completed review of our brief can be seen below. Today, we presented our projects, aiming to persuade our 'colleagues' of the agency we should be allowed to take our project ‘Toilet Twinning’ on.
We first researched what Toilet Twinning does as a charity, and then considered what skills they valued and how we fit as a group into those skills. One point we raised, was that Toilet Twinning look at cost effective ways to reduce poverty, and our group also acted as 'innovators' therefore could think of imaginative ways to reduce the costs for the charity when creating awareness of it's presence. We felt the first presentation we created, lacked detail into what Toilet Twinning stood for, and this may distort our comparison of their objectives to our skills. Therefore, we placed more emphasis on Toilet Twinning’s main objectives and directly compared these to our group skills with the use of visual aids to gain clarity. I felt in our final presentation, we acted persuasive however kept the charities best interests at heart. I found the best presentation was ‘Home Community Café’ as they proposed detailed actions they had planned such as a coffee morning, and described in detail how they will do such events. I felt like my group could have learnt from this, as they proposed an action plan, and allowed the agency to see how they were going to take the project forward. In today's session we placed ourselves into groups and in these groups we chose our project to create a presentation for next week. My group chose the 'Toilet Twinning' project, involving corporate social responsibility as we felt we had the most background knowledge on this due to previous assignments in our first year. We then undertook the Belbin test and completed a SWOT Analysis of our results, as some of our members received the same results as others from the Belbin Test, and Belbin found a group works well with a mix of attributes. It is important that we enhance our strengths and work harder in our weaker areas, such as ‘executive’ by organsising ourselves more using project plans to allow our project to be efficient. These are the results of my Belbin Test, showing my main trait is a ‘driver’. I felt this was accurate to what I already knew about myself as I often take lead when working as part of a team and describe myself as ambitious and energetic in daily life. However, I learnt that my weakest role was ‘Executive’. I believe this is inaccurate, as this describes someone who is generally disciplined and eager to get the job done, which I believe is similar to a ‘Driver’ and this applies to myself. Therefore, it could be said that I must improve my disciplinary skills, which I believe I already had.
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Lottie Kempl Archives
March 2017
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