Absent

Stand Up Meetings

For this week, we practiced stand up meetings. This was the time students from each team has the opportunity to report back on what they have been up to in terms of progress the previous week and what they are aiming to achieve in the following week followed by any queries they have for the tutor. During the session I had the opportunity to spectate others presentation skills and technique.
The main topic of this week was based around research and ethics where we have been provided with a basic understanding to provide an analysis and to adapt it to our very own project briefs for our individual clients.

Meeting our Client

After exchanging emails with Eugene and several phone calls with Nick from LOOKOUT! I have managed to arrange a meeting with Nick. Having previously worked with brands and companies of a much larger scale, the meeting environment felt comfortable and relaxed especially as our client was extremely friendly and easy going. Despite the friendly and relaxed environment, me and my team remained professional when interrogating the brief.

Contacting Our Client

During this week I personally attempted to get in contact with Eugene from the company LOOKOUT! on behalf of our team to arrange a meeting to get to know a little bit more about the company and clarify the brief. However, our client has taken a considerable amount of time to reply which impeded our teams progress, but never the less, we adapted to the situation and didn't waste any time and we prepared questions for our client so that we gain a better understanding of them as a company and what they expect from the brief.

Feedback

In week 4, I received feedback on my presentation and was told that I did not have knowledge in fashion nor instagram which resulted in me not winning the project despite including visual images and proof of reaching 1000+ likes on my personal instagram post and reaching 10000+ likes utilising a secondary fashion related instagram account which was a clear indication of previous experience and success. I also talked about my experience of being invited several Paris fashion week events during PFW 2016 but I guess that was not accounted for. Never the less, our team received a project from a company called the LOOKOUT! The brief was vague and the companies website turns out to be unavailable at the time thus it was difficult to gather information. Hopefully our team will be able to gather more information when we meet our client.

The Pitch

During week two of the unit, we was given the project brief that we can potentially pitch for and get into teams. However, due to the low attendance of the first few weeks of term, I opted to go ahead and work by myself for the pitch due in week three and this has helped me develop my independence. To evaluate, the overall experience felt comfortable, the project goal was to build a fashion related instagram which was part of my everyday job along with selling goods using instagram, therefore a lot of the social media skills and techniques was transferable. The presentation was met with compliments from peers which was humbling, especially from those who pitched for the same project. However, there are definitely areas I can improve on such as time management which was one of the criticisms of my presentation. The tutors felt that I haven’t explained my points clear enough for me to come across as the compelling candidate for the project despite including visual images and proof of reaching 1000+ likes on my personal instagram post and reaching 10000+ likes utilising a secondary fashion related instagram account which was a clear indication of previous experience and success. Moving forward to the next presentation, I will definitely remember to manage my time more effectively and explain more points as clear as possible to eliminate any chance of misunderstanding. For week four, at the start of the seminar, a member of each team had to take part in a stand up meeting, I was the first member of my team to volunteer and present a status update on the team's progress. I believe this is an indication that I have become more confident with presenting my own ideas and I look forward to presenting again.   

Team Roles

For week two of the unit, we was introduced to the concept of team roles and took the Belbin team roles test to see what sort of team role characteristic traits we possessed.

According to the Belbin team role test, my top three roles are 17% expert, 14% innovator and 14% team player.

Expert and innovator character trait both highlights that I prefer to work independently thus by this nature means that my team working skills may not be as effective nor efficient. I believe I inherited my existing team player personality traits from my previous work experiences, such as working as a stylist for Levi’s within a retail store and as a photographer where I worked along with a team of makeup artists, stylists, models and assistant. My goal is to maintain a better balance between my ability to work as a team as well as independently.