Feedback Process Success

Google Forms for the win!

Timely actionable feedback in less than a week! I find this process satisfying. The stakeholders are able to click through or type their own responses should they be feeling eloquent. The data is searchable, sortable, and graphically represented. We are now able to upload media as a part of the question so no one has to navigate over to a full PDF file and try and find what is being referenced.

This tickles me pink.

The project itself is in full swing. The UI and visual style designs are progressing nicely, the UX is masterfully crafted with so much empathy, and our developer is ahead of the curve. Looks like our prototype for testing will be done with source code!

Very proud and excited.

Milestone II Review

Well, despite feedback woes the team was able to progress and present well-received material!

We now have about a month until the next milestone. Which is NOT a lot of time but a welcome change from the 14-day turnaround we are coming off of.

I am augmenting the presentation and delivery of the feedback request; will have team members craft questions, provide their takeaways from the meeting, and allowing for more yes/no answers. The feedback requests shouldn’t feel like an open question English exam.

Our newfound ability and approval to have team members interface directly with foundation and school representative has helped immensely. Ongoing feedback, discussions, and input will do a lot to help this project adhere to the aggressive timeline.

Milestone I Review

It went very well. Visual system is moving along and the UX design presentation made the project so very real to the stakeholders.

Development considerations are ongoing and I am happy with the ideas Stephen has about the CMS.

Now we just await written approval and feedback. I hope that there’s a rapid turnaround this time around. Kelsey really needs actionable responses to continue moving her design team forward. If this feedback process continues to be delayed the project timeline will require an extension.

Coming into Milestone I

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve written here! I am having NO issue maintaining my hours, though. There is plenty of work to do. There will be plenty more.

The team is working well together. I actually think this month will be the most nerve-wracking; presenting concepts and wire frames while biting fingernails hoping the committee approves a direction! It has become obvious that so much of the functional issues with the old site have a lot to do with the organization of the information. Julia’s UX work and research really helps guide the initial designs. So very helpful.

Defining KPIs has been difficult, but we have some working propositions for review.

The content strategy and organization is a beast of a job. I will be working to draft some type of spreadsheet to define what types of content go where authored by whom and need to follow which rules and guidelines.

With this aggressive of a timeline feedback needs to be timely, consistent, and comprehensive. We are augmenting the process a little to better suit the needs and capability of BAA/BAAF. An agenda with information for review will be sent prior to the meeting and a debrief with specific questions will be sent afterwards. I am confident we can get the responses and input we need within that 3 day window.

I’ll be more vigilant about updating this journal especially after Milestone Meetings!

All the precious data!

I am really enjoying having discovery wind down to surveys, questionnaires, and actionable data!

Kickoff meeting will be at the end of next week and this gives us some room to move with what we know so far. While I am happy to have some responses we could ALWAYS use more. In an attempt to quantify the qualitive of open-ended questions I am implementing word clouds for some of the questions.

I think the visual impact of consolidating dozens of responses into a colorful mass of words is really helpful.

NOOO! THE MOMENTUM!!!

What are you going to do?

My hours this week after the holiday break will be thin, I think. With AFH not back with the UX designer until January 5th there isn’t too much I can or really should do.

Still, in good faith and to keep some semblance on the momentum will spend this week getting a preliminary survey out to the marketing committee. Hopefully there is some good high-level and actionable information for the team when they clock back in for next week!

The holiday break...

AFH is bringing a UX designer in. This is good, but I will delay the timeline so that they can have input on survey questions and project timeline.

Rolling the BAA students into the process has hit some speed bumps… Their schedule puts them 45 minutes behind every day and some equipment/hardware access issues are hurdles for timely onboarding. I think that the opportunity is worth advocating and fighting for. Meaningful experience in the industry before graduation? Sounds good to me!

Expected to reconvene after the break and dive right in!

Final push before the holiday break...

Line up the ducks!

By the end of the year I am staying on track to have a meeting schedule planned out for the milestone and a standing weekly with AFH. Getting some (virtual) face time is just so very productive. I fear I may be overinundating the team with Slack pings, emails, and shared documents.

I am hoping we can compile a team of content-focused BAA staff to help define things on that front as well.

So far so good.

Staying ahead of the curve; risk evaluation & management.

So far I have been very happy with the flow. Information has been accessed, style guide been got done, made contact with key players for content, and even got into the existing Wordpress site! I am impressed with AFH’s level of communication and open arms.

The grind of discovery begins.

So my role isn’t really a pure PM for this project. AFH has a buttoned up process with their own oversight, checks, and balances. No reason to upend their system.

I am already serving as a factotum, intermediary, and facilitator. This is more than fine. This is good.

The style guide is coming along nicely and I have some proposals for the foundation on Monday that will make progress much more fluid.

Now, if I can only put the financial administrative paperwork on the top of the pile!

A key to completion will be establishing protocol, procedure, and defining expectations early. Next week will be a big one for gathering data. My goal is to find ways to compile meaningful information and opinion from BAA/F without having to schedule meetings endlessly.

That being said, hierarchy and meeting schedule are outstanding projects of mine.

I have started pouring myself into the thick of it...

I have a laundry list of items to deliver to MYSELF before I am in a position to really begin being able to deliver anything to anyone else.

I whipped up a nifty little Project Management Console today. I don’t code as much as I would like to, but luckily embeds of Google services and some HTML5 styling came right back to me. And I didn’t break any links!

I am putting together a process for saving legacy BAA video assets, a directive given to me in our first meeting on the 23rd, but my work means nothing without directives and guidance from the dev team. I am also awaiting direction from the BAAFDN chairs so I know what type of content I should prioritize. Hoping to connect with some AFH folks soon so I can figure out how to delegate duties.

One small step for us.... One smaller step for BAA...

First call was today. I was invited last-minute. We want to remain flexible and available as much as possible. Ditched some low priority client work to attend. I am clearing our schedule for the next 6 months as well.

The BAA site rebuild represents a very clean slate and fresh canvas. While the clients are not as well-versed or hip to modern web design lingo, I appreciate their candor and ability to know when they don’t know. I also KNOW that the BAAFDN reps will know what they want when they see it.

Initial design mockups will be so very important. I have got to make sure we have solid templates and design systems in place. I am very happy the group supported the development of a style guide!

The development team lead (Steve) is going to be a huge asset and keystone here. Him and I should get together ASAP. I also got a really positive vibe from the person from AFH (Kelsey?) representing the design side. I am giving myself 14 days to get the 3 of us in a meeting to hammer out some details. I am REALLY hoping we have an accessible prototyping application; keeping my fingers crossed for Figma as the service in cross-platform and quickly becoming industry standard for UX/UI.

Lindsey is interested in using this connection, client, and opportunity to help the company she works for find more meaningful ways to support the communities they operate in.

It begins...

We were chosen to manage the rebuild of my high school’s website! Which is really cool and a wonderful application of our skills. I am looking forward to applying the management techniques and philosophies I learned in healthcare to a digital product and deliverable for the modern age. I am also looking forward to consistent meaningful work I can put my heart into. As much fun and lucrative as my parenting work schedule and the accompanying freelance work we have been doing it, laying out biomedical white papers while prototyping financial businesses web apps is not really work I am sparked by.

This is going to be fun and stressful and cool and awesome.