Checkpoint One
Checkpoint One Assignments (10 points total / 2 points each)
Rubric
Each of the four items below will be graded according to the following scale.
- 2 points: 🔥
- 1.8 points: 👏
- 1.6 points: 👍
- 1.4 points: 😐
- 1 point:🤦♂️ / 🤦♀️
- 0 points: 👻
0. Presentation
- 3-5 minutes long
- Each team member must present something
- Focused on providing a concise summary/presentation of each of the other three items below
- You should show off your alpha in working form
- You may use slides if you wish, but they’re not required
- While perfection isn’t the goal here, you should be clearly rehearsed
1. Alpha
- Make something—anything—work on the platform you’re developing for— HoloLens, iPhone, Echo Show, web, etc.
- We’re looking for proof that you can make stuff work with the platform you’ve been assigned
- Your alpha will be evaluated during your presentation; no other submission is necessary
2. Exploratory Research
- A comprehensive presentation of your group’s learning for this project so far
- It should be 2 things: 1) a primer (introductory reader) about your client/tech and 2) a glimpse into the sources that have informed your thinking about your project
- For 2) above, specifically consider what has informed your thinking or approach with your tech; have you looked at other products? What did you like? Where do you want to improve? Inspiration? Etc?
- For all of this, be sure to cite sources with links and to set off direct quotes with quotation marks
- Your doc should be relatively polished in terms of grammar, formatting, etc.
- Submit your project plan as a single PDF (one per group, not per student) in this Google Drive Folder
- Use the following naming convention: Project Name_Deliverable Name
- Acceptable Example: Travlr_Exploratory Research
- Unacceptable Example: Exploratory Research 9.10
3. Project Plan
- Whatever type of document works best for you is great here—Google/Word doc, slides, whatever
- Might be helpful to start with all your final deliverables and work backwards step by step for each one
- We’re looking for evidence that you’ve thought critically about each step of each process
- Think about what your greatest challenges / largest potential roadblocks will be and how you’ll be starting work immediately to tackle them.
- Consider reach / main / safety goals: what happens if everything goes better than expected, where you think you’ll land, and your minimum deliverable if everything hits the fan.
- It’d probably be a great idea to note that each of you has put all of these tasks into your calendar / task management system of choice
- Submit your project plan as a PDF in this Google Drive Folder
- Use the following naming convention: Project Name_Deliverable Name
- Acceptable Example: Travlr_Exploratory Research
- Unacceptable Example: Exploratory Research 9.10
4. PR/FAQ
- You’ll write a one-page press release and an accompanying FAQ written to be shared a bit after the successful release of your (future) final product.
- For the press release, write “an internal press release announcing [your] finished product… ‘centered around the customer problem, how current solutions (internal or external) fail[ed], and how the new product [blew] away existing solutions.’”
- The following outline might help:
- Heading — Name the product in a way the reader (i.e. your target customers) will understand.
- Sub-Heading — Describe who the market for the product is and what benefit they get. One sentence only underneath the title.
- Summary — Give a summary of the product and the benefit. Assume the reader will not read anything else so make this paragraph good.
- Problem — Describe the problem your product solves.
- Solution — Describe how your product elegantly solves the problem.
- Quote from You — A quote from a spokesperson in your company.
- How to Get Started — Describe how easy it is to get started.
- Customer Quote — Provide a quote from a hypothetical customer that describes how they experienced the benefit.
- Closing and Call to Action — Wrap it up and give pointers where the reader should go next.
- Other guidelines: be concise and avoid jargon.
- For the FAQs, aim for two or more pages of “frequently asked questions that customers can be anticipated to have about the offering, and their straightforward answers.”
- Read more about Amazon’s PR/FAQs here, here, and here (quotes above sourced from these articles).
- Submit your project plan as a PDF in this Google Drive Folder
- Use the following naming convention: Project Name_Deliverable Name
- Acceptable Example: Travlr_Exploratory Research
- Unacceptable Example: Exploratory Research 9.10