Resources: Tips & Tutorials
Competition Forensics - Hold a Post-Partum Meeting
By Peter Wolfe, Team Mentor
Hot on the heels of our spectacular/unparalleled/miraculous/
A project retrospective is also referred to as a debrief or a post partum and the goals are simple. You brainstorm what worked well and didn't work well on the project. The idea is that you are collecting feedback in order to help make process improvements which will allow your next project proceed more smoothly. ALL areas of the project are fair game. It's not restricted to technical issues. Fundraising, resources, work environment, etc. etc. All issues are fair game.
The process we used was as follows:
- Someone volunteers to be a scribe or notetaker. Ideally this is someone who is an accomplished typist.
- We asked folks to group ideas in the following general categories:
- What were our successes?
- What did you like?
- What worked?
- What didnt you like?
- What didnt work?
- What would you change?
If folks didn't like that sort of classification or categories, an alternative was:
Positive results/practices:
- What was done well
- practices to repeat or extend
- accomplishments
Desirable changes:
- areas that need improvement
- practices to simplify or eliminate
- disappointments
Each person is given a sticky pad and pencil. Each suggestion or idea is placed on a single sticky note. Folks take as much time as they need to complete a set of stickies. The goal is to focus on the top 3 or top 5 issues in each area.
When all the stickies are completed, they are sent to the moderator and the team proceeds to classify them. The moderator reads each sticky, asks for more details if necessary, and helps the team to group like-suggestions or issues on the blackboard.
It's important to get through all the stickies and not to go down ratholes. For example, this is not a problem solving meeting! Once all of the issues are identified, separate following meetings are required to plan detailed resolutions to specific problems or discuss specific prolems in more detail. If solutions to every problem are discussed immediately, you'll never finish!!!
By the end of the meeting, all the stickies should have been grouped into the various categories. Usually a meeting like this takes an hour to an hour and a half at a minimum - possibly longer depending on the complexity of the project. The moderator asks for volunteers to choose specific problem areas and lead subteams that will work on those areas.
A sample from our 2008 NJ Regionals post-partum:
What were our successes?
- Stability and strength
- Simplicity and speed
- Batteries - charged and organized
- Winning Rookie of the Year, Highest Seeded Rookie, Rookie Finalist, coming in second!
- Autonomous mode!
- Student built robot
What were our likes?
- Cooperation and teamwork. Especially when working with mentors.
- Team bonding.
- Experienced teams helped us out.
- Creativity with ideas.
- Good scouting.
What didn't we like:
- Too many people doing one thing.
- Initial concepts should be tested earlier.
- More planning/better meeting announcements.
- Difficulty with fund raising.
- School issues (e.g. locked doors, weekend access, Internet access).
What would we change:
- Better sub-team organization to improve efficiency. Clearly defined sub-team leaders.
- Some type of log so that progress can be tracked.
- Better time utilization. Some Sub-teams don't need to be there all day. For example, build vs. programming days.
- More ambitious engineering (e.g. attempt a hurdler).
Handshake Etiquette
By Team NEMESIS
It may seem basic, but there is an art to properly shaking hands in in a formal situaltion.
Click here to view the tutorial.
How to Tie a Tie
By Team NEMESIS
Looking good during your presentation can give you an edge. This tutorial will show you how to properly tie your tie.
Click here to view the tutorial.
