The beginning of my idea:
- So I am a resident assistant at UF and sometimes I have issues coming up with fun program ideas. Other times, I come up with good ideas and don't have enough time to put them together. We have access to SharePoint to share program and bulletin board ideas, but not many people contribute or use them. As RAs, we have to submit activity assessments after each program, so that's where my idea developed: I would like to create another small section to the required activity assessment that would collaborate the information from programs to allow other RAs to search based on different criteria to come up with a good program idea.
- Obviously I knew the other RAs at UF would have this need like me, so I knew I needed to interview other RAs.
- Here were my questions:
- How do you typically come up with program ideas?
- Can you explain the decision factors that go into selecting the one you pick?
- Typically what types of programs do you host?
- When you can't think of a good idea, what do you do?
- Are there additional resources that would be helpful in planning programs?
- What great program ideas have you had that you weren't able to do? Why?
- For your residents, what are the best types of programs an RA can host?
- My five interviews are below. I went to different area desks to interview the RAs.
- I think my idea is still a pretty good idea. After talking with some people it seemed like they already met the need, but others still said a collaborative program book or better way to access program ideas would be great. I need to develop the idea better, but the organizational pattern I have in my head fits with what some of them described.
- Because I was an RA interviewing other RAs, even though we didn't know each other, they were pretty helpful and I wasn't as nervous as I would have been if I tried to interview people in Turlington or the like. It was weird at first, I was basically explaining why I had to talk with them and felt like I was trying to convince them that I wasn't super lame. At the last office, I thanked her and left almost awkwardly cause she didn't even say your welcome or no problem, just stopped talking to me. Hopefully I am more confident with the next ones.
Emily, I think you did such a great job of coming up with a concept and locating your target audience to interview. You identified an opportunity that is a problem you personally deal with, which was smart. You also did a good job of asking unbiased yet insightful and information-rich questions, which can be difficult to do. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteIf you would like to check out my interviews as well, here is the link to my post: http://marissaent3003.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-customer-interviews-no-1.html
Hope you're having a great semester!
Marissa
Hi, Emily! I enjoyed reading your post and thought the questions you asked were well executed. I did notice that your fourth question was a bit leading, however. You asked, "When you can't think of a good idea, what do you do?" This seems to be a problem that you face personally, and the other RA's may not actually find it hard to think of ideas and implement them. Maybe an alternative question could have been, "Have all of your program ideas been successful with residents?" This question allows the RA's to reflect on their own past experiences, not on your hypothetical one. Great work! Loved the videos.
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ReplyDeleteI really liked your interviews, you sounded very confident and you asked good questions. One thing that comes to my mind that you could tweak next time is maybe not interviewing someone while they do laundry. It seems like they might not be giving you full attention if they are busy doing something else. Other than that, great job!
Hey Emily! For your idea, RAs will still do what they do nowadays and ignore the ideas of everyone else, so they won't really look at everyones ideas for new programs, even when the tools are pretty much already there for them. As far as ideas go, I think the issue stems from creativity or lack of interests from residents. I think finding better ways to spark interest in residents to come to events, would be the best way to increase turnout. Check out my interviews: http://thedailyschlak.blogspot.com/2016/01/customer-interviews-no-1.html
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ReplyDeleteHi Emily, I thought your interviews were good to go! It can be difficult to talk to someone else in a professional manner such as an interview. Picking the other RAs was a good idea. This will really help get over that hump so you won't be nervous. I thought your interviews were effective, and really got to what your point was.
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