Week 15
Our final deliverable!
Preparing for the presentation
At the beginning of the week, we had crafted a preliminary draft of our slide deck and presentation to present to Peter for feedback. The order of our presentation still needed reconsideration — we had several parts to convey, and only ten minutes to present:
- A brief recap of how we got to our final proposal
- The hypothetical future events we envisioned leading to our final proposal
- A description of the ARC Services system
- What it is like to experience ARC Services
- How the digital platform helps to integrate ARC Services
Part of the issue was that some of this information was currently redundant between our slide deck and our video artifact. While we wanted the video to be able to stand on its own, we would need to cut some background information in order to bring it down from 8 minutes to closer to 2 or 3. Once we knew what content would be in the video, we could structure our presentation to provide the remaining context and information.
We went back to Miro to figure out how to balance information between the video and slide deck.
This exercise led us to make strides in two key areas. The first was rebalancing our video script. We did this by taking out the details about events between 2021 and 2029, and cutting down to a single interview from the three we initially wanted to include. Having an outline of topics helped us to quickly create a rough first draft of a new script (visible in the image above), and we were able to repurpose portions of content from our original script from there in order to flesh it out.
Second, we made some important strides in clarifying our system through labels and diagrams. We had always known that we wanted ARC Services to serve different purposes, from emotional and pedagogical support, to present-day and future innovations. However, in seeing the overlaps between topics we felt it was important to include in the video, we realized we had not clearly labeled the different parts and functions of ARC Services. We were still using many terms to describe the same thing, which made it difficult to discuss and distinguish how various outcomes would be accomplished. Having outlined on multiple occasions the various functions ARC needed to serve, we structured its functions into three branches: ARC Mentors, ARC Research, and ARC Futures. At a high level, this was a division between individual coaching, collaborative present-day problem solving, and planning for the future.
Our diagramming of the ARC Services system went through several iterations in order to clarify and connect the many stakeholders and activities that we envisioned ARC coordinating. We wanted to both convey the distinctions between ARC Services’ divisions (first diagram structure), as well as contextualize ARC Services within the broader school district (second diagram).
Presentation Feedback
Our guests could tell that our approach was grounded in research, especially in forecasting potential events between 2021 and 2029. They remarked on the experiential nature of the video we had created, with multiple members of the client team calling it “compelling.” Another suggested that the simultaneous practicality of the idea and difference from the current state of affairs could help to “unlock [PPS’s] thinking” around what is possible for the future. Especially since Prospect Studio’s theory of change was one of envisioning positive futures, they were appreciative that our newscast displayed a hopeful and positive 2029 — down to the fact (which we hadn’t focused on intentionally) that PPS’s currently rocky relationship with the media was clearly on a better course in our video.
Microsite
After the presentation, we summarized the process and outcome of our project into a microsite to showcase our work. After outlining wireframes in Figma, Google Sites worked well for us as a collaborative platform where we could see and respond to each others’ work in real time.
Conclusion
It is surreal to finally be wrapping up our first semester-long project. We had so much input and help along the way, and are very grateful to everyone that contributed as a mentor and/or participant. Thank you!!
We also met for a nice picnic in Schenley Park to celebrate, and the Pittsburgh weather cooperated with a perfect sunny, warm day. We did a final Rose, Bud, Thorn reflection, gave thoughtful shout-outs to one another for our work, and enjoyed some good food and fully-vaccinated social time. It was a nice way to wrap up the project, and celebrate the last deliverable for our two teammates Matt and Carol who are graduating!
