A.Next Steps
Nina took the team through the information she had collected (through a literature review) on potential users perceptions and demands. She had summarised this information as a blog post and also started to build the presentation for the Dragons Den with these findings. Others in the team would now add to the Dragons Den presentation.
The team would now break into two groups:
- Ema and Kholoud working on the design (Supanoot was also happy to provide support in designing mock ups).
- Supanoot (with support from Nina) on the business plan and marketing.
Each group needed to identify what blogs they were going to produce – and to circulate an email to the team setting out these blogs.
Kholoud was still awaiting approval from ethics for her survey. It was recognised that the strikes and Easter break could hold up the approval process. Kholoud could write blogs on designing the survey and seeking ethical approval, even if the survey itself could not go ahead due to timings.
In the meantime, Ninas’ findings on existing user research studies could support the design of the site.
B. The Idea for Meeting of Minds
Kholoud suggested that the site could be extended to MSc Research students and those students doing masters in preparation for a PhD.
Overall the focus would be on the life/career journey of a researcher – from the earliest point (i.e finding a supervisor for an MSc thesis, through various PhD stages, to becoming an academic or professional researcher).
The intention was to focus the site on ‘researchers’ rather than students in general, as the team wanted to keep their focus on a particular market segment rather than all students (this would effect the design of the site, etc).
3. The Vision for MoM
It was agreed that other members of the Group would add their ideas to the draft vision document on the google drive area.
This one document would then provide a summary of everything that the team was trying to achieve through the site. It was ‘goals’ sought, rather than a detailed business plan.
4. Dragons Den
The Dragons Den presentation would be given in front of the whole class to 3 ‘dragons’. It would last for about ten minutes. The team could use a slide set, and possibly record their presentation in advance of 14th May.
A couple of team members might run the presentation, but the whole team would need to be available to answer the questions.
Nina went through the early draft presentation she had produced from the user focused research. It was recognised that this would need to be reduced to a ten minute presentation, with mock ups for the MoM site inserted (removing examples of other sites).
Questions that might be asked at the presentation included: security and encryption, marketing/promotion, the look of the site, etc. The team could be asked about anything they had blogged on.