Virtual Kickoff

In Virtual Kickoff (VKO) you will meet your global partner teams for the first time. This is your chance to not only get to know your global partners, but also begin preparing for your first prototypes and convergence in the Fall quarter.

During VKO, we would like each team to have at least 3 video conferences over the course of VKO for a total of 4-5 hours. You will be initiating contact with your partner teams, introducing yourselves, doing some fun & productive activities and together - participating with your corporate liaisons in an introductory meeting. Together with your global teammates, you will also establish plans for regular communications and collaboration for the rest of the quarter. 

• You will report your progress in SGMs and should have a plan for the quarter by the end of your VKO meetings.

Dates and Deliverables

• Nov 7: VKO Launch

• Due Nov 17: Completion of meeting objectives

  1. Create and submit a one page handout summarizing VKO and submit here.

PREPARATIONS for Meeting #1

Before you meet with your global teams for the first time, there are a few tasks you should get started on within your school team.

1. [for STANFORD teams] Establish contact:

Contact your global partners 

• you should be able to find their profiles here  (or contact the respective global teaching team to help facilitate contact with their global team)

  • review their (globals) profiles & (globals) Pecha Kucha slides - be curious, prepare notes and questions

• email your global teammates via respective project's email info or icon link on the people page.

  • confirm that all your teammates have created their own (globals) profile pages and (globals) Pecha Kucha slides

  • refer your teammates to your (Stanford) profile pages & (Stanford) Pecha Kucha slides

• check your local team's schedules to consider and then generously propose all possible available times for video conference call meetings (#1, #2 and #3)

  • video conference call meeting #1 should occur as soon as possible.  Second meeting should occur before meeting #3 with corporate liaisons.

  • Be aware these meetings will likely happen at odd times due to time zone differences with your partners and with some liaisons. 

2. Create a Team Home Page: 

Create an initial draft of your Project's HomePage before Meeting 1.

• then invite your global partners to contribute to it. 

  • These documents have already been made for you in the project folders. At an absolute minimum, this page should have (along with global teammates) your names, emails, and a team photo with names & caption. If you'd like to create a more detailed webpage (wix or the like), let us know, and we can link that page instead.

  • Here is a recent example: AREC

3. [for STANFORD teams] Assign Team Roles: 

Past teams have also found it helpful to assign roles within their school teams. Document any roles that you assign on your Project Team Home Page. Here are roles that teams have typically used:

• Chief Financial Officer (CFO): This person is responsible for keeping track of team finances and working with (the course admin [Madhavi]) and the Stanford financial system. The team's CFO will meet regularly with the admin. Each team is required to have a CFO.

• Communications Officer: This person is responsible for ensuring good communications with the global team, with your team coach, etc. For the TTeam, this person will be our first contact if there are any communications issues that need attention.

• Documentation Officer: This person is in charge of maintaining the team's web pages and making sure that documentation materials and notes are captured in real time (and organized.)

• Planning Officer: This person is responsible for keeping track of deadlines, due dates, deliverables, etc.

These roles can rotate -- it is suggested that roles be maintained for durations of at least a quarter. If there are changes, please remember to update this information on your Project Team Home Page.

AGENDA for Meeting #1: Introductions and Expectations (1 - 2 hours)

Due: as soon as possible - based on schedule and what works for your global team

1. Live introductions:

Each team member should introduce themselves

• (suggested) Starters: 

  • briefly present your personal profiles, narrate your Pecha Kucha slide, describe your Wilde Personality Index scores.

  • ask questions of one another - about their personal backgrounds, motivations, 

    • why ME310, in what ways is this collaboration project (and/or isn't) interesting

    • what are their academic interests as well as technical skills

  • take notes on what additional information is learned about each participating team member - reflect on how each is like or different from you.  

    • In what areas will there be overlaps and what areas will there be strong complements. 

Each team should prepare a "Day-in-the-life" presentation, so that your collaborating global partner team can visualize what your day to day life is like. 

Any format is welcome (a slide deck, a video, etc) as long as it includes photos or videos.
Some suggestions for what to include are:

• Where does each person on your team live?
  (on-campus, off-campus, how long of a commute; live with family members, school-mates, non-school room-mates)

• What does your local area look like?
  (map of area, urban, suburban, rural; types of nearby stores, restaurants, ... one passes by or visits regularly)

• What classes are each person taking?
  (how many hours in class, spent on course work; spent in active employment)

• Where does your team work together?
  (access to what types of resources and facilities, times available)

• What kind of food does each person eat for lunch
  (prepare one's own food - cook fresh, buy, bring leftovers; eat the same mostly everyday or have great variety)

• What are each person's typical weekly leisure activities?

Reflect on and take note of the dimensions and how your global team is like or different than your own (similarity-diversity factors)

2. Joint discussion: (action items)

• review and elect who will be coordinator (aka point of contact) for
  scheduling communications between local & global teams in the remaining weeks of Fall Qtr

• coordinate to create a schedule for remaining VKO video conference call meetings 

  • (meeting #2) propose and confirm time schedule 

    • be sure to invite local/global representative teaching team members to participate

    • note: meeting #2 will include preparation for the joint introductory meeting with corporate liaisons (i.e., it should occur before meeting #3)

  • (meeting #3) discuss and propose a set of possible times for introductory meeting with corporate liaisons 

    • (together with your global partners) ASAP contact the corporate liaisons to negotiate their availability and the time for this meeting (#3).

    • typically this liaison meeting would occur [assuming availability of liaison(s)] toward the middle or latter part of VKO week 2.

• nominate and elect one representative to be coordinator contact person with corporate liaison(s)

• review Team Home page and discuss edits

• briefly discuss and jointly resolve which are priority collaboration platforms to use (or which not to use, when and how) within the project team

  • i.e., email, video calls:{zoom, teams, meet, facetime}, IM:{slack,whatsapp,messenger,text,chat}, files:{one-drive, google-drive,github}, pic/video sharing:{instagram, tiktok, snapchat}, calendar: {outlook, google}, ...

For meeting #1 itself, please take advantage of the outline in this Introductions and Expectations Slide Deck.
By the end of the deck, make sure your team has:

• Set up a primary channel of reliable communication for the global team

• Elected one representative per school to be in charge the scheduling global meetings

• Elected one representative to be the liaison coordinator

• Scheduled a liaison meeting (#3)

PREPARATIONS for Meeting #2:

To Do Before Meeting #2:

1. Corporate Context: make an updated Corporate Context Report. You should review and build upon (as needed) the handouts made during the mission. Eventually, you will repurpose this information for your Final Documentation. It is likely that you have already learned more about Corporate Context than the previous teams who started exploring it.

2. User Personas: create a first draft edition of your user personas (physical & digital representations). This is a start -- you will share the digital version with your global partners and refine them throughout the course as we learn more.

3. [for Stanford teams] Set up your team's loft space: Customize your teams' "startup incubator" space (i.e., signage and decorations) for comfort and efficiency! It will be your ME310 home base for your team & prototyping activities.

AGENDA for Meeting #2: Explorations (1 - 2 hours)

1. Fun: 

Each team member should bring a favorite meal or food to eat at meeting #2. 

• Interactively, each person will describe their chosen food meal/item to their teammates and how it represents their preferences: in taste, life and possibly their culture. (motivation: share a virtual food experience together).

Each attending global Teaching Team member would present their own Pecha Kucha

2. Project-focused Explorations: (action items):

In meeting #2 you will enter the exploratory phase of VKO. In this meeting between global and local teams, you should:

• Identify your current joint understanding of the project

  • • • Compare and discuss your independent need finding observations

      • Compare and discuss your understanding of the corporate contexts

      • Share first drafts of your user personas

      • Discuss perspectives and directions for the project

      • Come to a consensus on what the prompt is asking and what potential directions you want to begin exploring

      • Discuss avenues for benchmarking and further need finding.

      • Create a visual merged project problem-opportunity mind map to present during your introduction to your corporate liaison.

      • Converge on a set of priority questions related to ambiguities or unknowns (i.e., what you don't yet know) about your project context

    • Make a game plan for your liaison meeting

      • confirm your liaison meeting (#3) plans

    • Schedule regular meetings with your international team

(supplementary) AGENDA for  Meeting #2 (time permitting, or schedule for follow-up later)

Discussions to help develop foundations for teammate empathy.

1. (suggested) additional team-building conversation topics: 

• What day-to-day habits and cultural traditions might your fellow team members share in common with you or perhaps be different than you? 

  • How do these factor into how you prefer to think, work and prioritize activities -- when by yourself and when with others?

• Smartphone use: 

  • what devices do you use?  

    • what are favorite apps and why?  

    • on what occasions and how often are these used within a typical day?  

    • total time of use per week?

• What is the number 1 thing that people you've met (and/or work with) do that annoy you the most?

• What is the number 1 thing that people you've met (and/or work with) do that you admire the most?

• What's your favorite music genre(s)?

• How many hours do you sleep each night?  What is the optimum number for you?

• What time does your day typically start and end?

• Sharing weekly updates: (1 minute for each person)

• Describe your biggest stress or worry this week? (also rate [1-5]: 1=lowest, 5=highest - level of stress/worry/...)

• Describe your biggest high point this week? (also rate [1-5]: 1=lowest, 5=highest - level of joy/sense of accomplishment/...)

PREPARATIONS for Meeting #3 with your liaison:

To Do Before Meeting #3:

1. As a global team, confirm meeting arrangements with your corporate liaison(s)

2. Prepare slides to:

• very briefly introduce your team (organized as global sub-teams) to your liaisons

• present highlights from your joint design team meeting discussions (#1 and #2)

• propose directions that you might want to explore further 

  • and ideas that your team may collectively purse in upcoming design & prototyping efforts

AGENDA for Meeting #3 with your liaison: Productive (1 hour)

Finally, in your third meeting, you will really try to get into how you will proceed for the rest of the quarter and beyond. 

In this meeting you should:

• Invite your liaison(s)

  • introduce your team to your project liaison(s) 

  • ask liaisons to introduce themselves (i.e., roles and responsibilities within company organization)

  • inquire about liaison's interests and how they relate to the project prompt

    • gain greater insight into your corporate partner's underlying motivations, high-level desires/goals and expectations for the project

  • confirm and clarify questions about their corporate context (i.e., who they see as the company's internal/external stakeholders for the project)

  • confirm and clarify questions regarding the project context (i.e., who they see as the most likely benefactors, other potentially involved stakeholders)

  • begin gently probing: 

    • what might be presumptions/assumptions, ambiguities and unknowns hidden within their design challenge prompt?

• Share with your liaisons some highlights of what your team has been learning thus far and get their input:

  • i.e., your research about the project context, benchmarking, need finding, user personas

• Discuss and begin planning your Critical Prototypes