Sprint Progress

Sprint One: Media Public Research Sprint.

Day 5: User Research with Member Stations

How the fellowship is being constructed

I’d like to treat this fellowship as a series of four two-week-long-sprints where we think about membership and community together. I really like opening up a process because it’s more transparent and accountable, and leads to everyone feeling more invested in the outcome.

I see myself taking on the role of facilitator or project manager.

In each sprint, I will publish some background reading and some goals and my thoughts on a plan for achieving those goals, and then ask for your feedback to refine the sprint. Over the course of the two weeks, maybe I’ll:

talk to people you recommend
examine or build tools
look at case studies
do research
make a rapid prototype
code something
do user testing
design something
attend a lecture or presentation that’s related
write something that we can look at together.
measure something

Every morning, I’ll update you on my website - and we can shift goals accordingly.

At the end of every two week period, I will summarize and publish everything we learn during the sprint, and where that may lead us for the next sprint. I suspect what we learn will be applicable to more than just public media - this is something libraries, museums, newspapers, financial institutions, airlines, public health professionals, educators, universities, federal agencies, local governments, civic tech groups, musicians, and anyone who makes anything that needs an audience might find interesting.

Okay, that all sounds nice, Mel - but what do YOU hope to get out of this?

1) I want to help build something that helps public media. I think it’s a vitally important resource that we have in the United States and I deeply believe in the mission.

2) I love building projects in public like this. So I’m hoping this is successful. But if it’s not - you’ll know - and we’ll learn something too.

3) I hope this project continues beyond the fellowship. Documenting and documenting well will be key in moving it forward.

Are you getting any money out of this?

Nope. I get a tiny fellowship stipend, which is less than my salary - and I took a two-month leave of absence from my job to do this, so I’m going to be returning to my college diet of beans and oatmeal for two months. If you know of any free meals on the Harvard campus, let me know.

What do you have planned for the first sprint?

A lot. I’m calling this the Media Public Planning Sprint. We will:

1) Articulate what the project is, what the goals are, how it will be structured.

2) Write up everything I’ve learned so far and everything we’ve read / all of the research that might be helpful.

3) Make a list of people to talk to

3a) Answer all of the email related to this project

4) Make a list of case studies to develop from other industries (libraries, universities, museums, beverage conglomerates)

5) Determine whether a playbook is meaningful, and if so, what it should contain

6) Exercise every day to stay sane.

7) Do user research with 6 stations (2 large, 2 medium, 2 small) on membership and resource allocation

8) Investigate whether forking something like Govcode would be meaningful

9) Investigate whether forking something like Midas would be meaningful

How can I give you feedback on this?

1) If you’re familiar with GitHub, fork this page and add your thoughts.

2) Tweet at me. I’m @mkramer.

3) Email me. I’m melodykramer@gmail.com

4) Come to my twice weekly open office hours. TBD, but likely a Google Hangout.