Little Thoughts…

The Final Stretch

So this is it…. the final blog post for VCT 467! I can’t believe it’s already the end of the semester, everything has flown by so fast and now it’s time for graduation. It was fun making it through this class, I have had my up’s and down’s but overall I feel it was a great experience and I have learned a lot. I have had a lot of fun working with my client and I feel my project was very successful and reflexes my skills as both a graphic designer and a VCT student. I am going to miss all of my friends and some of the VCT faculty but this is the next step in my life! I am going to continue working at Libbey Glass and move out over the summer to start my new life after graduation.

Chapter 16 in the book Making Things Happen talks about politics and power, two ideas that I don’t necessarily like. The author talks about how all leaders have politic constraints and that the people they work with put those constraints on that power. Also, the more power a person has the more responsibilities they have as well as they may have to work with more and more constraints.

Power can be misused when it is used for the wrong purposes as well when it is used and the goals of the project are not achieved. I am sure this happens a lot out in industry because sometimes when people get into positions of power they get very comfortable with that power and they don’t want to step down from their power or maybe they will use their power for other means that do not relate to the goals of the project. To solve problems, the author says you must figure out what the problem is, identify who has the abilities to solve the problem, and how you can use them to help. If someone is a Project Manager they are going to have to learn to use their power and responsibilities for the good of the group. Someone can be an effective PM if they can use all of these skills in order to lead a group of people without abusing their power.

The Final Stretch

Soooo it has finally come down to the final stretch for VCT 467, only 2 weeks of class left! It’s pretty shocking really, I didn’t think it would fly by this quickly and there were times when it wasn’t moving fast enough. Ha! Anyways, this is going to be a short client update because I am done with my project.

I received my mock up’s yesterday from the printer and they look GREAT!! I am so excited. The colors turned out very nice, the brown wasn’t too dark and the green darkened up a little so it looks perfect. On the one 4 piece cooler some of the text almost gets cut off on the bottom, I may have to go back and change that or maybe it’s just how the mock up got printed, I’m not sure.

Overall I am very satisfied with my project and so is my client. Gary has been very helpful and fun to work with, he is very nice and good at giving me feedback. For now I am going to work on finishing up Module 6 to be turned in this Friday as well as creating my online presentation of my project. This is it….

The End!

Middle Game Strategy

Mid-game and End-game are two new terms to me that Berkun introduces in this chapter. He says that they both mean the middle of the project and the end of the project which makes sense. It’s a good idea to think of the end of the project in the beginning so you can try and predict to the best of your abilities how it’s going to turn out. He then goes on to talk about how projects are complex non-linear systems which is completely true because they don’t follow a straight line path at all. One moment your project can be heading in one direction and then the next minute it’s in another direction. The key thing is knowing how to deal with it properly and calmly.

Berkun also tells his readers to find the safest way to correct a problem when it occurs to cut down on possible new problems occurring. This is a great piece of information because if someone lets a problem get out of hand then it can cause more problems down the road. I had to deal with something similar at work when we had a problem with printing positives to screen print on our glassware. The boss kept on catching a few mistakes here and there with the artwork that were crucial and we had to redo a job of around 75,000 glasses so we had to have a meeting and come up with a way to check our positives thoroughly before sending off a job for print. If we wouldn’t have caught it then it would have caused some major problems in the future.

Evaluation Survey

This client update is going to be a bit short because I am just about done with my packaging project. Gary has chosen a design and I have been working steadily on the changes. Today I am going to give him the final files and he’s going to have them mocked up and then printed so I can see the final outcome. I can’t wait! It’s one thing to see your design on the computer screen but it evokes a completely different feeling once you see the finished piece!

Besides finishing up the project, I have sent out Evaluation Surveys to everyone I know so I can get some feedback on the project as a whole. I created a simple 11 question survey that I sent out in PDF form, people can just fill it out and send it back to me. I am going to compile all of the results and include them in Module 5 that is due this Friday. So far I have been pleased with the results and I feel I have done a great job on this project and Gary seems to really like it!

Chapter blog post to come….look for it this Thursday! Over and out.

Chapter 13, Making Things Happen

Berkun begins this chapter by cleverly saying that Project Management is an ability that some people have and others lack. I believe this to be true and it’s not such a bad thing. Some people are born to lead and get things done with others have a hard time with it or just lack the skills to do so. Berkun tells us that being a PM means making things happen, which is very true. He says, ” the ability to make things happen is a combination of knowing how to be a catalyst in a variety of different situations and having the courage to do so.” This is so true. The author talks about his experiences as a PM and how he would make lists of things to do. He says that, making things happens means knowing what is important and when to execute that item or step. I have taken this approach before with making ordered lists and I still do. Sometimes on Fridays before I leave work I will make a list of everything I want to get done on Monday because I am likely to forget over the weekend 🙂

Berkun tells us that there are 3 types of ordered lists and those are: the list of goals, the list of features, and the list of work items. If all work together in harmony and people know where each item on their list should go, then there shouldn’t be any problems between everyone in the group. He then discusses the idea of how priority 1 in your ordered list has to stay at the top and you have to remember that it’s important, as Berkun says, “you would die without it.” It can be difficult to see items in this way but it will help in the long run. Berkun then talks about how you have to be committed to prioritizing by saying, “The challenge of prioritization is always more emotional/psychological than intellectual, despite what people say. Just like dieting to lose weight or budgeting to save money, eliminating things you want (but don’t need) requires being disciplined, committed, and focused on the important goals.” I completely agree with him and I know that prioritizing can be a big deal for some people, it’s easier for some.

Overall I found this Chapter to be very helpful as always. I really enjoy Berkun’s style of writing, he is very to the point and his book is easy to read. He also throws in a few jokes every now and then and pokes fun at certain subjects. I have learned much more about prioritizing and how to stay on task. I feel I make a fairly good PM and I do have strong prioritizing skills.

Decision on Package Design

After showing Gary my 3 package designs and talking it over with him, he picked Design #1 that I posted last week! I am excited and I really like this one, it was my initial design. He came back to me with a checklist of items that must be on the package for legal purposes and he gave me a small list of changes to make to the design. I am going to spend the rest of this week and weekend getting those changes made and I will try and get them back to Gary early next week to see if there is anything else that needs to be changed or worked on.

I know I have to have the image of the glass and the name of the glass, “Intent” on each panel. I am also going to change the green color to a more “grass green” but I can’t go too dark because once that ink hits the cardboard it’s going to darken on it’s on. I will keep everyone posted on the changes and what’s next for my project.

Chapters 11 & 12 Thoughts

Chapter 11 is all about what to do when things go wrong, and pretty much things are going to go wrong and people can’t do anything to change that fact. I know I get really upset when things go wrong when I am working on a project and I know I must learn to calm down and assess the problem before moving ahead. Berkun gives his readers a list of things to consider when something goes wrong, and they are: calm down, evaluate the problem, calm down again, get the right people in the room, explore alternatives, make the simplest plans, execute, and debrief. I think this is a great list of steps to follow when something doesn’t go the way you want it to.

I just experienced something going wrong at work, this happened the middle of last week. I wasn’t to fault for the problem but it still effected me. The other designer who’s office is next to mine had forgotten some important text on a glass and the job went to production and somewhere around 75,000 glasses were produced. Part of the fault lies with the customer as well because they didn’t catch the problem either. As a result, my boss had a talk with both of us and we are going to have a short meeting to try and find a way to better proof our work before sending it off for production. I am going to try and come up with a few new ideas to present to the office. I hate it when problems like this happen, it’s even worse when I am the cause of them but they happen and I just have to learn how to better deal with them and approach a solution in a calm manner.

Chapter 12 discusses how being a leader is all about gaining other people’s trust as well as gaining your own trust. This is a HUGE deal out in the industry because the more trust people have in you as a PM the more they will be willing to work with you and enjoy it. Berkun also talks about how other team members will decide on their own once they have met you if they think you’re going to go through with your word or not. This entire chapter is very important because we’re going to use this information for the rest of our lives, as I said primarily out in the work force. I have already had to be a Project Manager for Via Media so I know what it’s like to want to have people trust you. I feel that once I gained the trust of my peers we worked along a lot better with one another and that the project got completed on time and efficiently.