Wrapping Up?

This week we had our last class session for Capstone. We talked about wrapping up our projects, crafting effective presentations and writing final reports. This was exciting, but felt somewhat premature for my team. Rather than wrapping up, we are right now getting to the meat of our project. Capstone is a strange class experience because we are all working at different paces. I don’t feel that my group is in trouble. Our client is willing to extend the project timeline if we need it. Yet, many of our classmates are putting finishing touches on their work and getting ready to present their findings.

Despite our project status, my team is still aiming to finish up by the end of the semester. I think we have the momentum to do this, but a great deal of what we have left to accomplish involves factors outside of our control. How long will it take our client to approve the estimate of our graphic designer? How fast can the graphic designer finish putting together the images we need to test? How easy will it be to find people to take our Qualtrics survey?

In marketing and the professional world at large, collaborating with others both enhances and complicates the work. This is a lesson my team has been learning throughout our Capstone project. For instance, without a graphic designer, we would not be able to produce high-quality, realistic visuals with which to test our ideas. However, working with a graphic designer takes time and requires dealing with a level of uncertainty. We don’t know if we will like her creations or how long it will truly take her to make them. I think communication and organization can help alleviate a measure of this uncertainty.

I’m also somewhat worried about our final product. My group has gone down many different paths during the semester, but most of them have been dead ends for one reason or another. We have finally found an area where we can provide value and insight. Now I wonder, will it be enough? Once we aggregate all of our findings and research, our final report will likely be more robust than I am currently anticipating.