Presentation Link:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gqr8tImQdfd_9WLuPpTOO2oBrS2haFOyF2EeiviVpfk/edit?usp=sharing
REFLECTIONS:
Nicole
In terms of reflecting on the project so far, specifically the presentation, the following three points stood out to me:
- Angela’s feedback for the problem statement was very helpful and quite insightful. She emphasized the importance of clear communication through slides—if somebody was unfamiliar with Classy and read through the deck, they should gain a high-level understanding of the pitch. At the same time, though, the spoken aspect contributes many of the details that help qualify and contextualize the points on the slides.
- Our presentation delivery seemed to raise positive feedback. I was surprised, since I normally worry more about the content on the slides and speech than how I say it. However, this emphasized how crucial confidence, clarity, and passion are, especially when pitching to founders.
- There is an exciting opportunity to expand to the dating scene, which we had not da l as much before. This was an intriguing aspect of users that while we am hinted at, had not explicitly said or even realized ourselves.
Maya:
I was really happy with the positive feedback we received from the guest judges and our classmates. There was also some helpful critiques that guided our iteration. When we went through it with Albert before our in-person presentation, we were given a ton of helpful storytelling pieces of advice, and I think that helped our presentation be super simple and cohesive. As we went through it with Angela, she helped us widen the scope and spread out the content to meet the final pitch deck guidelines, which was really helpful. Overall, I am really happy with the way my team has rallied around our company, the business/customer problem, and ideated some really cool solutions. Sara has been such a great addition too :)! This new path we are taking with learner compatibility and dating-like approach to recommendation is helping us solve more customer problems and differentiate from our competitors much better. I am also excited to take these ideas further and validate these solutions.
Eli:
I’m really glad we’ve been able to go through this exercise of building and presenting a solution. Each part of not only this assignment, but the course as a whole has felt like it will be directly applicable in industry, or in a range of other post-college careers. It’s been especially helpful to work with a mentor, and doubly so working with one as talented and committed as Albert. His feedback pushed us to not only polish our solution, but also think outside of the box, which was corroborated when Christina suggested “dating” after our solution pitch. On the topic of the pitch, I’m grateful that we’ve had the opportunity to present our work so far to our peers and mentors, as their feedback has been great for aligning our next steps as a team. Finally I would be remiss to reflect on the course so far without mentioning my team. This is easily one of the best teams that I’ve ever worked on. Everyone communicates early and often, puts out high quality work, and seems genuinely excited about the class. Thanks to my teammates, this class feels manageable, and I look forward to working with them for the rest of the quarter 🙂
Graham
I am really proud about how our team has evolved our idea and how confident we are in communicating everything. Albert gave great feedback during our first meeting with him that we should REALLY dial in on the specific problem statement, and how our idea solves for that. During our presentation we did a great job communicating this, and it really resonated with the guest judges. I also think there could be a lot of hidden opportunities in the dating scene. I wish we had thought of this earlier to get some more out of our interviews, but I’m sure we’ll have more time for that. I’m super happy with the team too. Everyone communicates well and gets their work done. I’ve had people in past groups who don’t engage with the team and project, so it’s such a relief to have a team like this for CS 177!
Sara
I am very happy with how our project is going so far and how our team has been handling things. I feel like with every class we are just becoming more unified in our vision for Classy which is great. Doing the pitch together definitely helped with this as well. After getting feedback on our deck as well as our presentation I think we’ve begun to nail down what the company brings to its clients and what our target demographic is as we start to move into user narratives. Albert has been a huge help to our team as well, providing us with excellent feedback that’s allowed us to have relatively successful pitches. I am excited to see how the rest of our project pans out!
Jason:
Reflecting on our project so far, I’ve been really impressed by how much our team has grown—both in how we collaborate and how clearly we’re now able to communicate Classy’s value. I think starting off in the first few weeks, we weren’t exactly sure about which direction to bring this project. Nevertheless, after talking to our mentor, feedback from Angela, along with Professor Christina’s feedback on dating during our presentation, we were able to think outside of the box and come up with more creative solutions. Through the user interview, we were also able to learn about the great benefit and significance in understanding the real need of the users, sometimes through indirect questions or scenario setting, to shape our product and potential breakthrough. This is reflected as how initially in our user interview, someone mentioned about meeting more people through the app; nevertheless, we could have asked a lot more followup questions to determine whether this is a friendship or a potential partnership. I think throughout this process, we have improved in our product management and user interview skills.
