Medium Incubates
The Incubates Team is a subteam within Medium Design Collective (A multidisciplinary design org at Cornell University) that focuses on design concept generation and development. I had been apart of this team for 2 years before becoming a lead and to be quite honest, I was very hesitant to take this on. I thought that leadership in a design group meant that I would no longer design. Of course, it was the opposite; design leadership is constant design, just for a different user. In this case, it was an incredibly talented team of creatives.
Designing Through a Pandemic
Even before the semester went remote, the Incubates Team had a few improvement points that I planned to target in the Fall. Several members had expressed change in these areas, so I made it a priority to improve the next semester:
Equalizing Voices: The team is relatively large, ranging from 20-30 members each semester so it can be hard to give everyone an opportunity to give feedback and ask questions during critiques.
Member Retention: At the end of each semester last year, the team noticed high drop off rates. After talking to a few members who did leave the team at these times, I realized that it was for a variety of reasons, such as internal team conflicts, overwhelming schoolwork/obligations, or even not feeling involved enough. Another large factor was sense of achievement/productivity within the team for some members.
Group Formation and Commitment: Many members last year mentioned how they were placed into groups that did not fit there interests well and the commitment time (one year) was too long.
The unexpected online semester brought about an additional handful of challenges:
Lack of In-Person Socialization: One of the best aspects of MDC in previous years was the creative community and friendships the organization fostered in previous semesters. Also, for many new members the social aspect is a very important part for any on-campus organization.
Remote Team Bonding: prior to this semester, I had little experience leading or working with design groups remotely. For members, there is a lot added challenge in group work as well as getting to know others in the team and feeling “a part of the team.”
Zoom Fatigue: On top of hour long asynchronous lectures, Zoom call discussions, group project meetings, and many other hours spent staring at a screen for homework and leisure, additional meetings for MDC GBodys and Subteam meetings is a big ask for members
Balancing New Challenges: All of the changes that come along with the remote school year, as well as possible grief due to the pandemic, impacted mental health, etc, are all new challenges this semester and it is a priority for member wellbeing to be prioritized over productivity within this club.
New Structure and Process
Meeting Structure
Every week, the team meets through zoom and I screen share a set of google slides. The basic strucutre of these slides include:
Housekeeping
This slide is meant to inform members of any news on my end, serve as a reminder for deliverables, announce upcoming dates (for special meetings or socials) and any additional messages.
Inspo
Members are free to paste in in images, article links, or anything else that inspired them that week. This is generally design related but also commonly includes topics in art, current events, etc.
Critique
In subsequent slides, members create slides that showcase their own work for that week. Members are encouraged to include sketches of early concepts, iterations, and final renderings as well as written and verbal descriptions of their thought process while designing. These designs typically answer the prompt assigned from the previous week (explained in next section)
Next Week Prompt Introduction
In this section, a new prompt is announced and includes a definition, prompt description, possible design directions, examples, and sometimes tips. In the next week’s slides, members will add their work under the critique section.
Process
Recruitment
Advertising posters were created to appeal to undergraduate students from all majors and experience levels. Bright colors, unique silhouettes, and tongue-in-cheek taglines were utilized to attract creative types and stand out in the many student org advertisements within facebook groups.
Members were interviewed and emphasis was placed on interest and willingness to grow as a designer, over experience or creative background. Diversity of majors/minors was also strongly valued to create a team with many different design processes, backgrounds, and perspectives.
Weekly Design Prompts
Design Prompts were created with the goal of playing into different members’ expertise as well as challenging members to step outside of mediums and ideas they are familiar with and experiment with new ones. Every week, members were encouraged to team up with friends, be matched to work with others they did not know well, and/or take a break if the coming week would be too hectic.
Full explanations and responses can be found on the Incubates website.
Spring Semester New Initiatives
In the coming semester, I plan to make the following improvements:
Greater recruitment volume
Group selection of meeting time, for more attendance
Individual slides for standup and critiques, rather than current volunteer-based system
Member-made design prompts
More encouraged and easily accessible coffee chats within team
Encouraging members to step up in organization leadership, as Incubates subteam lead as well as conducting workshops