Week 3
Co-Creative Design & Development Practice
Spark Forum — 5W1H
Starting a new role is always a tough one, no matter the experience. Adjusting into the new role can be difficult but one that needs to overcome. I started my new role as Customer Support engineer in June 2021. More or less around the same start as this module. I was instantly involved with some heavy tasks which I needed to learn quickly in order to provide the best support.
Who does the anecdote involve?
My role as a customer support engineer involves working with the product owner, technical support, and developers in almost a daily basis. The Team are a great bunch and awesome to work with.
What was the main point of conflict?
File upload failure — new system in place specifically designed to onboard (upload) new data rather than the manual input.
When did the issue occur and how long did it go on for?
Quite literal in the first weeks on starting the role
Why did the conflict arise?
Still now this is unknown — when trying to upload the code is trying to look for data in the empty rows from the excel file.
How did you overcome the conflict? What tools and techniques did you apply to the situation?
As with every IT failure, it’s about trial and error. I began to investigate about why this was happening and what was the cause. At first, I thought that there was some key information missing. I check several times until I couldn’t think of what this was. At this point, I got the developers involved. They too check to make sure the file was completed correctly as according to the code. It was at this point, we managed to figure out that the code was looking for data in the empty rows. Odd and strange to why the code would do this, but I managed to overcome this deleting the empty rows all the way down to row 2500. After doing this, it worked without any further issues.
Effective communication
Being effective in communication also means an engaged listener. Being able to understand and reflect what is being said completes the 50% of being an effective communication — it’s a 2-way process.
To complete this project, I will need to ensure that I am always communicating. Communicating will bring the best of this project. Sharing feedback and opinions is a way of communicating. By this doing I will be helping myself and as well as others.
We have set up meetings to occur twice a week, one as group and the other including our tutor. Outside of this, our regular communication is through Discord Chat. We have options to engage in multiple ways.
With communication, leads to better decision making. As long as the team can freely speak, our group will be able to make a good decision making. Communication will allow every member to be involved and express their concerns and ideas. When it comes to making important judgement, all members will easily be able make the decisions. With this, our team will make a decision based on all feedback.
Interviews — skin care
Moving on to the project, this week my task was to come up with some questions relating in skin care and beauty products. The team required to gain to knowledge of user who use such a product. For the project specific details were required.
I was able to send questions to a few users who wished to stay anonymous. At first they hesitated but when they asked for the reasons the questionnaires were required, they become slightly more comfortable as long as they were remained anonymous.
The questionnaire helped us indicate which type was the popular product and whether they knew the difference between sustainable and non-stainable. We needed to understand from their point of view so that we can ensure we help the find the best alternative.
I have have shared the link of the list of questionnaires that was used for people to complete:
REF:
1. Falmouth University, June 2021, Week 3: Spark Forum, Falmouth University, Viewed 11th June 2021, Available at <https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/913/discussion_topics/20943?module_item_id=50029>
2. Lawrence Robinson, Jeane Segal Ph.D and Melinda Smith M.A., October 2020, Effective Communication, HelpGuide, Viewed 12th June 2021, Available at <https://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships-communication/effective-communication.htm#>
