The horrific thing about S T R E S S is that it's contagious, it requires one person to be stressed in the room for the rest to be filled with burden. When you bring such a negative VIBE in the workplace it impacts your performance, but it also affects your collaboration with others. This semester, in the IA, we are not going to class, we are going to work; therefore, it's vital for me to handle my stress properly so that it doesn't break our enviable culture we've taken time to build. For BLENDZ, we want to create a a healthy culture, an environment were we can INNOVATE, were we FAIL and LEARN from our mistakes, and were we CREATE BEAUTIFUL WORK. Stress does nothing, but put at risk these values. Because stress is emotional it's extremely VISUAL, thus, it not only contaminates me inside, but also my outside, my co-workers. During the feedback session one of my peers told me that when I am stressed he felt I was attacking him. His comment has made me realize the impact this bad habit has within my classmates; I feel extremely responsible for bringing his productivity and motivation down that day. This is certainly something that I don't want to generate. So I am challenging me with different techniques that I'll try out next week to break the bad habit. The first technique is to VENT. Holding in everything that worries and stresses you is not good. We all have a limit that when we pass it we explode. In many cases that is what happens to me. In order to prevent this I need to VENT, periodically, so that I don't hit that unhealthy limit. However, it's not about venting outloud all the time, but it's about venting at the right time (before you reach the limit) with the right person (someone who copes well with stress and doesn't get affected by it). I always get caught up with my HW and school and I never actually exercise as much as I would want to. The other day I read an article that mentions how exercising release mood-boosting chemicals that fight stress. This study shows how people who exercise more have less stress. Therefore, since Monday, when I come back from my trip, my mom, my sister, and I will exercise 45 minutes in the morning three times a week. This will help me shake off my stress and start off my days with the right mentality. People spend so much time complaining about everything that STRESSES them out, but spend too little time doing it. Sometimes my stress trumps my hard work and I fall in this vicious cycle I fear, INEFFICIENCY. This is why my last strategy is to use my planning and organizing skills I use for long-term events and deadlines for short-term things as well. I will continue planning like always (long-term), but every Monday I will create a plan for the week that outlines everything I need to complete everyday. This will allow me to organize myself, so that I build my work up to the deadline, with time, and I don't have to stress few days before. When I get big projects I'll work for shorter periods, but for more weeks, therefore, I don't have to do them all at once the week it is due. I know that it will take me a while to END this habit, this is why I will try these techniques for 30 DAYS. It takes 30 days to build or break a habit. My challenge starts next week and it will run for 30 days. Let the challenge begin!
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Through the INNOVATION ACADEMY I've experienced education from a totally different perspective. The IA hasn't only taught me knowledge and skills that I will apply in the future, but it has taught me how to apply them and how to stand up when I fall down. Everything we learn here is perfectly translated to the real-world. The IA is not another high school education program, it is a real life experience, where your skills are knowledge are put into a REAL-WORLD test. Through the IA I've learned that communication is extremely important to be successful, not only in the family room, the classroom, but also in the boardroom. The IA simulates the real business world so precisel; through BLENDZ and my overall experience, I've come to realize that communication is vital to have a striving company. When you think about communication you immediately relate it to talking and writing, yet communication also encompasses listening. Yes, speaking and writing are essential too, but without good LISTENING skills you are missing a key component to flourish your communication skill. The listening element becomes indispensable in the business world when co-workers and bosses are receiving FEEDBACK. Feedback is CRUCIAL everywhere in order to create a healthy environment, workplace. The curious thing is that people love to acknowledge others and also love to be recognized; when it comes to giving and listening to positive feedback it's ear candy. However, when it comes to constructive feedback, giving or receiving, many of us lay back and rather remain silent. Believe me, I've experienced this before and it won't get any easier if you don't practice it, and it's a vital skill in the business world. We in the IA have started to work with this skill. About half a year ago, when we started crowdsourcing of grades a wave of tension and nervousness invaded the room. People didn't feel comfortable sharing feedback, especially negative feedback. The first few people that went through the feedback were put in the spotlight --suddenly-- and felt discomfort. However, little by little as more people went by as a class we began to tare down that uncomfortable wall and started to build a road of TRUST. The problem was exactly there; we didn't TRUST each other enough to give feedback. Immediately after that first crowdsourcing grades session I felt a HUGE relief; I must admit I felt uncomfortable at first, but then I begun to feel good about sharing what I thought and also understanding what others thought of me as well. Today, we conducted the same experience and I thought it was going to be awkward, like the last time, but it was totally natural and helpful. The feedback we gave out and received was SMART; this feedback will not only help us grow us individuals, but also as a company. Today I felt there was 100 times more trust than the first time we did it, thus I am sure that the final time we do this will be with 100 times more trust. Giving and receiving feedback to your friends, family, co-workers and bosses builds a culture of excellence, an ambiance of transparency and openness, and it allows a company to work on its weaknesses in order to reach its vision. The feedback given to an individual impacts the whole company because we minimize our weaknesses-- by understanding and working with them-- in order to be more efficient and better. Finally it's important to deliver feedback constantly, the more you give it and receive it the easier it becomes. Feedback helps us become better, it helps us grow, this is why it should be given to the person directly INSTEAD of complaining about that person. To uplift the environment of a company, to exemplify its values, and accomplish its goals TRUST is significant, and the only way you will earn it is by giving and receiving feedback that is kind, helpful and concise.
One of the major problems that businesses struggle with is that their people are not begin productive at work. Jason Fried talks about this is his "Why work doesn't happen at work" TED talk. Like Fried said the problems is that "people go to work, and they're basically trading in their workday for a series of 'work moments'." FULL work PRODUCTIVE days don't exist anymore. Employees are all over the place. People think that the best way to be PRODUCTIVE is to accomplish as many things as possible. This is why they spend one period working here, then another period working there, and then another period talking to someone. This is NOT getting you PRODUCTIVE. WHY? Every time you are switch tasks you are DECREASING your productivity immensely. Believe me, you are not getting MORE things completed. During this heavy week at BlendZ I've felt I've been all over the place. This is because I had to accomplish so many tasks that I started one, then left it a side, and then started another one, which I never finished, and so on. By shifting tasks I was starting all of them, but I wasn't completing any. However, now that we've established the 30 seconds update I really think about two major goals I want to accomplish in the day, so that I fully focus on that TWO tasks and get them done on time. In order to do so I had to make a list, in asana, of everything that had to be done and then prioritize the most important things according to the coming deadlines. Another major problem that erodes PRODUCTIVITY at work is INTERRUPTIONS. DID YOU KNOW THAT IT TAKES 1 MINUTE TO BE DISTRACTED AND 23 MINUTES TO GET BACK ON TASKEvery buzz in your phone, notification, email, and even word from a coworker gets you off task. It's these small interruptions that really HURT your productivity. Imagine yourself working for 25 VERY FOCUSED minutes and a twitter notification ringing your phone. Once you turn your sight off the screen to your phone, you are already distracted by it. Now, it will take you 23 minutes to get into your CONCENTRATION BUBBLE. Now imagine if you weren't distracted by your phone, by now you would have had 48 FULL minutes of productivity instead of only 25. This is one problem we were also having at BlendZ. It wasn't the phones, the internet and the notifications interrupting, but it was all of us interrupting each other. Because we are so dependent on each other for different tasks we constantly need to talk and ask questions. However, we realized that this was affecting the PRODUCTIVITY of not one, but ALL of us. In order to solve this problem we figured that throughout the day we need to have some quiet personal time were we are able to organize ourselves and get ready for the day, no interuptions. This is why Mr. Topf presented the pomodoro technique, a time management method. So every morning, for 25 minutes we don't talk we just look at the things we need to complete, check our asana inbox and get ready for the day. I never knew I could accomplish so much in 25 minutes. The great thing about this method is that after the 25 minutes you can talk so this is the time when you get to ask questions and communicate with your co-workers. In order to boost your productivity at work and actually working in the office stop trying to multitask and eliminate the distractions. Make these two things part of your culture because if you are the only one who focuses on two tasks and eliminates the distractions your company as a whole won't be productive and your coworkers may interrupt you. So, stop fooling around in twitter and get back on task.
Entrepreneurs work in an environment of extreme uncertainty; therefore, they undergo a long process of ITERATION. Startups are small businesses that don't have a set plan, they learn to steer and once they have a solid foundation they take a step forward and accelerate. During the steering period they are very flexible because if they take a wrong turn they have the tools and mindset to take a different path until they find success, a solid foundation. Not only has the entire BLENDZ company gone through ITERATION with the product, but within the marketing team alone we have ITERATED many times. One of our BIGGEST challenges has been to create the logo. When we first started to create it, we thought it was going to be an easy task. We were completely wrong about that. Creating the logo has taken a long time and it has delayed us in many ways; however, just like an MVP we also launched a first version of our logo, who Stefan and Sara created, in our prototyping day in ICC, in our Facebook page and in the website. The physical appearance of BLENDZ can be modified and improved as time goes by, this is why it's smart to show off to the public the different drafts of the image of BLENDZ. By making our drafts visual to the public we will receive feedback and make further modifications. Nonetheless, it is important to only make few drafts because otherwise we will confuse the customer and they won't know how to identify BLENDZ anymore. Stefan has been working on the logo for a long time, the first version of the logo looks nothing like he one now because it has gone through tons of ITERATION. Throughout the process I've been giving Stefan feedback as well as Mr. Topf and the CEO's. However, one day Mr. Topf realized that we were not maximizing our productivity because we were already a few weeks into the business and still no logo. Instead of changing the same logo into different things the most effective solution was to create several designs. These designs would be pitched to the company, and once we all agreed on the design the marketing team could work with that idea and make some more designs, with a similar concept. So on Monday Stefan got the opportunity to present some designs he had made, I also got the chance to present the two designs I came up with. It was hard to come to an agreement as a company, there is never going to be a design that we all agree 100% on, but we need to make sure that we chose and idea that we all like. While showing the ideas to our co-workers everybody started to talk and it got a little messy, so we made people give feedback on things they liked from the different designs. With all the feedback and comments we agreed that the best IDEA for the logo was SIMPLICITY. WHY simplicity? Because we wanted something playful, but easy that our customers can identify us with. Additionally, we also wanted a design that allowed modifications for special holidays and seasons. Finally as a company we also believed that the best idea was to have the name as part of the logo with a cool font. With all these ideas in mind Stefan and I begun to generate some quick sketches. Because we were so behind with the logo I put myself a goal, to have the logo done by the end of the day. In order to accomplish my goal I had to help Stefan out, since we decided that we wanted a flexible logo that allowed modifications during holidays and seasons we decided that we were going to keep the fruit, which was going to go in front of the "BLENDZ". So to divide and conquer Stefan took on the fruit challenge and I took on the text challenge. The day before, while I was creating my designs, I was experimenting with Illustrator and I loved it, so I decided to stick with it to create the logo. Believe it or not my hardest challenge was to select the font, yesterday I found a very cool page with millions of fonts. It was not only hard to chose one font from the infinite pond, but it was very challenging to find the perfect one. Remember, this is the physical appearance of BLENDZ, it has to be perfect. I had several people give me feedback about the font, it was hard because some people loved it and other didn't. I was extremely confused. To be more productive and get and idea down everybody got back to work and I worked on the logo by myself. Using some ideas Gise and DD gave me I managed to create six different designs. However, I didn't make major changes and used completely different themes for each design because otherwise this would make the decision harder. Instead, I stuck with one idea I thought was playful and simple and modified it to create six designs. Along with the designs I created options for color schemes, for this I used no more than two colors plus black. Once I was ready I showed it to Mr. Topf who gave me feedback and his thoughts about the logo. With him I agreed on four strong designs to show to the class. Finally we were on the right path. I felt extremely proud and excited of what I had created and it would't have been possible to come up with a logo without so many ITERATIONS, feedback and reflection. When I showed the designs to the class they were in love and I felt a HUGE relief inside me. I was so nervous that people weren't going to like it because I tried my best to create something simple and creative that all of us were going to agree. First we all voted, the winning design had 8 people so we agreed that that would be our logo. However, Gise suggested that the ones who voted for a different design had the right to speak up about their concerns with the chosen logo. While I was hearing all this feedback I made some modifications as my co-workers were watching. Finally to fine-tune and give a perfect closure we all voted on the color scheme. We all went for the pink and blue because these colors embrace the most the smoothie personality. I made the final adjustments, added the slogan on the bottom, and finally we had our logo. I was in love with it. The process was bumpy, but I am extremely excited and proud of what us, as a company, managed to create because we all had a say. I want to show off our new identity to the customers. I can perfectly see this logo as part of our cups, uniforms and even our stand. I finally was able to accomplish my goal and everything through ITERATION.
About three weeks ago I went to an fascinating photography gallery called Lima Photo. While gazing at the incredible shots my attention was caught by one particular thing, recycled materials in a corner of the room. I was confused. When I got close I realized these recycled materials were actually PINHOLE cameras, made from yogurt bottles to jello boxes. Above the cameras were some pictures taken with them. I was astonished by the quality of the picture; the images were so defined I would have never imagined they were taken with a film roll camera. Once I left the gallery my head kept thinking about this, I was inspired by the images, so I decided I wanted to create my own camera. This is why for my IBG I wanted to experiment, and purse my passion for photography from ANOTHER P E R S P E C T I V E. Last semester, during my photography classes, I learned how to work the manual setting of my digital camera. Today, I am learning why and how a camera works, and instead of learning how to work the settings I am learning how to make the settings. For the past month, during IBG time, I've been researching how to make a pinhole camera. In the gallery they looked so simple, but there is actually a lot of engineering that goes behind it. Through my research I've realized that is all about PRECISION and PATIENCE. The first rule I learned was no light at all, one little dot of light and the exposure gets ruined. So in order to avoid this you need to paint the ENTIRE box black. Willie, when I met with him, told me a trick, which is to place a photographic paper inside the box, after its been painted, and leave it 15 minutes outside in the sun. If the paper remains white it means the camera is working because no light has gone inside. To build the perfect PINHOLE you need go through many iterations because it's all about trail and error. Like Willie told me, you don't want to build the entire thing and wait for the picture to come out wrong because you don't know where your mistake will be. You want to go step by step and test in between, instead. It will take time but you will certainly end up with a higher quality product. Going back to the first rule, it's very important to pay attention to detail and be exact. You will be amazed by how a little spot not covered with black can ruin the whole picture. Light is tricky. Furthermore, as crazy as it may sound the size and exactitude of hole matters. The smaller the hole the more time it will take to expose the picture; however, this is what makes the picture look crystal clear instead of blurry. But the size of the hole will make no magic alone, if the hole is not a perfect circle then the picture will come out blurry as well. This is why for my pinhole I will make a square in the middle, where the shutter goes, and I will paste a piece of thin aluminum, which will have the hole. Making a perfect hole in a cardboard box will be very challenging, this is why I will use a piece of aluminum, this will allow me to make perfect circle by passing a pin through. Once again, it will take longer to do so, but in the end this will allow me to photography clean pictures. Overall, from all the research I've learned how everything comes down to the attention you put to detail. It's the smallest things and mistakes that make a difference in the image in the end. This is why I need to go through tons of iteration, because once I build one thing I must test it and ensure that it has been correctly done so I can go to the next part. If there is a mistake I need to ensure that I've fixed it because in the end it is hard to determine what is the problem and it will take more time to correct it. In order to go through iterations you need time, and this is why through the process I've learned to be patient. It can get frustrating at times, but it would be even more frustrating to have to repeat the camera because of making careless mistakes in the beginning. Additionally, since I will be photographing people I want my pictures to have the best definition. This is why it's essential that I take time through the process to correct the small steps. I am very excited about my IBG because I will not only be having pictures taken by me, but I will also have a camera made by me. Also I will not only learn how to make a PINHOLE, but I will also learn how to be patient and precise, two skills that are very important in any work place. Patience, especially, is one of the skills I am not strong at, this is why this project will help me reinforce that. I've been inspired by Lima Photo. The power of photography is immense and I want to move people as I've been moved at some point too. Camera roll photography, is more natural, more personal, and this is why I am excited to explore my passion from another level. I will experiment different recopies and pivot in order to create a product that I am proud off.
As the MARKETING TEAM our goal, this week, has been to CREATE the IDENTITY of BLENDZ. From the name all the way to the cup design. It has been extremely hard to brand our startup in such a short time; the IDENTITY is such a crucial component to success. By branding BLENDZ we are building the face of the company that costumers will see; therefore, it has to be P E R F E C T. Branding can't be done all at once, it's about putting together the different building blocks. Before the logo, advertisements or any visual IDENTITY we had to define who we are and what we want to achieve. To understand our purpose I looked carefully over the mission statement. To BLEND student entrepreneurs who INSPIRE our community to lead PLAYFULLY healthy lives! From the mission statement we realized that through BLENDZ we want to encourage the FDR community to live PLAYFULLY HEALTHY by providing them with healthy and delicious options. Additionally we also want to BLEND people, in our business we want to create a comfortable environment were students, teachers and faculty can seat down and enjoy their smoothie.In this place they will be able to share and relax. Now that it was clear WHO we are and WHAT we want to ACHIEVE, we begun creating the IDENTITY of BLENDZ. The process begun when we started to BRAINSTORM names for the startup. The name had to be, short, quick and catchy, but at the same time it had to tell something about WHO we are. We had no problem generating ideas, our brains were machines. However, the challenge was choosing the BEST FIT. Some names were too long, too forced and others simply didn't connect to our WHY. Furthermore, we continued shouting out ideas and I came up with BLENDZ with a "Z". I believed that BLENDZ exemplifies in short what we are, a startup who wants to offers fresh and yummy BLENDS (smoothies) and at the same time wants to BLEND people. BLENDZ was the PERFECT FIT, short and meaningful. After generating the name we pitched it to the class who loved it and APPROVED it. It was a huge relief, we were finally on track and with the VISON in mind. Then we moved over to the slogan. Believe it or not creating the name wasn't an easy task, this would be the PERMANENT tag of our product, the way people will call it forever. The pressure was ENTIRELY on us. It took four people to come up with a name, one word, now imagine comping up with the slogan. Even harder. The slogan has to be a short tagline that is catchy and briefly explains what the start up is. The BRAINSTORMING process for the slogan was head aching because we were taking it as a joke and we came up with very cliché or cheesy lines. During the process we realized that we weren't been as productive as we could, so to MAXIMIZE our time and talents we divided roles. Stefan begun to work in the logo, Dome in the market research and Babi and I in the slogan. After hard work and pitching we came up with BLENDZ |
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