Group Project Overview

The prototype and segmentation group project that we recently completed in our Customer Insights class was very beneficial. It taught me and my group many valuable lessons. One core concept that I better understand as a result of working on this project is the value of collecting usable and thorough data. It was difficult finding and surveying a target market that is a small segment of the total population. I think this is important information to grasp because having enough solid data to use in analysis is a key factor in getting a project rolling and to have successful and valid results. Because I better understand the difficulty of collecting data, I now know that it is crucial that I start formatting a survey and begin collecting data in a timely manner in order to have enough time and flexibility to find creative ways to get valuable data. For example, our target market was stay at home dads. We thought that we would be able to find stay at home dads at parks, Whole Foods, and other common places but we found that it was harder than we thought to find our target market. On top of that, once we did find them, it was harder than we thought to approach them.
Another valuable lesson that the project taught me was that it is important to dig deeper into topics about your target market that may seem to have less surface value because often these are topics that may have stereotypes about them or seem too general. For example, we had stay at home dads in the living room. We assumed that because they stay at home, they did all the living room and household furnishings. After completing our research, our group realized that living room furnishings were usually completed before there were kids in their family, or if they already had kids the wife organized most of the furnishings. After gathering this data, it led us to wonder who chose the entertainment units and system within the family room. From here we wondered how important these entertainment units such as the television, Wii, computer, DVD player, and CD player are to the stay at home dads. Our data began to sculpt and become less stereotypical and more factual all because we delved deeper into the question about furnishings of the family room. I think Professor Walls did a fabulous job in our in-class update periods by really helping us focus on underlying questions that we may not originally have though about.
I had a very great experience with my group members and professor throughout the project. My group worked together fabulously, met deadlines, and divided work in a fair manner. Also, we had a lot of laughs and smiles along the way. At first I was a bit confused about the guidelines of the project but as the project progressed each update was more and more interesting and clarifying for our overall goals. I LOVED that we were able to do something creative and with our hands at the end of this project. It was the only class in my four years in the business school that I was able to use my art skills. I will tell you that it was refreshing and a great way to end my college career in the McCombs School of Business. I was also very impressed with the role of Professor Walls in this group project. He was involved just enough to give great insight, but was also good at letting us have space and freedom in deciding how we wanted to compile and find our research, format our presentation, and create our project.