The part of this week’s lecture I found most useful was on agile methodology. I found it to be a very sensical way of managing a task flow over multiple teams, especially when the design team plans the amount of time needed according to what is required each sprint. This part of the lecture also made me consider what kind of role I would like to take up in the future, as dividing work into sprints seems an appealing way to work, as you can stay ahead of the workflow and plan according to the needs of other teams. It also allows for cooperation between users and other teams, which appeals to me, and in my opinion leads to the highest quality of output.
I also read Asana’s article on agile methodology. Some important pieces of information I took away from it were to maintain a sustainable working pace, as overworking burns out employees and leads to lower quality work. For me this is somewhat reassuring, as it is quite easy to imagine life in the design industry as being always a frantic rush to meet one deadline after another. Another of the agile methodology principles I found useful was to respond to change instead of keeping a fixed plan. This highlights the importance of user collaboration and being receptive to changes in user needs, instead of arrogantly believing your own way is the best way or being too rigid to change an idea.
https://asana.com/resources/agile-methodology
This week’s exercise was somewhat different from the others in that it also prepared me for future applications. Interestingly, only one of the notes our group put on the board mentioned a design degree, which would highlight to me that while necessary, does not need to be emphasised in an application, and skills and qualities carry more weight in actually choosing the candidate, provided they are qualified. Another interesting quality that was asked in multiple job postings was knowledge of design trends. While not necessarily a specific skill, I believe it shows a genuine interest in design to be read up on the latest happenings in the industry, and also shows a willingness to keep up with changing user demands, as referenced before in the agile methodology article.