My Reaction to my Group Project

One concept that I definitely got a better grasp on through the group project is the process of hypotheses to research to gaining insights to developing the product. I always knew that marketing research went into product development, but I did not realize it was such an involved process. I always thought that if you had an idea that you thought would appeal to a certain group, you would just design it and put it out on the market and hope for the best. I was not aware of the involved process and I was also not aware of the fact that sometimes you are able to start from scratch and end up with a product that really matches the needs of a particular group. When we began our project, we were not even thinking of a product, we were just trying to better understand our segment. Once we got to know our segment through research, we were better equipped to make some conclusions on their needs, wants, and desires. I have always been interested in product development and I now know all the steps that are involved. This in depth process was really interesting to me and the class and the project gave me some great exposure to this concept.

Another main idea that I now understand better as a result of our group project is the idea of prototyping. The guest speaker gave me the initial understanding of this, as I was mostly in the dark about this step in the development process before. Our group realized that it was one thing to come up with an idea, but completely another to bring it to life. We struggled at first (as I am sure many groups did) with what material to make our product out of, what size to make it, what type of packaging to put it in, what types of colors to use, and all the other aspects that make up the actual product. Once we came up with our idea and the idea for our prototype, there were still many hurdles to overcome. Our initial plan did not work out, and we had to keep tweaking our design to make it practical. This creating and troubleshooting of the prototype was a very valuable step in the whole project because it really made you think through every aspect of your product.

My emotional reactions to the project really went in three phases. In the first phase, I was extremely optimistic and hopeful about the project. I was excited to start gathering information about my segment. I was a little unsure of the instructions, and how it would all shape up but I was really hopeful and thought the process would be smooth. The second phase was a phase of frustration beginning with our research and continuing in designing our product. We had a lot of trouble gathering research because our segment was kind of hard to reach. This was frustrating because we wanted to have a lot of research and do a good job, but this was a hurdle we had to overcome. Also, when we began to develop our product idea and prototype, we all had different opinions and different ways to go about it. Although different opinions are great for balancing out differing personalities and backgrounds, it causes the process to become a little lengthier. With our conflicting view points, we all got a little frustrated because we all wanted to move forward but we had to work through some details to end up with something everything supported. In my third phase, we were finished with our project and we had a sense of accomplishment. Our frustration turned into satisfaction. We were all content with how our project and prototype turned out and we felt like we did a good job. I think the emotional experiences associated with the project and my group did contribute to my learning of the material because I think my emotional phases are very similar to the emotional phases that marketers experience in the real world. This way of gathering insights through research and then designing a product to match the findings seems like it would provoke these types of emotions.