Weekly Work Log

Week 1

Last week I worked on refining my topic and researching.  Originally I had my topic as “How to manage stress to not let it change your behavior or personality.” However, during my research phase I realized that not everyone feels stress the same, that some are more prone to stress affecting them negatively while some other people need stressors to activate their production.  Luckily, the global pandemic has changed a few factors for me and sparked a new topic idea related to my work which is: How to update our business marketing to entice more financial investors and bankers. 

            I spent the later part of the week re-writing the core course grid work and also re-writing the project prospectus.  I’ve began going through company photos to use and will be recreating a website that better organizes our information and is more visually appealing to our audience.  I have begun digging through our files to provide adequate information to those unfamiliar with our business model and am trying to think of ways to include that into the website. 

            I haven’t been researching any data visuals yet but will be doing that in the following weeks. 

Week 2

Last week I narrowed my idea and worked on my core course grid to organize my thoughts.  I mapped out the actual problems we are having: old website, not attractive to any stakeholders.  I also worked on my website design.  I met with the professor and have made a new website.  One website is the presentation website and the other website is going to be what I will suggest to our company we should bring to a web designer as our new website model. 

            I did some research on the Securities Exchange Commission and other resources and the specific type of securities we offer, you cannot advertise to investors.   I will need to use my marketing skills to show that our company is something worth looking into to the general public.  I also need to have a separate tab for our existing investors.  This tab is where we send our newsletter.  I began more research into Regulations and Securities and did a lot of web design this week.  It was very difficult to make the new website but I think have the two sites organizes things better.  I also rewrote my Project Prospectus and reviewed what my peers thought. 

            I completed my Core Course Grid as well.  Understanding Data, Contemporary Media Literacies and Global Awareness.  After also meeting with the instructor and discussing these topics, global awareness I didn’t think would help but I’m going to use it as a guide to think of the audience as someone who knows nothing about natural gas or the location. 

            I will use Contemporary Media Literacies in Week 3 when researching data and by creating outlines of my research.  Finding sources outside of the company research is helpful to this project to get the 360 degree scope of our goal.  I will use Understanding Data by meeting with our CFO (virtually) to get some good internal data to include. 

week 3

During week 3 I went over my course grid and integrated it into the website. Website design is not something I’ve familiar with so I watched a few videos and worked on the design and lay out.

I needed to create 2 different websites this week: the presentation of my Capstone project and the second: how I think the new website design should look. So this week has been mostly focused on that.

The second part of this week has been dedicated to research. I researched a lot of the legality of owning securities and commodities and the rules surrounding selling them. I also started researching marketing and how online marketing is important in business and this became a turning point in my project. After checking with a few shareholders using my design thinking skills, I realized that redesigning the website is not enough to make real change in the company. We need to promote ourselves without asking for prospects to invest in us. We need to make our presence known to people online.

Here is where my shift in the capstone project took place. Instead of just focusing on website design, I began thinking of marketing strategies and how to bring in new business to us. So now my capstone project has shifted again and I want to focus on How we can rebrand ourselves using digital marketing. Now more than ever, online marketing in business is vital.

I created visuals from the research articles using my Understanding Data skills in Excel. These are featured on my home page and on the “What does this Mean” tab.

Week 4

Now that I’ve finalized my Project and narrowed it down to the root of our problem which is we have no online presence in any way on social media platforms, I am refining the website and organizing my information and visuals so it’s easier for my audience to have a better understanding of the importance of digital marketing.

I posted my website to the peer review board and took their feedback seriously. I really enjoyed getting feedback because I used some of their ideas to my advantage. Someone told me to add the About Me page, which I honestly didn’t want to include but I think it definitely helps the audience get a better understanding of why this project is important to me. Another suggestion I got was making better organization points on my landing page which I did and I think it comes together better.

I was surprised at what positive feedback I received this week. I felt like my Landing page was very disorganized and it wasn’t clear but everyone seemed to give great feedback about my design and information I presented. Which made me feel like I was doing better than I thought.

Lastly this week, I wrote my rough draft for the script of my presentation. I reflected over the work I’ve done and added it to the rough draft.

week 5

This week I finalized my website and took the last of the feedback from my peers to tweak the final presentation. I reviewed all the feedback I’ve received from our instructor as well and made sure to include it in my website. I am starting to see it finally coming together and it’s exciting to see all my work come to life. I can’t wait to present this to our company.

I also had a meeting with the UNCG Speaking Center. This was good because I was almost being tested on my project by the person helping me organize my speech. She asked me multiple questions about what is my main idea and what exactly is my point and it helped me refine my speech so much of this week was spent re-writing the speech.

I made final changes to my website this week and finished up some visuals I wasn’t happy with. I wanted the percentages shown on the pie charts so I changed that, and made finishing touches to my tab “What does this Mean?” The rest of the week I spent making the necessary changes and organization errors in my speech and will be practicing it for the presentation video next week.

week 6

This week I dedicated my time to refining my presentation. I started by re-writing my script. I took all the notes that the Speaking Center gave me and added them into my speech. I proof-read the document multiple times and began trying to memorize it to the best of my abilities. I started deciding the best way to record my presentation and began playing with lighting and settings around my house to record in.

I had to record my video multiple times. I’m not a good public speaker, especially when following a word-for-word script; I usually do better when I’m just talking like in a one-on-one setting. My video is definitely not great but it was the best I could do given the circumstances of the very stressful times of a global pandemic and limited resources being at home. I posted the video to the discussion board and gave feedback to other people in my discussion board on their video presentations.

I decided after all the recordings that a powerpoint presentation would serve me better so I am finishing up that presentation this week

week 7

This final week I am making sure everything is perfect in my website and my presentation website. I submitted my presentation to the group discussion and got peer reviews. I am annoyed with my reviews because the most common comment was to shorted the presentation however it matches my script perfectly which had a minimum page requirement. I decided to go back to the presentation and cut down the transition times which was also suggested to me in the peer reviews. I decided not to add anything for fear of going too long.

I am also finishing up web design and preparing for both the final turn in and also pitching to my CEO, finishing the final reflection and course evaluations.