Assignments Due
Week 14 checkpoints should be submitted by Monday, 04/16/2018 at 11:59 PM PDT.
Perform
Final: Presentation (100%, 10 points)
Your client is proposing a data science investment at next month’s board meeting, and she directs your data science team to prepare a design memo and presentation to persuade the board to greenlight the concept. Time to stretch it out, munch on some user stories, and scrum your way to the finish line!
As discussed last week, your presentation should follow your write-up but be appropriately adapted to the format. You do not need to introduce new content in the presentation, or to spend extra energy elaborating on role playing elements beyond how you’ve already understood your relationship with the client. It is enough to tell us who you are and who the client is, and to present the same material, albeit in the more conversational style of a live presentation.
Because presentations are less densely packed with information than written documentation, you’ll need to choose what makes it in and what should be left out. Curate the content with an aim toward clarity, concision, and persuasiveness. Consider this to be your attempt to raise enough interest in your proposal that the audience would be willing to read the full report to explore the nuances.
Consult the following rough guidelines for length, though if you have good reason to deviate you need not ask for permission. This is your work, after all.
- Title: 1 slide
- Act I: 2-3 slides
- Act II: 3-4 slides
- Act III: 2-3 slides
You may adopt either a 4:3 or a 16:9 aspect ratio, but note that a 4:3 slide may produce a 16:9 video when positioned to the left or right of your talking heads. Your time limit is 8-10 minutes. Please rehearse the entire presentation at least once before filming your final submission. Find pre-recording instructions here. Note:
- The duration limits are longer for the final than for regular group presentations.
- You should not hold your recording session by inviting teammates to a meeting scheduled on the ISVC. If you do this, 2U will remove your recording within 24 hours and you will no longer be able to make an offline version.
How to submit
One member of the team should save an MP4 version of your recording to both the appropriate bDrive upload folder and to the ISVC submission folder labeled “Final Project”.
Compose
Final: Design (100%, 10 points)
Your client is proposing a data science investment at next month’s board meeting, and she directs your data science team to prepare a design memo and presentation to persuade the board to greenlight the concept. Time to stretch it out, munch on some user stories, and scrum your way to the finish line!
The write-up is the heart and soul of the project, let’s say the velociraptor in your amber mosquito, and it is likely all you’ll remember of your thought process after you get some distance from it. Try to make a strong finish as you complete acts 1.5-3.0, always with a mind toward winnowing your brain storms down to the best and most critical elements of your thinking.
Your rough guidelines for length are:
- Abstract: 200-300 words
- Act I: 500-600 words
- Act II: 600-800 words
- Act III: 500-600 words
- About the authors: approx. 150 words each
Length and attention to different elements is itself a part of your storytelling, so these are not hard limits. I won’t be counting words unless something seems off, like a serious imbalance between sections or if it feels either brusque or prolix. Figures and tables are allowed but not necessary, and limit yourselves to no more than two each. Going long is only ok if the work is good. A professor of mine once shared her feelings about this:
| Short | Long | |
|---|---|---|
| Good | Jubilant | Happy |
| Bad | Sad | Angry |
A bibliography is necessary for cited works, including date, author, title, and source. Never provide the full attribution details in body text, though parts may be used if they are necessary to make an argument (beware the appeal to authority). Footnotes may be used in lieu of a bibliography, but please embed URLs as links with alternate text so the URL is never displayed in the body or in footnotes. Footnotes still require date, author, title, and source attribution—merely linking to a source is not sufficient. If a bibliography is used at the end of the document, full URLs may be unfurled. You do not need to use citation management software like Zotero but you may if you want to practice a professional format, in which case any style, such as APA, is fine.
Your revised prompt should be included as Appendix A.
How to submit
Your slide deck, pre-recording, and write-up will be due Monday, 04/16/2018 at 11:59 PM PDT or midnight before your last live session, whichever is later. It cannot be late as we will watch the recordings in live session. Please use the same procedure for the Week 13 submission. Overwrite your previous files or be sure that the submission folder contains your final draft and nothing else. Your final project submission comprises four documents to be saved here:
- A Google Slides presentation (not an uploaded
.pptor other file, fully editable and with your instructor having commenting permissions, including speaker notes) - A Google Doc write-up (not an uploaded
.docor other file, etc.) - A PDF of the presentation slides (no notes)
- A PDF of the write-up
- An MP4 recording of your presentation
Review
Final Remarks
Each final project team will be assigned a buddy team. Before the final class you should watch the recording of your buddies, and prepare some remarks about their work to share after we watch each video presentation together as a group in class.
We’ve practiced being critical all term; let this be a celebratory event. Tell them what you like about their idea!
How to submit
You will receive your buddy team over Slack. Please watch their presentation, note what you want to say about it, and share your notes aloud in class after we watch the recording together. No need to turn your remarks in. After this your work is over!