Master Design Document
DFA Leadership Studio
Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Design Brief
Goals
Assessment
Impact Map
Service Blueprint
Lesson Plans
Appendixes
Design Brief
Design Brief
Develop a studio leadership training program
Name:
Organization:
Client:
Mentor:
Team:
DFA Studio Leadership Guide
Design for America
Julian Bongiorno
Emily Harburg
Kevin Hardiman, David Hong, Thomas Hruby, Jack Konopka
Organizational and Learning Context
 Organization: Design for America (http://designforamerica.com/) is a network of student lead studios creating local and social impact
through interdiscipinary design. Located on 17 college campuses, DFA’s 2000 members work with community partners to design
solutions to problems such as hospital acquired infections, childhood obesity and caring for the elderly. DFA student teams have gone on
to start several startups that have raised millions of dollars in funding. The DFA national headquarters (located at Northwestern) consists
of a full time operations manager and 5 DFA “fellows” who run the organization and support DFA chapters.
 Learners: DFA students consist primarily undergraduates aged 18-22 from over 60 different majors with a wide variety of prior
experience with design. Learners participate in DFA for a variety of reasons, including an interest in design, a desire to address social
problems, a fun extracurricular activity and as means to gain experience working on real world projects.
 Domain: DFA trains students in human-centered design.
Project background
This project will focus on DFAs online “Studio Guide” (http://loft.io/process/dfa-studio-guide/). The studio guide covers topics such as
membership, financing, mentoring, training and so on.
 Organizational need: DFA is a grassroots organization whose health and growth depends on developing leaders who can run local
chapters. The Studio Guide is a critical part of DFA’s leadership training strategy.
 Learner’s task: DFA team leads need to more effectively motivate and manage their teams.
 Users: To test your prototypes, you will contact DFA studio leads at Northwestern.
 Where: DFA team leaders will access the curriculum online.
 When: DFA team leaders manage their teams through the school year.
 Tentative scope of work: Produce online LOFT guides on Goal-Setting, Team-Building Competition, Stress Relief, and Time
Management for access to Team Leads to better motivate and manage their teams.
References
- Design for America (2014) DFA Studio Guide. http://loft.io/process/dfa-studio-guide
Learning Goals
Transfer Skills
Learners (TL’s) will be able to independently use their learning to …
T1: user their leadership skills to better manage teams during meetings
T2: help team members in any project understand ways to help other team members and stay motivated throughout the project
Meaning
UNDERSTANDINGS
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Learners (TL’s) will understand that …
Learners (TL’s) will keep considering…
U1: Management of DFA meeting times is crucially
important for team success
Q1: How does one manage a diverse group of individuals
during team meetings?
U2: Friendly competition can help motivate team members
Q2: How does a leader help a team better achieve its goals?
U3: providing opportunities for stress relief for TM’s is
crucial during times of difficulty or setbacks
U4: Helping individuals set good goals each week aligns the
work of the team
U5: helping TM’s manage individual and meeting times
effectively helps the team work most efficiently
Acquisition
Students (TL’s) will know…
Students (TL’s) will be skilled at…
K1:Team meetings are excellent places to share ideas and
provide feedback
S1: helping TM’s partake in silent meditation
K2: accountability and desirable, consistent rewards/punishment
structure are important for long-term competition
K3: short term competition and activities such as meditation,
stress ball relief can help with stressful times of setback
S2: helping setting individual goals that align with the
team goals
S3: facilitating discussions about how to set team goals
K4: Activities such as planning a TM’s next-day schedule and
assigning “homework” time can help TM time management
skills, which help the overall team
K5: sharing background information and discussions are
important to have before setting team goals
S4: helping TM’s manage their own individual time and
homework time after team meetings
S5: motivating team members to compete with each other
S6: explaining the importance of setting tangible goals
S7: assigning team weekly goals for competition
Assessment
ASSESSMENT
Code
Evaluative Criteria
Performance Task
U1
When asked, do team
members seem to be setting
more goals than before?
PERFORMANCE TASK(S):
When asked, do team
members seem to be
accomplishing more goals
than before?
Are these goals specific?
Are these goals measurable?
Are these goals attainable?
Are these goals relevant?
1. Students will demonstrate
that they have taught their
team how to set SMART
goals.
2. Students will demonstrate
that they have bonded their
teams through friendly
competition.
3. Students will demonstrate
that their team members are
not overwhelmed by stress.
Are these goals time-bound?
U2
Are team members setting
process goals as well as short
and long-term goals?
U3
Have team members
expressed feelings of
anxiety?
Have team members shown
any physical symptoms of
stress or anxiety?
Have team members asked
for lighter workloads?
U4
Are team members
completing more tasks
assigned to them?
Are tasks being completed at
a higher quality than before?
Are tasks being completed in
a more timely manner than
before?
Scale
4. Students will demonstrate
that their team members are
allocating time optimally.
Performance Criteria 1: Students will demonstrate that they have taught their team how to set SMART goals.
1
2
3
When asked, do team members seem to be setting
more goals than before?
When asked, do team members seem to be
accomplishing more goals than before?
Are these goals specific?
Are these goals measurable?
Are these goals attainable?
Are these goals relevant?
Are these goals time-bound?
Are team members setting process goals as well as
short and long-term goals?
Performance Criteria 2: Students will demonstrate that they have bonded their teams through friendly competition.
1
Do the Studio Leads see evidence of team
cohesion, energy, and excitement?
2
3
Performance Criteria 3: Students will demonstrate that their team members are not overwhelmed by stress.
3
2
1
Have team members expressed feelings of
anxiety?
Have team members shown any physical
symptoms of stress or anxiety?
Have team members asked for lighter
workloads?
Performance Criteria 4: Students will demonstrate that their team members are allocating time optimally.
1
Are team members completing more tasks
assigned to them?
Are tasks being completed at a higher quality
than before?
Are tasks being completed in a more timely
manner than before?
GRASPS
2
3
Performance Task
Students (Team Leads) will demonstrate that they are able to effectively motivate and
manage their teams.
Goal
Your goal is to develop a management skill set which is more beneficial to self, team, studio,
and client.
Role
You have been asked to co-lead a team of 4-8 DFAers on a human-centered design project.
Audience
Your target audience is first and foremost your Team Members, but also your Studio Leads and
clients.
Situation
The challenge involves training new members who have never worked together before to
learn the design process, produce results, and grow as a team and as individuals.
Product
Your product less tangibly is a team culture and a skill set. The tangible evidence of this is in
the quality of the end product of your own design process.
Standards
Your product will be judged by your client and your team will be judged by your Studio
Leads.
Impact Map
Outcomes
Participants
Current Team
Members
Behavior
Attempt to reduce individual stress
during times of difficulty
Navy Seal Stress
Methods
Better Manage one’s individual
Time
Progress Principal
Set better individual and group goals
Partake in Competition Lesson Plan
Current Studio
Leads
To manage
teams most
effectively
Provide Feedback on
Effectiveness of Lesson Plans
Explain the importance Effective
Team Meetings to TM’s
Facilitate time management
Lesson during meetings
Current Team
Leads
Facilitate Goal Setting Lesson
plan during meetings
Facilitate Stress Relief Lesson
plan during meetings
Facilitate Competition Lesson
plan during meetings
Principle
Goals (How learning
Works)
Progress Principal
Assessment (How
Learning Works)
How Learning Works
Harvard Business
Rreview 10 leadership Stories
Julian’s Guides
Research
Tom’s Navy Seal
Training guide
UBD
*Note: we are only working to improve the leadership capabilities of Team Leads, NOT Studio Leads or Team Members
Design Feature
Meditation and
stress ball activity
Note down
homework and plan weekly
life schedule
Participate in group
meeting discussions about
goals
Use incentives to do more
client research and Design
Process work between team
meeting times
Give out surveys to
TM’s to assess the
usefulness of TL guides
Take the TL
introduction session and
learn from past TL’s
Help TM’s make
weekly life schedules
Help TM’s
participate in group
discussions and form
individual goals
Help TM’s learn
mediation and stress ball
activities
Help TM’s internalize the
rewards and punishments agreed
upon at the end of each meeting
for the homework assigned at the
end of each meeting
Service Blueprint
Service Blueprint
Physical Evidence
New title and
responsibilitie
s
Be chosen as a
Team Lead
Project
Assignment from
Studio Leads
Post-it notes
brainstorm, Team
Charter, initial product
design
Begin training
team in design
process
Get your Team
and Project
Email, loft comment, or
personal conversation
addressing areas of need
Loft Guide
Lesson Plans
Team dynamic does
or does not change
Learner Actions:
Identify areas
of need for
improvement
Reach out to
Studio Leads
Encounter
Lesson Plans
Teach Lessons
Feedback from
Studio Leads,
Revise
---Line of Interaction-------------------------------------------------------------------
Talk with
Studio Leads
about the role
of a Team Lead
Attend threehour Team
Lead training
session
Run team
meetings and
progress
through the
design process
Team does not
perform to
expectations
Front Stage:
Studio leads
and DFA
National
connect Team
Lead to Lesson
Plans
Identify which
lesson is
warranted and
read Lesson
Plan
---Line of Visibility-------------------------------------------------------------------Back Stage
Studio Leads
decide who is
most fit for the
role of Team Lead
Studio Leads
match co-leads to
each other, to
their team
members, and to
their projects
Former Team
Leads train new
Team Leads on
the implementing
the design
process and the
pitfalls of
managing a team
---Internal Interaction-----------------------------------------------------------------
Team Leads try to
compensate by
taking on heavier
workloads to
meet client
expectations
Someone brings
the issue to the
attention of the
Studio Leads,
who contact DFA
National for
resources
DFA National
accesses the
appropriate
Lesson Plan and
forwards it to the
appropriate party
Team Lead
decides when to
incorporate the
lesson into team
meeting
Studio Leads consider
personality matches
and proven success
User test training session to ensure all
key takeaways are effectively
conveyed before new Team Leads
begin the design process
Active two-way communication between team members and team
leads, team leads and studio leads, and studio leads and DFA National
User test to ensure Lesson Plans
have consistently positive results
DFA Team Leads will be able to access these guides on the Loft on an as-needed basis in order to address what they feel their team is struggling most
with. These guides lead them through the facilitation of short activities to do during team meetings. There is no specified timeline or order of
operations between these lesson plans and any subsequent lesson plans as they each address needs which will vary by team and project.
Where: Each lesson plan has a specific and purposeful learning goal and a step-by-step process in consideration of limited prior leadership
experience.
Hook: The activities are fun, provocative, and relevant to the DFA team experience.
Equip: Each activity is interactive and with examples provided by the Team Lead and available on the worksheet.
Reflect, Rethink, and Revise: Each task offers connections to external applications in team improvement and general self-improvement.
Lesson Plan 1.0
*this is an extra lesson plan that we will not use for this project, but will be useful for Julian
Lesson Plan 1.0: Facilitating Progress
This Lesson Plan is Designed to help Team Leads facilitate progress for their Team Members:
Our facilitating progress guide is intended for use by Team Leads toward the goal of facilitating progress from one meeting to the next. We aim to
accomplish this goal through lesson plans which teach Team Leads how to structure a meeting. This first lesson plan lays out the meeting template.
The subsequent appendixes offer activities designed to help Team Leads address specific areas of need in their teams.
Our lesson plan is a Guide for Team Leads to use as they work with their Team Members during team meetings
Our Guide will:
-
Help team leads motivate TM’s and prevent burnout
Learn to inspire and lead through personal example, narrative, and powerful questions
Learn when to speak up/critique and when to allow TM’s to speak
Promote an environment in which idea sharing is common
Help set goals at the end of meetings
Learn to delegate tasks
Ensure that TM’s are happy and satisfied with their work
Provide valuable feedback
Structure of Team Meeting:
-
Daily Stand
-
-
Make rounds for sharing individual contributions/individual presentations (research on clients, users, new ideas, etc.)
Discussion (brainstorming, TM critiques)
Team Lead offers critiques and feedback to the path of the entire team
Open Time (can use time to use any appendix guide: creativity guide, motivation guide, conflict guide) This open time will be accounted for
by subsequent lesson plans 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 in PowerPoint activity format, each meant to address a separate issue Team Leads may be
facing in their teams. These guides will be assessable via the Loft for Team Leads to choose from as needed to incorporate into various
meetings throughout the term.
Discuss goals to be done by next week, delegation of tasks
Dismissed (fun team-building or trust-building games)
Sample Motivation Appendix Guide:
-
Remind of the goals set in the Team Charter
Connect actions and jobs to personal passions and goals after personal assessment
Revise work to align with personal passions and goals
Speech and talk about personal accountability to the Team (piece of the larger puzzle)
Personal Feedback and personal challenge from Team Lead
Leading through Narrative of others who succeeded or company legends
Ask powerful questions to simplify problems and make complicated questions easy to understand
Demonstrate resilience through personal experience and example
Emphasize that good teams can accomplish more than its individual parts, show the overall end-product to temp Team Members
Use friendly competition and incentive system to demand excellence
Have team members do something fun: “do each other’s work for one week/day” to distress and change things up
Lesson Plans (All 4 on Loft)
Appendix 1
DFA Leadership Model scoping notes
Introduction/Background:
Personal growth within the context of DFA can be broken down into four categories: “Envision” – the strategic and abstract thinking process utilized by
studio leads to determine the direction they want their studio to go into the future; “Manage” – the organizational thought process utilized by team leads to
inspire team cohesiveness, and hold team members accountable; “Mentor” – the guiding principles which serve to motivate and develop mentees; and
“Do” – the most fundamental and tactile actions through which one learns the design process and personally develops oneself.
Furthermore, there are 3 ways of developing an understanding leadership: the “what”, “how”, and “why”. Each is crucial to the end goal of the leadership
training guide.
Each context exists at each level of the organization.
1. “Do” - Personal Leadership – Building Character, Developing Oneself
Personal leadership is the first, essential step toward organizational effectiveness. This is where character is built and core values of the individual are
established. If there are character flaws in the leader, it will be difficult for the members of the organization to trust and follow that leader to greater levels
of effectiveness and productivity in the organization. Character traits such as integrity, honesty and trustworthiness are essential to building trust with
fellow team members.
In user testing, we will “card sort” terms like driven, trustworthy, dependable, curious, perseverance, openness, and integrity to determine what is most
fundamental in growing as a doer.
2. “Mentor” - One-on-One Leadership – Building Trust, Developing Relationships
Without the personal integrity of trustworthiness, we cannot be effective at the next level, One-on-One Leadership, where trust is built. Trust and
interpersonal relationships are built on the inner core of trustworthiness and personal integrity. If people do not see you consistently demonstrating your
trustworthiness, you can forget any hope of being trusted.
In user testing, we will “card sort” terms like empowering, communicative, experience, two-way feedback, diplomacy, empathy, appreciation, and
perspective to determine what is most fundamental in growing as a mentor.
2a. “Manage” - Team Leadership – Building Community, Developing a Team
The next level is Team Leadership with a desired outcome of community. Covey labeled this the managerial level where empowerment takes
place. Again, if the leader has not demonstrated competency at the two previous stages, he or she cannot effectively empower others and community will
not be built. Obviously, a leader will not empower someone he or she does not trust. By like sign, followers will not feel comfortable with their empowered
responsibility if they do not feel they can trust their leaders to back them up, support them, and encourage them to succeed.
In user testing, we will “card sort” terms like action-oriented, decisive, motivational, risk-assumptive, confidence, conflict management, and empowering to
determine what is most fundamental in growing as a manager.
4. “Envision” – Studio Leadership – Building an Organization, Developing a Vision
The final stage of leadership is at the organizational level that seeks a desired outcome of effectiveness through alignment. Alignment includes being sure
the organization is moving in the right direction to meet its stated purpose and goals as well as the alignment of individual and team goals with the broader
goals of the organization. Leaders often want to take a shortcut to increase organizational effectiveness, but the leadership road is one-way only and to get
to this level, you must build on the previous three levels.
In user testing, we will “card sort” terms like forward-thinking, ethical, creative, flexible, client relationships, experience, devotion, and product knowledge
to determine what is most fundamental in growing as a visionary leader.
Goals
Our team will focus our project with the objective of identifying what steps Team Leaders should complete in order to fully understand the leadership skills
of “manage”. We will identify the steps through expert review (TL interviews), user tests (card-sorting exercises), and research of DFA leaders as well as
other leadership development programs. The existing DFA TL training only addresses the “what” of their responsibilities. Once a full ladder of objectives
have been constructed, our team will work on the “how” to get from one step on the ladder to the next. Our team will develop 2 lesson plans (20-minute
training sessions) designed to address the two most highly prioritized issues plaguing DFA TL’s.
The end goal is for users (Team Leaders) to receive a Loft guide in order to gain a firm understanding of “manage” and “envision” skills within the TL
category of leadership.
Tangible End Products
Create a Loft studio guide that contains: 1) Content addressing “manage” toward the goal of motivating a team 2). A brainstorming session which facilitates
a design vision. Deliver our research to our client so that he can understand where we got our charts and steps from and why we chose them. If time
permits, develop further lesson plans on a few steps within the “envision”, “manage”, “mentor”, and “do” categories of Team Leader development so that
users across multiple studios can access each individual guide as needed.
Within each of the “Envision”, “Manage”, “Mentor”, and “Do” there are certain more fundamental requirements which must be met before mastery of any
one can be achieved. For example, without a desire to learn and a welcoming DFA community, a new team member will likely not feel connected enough
to complete the tasks assigned to him/her. Without feedback and encouragement and this sense of belonging, his/her creative flower may wilt. But if that
creative flower is to blossom, then it may very well design something practical and beautiful. The same principle applies in the cases of designing a studio
vision, empowering a team, and engaging a mentee. As figure 1 suggests, in our model, one must first be a competent doer to be a competent mentor, a
competent mentor to be a competent manager, and competent manager to be a competent visionary. However, there is always room for growth on each
level and there is a constant cycle of self-improvement.
Appendix 2
Where we fit in the grand DFA plan
We will be providing the leadership training for Team Leads seen in the red circle
Appendix 3
Initial expert review notes on areas of need
Leadership Studio 2014:
Leadership Discussion Notes
What things do you struggle with most as leaders in DFA?




Communication
o Interaction level between studio leads and project leads
o How do you stay up-to-date with teams and each other?
o What’s the most effective way to communicate between team leads and studio leads?
 Big lack of communication between studio leads
 Communication has been hard with so many different schedules, midterms—after we broke meeting once, it was hard to jump back and
broke off fully, tried town hall but didn’t work
 Studio leads not communicating much with teams – project teams get stuck in identify step and didn’t get anywhere, felt really frustrated
o Gaps: better identifying studio needs and focusing on them, not spreading self too thin, better needs finding – asking studio members and hone in
on what you accomplished
Transitions/institutional memory
o How to best transition and pass on past information
 Also, what to do when person comes back (ex: if you study abroad, do you get your position back when you return?)
o Where to store files from past years
o Effective ways to fill gaps in leadership—how to deal with gaps in structure
o Managing what happens when team leads quit (“our team fell apart”)
o Very little documentation in place right now—need to make knowledge transfer smoother (Ex: Cornell made a Constitution documenting things
like “creating a budget”, Brandon made 2-page document with notes to person transitioning into leadership position)
 Would be helpful to create a snapshot of a studio in one document
 Helpful to have people transitioning lead with you
o They feel that the process guide is too long to read, want an abridged version—excited about Loft helping allow for quick access to these trainings
Goal setting – “A big problem is that teams lose focus and don’t become task-oriented. We need to be held accountable for goals.”
o Currently we have teams say two goals each week at their meeting
o YouTube not successful, tried Tumblr pages
o Haven’t written down goals, verbally present 2 goals
o Some teams view Loft as another task they need to do
Management & Decision-Making



o Making sure that members aren’t resentful of leadership decisions
o Managing top-down vs. flat structure
o What’s too much experimentation? How many tries can you give a team at a time?
o Working with different leadership styles
o How to teach both leadership and design
Conflict Management
o How to handle conflict between team members
o How accommodating leaders should be of member requests
Team Roles
o Having more defined roles vs. general studio leads
o What do you do with people who want to be in leadership positions but aren’t the right fit—avoiding resume builders
o How much autonomy project leads should have?
o Hard to define clear roles
 Barnard/Columbia created more formal roles to help solve this problem (Roles: “professional outreach”, “education curriculum”,
“finance”, “morale/events”, “co-presidents”) – gave roles with specific tasks that people can apply for [Note: interview to see how worked
and use as example]
o Defining rising leaders
Passion/motivation
o How do you make people care who do not feel as passionate?
 Could be addressed with roles, goals, fitting people on the right kind of project?
Appendix 4
Each Step in a DFA project
Before Project
understand self- your strengths and weaknesses
understand your team and organization culture- democratic structure
picking your team
Team Charter
communication
accountability
expectations
goals- team vision
Design Process
meet with client
Learn to foster creativity
Ask powerful questions
be aware of change
Remembering positives from the past
Running a Meeting
Time management- time-boxing, the daily stand
construct meaning
Communication skills- set up a team charter
Understand group dynamics- manage meetings, manage projects
Learning to listen
Stay focused
Managing conflict
Managing your own work
understand your strengths
personal health -mental and emotional and physical
measure your own progress
Review of Progress
Keep people motivated
deal with high turnover- learn how to work with new members
Learn how to deal with power (no structure)
Expert review and user tests
Reviewing of Results
Learn how to use results and learn from mistakes and successes
teach others to pass on knowledge
Make Changes for the Future
look at results and make changes for the future
Plan for change in the future