However, throughout this course I kept another aspect in mind: how would I possibly teach this course myself? For one, it seems impossible to discover a thesis topic, yet alone lean on expert advice when every other topic is calling for the same attention. To reflect on my experience in this course, I learned much more about the process of exploring a topic equally as much as I gained more experience into researching methods.

I also discovered the obvious. When researching and analyzing existing theses and peer topics (evolving), that a majority of topics all related to the same or a combination of the same core topics: education, technology, social issues, collaboration, communication or methodology. I know, duh. However, it’s easy to get too submersed in our own topic, spin our wheels, become frustrated and feel that we have nothing significant to investigate while others are doing the same thing. Therefore, I soon learned to remain persistent and not to allow myself to become overly-emphatic about defending my topic. It’s a fine line with being passionate while remaining open to outside perspective– that much, I’m familiar with. What I’m not completely satisfied with is the breadth of my topic… then again, I have time to investigate after the quarter.

Ideas

1. Collaboration Center Sessions

Audio
I love the encouragement for audio feedback during a peer presentation. At some point, I could see making this mandatory, yet I realize that the technology quirks can ruin the mood. Faulty connections are bound to occur, but I love hearing a voice.

Comment Flow
Perhaps, if there’s a need to have better flow, we could take advantage of the icon list at the top for “Raise Hand” or “Ask a Question.” These features have been rarely utilized with past courses, but provide structure and expectations in order to avoid audio interruptions or massive commenting.

Time Limit
Limit the Collaboration Center session to 1 hour or instead, establish a 15-30 minute break in between long sessions. Holding everyone to 5-10 minutes for Q&A with a single objective in mind might also help stimulate engagement or pace. A single objective might help to create expectations for what to comment on. If the session goes over the 1 hour limit, we could have the option to leave the session.

2. Blogs: Sense of Community

I love the blogs, but I often think that there’s a disconnect or an unnecessary repetition of having to post to the blog and post to the discussion board. Pairing us in different teams to comment on the discussion or blog, might help to create a sense of community throughout the units. At some point I could see how changing teams would help to diversify interests and lend as a refreshing change.

3. Deadlines

Perhaps address a deadline (Thursday or Friday) for posting comments to the discussion board, rather than by end of unit. Although, I do love this type of flexibility, I find myself commenting later-than expected or worse, receiving no feedback at all.

4. Concept Map Collaboration

Create a discussion post early in the course that focuses on 3 student thesis topics and their concept maps in PDF format. Since we’re all visual people, have peers comment on each student thesis topic, by adding PDF notes to the concept map. This could help to encourage branching out the concept map or to narrow the focus of the thesis topic.

5. Reading

It might help (as a motivational factor) to have required discussions on the research methods over the duration of the course. The primary resource hunt was challenging, yet rewarding since I gained a better idea of how to tap into different resources.

A fundamental approach to collaboration dynamics and connecting graphic design and statistical research visual models.

Video redirected to Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/61502582

Multi-disciplinary design thinking is the current standard of graphic design collaboration for intensive, large-scope projects. However, professionals from varied design fields generate solutions using different visual tools outside of multi-disciplinary collaboration. Developing universal visual tools that are understood by all design professionals will efficiently and effectively facilitate multi-disciplinary collaboration.

Outline

I. Overview of Design Thinking (Brown)
A. Components of a Design Thinking Team (Golsby-Smith)
B. Interdisciplinary Design in Education and Business (Boylston, IDEO, Martin, Stanford)
1. Multi-disciplinary Design Thinking

II. Understanding Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration
A. Distinguishing Complexities (Conklin)
1. Social Complexities
2. Technical Complexities
B. Communication Terminology Between Disciplines
C. Learning Styles Shape Individual Decisions
1. Different Meanings, Uses, Values (Sternberg)
2. Behavior & Communication Apprehension (Russ)
D. Problem-Solving: Simple Problems vs. Wicked Problems
1. Breaking a Complex System Into Smaller Problems
2. Understanding a Wicked Problem Due To Problem-Solutions

IV. Building Collaboration & Motivation
A. Team Goals, Expectations, Values & Competencies (Camillus)
B. Thinking Creatively Within the Rules (Kahdemian)
C. Gathering & Organizing Input
1. Internal & External Input: Stakeholders & Team Participants (Citera)
2. Knowledge vs. Information (Khademian)
B. Visualizing Roles & Strategies (Fink, Galvin, Khademian)

V. Identifying Existing Design-Related Visual Models
A. Problem-Solving Visual Models (Bagnall, Beinhocker, Dubberly, Visocky)
1. Flow Charts, Graphs, Information Literacy Models, Iterative Design Models,
Mind Maps, Pie Charts, Psychographics, Qualitative & Quantitative Models,
Sketches, Storyboards, Task Analysis, Word Lists, etc.
B. Contextual Design Models (Holzblatt)
1. Five Work Models: Flow, Cultural, Sequence, Physical, Artifact
C. Creating, Interpreting and Relaying Models During Collaboration

IV. Conclusion
A. Understanding Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration
B. Building Collaboration & Motivation
C. Exploring Visual Models & Making Connections
Toward Developing Universal Visual Tools

Working Bibliography

Antonakis, John, Marika Fenley, and Sue Liechti. Learning Charisma: Transform Yourself Into The Person Others Want To Follow. Harvard Business Review. June 2012. PDF. http://web.ebscohost.com

Beinhocker, E. The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics. Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 44, No. 4. Harvard Business School Press. Dec 2006. pp. 1018-1031. JSTOR.org. PDF. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30032395

Brown, Tim. Change By Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. HarperCollins Publishers: New York. 2009. 264.

Buchanan, Richard. Wicked Problems in Design Thinking. Design Issues, Vol. 8, No. 2. MIT Press. PDF. 1992. pp. 5-21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511637?origin=JSTOR-pdf

Camillus, John C. Strategy As A Wicked Problem. Harvard Business Review. May 2008. PDF. http://web.ebscohost.com

Carr, Sean D. , Amy Halliday, Andrew C. King, Jeanne Liedtka and Thomas Lockwood. The Influence of Design Thinking in Business: Some Preliminary Observations. The Design Management Institute. Rev. 21, No. 3. 2010. p. 58-63

Citera, Maryalice and Michael D. McNeese, Clifford E. Brown, Jonathan A. Selvaraj, Brian S. Zaff and Randall D. Whitaker. Fitting Information Systems to Collaborating Design Teams. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Vol. 46, No. 7. 1995. pp. 551-559.

Conklin, Jeff. Wicked Problems and Social Complexity. Wiley, 2005. CogNexus Institute. Rev. Oct 2008. http://www.cognexus.org/id42.htm

Fink, Sharon Birkman. Encourage Engagement For Accountability. Industiral Management. July 2012. Vol. 54, Issue 4. pp. 24-47. PDF. http://web.ebscohost.com

Golsby-Smith, Tony. Fourth Order Design: A Practical Perspective. Design Issues, Vol. 12, No. 1. MIT Press. PDF. 1996. pp. 5-25. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511742?origin=JSTOR-pdf

Grousbeck, H. Irving. When Key Employees Clash. Harvard Business Review. Jun2012, Vol. 90 Issue 6, p135-139. PDF. http://web.ebscohost.com

Holzblatt, Karen, and Hugh R. Beyer. Contextual Design. In: Soegaard, Mads and Dam, Rikke Friis (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction. Aarhus, Denmark: Interaction Design Foundation. 2011. http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/contextual_design.html

Khademian, Anne M. and Edward P. Weber. Wicked Problems, Knowledge Challenges and Collaborative Capacity Builders in Network Settings. Public Administration Review. Mar 2008. Vol. 68, Issue 2. PDF. pp. 334-349. http://web.ebscohost.com

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Design Thinking About Sustainability. MIT Sloan, Management Review. 30 Sept. 2009. Web. http://sloanreview.mit.edu/improvisations/2009/09/30/design-thinking-about-sustainability/#.UGToyt2u9gs

Russ, Travis L. The Relationship Between Communication Apprehension and Learning Preferences In An Organizational Setting. Journal of Business Communication. Oct 2012. Vol. 49, Issue 4. p312-331. PDF. http://web.ebscohost.com

Sternberg, Robert J., and Li-fang Zhang. Styles of Thinking as a Basis of Differentiated Instruction. Theory Into Practice. Summer 2005. Vol. 44, Issue 3. pp. 245-253. http://web.ebscohost.com

Visocky O’Grady, Jenn and Ken. A Designer’s Research Manual– Succeed In Design By Knowing Your Clients and What They Really Need. Rockport Publishers. Print. 2006.

Pre-preparation, Questions, Process, Flow, Pace and Finish

Top Interviewee
Robert Ireland
EVP, Managing Creative Director
Sharp Communications
415 Madison Avenue
New York, NY

Interview Pre-Preparation
I genuinely lucked out when I heard back from one of my top five interviewee candidates immediately. However, my first step was emailing five candidates two weeks ahead of time, prior to Thursday. Therefore, while I kept tabs on other interview candidates, I began to script twelve to fifteen questions with my first interviewee in mind.

Formulating Questions
I needed to fill 30 minutes of interview time, and began to pair down my initial set of questions to the top seven or eight. I then rewrote my final questions to avoid technical jargon, taking into account not to overwhelm or bore my interviewee. The last thing that I wanted to do is seem uninteresting, yet I also needed to balance topics in relation to collaboration (a rather broad topic, as is). In doing so, I considered key topics: personality conflicts, collaboration models, rewarding moments, team dysfunction, etc. I wanted to cover a broad range of topics in order to allow flexibility during engagement. If one particular topic wasn’t explored in great depth, I could easily switch the conversation to another topic. After all, I had no way of knowing if there would be synergy between me and the interviewee.

Preparation & Plan B
In case the interview was heading toward a direction that I would not know how to reign in, I decided to have a few things in place in order to access immediately:

1. Internet access
2. Mind Map of many topics
3. Thesis statement
4. Technical definitions
5. Articles in relation to collaboration

I could feel less anxious if I sensed that the interviewee was bored, irritated, distracted or disengaged. What I’ve learned from past interview experience, is that it never hurts to be over-prepared.

Interview Process
During brief, yet formal introductions, I asked my interviewee what name they preferred to go by. After introductions were made, I then explained, “Let me give you a background about why I’ve decided to pursue team dynamics during collaboration.” I explained that “team dynamics” may include: technical language, information vs. knowledge, sharing, valuing, perceiving and interpreting information and working with different personalities or behaviors. I then introduced my audience as first-to-five year professional graphic designers and explained how I’ve decided to explore the gray areas between visual learning and verbal learning during collaboration. At this point in the interview, I spent one full minute explaining the context of the interview. This helped to provide the interviewee with what to anticipate, before the discussion began.

I prefaced my first question, “Well, I’m just going to dive right in,” in order to set an informal tone to help ease the transition of formal introductions. My first question was the easiest because it was the most broad and general in terms of any business environment:

1. What components of team dynamics are the most or least critical when determining the success of collaboration?

The interview started fluidly and I could tell that my interviewee was highly versed in the interview process. In doing so, I wanted to make the most of my time by listening, while being sensitive to the pace and flow of the conversation. As the interview progressed, I realized that by the end of the third question, there may have been a slight disconnect in the flow of the interview. I likely may have been listening and taking notes too intently. Instead, I resorted to a question that was not on my top list, switching to a question that refocused the interview back to a casual setting, by asking:

4. What has been the most rewarding project that you can recall, within the past year?

The interview was re-energized and my interviewee’s tone became much more candid and I started to realize the dynamic – I’m asking a highly creative person to spill their beans about something that’s very personal to them. In doing so, we reached of moment of laughter and comparing notes about the collaboration process with “difficult situations” or more specifically, working with outside vendors. We discussed what it’s like when we realize that we’ve overlooked a minor detail that happens to have larger-than-life consequences. At this moment in the conversation, I was eager to keep the conversation alive, while revisiting my list of more challenging questions.

In The End
Keep in mind, I’m talking to the creative director of a NY firm – time is short. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to land the interview and was reassured about the nature of business versus academia. In business, there is little to no time to evaluate everything, and instead instinct (gut feeling), pressure, stress and scrambling are normal conditions. However, my interviewee commented that “it’s good for me to do this on occasion, as I need to keep my mind active outside of work as well.” Last, but not least, my final question was to ask about arranging another interview, to which my interviewee happily agreed.

Having read “The Craft of Research,” I concluded that this exercise was a test about attention to details. Page 70 and 71 mention, “planning your search” and I immediately honed the advice of the authors (two of whom are deceased, yet were obviously highly touted). Take note of the page prior to the Contents page. Research with a research book! Anyway, Page 71 states, “If you’re too shy or proud to ask questions in person, email them (the librarian).” I wasn’t too shy, nor proud, yet more concerned about my use of time. Why waste time going to the library or randomly searching online? I have an expert within reach of a single email response – whom would likely love to help out. So I emailed.

After emailing a librarian, I received a response just shy of fours hours from this morning. I was provided a PDF attachment article about a Matisse exhibition, as well as the following reply:

“Matt -

Interesting topic.  It could be a little challenging finding print works locally because of the date range you are looking at.  Our library has very few monographs from that era, yet we do have several periodical titles from the time. A surprisingly quick search through Reader’s Guide only offered a single article on Matisse from “The Nation”, and it was actually published in 1910, prior to your desired date range.

As an alternative, I’d suggest looking at the New York Times archives.  The Times covered art and culture fairly extensively in that time period, and there appear to be quite a few articles on Matisse (see attached file for an example).  The archives are available online for that era, viewable in pdf format.  To see the search results I worked with use the following url: http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=s&daterange=period&query=matisse&srchst=p&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&hdlquery=&bylquery=&mon1=01&day1=18&year1=1911&mon2=12&day2=31&year2=1913

Hopefully this might find you the type of information you seek.  If you need more, could you tell me a little more about the exhibition, the building where it took place, sponsoring organization, other artists involved, etc?  Additional information may assist me in finding more for you.”

I then took action by searching the NY Times Archive, 1851-1980. My first search was a combination of keywords: “Henri Matisse” and “gallery” and “Modernism” and “Modernist,” set to search from January 1, 1911 to December 31, 1911. I then started to download each PDF that was somewhat in the ballpark of my keywords. All in all, I had about six articles. I then proceeded to add PDF notes everytime I scanned and saw the word “Matisse,” to serve as a visual indicator. I also discovered that not all PDFs would convert to OCR, hence the reason that I used notes.

After examining a few articles, I refined my keyword list and did a re-search (ahhh, that’s where the term derives from, duh). I realized that if Matisse had a showing in 1911, that during this era, it could have been advertised in late 1910 just before January, 1911. I tweaked the date range to January, 1910 and instead, added “291″ and “Fifth Street Avenue” to the set of keywords. I had a hunch that these keywords could help, since I came across a hint from another source. Within another article there is mention of “291 and the 1913 Armory Show.”

However, another article by Gelett Burgress, lists the address “291 Fifth Street Avenue” which was the location for the Photo Impression Gallery, known for holding painting exhibits. I knew that Stieglitz had photographed some of Matisse’s earlier works before 1911, so I tried yet another search and instead expanded the timeline, to search from 1900 to 1911.

Right now, I have a 1908 and a 1912 article that profile a Matisse exhibit. However, the 1908 article exhibit took place in Paris at the Salon d’Automne, while the 1912 article refers to an exhibit in New York City. Therefore, I’m not quite content with my findings… but I think that I’m getting very close.

Dynamic, multi-disciplinary design thinking is the current standard of graphic design collaboration. Teams may consist of graphic designers, scientists, sociologists, engineers and programmers working together toward large scope project goals. Teams research and conceptualize solutions to empathetically reach a specific demographic; yet first-year graphic design professionals are not formally trained to comprehensively understand how people think, interpret and value information during collaboration. As predominant visual learners, a user-centered system that enables graphic designers to create, track, compare and connect team dynamic components will improve team and self-awareness when alternating between multi-disciplinary teams.

“Team Dynamics”

May include: Collaboration or interaction, interpretation, evaluation, valuing, information vs. knowledge, personalities, environment, incentives, team size, culture, etc.

Interview Candidates

Bernard Canniffe
Professor and Chair,
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
MFA, Savannah College of Art and Design

Bernard Canniffe is the former co-chair of design at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he collaborated with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health on the MICA/JHU Design Coalition, which paired students with neighborhood groups to create meaningful, powerful messages on health and wellness topics. Canniffe’s work has been recognized in Graphic Design USA, How, and Step Inside Design. And through his own practice, Blue Collar Theory, he has made presentations at the Cumulus Design Conference in Portugal, the National Institute of Design Conference in India, Willem de Kooning Academie in the Netherlands, Lees-McRae College in North Carolina, and the P&D Design Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Bob Ireland
EVP Creative Director,
Sharp Think Communications

Bob Ireland spearheads all advertising, graphic design, digital development and corporate identity work for all of our clients across the board. He is very much front and center at the proverbial (he loves that word) strategy table, challenging the Account teams to be as single-minded and end-benefit oriented as possible. You see, he does not believe in “creative for creative’s sake”; rather he strives for work which will spark an emotion inside someone, to get him or her to think, look and react at an idea differently. He wants a rise (in the best sense of the word) out of people, clients and peers. If he doesn’t get one, then the work (in his eyes) has not been a success, whether it was tagline, logo, video concept, event installation or whatever challenge he has been tasked to tackle.

Louis Baker
Professor,
Savannah College of Art and Design

Responsible for developing and nurturing numerous partnerships with corporations and non-profit organizations that have led to the endowment of scholarships, internships, endorsements and real-world work experience for his students; art directed eight winning poster designs for the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf Tournament; co-owner, creative director and editor of SmART-Report.com, a website created to inform and educate professional and aspiring artists and designers about the latest news and emerging trends in the creative fields of art and design

Jamie Massey
Art Director,
Turnpost Creative Group

Turnpost is a creative direction firm specializing in the design and production of materials and media for advertising, marketing and corporate communications. Our services include strategic marketing, design, development and fulfillment of corporate identity systems, brand awareness campaigns, collateral materials, trade and event promotion, web design and development, multimedia, media planning, public relations, broadcast production and product packaging.

Questions

1. Other than experience, skill level or talent, what characteristics of team collaboration (e.g.: personality types, team size, interpretation, diplomacy or environment) are the most critical when agreeing upon large scope project goals?

2. Which characteristics of dysfunctional team collaboration in a small or large team, are generally viewed as the most common problems?

3. How would you manage creative differences during any stage of collaboration, no matter how large or small the size of the team?

4. Would a graphic designer with 1-to-5 years of industry experience, benefit from visually evaluating, tracking and connecting their individual team dynamic for the sake of future team collaborations?

5. If a visual system enabled individuals to create, interpret, track, change and evaluate other team member dynamics, is it possible to surface issues that are otherwise not fully understood nor addressed?

6. How often is an outside perspective of inside creativity needed when determining successful or dysfunctional team dynamics?

7. Could visually tracking, evaluating and analyzing visual results of team dynamics help inform new management, interaction with foreign cultures, or when needing to diversify team membership for project-specific needs?

Originally, I wanted to test Zotero, since we have a subscription through our library. However, I researched other options and found that Mendeley was pretty savvy, given that it seemed to offer a little more flexibility compared to many of my peer Zotero reviews. Another factor (hell, I am a designer after all) was that I found Mendeley’s site design a little more contemporary than the other options. Its home page content (such as the intro video) matched my expectations for wanting a quick demo of its features. It also offers an iPhone app for syncing files to my account on the go and supports 30 academic databases, including those that I frequent the most: JStor, EBSCO, Google Scholar and ACM Portal.

Mendeley’s 30 Academic Database Support List

Like Zotero, Mendeley offers tags, groups, a web importer and email option to send references. Mendeley will also import a bookmark (and PDF if available) while taking a snapshot of the web page. It also provides “popular articles” that match imported articles once you have installed the Mendeley desktop application to your computer(s). Therefore, I already succeeded in multiplying my existing number of references, ten fold. However, I will certainly need to dive into my collection and thin out what isn’t deemed relevant to my topic (in due time).

Lastly, I have two other techniques that I plan on using for research. First, I plan browse and select and relevant bookmarks from my Delicious account that I’ve accrued from the Fall 2011, and import these into Mendeley. Secondly, I’ve dedicated a “Thesis” folder on my Dropbox account in order to sync to and from all devices (if Mendeley fails) and for the sake of archiving. Not a bad idea, considering that I just realized I use 5 computers: 2 office computers, 1 laptop, 1 home office computer and an iPhone. I’ve learned that I need to be better prepared if another emergency hospital trip should ever arrive again… and that Wi-Fi is another issue.

What exactly does this mean? I spent at least two hours exploring keywords and categories to get a better understanding of what comprised of “team dynamics” from past research and experience (combined). Such insights also helped to address Clark’s set of questions in Chapter 3, as follows:

1. What is already known about this topic?

Topic: Team Dynamics. I addressed this question by first outlining any or all keywords and placing each into categories (Thesis Word List). This enabled me to frame my topic a little better insight to determine what I could expand upon. One peer’s reaction to my topic was, “This seems to be leaning more toward sociology than it is design.” I would completely agree, however allow me to frame my topic within its context, as addressed in the next set of questions…

2. What would someone in the field like to investigate further?

In the field of graphic design, team dynamics is an essential component for the sake of feedback, stimulation, expansion, sharing of knowledge and the potential to discover innovative solutions. Let’s face it, without one another, we are left creating similar results over and over – perhaps, without ever realizing it for ourselves. Another aspect of team dynamics in the field of sociology is that graphic designers are not trained to deal with internal, social dysfunction. While we are often analyzing external factors of social, cultural and communicative components, we often overlook our own internal deficiencies. However, we damn well complain about these to the point of exhaustion or changing career paths. The cliché has been placed before us: artists and designers aren’t always easy to “get along with.” Why is that?

Team dynamics applies to just about any and every professional field as well. My focus, however, is to dissect what makes team dynamics successful within a creative, graphic design (thinking) team. On the surface, I’m wanting to explore more into the personalities that make up a creative persona. Equally so, how these personalities need to coexist amongst personas of an opposite caliber – primarily, management lacking a creative background, facilitators that are power-hungry or over-competitive colleagues that risk everything to fulfill their own agenda. These personas could be considered more problematic than the “misunderstood artist.”

3. What question can I ask that will lead me to find out more about this topic?

Intangible components, such as: learning styles, valuing or interpreting information, personality traits, experience, open-mindedness and willingness to collaborate; are rarely tracked during the process of collaboration. Wanting to know more about these components inspires me to find out how each can build successful, functional team dynamics.

Another way to look at it is, because others agree that they experience successful collaboration within a team, doesn’t exactly mean that they know why each individual is successful. The same could be said for dysfunctional dynamics. How are functional or dysfunctional team dynamics proven? What good would become of finding a means of restricting or minimizing these types of barriers in order to nurture progression?

One peer addressed this stereotype during our discussion as a basis for her own topic: discovering how others perceive graphic designers and the challenges of bringing awareness to what a designer does (and thinks). I think about this in terms of designers collaborating with other designers, as it’s assumed that just because you are creative that there is a natural relationship in place.

4. What method can I use to find an answer to this question?

A few dominant corporations come to mind when wanting to know more about their own team dynamics: Google, Apple and IDEO. What do all three have in common? Each has experienced and created innovative solutions based upon diverse, team dynamics. Another method is exploring articles from design thinking experts, such as: Tim Brown, Jeff Conklin, Roger Martin, John Camillus and Hugh Dubberly. While I have read many articles leading up to my topic, I may benefit looking at sociological leaders and articles too. Another idea, would be to conduct my own research with a team that has little or no experience working with one another, as opposed to a team that is all too familiar with each other (iterative).

Finding existing surveys or data about team dynamics is a must, yet finding how to expand upon such data will be a time-intensive exploration. I think that all in all, what I’m really after is harmony. I can’t expect to solve team dysfunctionality, as I don’t believe that there is an all-in-one solution. There are experts for “fixing” these problems. What I can expect to achieve is getting a better idea of what contributes toward functional dynamics versus knowing (through experience) what contributes toward dysfunctional dynamics. My own biases will definitely need to also be outlined and kept at close distance throughout my exploration process.