Research Plan

Title: Task management


Topic Area: User methods on task management

Frame Your Problem

Stakeholders - IIT managing staff and/or faculty

Objectives 
• Identify how (and why) people organize the way they do.
• Identify what people want from a task management app.
• Identify user reactions to timetraxx's idea and features.

Research Questions

• What does a person (dis)like about their current task management style?
• What parts of task management are easy/difficult?
• If they have not searched for a task mgmt solution online, why not?
• How much benefit would timetraxx give if they could use it?
• What would be the ideal task management service/app?

Research Methods:

• Interview participants with the above questions
• If a participant is willing, have participant self-document his/her "tasking" to primarily find out inefficiencies/difficulties in the process

Use of Time Management Utilities

Reasons for use of different Time Management Services and Techniques

Stakeholders: 

Busy Individuals, Friends, Coworkers, Employees, Students, Superiors, Subordinates, Business Ownership.

Objectives:

Identify reasons for the use of certain time management techniques or services to get to the center of why busy individuals find themselves unable to correctly organize their thoughts and responsibilities in order to build a services that caters to the real needs of these same people, so that they will continue to use the service rather than falling back into old habits.

Research Questions:

Why do those studied use certain techniques or services?

What makes time management difficult?

What features would ease the use of time management software?

Why do those studied not use certain software or services to help with time management?

Research Methods:

Identify what techniques, services, or lack thereof participants currently use.

Find themes or common occurrences and identify similarities.

Ask participants what they like about the time management system they currently use.

Ask participants what they would improve about their current time management system.

Ask participants what their ideal services would be like.

Explore what issues their past time management systems have had.

Identify reasons for lack of use for certain products or services.

Decision-Making Ability Quiz

I was scored as a 58/90 in this decision making scorecard, which was in the second of three possible groups, indicating that my decision making skills are average, but could be improved.

Your decision-making process is OK. You have a good understanding of the basics, but now you need to improve your process and be more proactive. Concentrate on finding lots of options and discovering as many risks and consequences as you can. The better your analysis, the better your decision will be in the long term. Focus specifically on the areas where you lost points, and develop a system that will work for you across a wide variety of situations.

 The biggest amount of slack came from the section of the decision making process that revolved around creating a good decision making environment. I learned that I need to focus on the lead-up to a decision, possibly more than on the decision itself.