Form a team around a general topic everyone is passionate about. Come up with a working project name. Ask Code for Orlando leadership to set up a Github repository for your project within the Code for Orlando organization.
Keep the team organized and track progress from the very beginning. Take notes during meetings. Markdown files are text files written with markdown syntax and tend to have a .md extension. We recommend using markdown files in Github to document meetings.
Get to know the people you're designing with. Build products that they care about. For now, hold off on jumping into any design or coding. Focus on speaking with potential users. Conduct research to learn more about your users and their needs. Methods can include in-depth interviews, surveys, literature review, journey mapping, and subject matter expert interviews.
Additionally, try partnering with a community organization whose mission aligns with your team’s interests. Invite them to a Community Action Night and work with them to find a problem that needs a tech solution.
Once you’ve gathered a good understanding about the user, define the problem you want to help them with.
Brainstorm and come up with as many solutions as possible.
Create a prototype of one of your solutions. A prototype is X.
Share your prototype with your users and get feedback.
Build a minimum viable product (MVP).
Keep it simple and make things happen. Don’t worry about it looking ugly, it probably will. As we like to say, “Done is better than perfect.”
When your MVP is completed, present it at Community Action Night. Show the process you used to create it.
After building and launching your MVP, test it. Get feedback from people who will use the product. Based on the feedback, you can refine and continually make adjustments along the way to the final product.
Eventually, your contributions to a project will end, and the project will need to be handed off to another person or organization. (Ideally, this organization is a community partner you’ve built a relationship with over the course of the project.) Make the transition easy. Prepare a maintenance program.
This will require the current owner of the project, or someone in a similar role, to:
- Hold a discussion with the person or organization about maintenance needs
- Develop a plan for user/admin training
- Oversee up-to-date project deliverables, documents and reports
- Assume responsibility for maintenance, security concerns and/or documentation until project has been officially handed off