After weeks of market research and idea pitching, I can finally kickstart my digital product journey. Through the wonderful feedback of my professor and colleagues, I was able to ultimately decide on developing a Meme Sound Effects Package as my final product. But what comes next?
Where do I start?
The first step to any good project is to make a plan. To make the rest of the development phase easier and more organized, I used a project management platform called Trello to organize tasks into various “buckets” and to-do lists. For example, this week’s tasks included a first draft of the cover art and deciding a product name which I could easily log and mark off as complete on the Trello board. This board also helped me establish a primary timeline for the different phases of development for this digital product. This timeline was especially helpful as I remained focused on the tasks at hand for the week and I wouldn’t stray too far away from the primary goals.
How Do I Create all this stuff?
After making my Trello Board, I realized that designing a digital product was going to require a variety of different tools. The main tools I used this week were Trello (project planning), Canva (designing marketing materials), Google Docs (Outlining), YouTube (Tutorials and Learning), Gumroad (Online Marketplace) and Audacity (Sound Design). A good chunk of time spent this week was spent researching Sound Design and the intricacies behind it. As someone who has limited experience recording sound, I had to look up multiple youtube tutorials to see what programs would be the best fit for me as well as for designing a digital product such as this. Through my research, I was able to land on two premier programs which were Audacity and Adobe Audition. I took some time to experiment and record sounds from each platform and ultimately decided that Audacity would be the best fit for me for this project.
Reflection
To reflect on how the first week of product development went, I think it went better than expected! Deciding on which product to pick from was difficult as I had personal interest in all three, which is why it was crucial that I listen to the feedback I received last week from other students in ICM 500. All of them provided diverse perspectives and provided “evidence” in me ultimately deciding on the meme sound effects pack. I can assume all I want but when the products are pitched in front of live people, it’s crucial to take in the information that is given and make adjustments. For this first week, I initially assumed that I would head straight to Audacity this week and begin recording sound effects. However, after taking the due diligence of planning out actionable tasks as well as spending some time learning about how to create a quality product, it’s clear that every great product has mountains of planning and meticulous thought behind it. Now that I have a strong foundation for my product, I’m excited to head on to the developing phase which will involve recording, collecting, and cleaning the meme sound effects.
The full overview of the journal is located below!
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