Design Research: Data Management

My Meyers-Briggs test says that I am ENFJ. Extrovert(1%), iNtuitive(38%), Feeling(38%), Judging(1%). What that should tell you is that I use my gut more than data in general to make decisions. I know it may not be the best method, but it has served me for some things. In spite of my character and thanks to the insights of others I have learned other methods.

The most recent challenge I managed strong data tracking was finding housing in San Francisco. The level of competition here for housing is as surreal as everyone tells you. I looked for housing with 3 other CCA students which has its own complications by compounding preferences and budgets. On top of these usual challenges of finding something to fit everyone, I was the only person actually in San Francisco. Christine Young was in Toronto, Isabelle Shu was in Hong Kong and Dustin Tisdale was in Maine.
This is what we did.

1. Connected via CCA Facebook
2. Wrote eachother and met via online video chat
3. Identified our preferences for shared living and created our model apartment
4. Everyone joined google drive and Christine Young built a spread sheet to track apartment listings.
5. My calendar was shared so that the other 3 could suggest scheduled open houses.
6. Everyone scoured the internet for apartments to rent and posted them on the tracker.
7. I played the role of previewing places in person and reported my findings with video and written impressions on the shared spreadsheet.
8. We had many impromptu video chats along the way.

The Listing tracker included the following categories of data:

• Listing Title

• Contact Info 

• Total Rent per Person

• Listing Description 

• Listing Address and Map

• Travel Time and Distance to School 

• History of Attempts to Contact

• Scheduled Open House Dates

• Video of Property

• Written Impressions

• Application Submitted or No

We now live together in San Francisco.  I don't think I would have thought of building such a tracker, but it was a phenomenal tool.  It was so successful and smooth I'd swear by using it again for managing data with a group.