12th Grade — Studio Systems Retrospective: What Should We Improve?

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

Think of one moment this semester when a studio job got stuck or confusing. What caused it?

🎯 Today's Big Question

Looking back at how our studio has operated this semester, what's working and what should change?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Evaluate the studio's systems (intake, triage, approval, production, delivery) for strengths and weaknesses.
Propose at least 2 specific, actionable improvements.
Present recommendations to the class.

🧰 What You'll Need

Notes/records from this semester's studio jobs
Retrospective template (chart paper or shared Doc)

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Evaluating the Systems

Do Now (5 min, above).
Mini-lesson (5 min): what a retrospective is and why real teams do them.
Independent/team evaluation (30 min): evaluate each studio system stage (intake, triage, approval, production, delivery) for what worked and what didn't.
Share (5 min).

Day 2: Proposing Improvements

Do Now (5 min).
Team work (25 min): propose at least 2 specific, actionable improvements with reasoning.
Present (15 min): present recommendations to the class.

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

Day 1

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

Day 2

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

📚 Key Words

Retrospective: A structured look back at how a process worked, used to find specific improvements for next time.
Actionable: Specific and doable enough that someone could actually act on it, not just a vague complaint.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Recommendations scored with a rubric: specific, actionable, grounded in a real example from this semester.

Exit Ticket: Name the one improvement you most want the studio to make next year.

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress yearbook (or, later, studio) work to your portfolio with a 1-2 sentence caption -- and once you're in the Design Studio phase, a photo of the piece in its real, installed location if possible. This is the same evidence trail you'll use for Archive & Portfolio and any PBAT/portfolio review.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Studio Systems Retrospective: What Should We Improve?.” This project asked: “Looking back at how our studio has operated this semester, what's working and what should change?” I used Retrospective by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🔗 Want to Learn More?

No extra links for this lesson.

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same structured retrospective format a Business/Agile-style project-management unit teaches.

Career Connection: Running a retrospective is a real, named practice in professional design studios and agencies.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Facilitate a real retrospective meeting with your team and document the actual changes the studio agreed to make. Start here: have each team member write one "keep" and one "stop" on a sticky note before the meeting starts, so the discussion has raw material instead of starting cold.
Redesign one broken studio system (the intake form, the tracking board) based directly on retrospective feedback. Start here: pick the system with the most sticky-note complaints from the retrospective, not just the one that's easiest to fix.