Part #2: Choosing Roles | SUMMER ROBOTICS: Tips and Tricks for Your Team

The first step to keeping your team organized once you have a team is assigning some loose roles to divide up all the things that need to be done because there is absolutely way too much for one person. Our team was divided into three main "sub-teams": Hardware (physical designing and building of the robot), Software (programming the robot), and Engineering Notebook/Outreach. We didn't really stick to the roles we assign ourselves at the beginning of the season and jumped around a lot, but these roles really defined our activities that occurred outside our meeting times together. For example, the hardware sub-team would do most of the research on different subsystems for the robot and the notebook/outreach sub-team would catalogue the past meetings at home on our own. Roles are super duper important for keeping your team functional and together. You don't want to overload one or two people on your team; that'll lead to tired teammates and ultimately the end of your team. These are the most important things we found by assigning and reassigning roles throughout the season.

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Tip #1: Make your "sub-team" descriptions

First of all, you don't want to go assigning tasks all willy-nilly. Someone is more than likely going to end up with something they don't want to do or don't know how to do. And that's a recipe for disaster. Make a master list of all the things that will need to be done during the season and put each task under a few different categories. Here is an example of what this task list would look like for our team (feel free to use our example but adjust it to fit your team):

Tip #2: Play to individual strengths and interests

Now that everyone knows what it involves to be in each group, take a vote. Have each team member decide which sub-team they know how to do most things, which sub-team they know how to do some of the things and could probably learn the rest from mentors or online resources, and which they feel they know absolutely nothing at all. Your team should have a pretty even split between the sub-teams if you formed a team with members that have slightly different interests in the engineering design process. To make your split the right ratio to balance your tasks for each categories be sure to play the assignments to your teammates' strengths. So, if one member is is on the fence between say the hardware sub-team and the notebook/outreach sub-team, but they aren't very organized with papers and online files, it might be better to assign them to the hardware sub-team so they don't end up losing pages of your engineering notebook.

Tip #3: Move between roles a bit

These roles should NEVER EVER be permanent. Your team members need to be familiar with each part of the team per some of the requirements for competition judging. It is also is super important to learn some skills in each area even if that is not your main focus on the team. Make meeting times a place where your team can move freely between roles to help with problem solving and expand your knowledge on the robot, programs, engineering notebook, and outreach activities for the team. Roles should be very loosely followed during meetings when it is so easy to get distracted from preforming some of your tasks to look at the cool things that some other sub-team is doing. That's not to say that these roles are completely useless because no one is required to follow them; they are most important for tasks that should be done outside meeting times like research. When each member has free time outside meetings, they can focus their expertise on tasks for their sub-team and coordinate with fewer people about what specifically needs to be done.

Tip #4: Don't neglect a role or task

With all that moving around between sub-teams at meetings it is very very very easy to get distracted with the tasks of one sub-team and completely neglect other tasks. Our team unfortunately found ourselves in this situation several times this past season (Oops!). We went through periods of weeks where nothing was catalogued in the engineering notebook because the entire team was so busy helping the hardware sub-team to catch up because they were so far behind. This is NOT where your team wants to be! It looks really bad to the judges who look at your incomplete engineering notebook and it makes your team disorganized and unproductive. Though it might be more fun to work on all the interesting tasks, it is a horrible strategy to keep your team running smoothly during the season. Make sure your team members understand that they are responsible for the completion of all their tasks in a timely manner and that they should not neglect their roles. There is a nice balance between making sure all your tasks are completed and flexibility between sub-teams. It varies between teams depending on how disciplined and responsible your team members are. It takes several months or even seasons to fully figure it out, but we encourage you to start working on this balance as soon as your team begins work during the season.

Tip #5: Step out of your comfort zone

Now to the whole point of FIRST Tech Challenge: learning about robotics and engineering. To do this, you can't just stick with the roles that you already know how to do. It may seem easy at first, but you will crave new knowledge about robotics. Though you might not be comfortable with say programming some of the autonomous, you should definitely give it a try! Be brave and put yourself out there in your team. This is one of the most important life skills that the FIRST program teaches. You should never be too comfortable with your role on your team. FTC is an adventure and playing it safe is no fun.

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Be on the lookout for our next blog post with more tips and tricks next week about things you should do when your team has a meeting. We hope you enjoy this summer robotics series and put some of these tips to good use with your FTC team.