✍️
As a team leader, I found that my usual approach to working wasn’t really effective and so it was a small challenge for me to adapt to a more team-driven perspective. Of course, the lockdown situation did not help, among other factors. However, each team member has pulled through in their own ways, slowly warming up to each other and myself and providing increasing contributions, as well as increasing support for each other.
Speaking specifically about the term project, the biggest challenge I found, which I believe is a shared sentiment within my team, was with the intentional lack of direction of the task itself. We only knew the topic, the basic requirements, and what we had to deliver, so we spent a lot of time anxious and guessing what we are supposed to do now, next, later, etc., especially at the start when we didn’t really know where to actually begin. While this situation has improved, I do feel like there still prevails some lingering directionlessness — but I’m sure we’ll work it out as a team, as usual.
As for what excited me the most about the project…well. Let’s start with my team’s project: we are doing a project with/for Singha, about byproducts of the beer brewing process. Out of all three (four?) projects introduced by Professor Pietro, I personally found this one to be the most interesting as I saw a lot of potential for ideas and applications. The initial introduction/presentation also seemed the most energetic, vibrant, and, simply, ‘cool’, which of course was a big attention-attractor. However, I was specifically intrigued by the fact that we were told we would be able to get hands on with the byproducts themselves, and have out-of-class visits to the brewery. Those are always fun; field trips bring me back to better times 🤔.
In terms of what we expect to deliver at the end of the semester, we are simply told to deliver 1. a marketing plan based on lectures, and 2. a pitch deck pitching our idea/solution to the teaching team as well as to Singha personnel themselves. For my personal contributions to the team output, as the leader, I spend a lot of my time and effort on logistics like setting meetings, talking to the professor and Singha personnel, initiating discussion, leading our direction and vision, etc.. But of course, physically, I contribute to researching, creating reports, etc. (the parts I am responsible for), and will contribute to creating the final deliverables as well, where applicable.
