TKS: Challenges

An overview of the multiple projects that I’ve had the opportunity to participate in, and what I’ve learned from my experience.

Intro

As you may or may not know, I have had the opportunity to partake in a program called “The Knowledge Society”. If you haven’t heard of it, it is an accelerator program that introduces students to emerging technologies, real-world challenges, unique opportunities and more. Another main part of TKS is embracing mindsets and developing life skills. You can learn more about TKS here.

In the program, we are given real-world problems from different companies and are tasked to make a recommendation deck with our solutions. This is in order to prepare us for future work and to help us practice implementing mindsets to work more efficiently. For these challenges, we worked in groups of 3–5 (usually 4) and had to complete them in 3 weeks. The challenges have helped me develop and use different skills, but the most important skill to me when it comes to group work is effective communication.

Effective communication begins and ends with teamwork.

Mike Kryenzki

Challenge 1: Raven Telemetry

The first challenge we had the opportunity to partake in was with the company Raven Telemetry. They are a company that specializes in using artificial intelligence and cloud-based analytics to improve manufacturers’ profitability. They created a new category of technology called Augmented Management. The problem that we were tasked was “to bring global attention to Augmented Management by helping to launch the Augmented Management Institute (AMI)”

The specific criteria we had to complete were as follows:

1. Bring as much attention to Augmented Management as possible
2. Help Launch AMI, find potential partners (Companies, thought leaders…)
3. Help put AM on the Gartner Hype Cycle
4. Create a plan for maximum noise for a limited budget: $20,000

I was in a group of four, and we were all excited to start the project. Here’s a short timeline of how it went:

• Week 1: We started out strong. We felt progress as we came up with many different ideas and approaches. Most importantly, we were communicating. We had daily check-ins on Slack and 3 google hangouts meetings that week.
• Week 2: This is when we suffered. Progress slowed, we were coming to more roadblocks, and, you guessed it, we communicated less, even coming to a complete stop for a few days.
• Week 3: The first few days were a continuation of the 2nd week, then when it came to the final days when we had to make the deck, we worked frantically. We divided the different parts of the deck but still ended up in uneven work. One group member had a vacation trip, and the other was unresponsive. We finished the deck, but there was lots of room for improvement.

Our final solution was for them to revamp their website and release more content on different sites (Youtube, social media, etc.) to attract attention, distinguish AM from familiar fields and use account-based marketing to identify specific clients, and to partner with companies working on a similar service. We also included plans to launch their institute online.

What I learned

As my first challenge, it was a good experience. The end result was satisfactory to me, as it was my first “real-world assignment”, but I noted some lessons to remember for next time:

• Schedule everything: We still split up the work, but our mistake was not making solid deadlines. The wasted time built up until we had to complete most of the deck on the very last day.
• Keep track of your action items (ex. Trello): My group had set up a Trello board for the project, but halfway through we began to neglect it. This led to us not revising our tasks and losing track of time.
• Find accurate, meaningful data: Data is essential for making a recommendation, and also any presentation more professional and credible. Our mistake was not finding enough facts/statistics to back up our idea, making it more of a suggestion rather than a solution. However, there is a fine line between good data and fluff. Don’t use random numbers in order to appear more factual, use the stats that matter.
• COMMUNICATE: Once we lost effective communication, that was the point of no return. This is the most vital part of a group project, communication done well will lead to a clearer, better result.

Challenge 2: Kidogo

In this challenge, we worked with Kidogo, an organization that strives to improve access to affordable, quality childcare by building a network of Early Childhood Development Centres and supporting female entrepreneurs to develop their own childcare micro-businesses.

Our assignment was to determine how Kidogo can expand to new regions/cities to reach more children & Mamapreneurs. For this challenge, I was in a new group. We were 5 people this time, and we were excited to take on the challenge because it had a real-world impact for a good cause.

Similarly to the other challenge, we started off on a good foot. The difference this time was organization. We conducted research using framework models that we combined: we divided sections of research into buckets, then each member was responsible for 2 sections. Each person was also responsible for thinking from a certain perspective (Mamapreneurs, parents, community, etc.). By the third day, we had a solid solution in mind and needed to find if the data supports it.

Here’s where it got tricky. After about a week, the research was going well for my groupmates and me, but we then lost communication with our assigned Project Manager. The PM’s roles were scheduling work and meetings, consulting with other groups and sharing our ideas with the directors. We later learned that they were having health problems, but our large mistake was not officially reassigning the role until it was too late. We went without an (official) PM for a week/week and a half, and of course, communication suffered. We still organized meetings but didn’t communicate with other groups and the directors (Big mistake!).

In the end, we ended up in the same last-minute grind, but this time we had the deck done, but got feedback too late, and not enough of it. So, we couldn’t implement/fix as much as we wanted to, but we still finished the project on time.

My group and I came up with a multifaceted solution:

• Use a scaling framework in order to determine the most optimal locations and how to best implement the service (franchises w/ corporate hubs)
• Gain the support of partnerships & ambassadors
• Additions to the in-progress Kidogo app (remote training, healthcare instructions, etc.)
• Create workshops to better educate the community and seek out potential Mamapreneurs

What I learned

• Perspective matters: This was a challenge where we had to think from the view of a different culture, which is important to practice. Culture is beautiful, and everyone affected by a decision should be considered.
• It’s not a race, it’s a marathon: Don’t spend 12 straight hours getting things done, or you will burnout. Maintain motivation throughout the project and keep the workflow steady.

IoT Hackathon

This wasn’t technically a “challenge”, but it was still a challenge. This was actually my first official hackathon, and I was in almost the exact same group as the Kidogo challenge, except for one person.

As you can assume from the name, the hackathon was around the theme of IoT. We did not have to code for 24 hours, but instead, we had 4 and a half hours to create an IoT device and give a pitch on it.

Out of all the challenges, this one was the most successful to me. Yes, the other projects had a larger impact and were more realistic, but this was fun and had the best end result.

In the first part, we had a brainstorming session. This is usually a relatively easy part of a project but after an hour we had discovered that almost every single idea we had was already invented/in development. After a nutritious lunch of pizza, we spent another 20 minutes on the idea, and then a realization hit us: Just because something is already created, does not mean it can’t be refined. We decided to go with an idea of a pill dispenser that can connect with other devices to alert the patient, caretaker and/or family of dosages.

We spent approximately another hour researching statistics, other products on the market and how it would work. We then spent ~45 min on designing the deck and the product itself. With the rest of the time we had, we help our presenter practice for the pitch later.

When it was time to present it was done science fair-style, where the judges and other groups walked around the room to listen to pitches. When it came time to vote, there were two categories: Judges’ choice and people’s choice.

My group ended up getting the most votes in both categories!

What I Learned

To me, this was the best experience because I used what I learned from the past and improved on the end result (probably also because we won 😅 Shoutout to Farah El Siss, Dagan Hartmann, & Maria Temu). Of course, there were still many aspects to improve upon:

• Think outside the box: brainstorming was quite a challenge for this theme, but we could’ve thought from different perspectives. Also, we initially marketed our product to people who suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia, but a judge suggested that we also market to children or even the general public.
• Try new things: I had never done a hackathon before, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Again, it ended up being a great experience for me. It wasn’t a typical coding hackathon though, which I plan to try soon.

Conclusion/Key Takeaways

All of these challenges have been great learning experiences for me, and I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in them. On top of the takeaways from each section, here is what I learned:

• Work experience outside of school is crucial: Before TKS, I would mainly focus on schoolwork and some small side projects. However, I now realize that grades aren’t the only factor in your success. Whether it is doing extra projects on the side or experimenting in a field of tech on your own time, it will help tremendously with hiring, work, mindset and more.
• The importance of maintaining communication and motivation on a team: This is huge. If you want to finish a project with high-standards, set a deadline, get with your team and work. It is important to communicate for the understanding of the project and efficiency, and motivation is key for meeting your deadline.
• Ask yourself “Why not”: If you have the opportunity to do something, why not do it? Unless there is a good reason not to, go for it. You may find a new passion, learn a new lesson and/or skill, and even change your life.
• Failing has a negative connotation: People don’t like to fail, but that is because they do not learn. Learning from your past mistakes is literally how you improve

Thanks for reading! I’m a university student passionate about emerging technology, coding, engineering, and more. You can follow me or connect with me on LinkedIn.