2 Years, 1 Month & 19 Days
It’s been approximately 2 Years, 1 Month & 19 Days since I published my last (personal) blog. I suppose tackling procrastination should be at the top of my New Year resolutions list (don’t worry, it isn’t 😎).
Let’s recapitulate!
Since my last blog “Would you believe that at the age of 12 I was homeless” A LOT has happened, as one would expect. Following on from the 2017 Startup Catalyst Youth Mission to San Francisco, I realised I needed some time to figure myself out — So I said goodbye to a long term relationship, family, friends, the doggo’s, lovely Sydney and sold a bunch of my crypto before the bear market hit and I ventured off around the world.
The goal was to do as little with technology as possible, and connect with my creative self. I’d say mission accomplished ✅
I spent a month in Shanghai, a few weeks in Budapest, a month in Holland, two months in New York, with Singapore being my last stop before settling back in to my new home state of Queensland. I had only planned to take two months off but once I was off this big island at the bottom of the world it was very, very easy to just keep on going. So what did I get up to in 2019?
Let’s review 2019 🔎
Girl, you smart 👩🏼💻
I know I said above that whilst I was away my goal was to do as little with technology as possible, which was semi-true, my love for learning obviously got in the way…
Consensys Developer Program: I was lucky enough to receive a scholarship for the Consensys Developer Program 2018 which I completed in early February 2019.
My final project PlantChain 🌳 was a Proof of Existence dApp for people or companies to record their tree planting efforts and capture:
- Location of the planted tree/s
- Date/ time
- Type of tree/s planted
- Number of tree/s planted
There was also an element of incentivisation by rewarding participants with carbon credits, allowing individuals or companies to lower their carbon footprint.
✨ A highlight of being in the program was visiting the HQ in Brooklyn, NY, meeting some of the team and taking in the views of New York from their rooftop.
As part of my learning and development goals for 2019 I decided I wanted to learn more about Agile Frameworks — Scrum ✅, User Centered Design ✅ and continue learning Mandarin ❎ — The reality of taking on a new job saw me put Mandarin lessons on hold (for now).
Professional Scrum Master I: Ya girl is certified!
User Experience Design with RMIT: I can say I successfully completed this with High Distinctions! Although I’m now banned from Tinder for using it as a market research medium 😅
My first assignment was a user-centered survey based on the usability of Tinder. The focus of the report was on a users ability to sign in to the application, match with potential dates and chat via the private message feature. Paired with the survey results that provided visibility on how well the current functionality of the app works and what, if any improvements could be made.
My second assignment was an application prototype design based on a ‘client’ brief to encourage healthy eating habits within the local town via a mobile application. The client was a representative of local council. Accessibility, awareness, connectedness and incentivisation were important factors to consider when building the prototype.
“12wks” provides 12 meal options, over a 12 week period and includes locally sourced produce and recipes created by the local restaurateurs. Users can attend the live demonstration of the weekly meal at the local market every Sunday, with the option to purchase a pre-packaged box of the ingredients at the demonstration.
I have the full reports and links to prototypes on my LinkedIn profile if you wanted to check them out.
I got a new job…
at a Council… and it’s actually pretty awesome. My role combines everything I love to do and knowing a lot of the work I do directly benefits our community is deeply satisfying.
Seed Fund: I started in March and hit the ground running. They opened up an internal Seed Fund so naturally I pitched. You can take the girl out of a startup but you can’t take the startup out of a girl.
Part of my job involves receiving, curating and analysing a lot of citizen feedback. Very early on it became clear that submitting anything to do with a form — that wasn’t available to complete and submit online — was/is a huge problem. Not just because of the inconvenience to our citizens but at a huge cost to us as a council when it comes to trust, money and reputation.
Asia Pacific Cities Summit & Mayors’ Forum, Brisbane: In July I was selected to represent Redland City as one of four Young Professional’s at the APCS in Brisbane.
The YP Forum is a 4 day, “prestigious program” that aims to provide the next generation of leaders with tailored professional development, the chance to develop ideas, city solutions and come up with ideas for meeting the challenges facing cities today & tomorrow.
We engaged in conversations and collaborated to propose city solutions to urban challenges relating to the 2019 APCS sub-themes:
- Innovation of Cities
- Mobility of Cities
- Liveability of Cities
- Sustainability of Cities.
Employee Excellence Awards — Mayors’ Award finalist: I was humbled to receive the news that my colleagues had nominated me to be recognised for the work I’ve been doing at Redland City Council these past 10 months. The award is the highest formal recognition an employee at Redland City Council can receive. The nominees demonstrate outstanding commitment to enriching community lifestyles through the promotion and delivery of the Corporate Plan 2018–2023.
I was also proud to be acknowledged and receive an Achievers Certificate awarded by our General Manager of Infrastructure and Operations for creating and delivering an important Asset Management video within a short timeframe.
Given the nature of the work I do there’s always opportunity for me to receive training in fairly new methods of videography and photography, This included receiving a UAV Pilot certificate.
Heading out to capture drone footage is a frequent request and my footage isn’t just being used internally but prominent news stations have asked to use it in their own news stories covering two very significant projects currently underway within our city, The Birkdale Land and the RACQ Smart Shuttle, autonomous vehicle on Karragarra Island.
It’s not all work & no play…
Names Dress: In April I found out that my name was one of 300 names made up of women in STEAM included in Sylvia Heisel’s Names Dress Project.
While there are increasing numbers of women embarking on careers in STEAM (including inventors, mathematicians, scientists, artists using technology and others), the achievements of women in these fields are not always widely known or celebrated. The Names Dress is a tribute to women, known and unknown, historic and contemporary, in these interconnected and evolving fields. The Dress is also an exploration of the use of sustainable materials and techniques in creating innovative textiles and garments. — Sylvia Heisel.
The Names Dress is currently on exhibition for a year at the Sustainable Thinking Exhibition at the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence, Italy from April 12, 2019 through March 8, 2020. You can read more about the Names Dress project here.
Volunteering, Workshops & Speaking
This year I took it easy when it came to volunteering but being in a new city I also found it incredibly important for me to participate in volunteering at events to connect with other likeminded individuals.
This included volunteering at Brisbane Startup weekend, mentoring at Muses Code JS Brisbane and Global Women’s Startup Weekend Brisbane, helping to facilitate the Build a Drone workshop with my friend Angela Beechan (Hackathons Aus) for the World of Drones Education conference held by Dr. Catherine Ball and the 3D printed LED unicorn horn workshop for Work180 Super Daughter day.
I also had the pleasure of participating in a panel regarding Innovation in regional areas with Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, Leanne Kemp and MC’ing the local Startup Redlands monthly pitch event.
San Francisco
I received a scholarship to attend the 2019 Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco in October which was a nice “full circle” moment. It was the same time I was there in 2017 on the Startup Catalyst Youth Mission where I had participated in the Lean Startup, Startup Weekend and took home 1st place for the work my team and I did regarding volunteering, homelessness and Social Corporate Responsibility.
Whilst I was there I had the opportunity to check out Creator — A casual dining burger robot startup. It was cool to speak with Scaling-Operations manager Ian Hagn and find out that they follow a lot of human centered design principles when it comes to the robot, the menu, the ingredients and the restaurant design and layout. It was definitely a highlight of my trip.
Amongst a whole bunch of exploring the city and attending the conference, I visited the Airbnb Head Office and I must say, they have some of the coolest meeting rooms that are replicas of actual listings they have on the platform. Including the apartment that the founders originally came up with the idea in. They also have a lot of Australian influenced rooms!!
I have a few learning and development goals for this upcoming year that includes doing IDEO’s Advanced Certificate in Human Centered Design, more public speaking, writing more blogs transferring my knowledge, re-starting my Mandarin lessons and achieving HSK Level 1.
To finish off the year I thought it’d be cool to get my motorbike licence so that’s exactly what I did. All in all, it’s been a beautiful year learning new things, meeting new people and developing both personally and professionally.
Happy New Year everyone!
Kiah
