Startup Bus Women In Blockchain + GNC 2018
Things I learned on Startup Bus
When I was first presented with the opportunity of participating with Startup Bus, I had no idea what to expect. It sounded like a really awesome experience that would be loaded with lots of fun. Traveling on a bus with 30 complete strangers coupled with having no experience with Hackathons definitely made me nervous. To add to the nerves, this was no regular Hackathon either, it was a Hackathon on wheels. Having just graduated from General Assembly and being new to the UX Design field, I wasn’t sure how I was going to stack up against the competition. However, I am so glad I did! This whole opportunity has seriously been one of the best experiences of my life to date. These are some of the things I learned while participating in StartupBus Women In Blockchain + GNC 2018.
The Perfect Pitch
I had no idea how important pitching was to startup life. During my time at GA, we were tasked with offering oral presentations in front of the entire class. As a quiet spoken person, this was scary, but I was pulled from my comfort zone and delivered. While on the Startup us we gave 1 to 3 minute pitches to a bus full of strangers for 72 hours straight. The bus was hot, everyone was working and discussing their team projects, and we were exhausted. Keit, our Bus Mentor, would yell “Time to pitch!” and my nerves would ramp up every time.
“Oh My God!” I would think, as it was dreadful, but at the time I didn’t really understand the significance of that preparation.
Later, I would learn that the Bus Mentors were preparing us for something far greater. Sure enough, instead of pitching to a bus of 20 women, we were soon pitching to a room of 100 people.
So, what did we pitch? Our idea was centered around logging your pet’s medical records on the Blockchain. Being new to UX Design, I barely knew about creative design for regular internet mobile and web applications, let alone creative design for Blockchain. This is a new and growing field that I knew very little about, but was super excited and eager to learn everything I could. Our team consisted of 5 very ambitious and incredibly smart women. They made learning about the various components of UX Design for Blockchain quite easy.
Know Your Role and Do It Well
First is the research phase. We started by calling Veterinarians and Vet Technicians to. Our team sent out screener surveys and we conducted as many user interviews as humanly possible to validate our assumptions in identifying where the real problems were.
As the UX designer, it was my job to advocate for the user and to solve their problem through efficient design thinking. I quickly learned that cold-calling strangers is really tough, especially when those strangers are very busy veterinarians. But with quickly adapting the skills learned from the practice presentations experienced on the Startup bus, it all began to come together nicely.
A UX Designer has many possible deliverables i.e. Personas, user flows, sitemaps, wireframes, a clickable prototype, Journey maps and the list could go on. The question was always how much can I get done on a bus in 3 days — realistically. In hindsight, I believe I could have managed accomplishing at least 3 of the aforementioned. In reality, the fullness of each would not have been completely flushed out, but I could have made it happen. One of my regrets from StartupBus is that I don’t think I worked hard enough, but then again, in so many ways I am a perfectionist and we are often our own worst critique. Yes, I was able to complete a clickable prototype, which was great, but our team definitely could have benefitted from having Personas, or a Journey map, or even a storyboard in our deck. Overall, I believe I could have worked harder.
Most of all, I learned that knowing your role and executing to the best of your ability as if you are the expert in your group is key. As a UX Designer, our job is to advocate for the user and to show judges and stakeholders why the product is needed and important. My experience with StartupBus definitely highlighted integral components of the process of UX Design that has prepared me to do a better job at delivering the best possible product going forward.
All in all, the prototype was great — I used Sketch programming to create the wireframes, and InVision to link them together. My team had a working clickable prototype and an incredible idea that advanced us to the next round. The power of the prototype is amazing in that it gave us something solid to show and demo, and this is important in UX Design. Being proficient InVision programming afforded me invaluable skills in addition to having a visual guide was crucial to a creating a winning presentation.
Our team made it through to the Final round and the pressure was on!
Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
The next and most important lesson I learned was to be prepared to be pulled out of your comfort zone. In addition to this, being flexible and knowing yourself were important, as well. I learned that traveling on a hot bus all day and night without Wi-Fi, and not really knowing when you were going to eat a satisfying meal was difficult. And then, factoring in the reality that I was traveling with complete strangers for 3 entire days — it was a serious challenge to undertake!
However, my experience at General Assembly and working in the team environment taught me who and what kind of people I could work well with and who I couldn’t. Most importantly, it taught me a lot about myself. I knew when I joined Petfolio that I would be on a team where my ideas would be fairly heard and recognized. I firmly believe that it doesn’t take long to truly see the idiosyncrasies of an individual’s personality and as the famous Maya Angelou once said “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
Unfortunately, not all of the teams made out so well in the end.
Say YES-To Everything
Another really important thing that StartupBus taught me was to say “YES!” to EVERYTHING. At times I found myself quite apprehensive and hesitant to board that bus. Being a recent graduate, and not having any real experience in UX Design, and not having worked with Sketch or InVision programming for weeks made me really nervous. I definitely suffer and still do suffer from Imposter Syndrome, but the opportunity was presented to me, it sounded like a really good opportunity to grow, and so I said “YES!”, even with fear and trembling.
I remember constantly thinking that there were so many people from my class who were smarter than me and better designers. But I was able to obtain this opportunity and therefore it was my responsibility take full advantage of it.
Prior to boarding the bus, I had no idea our team would do so well, but more than that, I had no idea I would connect with so many amazing people. Since this StartupBus opportunity began, I have secured my first real UI Design assignment; as well as other great opportunities have been coming my way. All of it scares me, but so what, I’ll do it scared!
This opportunity revealed the confidence within me to start a new career in UX Design. I truly believe when you allow yourself to try new things and say “YES!” the Universe helps you along the way to achieve them. Life is a process and you have to trust it and I’m glad that I trusted myself and StartupBus!
And if you’re wondering, Team Petfolio came in 2nd Place!
Final Thoughts
I will say again, that I am so grateful for Startup Bus Women In Blockchain + GNC, this was the first all woman bus! It is important for women and particularly women of color to join the tech field. This is a space that has been historically dominated by white men and it is time for us to join the conversation ladies. We have so much invaluable wisdom, experience, and insight to offer. We are Disruptors ,Visionaries, and Pioneers in the tech industry and we absolutely deserve a seat at the table. Who runs the world? GIRLS!
And of course, Please please check out our site www.petfolio.org sign up on the email list and the link to the clickable prototype is below. Thanks for reading!