Lauryn Wiley — Year Review
From designer to Project Manager, Lauryn gives us an inside look at her first year with Little Taller.
Little Taller: What is your title, and then what is it you do every day?
Lauryn: My title is Project Manager, and on a large scale, I organize projects and make sure that they’re completed on time, within scope, and within budget. On a smaller scale, that mostly consists of scheduling meetings, checking in with the team, sending updates to the client, and repeating that process. So it’s a lot of communication.
Little Taller: You are coming up on your 1-year anniversary. What’s your biggest takeaway?
Lauryn: I think the biggest takeaway is to communicate as much as you can. There’s no such thing as over-communicating, especially with working remotely. You have to be comfortable with just hopping on meetings with people and making sure everyone is on the same page, no matter how big or small the project is.
Little Taller: What did you study in college?
Lauryn: When I graduated, it was called “Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and Advertising Design,” but they were in the process of making that solely focused on design, so I didn’t get any of the public relations portions. Originally, I went into college for graphic design, and it’s interesting because I’ve moved away from that. I started at Little Taller as a graphic designer, and I just found it was different from what I expected. While I enjoyed learning about graphic design, it wasn’t something that I wanted to do long term.
Little Taller: Can you talk about more like the learning curve from what you experience at school versus what you experience at work?
Lauryn: When you’re in school, there’s this mindset that you have to fake it till you make it. So when I was in school, I wouldn’t ask a lot of questions. I would be like, “Okay, got it,” and I’d go ahead and figure it out on my own. But making that transition to a professional workplace, you can’t just leave a meeting without questions. Now I ask the stupid questions instead of figuring it out on my own later because it all comes back to communication and making sure everyone understands what’s going on. Especially because not everyone has time to pop back onto a meeting and reiterate what they just went through in that meeting.
Little Taller: I was the same way, and sometimes I know I’ll have questions, but I don’t know what they are yet. How are you balancing remote working and your everyday life?
Lauryn: I’ve always been an introvert, and I’ve always loved staying at home. I love that I can turn around to pet my dog when I need a quick break or grab some coffee. But I think it’s hard to create those boundaries between working and taking breaks when you have the option to do either, so I’ve always tried to set those boundaries of when I work, when I take breaks, and when I eat. It’s hard to stick to that schedule, especially when you’re logging off for the day, there are so many things that you feel like you should still be working through, but it’s all about prioritizing what needs to be done that day and what can wait for tomorrow.
Little Taller: What are some of your passion projects?
Lauryn: I’m a wedding photographer on the weekends, but it’s pretty much been on hold since COVID. But things are starting to open back up, and I have my first wedding since COVID in October, which I’m pretty stoked for.
Little Taller: What is it you like most about working with Little Taller?
Lauryn: I love working remotely and working with the random group of people. I love everyone’s unique personalities, and we all bring something different to the table. And even though it’s hard to get to know people while working remotely, it’s a fun environment. Like, even now, you and I are talking even though we’re working. We always find time in between the projects to talk and get to know each other. So I think that’s something that I enjoy.
Little Taller: Looking to the future, what are you looking forward to next year?
Lauryn: I keep going back to COVID related stuff, but probably just getting back into the office and being able to talk to people face to face. When I started, I was in the office maybe twice a week, and the rest of the time, I was at home. So once COVID is over, and we can get back into the office, it’ll be nice to get a feel for what that looks like with Little Taller and get to know people more.
Little Taller: So, what are some things that ensure you can do your job effectively?
Lauryn: Coffee is the number one thing that makes me do my job effectively. In reality, I feel like there are so many skills that project management itself relies on, and it’s hard to nail down what exactly those skills are because you learn them as they come. But I think the one thing I touched on earlier is communicating and asking the right questions. When I started project management, I had no experience with it at all. There’s a lot of little things you pick up along the way to help you recognize what a project consists of, what a process looks like, and how to go about it.
Little Taller: How did you get connected with Little Taller?
Lauryn: I was in Kyle’s web class four years ago, but I don’t even know if he remembers me back then, which is kind of funny. But it was Murphy who reached out to me about working with Little Taller. I had him as a professor for three or four classes, and he was always my favorite design professor.
Little Taller: Tell me a little more about the story behind you getting hired on with Little Taller.
Lauryn: Murphy reached out to me about a year after I graduated and said that we might have a design position open if I was still interested in design. I was doing some logos here and there, and just some small design work in that year after I graduated, so I told him I was interested. I quit my job even before I knew that I had this job, and I worked on a couple of test projects and continued from there.
Little Taller: Now that you’re with Little Taller, what are some responsibilities you have that you enjoy the most and what are some responsibilities that you enjoy the least?
Lauryn: I like that I get to have time with each team member and work on projects with everyone. As far as responsibilities that I enjoy the least, I don’t like confronting people about issues. Like if a project’s not on time, I don’t like being the one to tell people, “Yo, this project is not going so hot, like, you know, we got to get our stuff together,” but it’s a part of my job.
Little Taller: Looking at this past year, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
Lauryn: I am proud that I’m getting better at being able to lead meetings. I’m such an introvert that it’s been big for me to grow and be able to do this. I’ve also gotten better at delegating the work, communicating to people what they need to do, and just being comfortable talking with clients, and, you know, figuring out what they need from a project.
Little Taller: So how do you make a point to continue learning while being in this position?
Lauryn: At this point, my position has been a continuous learning process. So I think for me specifically, just taking a moment to step back and look at what I’ve been doing and why I’ve been doing it to help me understand the process from start to finish.
Little Taller: What is one professional skill you are currently looking to develop?
Lauryn: This is definitely specific to the job that I have, but I’m currently working on quoting out projects. I want to be able to take a look at a project, see what all the steps are that need to be done, and be able to quote out the hours effectively.
Little Taller: So this one has nothing to do with a Little Taller, but if you can be an expert at anything, what would that be?
Lauryn: Gosh, dang it, this is hard. I think one thing that would be cool to be an expert in is cooking. I don’t have any cooking skills at all, and I have no motivation to learn, but being able to automatically be an expert and make the most delicious food would be awesome.
Little Taller: “Chef Lauryn.” It’s funny because Alex said she wanted to be a “Bon Appétite-level Chef.”
Lauryn: Whatever that means, sign me up.
Little Taller: If you were a chef, do you think your career would change? Do you think you would switch to being like a professional chef? Or would that ruin it for you?
Lauryn: I don’t know. I’d have to see if I like it or not. I guess that remains to be seen if I become an expert in cooking.
Little Taller: We’ll pick up next year and check in on that.
