Arriving at a Realization: Week 7 at Made by Many

realization (rē′ə-lĭ-zā′shən) n.

1. The act of realizing or the condition of being realized.

2. The result of realizing.

On our second day at Made by Many we were told that by the end of the summer we would have worked our way through three stages of the idea creation process: opportunity, imagination, and realization. This week we officially kicked off the realization stage by starting our one week sprint. Here are some of my realizations that lead up to the first week of realization.

1. User stories are actually from the user’s point of view and the success criteria should reflect that. Don’t let it turn into a checklist for the developer or designer.
2. Don’t become overly attached to any feature. Things change.
3. Don’t become overly attached to any designs. Things change.
4. Don’t become overly attached to the flow. Things change.
5. Overestimating time > underestimating time. For an exception, see number 12.
6. Don’t skip lunch. Even if your doctor decides to go on a rant about how sensitive kidneys are and it makes you an hour late.
7. Sponsors are busy people. On the bright side, we knew to consider that in the flow of our web design.
8. Scheduling things with people too early may not work. Scheduling things with people too late almost always does not work. Walk the fine line.
9. You can not treat everyone the same. What is too pushy with one coworker can not be pushy enough with another.
10. Jira would be really complicated to learn without guidance.
11. There is almost always a calm before the storm. Preparing and planning during the calm always lightens the burden of the storm.
12. If you set too few goals for the day, you’ll stop when you’re done. If you set too many goals for the day, you may not get them all done, but at least you’ll likely get more done than if you ran out of goals.
13. Stand ups are essential. Why are they more of a tech industry thing again? Everyone could probably benefit from learning what the coworkers on their team are up to each day.

As Billy sets out to develop and Emily sets out to design, I’m ready to take on the rest. The research, management of the team, tracking progress, user stories, user interviews, getting users, and anything Emily and Billy need is mostly on me. With our responsibilities finally divided, I’m excited to see the results of each of our individual work and hear about what the realizations each of us have along the way.

For a whole different realization that I’ve had as a result of this internship, read my post on Why Aspiring Entrepreneurs Should Still Consider a Summer Internship. I talk about why dipping my toes into the startup world was a better decision than devoting my summers to purely entrepreneurial ventures.