This is Julia's final reflection on Project FAT, year 2019.
Expectations
Project FAT is the final project of Year 2, the transition from learning into applying our learnings in the industry. The project includes everything that we as students have learned in the first two years of the studies.
I had high expectations towards this project: I thought that it would be very time-consuming and exhausting but also rewarding. The teachers were hyping us up, putting pressure on everyone even before the actual start of the project, and that mood affected me a lot. I was not overly excited about the task, although there have been worse tasks in previous projects, but it excited me to be able to create an installation again. Building interactive installations has always been one of my favourite parts of the CMGT studies.
On the positive side, I expected there to be a lot of opportunities for gaining knowledge and new skills as well as for personal growth. With my internship applications still running - a time-consuming task on the side -, I had moderate ambitions, but I was well-aware that even in order to meet moderate ambitions, you have to work really hard. My insights into the last week of the project of last year's students scared me a bit. The tasks seemed so big and unmanagable, the installations had been huge and people had had trouble to finish up their projects. At the same time, I was hoping that my time management would be good enough to avoid running into 16 hour-shifts towards the end of the project.
The Team
As the Scrum master, I was very ambitious to find a good team that did not only include students with various skills but also ambitious team mates who were committed to the success of the project. I am happy that I found these people.
From my point of view, the team got along really well during the entire project. Of course, there were some disagreements every now and then, but that is quite normal in such a big project. All the team members are very friendly and helpful and everyone mostly treated each other respectfully. I also really like my team mates as people, we had a good time together. I appreciate how open everyone was about their problems and challenges and that we always found a solution to fix things when they went wrong. Most of the time, we were on the same wavelength. I am super proud of my team that we made a good progress, got a green light and managed to finish up our installation with eight letters against all odds and against the teachers' predictions. That is a great achievement.
Learning Goals
Regarding my learning goals that I set in the first week of the project, some of them have been reached and others have not.
My learning goals for the solution were:
I wanted to build the website and learn about PHP/databases and CSS animations.
I wanted to learn how to program Arduino and create the interaction with the sensors and actuators (especially colour picker and S).
I wanted to create some graphic designs for promoting our installation.
In the solution part, I have only achieved one of my learning goals, which was the PHP programming and the inclusion of a database. The website, with its eight pages about each of the letters and my unexpected tasks in the construction of the pedestal took me longer than expected. Together with the fact that a CSS animation was not really necessary on the website, these are the reasons why I did not learn about CSS animations. The hardware programming tasks were done by Alex. Since most of the interactions that he had to program were not really complex, it was fair that he got to do the more complex colour picker and program the Neopixel. Indeed, this task took him long and I could not have taken it on my shoulders in addition to the website. Since we had too many designers on the team anyway, I did not get to do any design tasks, but that was fine for me and I already expected it in the beginning of the project. In general, I am a bit disappointed that I did not learn many new things. Managing the tasks of the project felt a bit like juggling with torches that were on fire, and metaphorically speaking, I was glad that I already knew the fire and did not have to switch to ice. I stayed in my comfort zone a lot when it came to the tasks that I did.
My learning goals for the justification were:
I wanted to work on the organisational part of the team.
I wanted to work on my leadership skills.
I wanted to create a business plan and be active in the section "Entrepreneurial Skills".
I wanted to become better at dealing with criticism and also let things be taken out of my control and my own hands, put more trust in others and their work.
As opposed to my goals in the solution part, I reached all my goals for the justification part fully or partially. By becoming the Scrum master, I got points 1 and 2 covered. There were some things that did not go so well (see next sections) and others that improved a lot. I did not create a business plan but I got very active in terms of sponsoring and social media, which helped us acquire €100 and additional building materials, as well as over 60 followers on social media before Marijke took over that task. I do not think that my ability to handle criticism improved by a great deal, but I definitely reflected on my behaviour and I gave some things out of my hand, which, as a perfectionistic person, I am very proud of.
What Went Well
First of all, the project was completed successfully. I do not know the final grade yet but I am sure that we are going to pass. This is a great success because the task was huge, the schedule was intense, there were countless little details that had to be considered, and there were a lot of different personalities and work styles represented on the team.
I am incredibly happy with the fact that our installation turned out so beautiful. We got a lot of positive feedback both from people who are amazed by what the installation looks like and who are impressed that we managed to pull of such a complex project. We did indeed make it harder for ourselves than it needed to be by deciding to create eight individual letters, each with its own interaction, on a pedestal that we had to design and build from scratch based on the requirement that it had to be small enough to be stored at Saxion.
I am proud of myself of jumping into the cold water and becoming the Scrum master again, a role that I had already taken on in the 3rd quartile of Year 1. I knew that it had been incredibly exhausting back then and my leadership skills weren't great, but I wanted to challenge myself, learn and grow. In this project, I learned a lot about myself and others indeed. I was always a bit scared to push people to stick to the topic or to criticise openly since I did not want to be rude or hurt others' feelings. But then I got the feedback that it would be perfectly okay and people actually wanted me to do these things. I also found out that it is perfectly fine to let go of some tasks and to trust in the team. They did great work, and not feeling that you have to control everything is liberating. Over time, I also learned how to deal with the different people on the team and what motivated them. This is great, because it was a good learning for my leadership skills.
I am happy that Dzhulia and I created the pedestal on our own over four days. Without our efforts outside the classroom, the project would not have been finished in time. Our work gave the team enough time to finish the letters. Besides that, I learned a lot of things about construction and painting that I might have missed out on otherwise. An area that I had not planned to make progress in, but this definitely helped me expand my skills. And although it was time-consuming, we got to spend a lot of time outside and work on something tangible (as opposed to digital), which I really enjoyed.
The website was a struggle for me, and unexpectedly, I did not manage to start it before the middle of the project, although it was such an important part of our concept. Therefore, I am glad that I finished it in time and made everything work. Although I did not manage to create a desktop version as well, it will be a nice portfolio item that might help me find an internship in web development: http://myenschede.werecat-design.com.
Last but not least, I am proud of the good relationship with our sponsor Hubo. Only thanks to the Instagram stories and the contacts I made to the employees at Hubo, they agreed to give me two free plexiglass plates on top of the plywood plates that my teammates had negotiated. It was, for me, the most fun part of the project, and I generally loved working on social media.
What Could Be Improved
I took on the role of the Scrum master because I wanted to push myself further, but maybe I pushed myself too far. I'm not a natural-born leader, I'm not particularly great with people, but I can organise. As the Scrum master, I was held accountable for everything, I was the one who had to push the team to meet deadlines, who dragged everyone through endless Scrum sessions and who got constantly stressed out if things didn't go as planned due to my perfectionism. At one point, my team mates also gave me the feedback that me being so anxious all the time made them nervous as well and this affected the whole team. I have to say that the task of being a Scrum master was extremely exhausting to me, it took away some of the fun of the project, and next time, I might leave it to someone else. Especially in the last two weeks, I let the Scrum mastership slip a bit, which resulted in Dzhulia taking over a lot of organisational tasks towards the end. Throughout the whole project, I was still a bit conflict-avoidant, which I definitely have to work on in the future. If you are a team leader, you have to tackle potential issues as soon as possible, otherwise they might turn into big problems.
As already pointed out, I did not reach all my learning goals because I mostly stayed in my comfort zone. That might have been a mistake, because if I don't learn many new things, my chances of getting hired by an employer in the creative industry will not greatly improve. I just have to improve my stress management, so that even in a situation of lots of stress, I am willing to stretch my limits.
Everyone on the team worked hard, although there were some differences in the amount of tasks each team member had to take on. I am not going to criticise my team mates for it, but I could have looked after that a bit better as the Scrum master. I essentially think that this project involved a lot more tasks for technically affine people and builders than for designers, which is an unfair point about the project setting. Of course, not always everyone can take on only tasks that they like or are good at, but given the amount of designers that we just have in the study programme, the project could be adjusted a bit towards a more design-oriented focus in the future.
Generally speaking, the stress level of the project was high and although we worked a lot, we were not particularly fast at finishing the project. In the last two weeks, my team was always among the first ones to be at Saxion and among the last ones to leave. While I am proud of my team mates' dedication and willingness to invest their time, it was also not a great experience, since some of us sacrificed all their free time during these days and pulled 14-hour shifts. As the Scrum master, I feel responsible that my team mates had to expose themselves to so much stress and I wonder how I could have avoided that.
Key Learnings & Future Learning Goals
To sum it up, I took away these things from the project:
Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is a good thing. Just because some things don't work out in the ideal way, that is not a reason to stop seeking growth.
It is a beautiful thing when different people come together, bundle their skills and create something that an individual could have never achieved alone.
I have refreshed my PHP knowledge and learned new things. Now I am really ready to look for a web development internship!
Next time I want to be the Scrum master, I should consider the effort involved with this role and keep it in mind when the productive tasks are assigned.
I have to work more on my conflict management and leadership skills more than I have to work on my professional skills.
Some things aren't and don't have to be in my control.
When you are respectful and enthusiastic about things, good things come out of it (e.g. Hubo). A negative attitude, however, also pulls other people around you down.