Looking Back

The most significant insight from this learning journey has been the communication strategies I developed while collaborating with various stakeholders. Looing back, I've distilled these into three key takeaways:

Build Trust First

I still remember the first time we met with Megan. We were quite surprised, if not disappointed, when she said the sentence “Well, I know Canvas well.” What we were expecting was that she would tell us what to do in this project, and we would work as her interns and complete the tasks. But when things did not go as we planned, we felt a bit panicked. Instead of giving direct info about the project, she started by introducing herself and asking about our journey before HGSE and future plans.

And it was not until the third week that we realized what Megan was doing was building trust in the group and providing all the background knowledge we needed about the program. For example, when I mentioned that my background was in engineering and that I had some experience in computer science, Megan was intrigued. She opened up and started to talk about how hard it is to sit in tech faculty meetings because of the amount of jargon used in the conversations. From there, we started to build trust and go deeper into the project details.

Alignment Matters

And this leads me to another point: alignment matters. The reason our collaboration was initially stuck was that our goals for the project were not aligned. We thought we were here to work for Megan and that she would be our supervisor. On the other hand, Megan might have thought that we were here just to talk and communicate, and that she didn’t need to involve us in any of the actual work. But after talking to Majo, we realized that both sides had misunderstood the purpose. By design, this experience was supposed to be a "cognitive apprenticeship," where Dieer and I would observe what a professional does in their everyday role. We are there to learn. And it was only after aligning our goals and expectations that we began to learn and progress smoothly in the project. And I really want to give a huge shoutout to Majo for helping both sides clarify what was going on and for helping align our goals in the project. This experience reminded me once again of the importance and fundamental role that alignment plays in any project.

Use documentation for clarification

In this process, I also came to see the importance of documentation in ongoing team projects. To carry out effective and efficient team meetings and to save time by avoiding unnecessary ones, a rolling agenda is really helpful. (Check out this template by Kathryn Parker Boudett and Elizabeth A. City, authors of Meeting Wise) Unlike a regular meeting agenda, a rolling agenda is a living document that captures a series of sequenced team meetings. It includes meeting objectives, agendas, assigned roles, and next steps with responsible individuals noted. All team members have access to this document so they can easily refer to it during or after meetings. At the top of the rolling agenda, it's also nice to have a collection of helpful links to support teammates in understanding more about the product. Overall, this living document serves as a touchpoint and information hub for all team members to stay aligned on the project.

Another thing I learned from working in industry is the importance of documenting the results of brainstorming sessions and sending that documentation to all participants via email afterward. This ensures that everyone benefits from the discussion and can find ways to apply the ideas in their everyday work.

Conclusion

I believe I will carry these takeaways with me throughout my professional journey, and I’m genuinely grateful for everyone’s support along the way. A huge shoutout to Bill, Majo, and Megan—I wouldn't have learned so much without your support, teaching, and mentoring.

As for how I might use the portfolio to represent my professional capacity to external viewers, I’m planning to frame the storytelling around collaboration and theory-guided decision-making, drawing inspiration from both the capstone analysis and the takeaways in this final reflection post.

Overall, this has been a wonderful journey. I now view every task as a design challenge, and I hope to approach each future design decision with wisdom and empathy.