PM Reflective Log

Project Date: January 3 - 6, 2023

Objectives: Our client wanted to tell the story of a project expansion in a dashboard; it should serve as the visual accompaniment to the CEO's elevator pitch. To this effect, she wished to update the story and optimize the dashboard (in particular, the Portal) for future expansion.

Tuesday, January 3: We returned to the office refreshed after a holiday break and although I was anxious, I was also organized and ready to go. It was a busy morning, in which we stretched, examined materials, met our client in the kickoff meeting, employed the kanban board, reviewed the day’s agenda, divided the team up into three random groups, and mocked up dashboards in groups. After a much-deserved lunch, we met as a cohort to evaluate the dashboard mockups and then as smaller groups, to reassess the mockups and start building. At the end of the day, we had a standup meeting to update the kanban board. I felt that we were in a good place at the end of the day.

Wednesday, January 4: Our morning training was moved to the afternoon and then to Thursday, so we unexpectedly had a whole day for project time. We continued to build and discussed the need for documentation for our client. After a standup meeting to update the kanban board, we had a follow-up meeting with our client, in which we discussed the design of our mockups and asked additional questions. She suggested a nice-to-have, which a colleague easily implemented in the afternoon. We were uncertain about how to navigate from the Portal to the Main dashboard, so another colleague explored dynamic zone visibility. I ended the day feeling a little worried because of the scheduling changes; we were given the same amount of time for the project, but not being able to work on it daily made me feel uneasy.

Thursday, January 5: We spent most of this day in training, but we had some time in the afternoon to figure out the navigation from the Portal to the Main dashboard (through a set of filter actions) and design the Portal to accommodate additional cities. We did not end the day with a standup meeting; instead, I updated the kanban board and agenda for tomorrow, while colleagues tidied up. I was relieved to know that everything was coming together for the big presentation day tomorrow.

Friday, January 6: This was a calm Friday - the calmest we’ve ever had during client projects. We wrote documentation for portal optimization and adding a new city, as well as a calculation dictionary throughout the day. We also set aside time to stretch, review the dashboard before final edits, and practice as a whole group. The presentation went well and we enjoyed seeing our client react positively to our work. After most of the presentation, I asked the client, “Isn’t my team great?” Evidently, I was very pleased with the result of our hard work.

Final Thoughts: One of my goals as PM was to promote collaboration. In the past, we would independently work at the start of the week and only start working together towards the end of the week when we assemble the dashboards. This time around, I organized more frequent group and whole group meetings and heard constructive conversations among and across groups from the first day of the client project. We collaborated more successfully this week – hooray!

Another goal was to establish more organization; there was certainly organization this week, but was it effective? The daily agenda on the whiteboard was helpful in structuring us. However, the kanban board could have been more useful if it was updated more frequently than once a day. In retrospect, I should have encouraged everyone to freely add and move post-it notes for live updates.

Lastly, I appreciate everyone of DSNY2 staying positive and encouraging me and each other during this project. I am proud of us and this was a great client project to kick off this year! 🎉

Author:
Elaine Yuan
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