In week 19, Vanessa previously shared with us about her first project, OMG Coating. Currently, she is working on multiple projects. This week, she shares with us the challenges she faces having to juggle different projects, as well as lessons learnt thus far.
Challenges Faced
Time management
Vanessa shares with us that having to juggle four different projects means she has to balance her time well. This is because each project team will minimally meet two hours a week. For her, these two-hour meetings would take up at least eight hours of her time in a week.
Each project takes two hours per meeting in a week, this means that I have to balance my time between all four projects.
Also, each project has different stakeholders and it takes time to communicate and manage each aspects of all projects.
Switching between projects
Vanessa also shares with us that as each project is at a different stage of development, it is difficult to navigate and switch between the different projects. For example, TrueSign and Pratu have launched, but her other two projects OMG Coating and Echo are still in their developmental stages.
Each project takes two hours per meeting in a week, this means that I have to balance my time between all four projects.
Each project is a different stage of development which makes it difficult to navigate and switch between the different projects
Engaging in business thinking
Vanessa shares that while the lessons learnt during the ideasinc.veni bootcamp might seem intuitive, she found it difficult to execute them in real-world situations, such as engaging in business thinking.
Despite going through the entrepreneurship training, the toughest part would be applying the knowledge that we learned.
All the lessons we learned: interviewing, using the BMC and VPC to find the product-market fit and how to craft our marketing messages, are easy concepts but are difficult to execute.
And that’s why entrepreneurship is more difficult than usual, and only for those who dare to take up the challenge.
Lessons Learnt
Importance of having reliable teammates
However, Vanessa is extremely thankful she has reliable and understanding partners. This mitigates the first two challenges faced as she has team members she can depend on.
When I am unable to attend any meeting, my teammates cover me and update me on the project meetings whenever I do miss any due to conflicting schedules.
Communication is key
She also touches on how good communication is key in any team — with the plan in place, it is up to the people in the team to execute it.
The most difficult and most unpredictable aspect has got to be humans.
Coming from different backgrounds and specialisations, and with different levels of experience, it poses a challenge to any team.
Specifically, my team has people from different backgrounds, all of which studied and lived in different cultures and environments. How do we then go about to untie the knots in our understanding of each other?
Of course, this is not an issue or subject that can be mastered in a few short months and it is definitely an ongoing process. But I am glad to realise it early and work towards understanding the human psyche and human interactions.
Becoming an independent thinker
Vanessa shares that the most valuable takeaway thus far, would be becoming an independent thinker.
VB18 has helped me tremendously with the way that I think. Thinking independently.
Since we are given a certain degree of autonomy to the projects, it might be tough to be switching from receiving tasks and carrying them out, as compared to analysing the situation and deciding the best course to take.
Vanessa’s full account of her journey thus far can be found here.
Next week, we will continue our feature of VB18 teams and their individual project journeys and discoveries. Until then, stay safe!
