Don’t box yourself in: While it’s important to take ownership on the aspects you’re most skilled at and comfortable with, it’s equally valuable to explore different roles within an environment that is supportive and safe to experiement in. This is one of the most effecive ways to learn! I did not think I’d be able to handle project management, especially at a nascent state of a year-long project. However, at the end of the sprint I was proud of how I had set up an effective channel for communication and organization within the team. I also dabbled in some brand design, and even conducted a workshop with the client to help them define their brand identity, which was an incredibly rewarding and insightful learning experience.

Document effectively: Handling such a big project seemed like a very daunting task, but once we started organizing our data in a way that worked for us it made things less scary and seamless. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to find lost information when you need it the most! We primarily utilised Miro and Google Docs for our documentation purposes.

Know and advocate for your users: Understanding users’ needs, especially for a pre-launch app, proved to be crucial. Insightful research and analysis helped us uncover critical gaps in the business model, communicate our recommendations to the client accordingly, and design a brand that is considerate and respectful of a vulnerable user base.

Ask for guidance: Sometimes we would be at a cross roads about some issues that were out of our control. After much internal dicussion and brainstorming, I discovered that it is best to approach a higher authority (in our case, our Capstone instructor, the wonderful Prof. Stacy Surla) for their input.