Along with another peer of mine, I was co-project manager for this group. I took this role seriously, and took it upon myself to make sure we were hitting every little want and need of our client and professors.

My approach to this role was making sure everyone had the tools they needed to succeed and offer any guidance or help so that everyone was contributing optimally. Some ways I handled this role were by creating and sending meeting notes after our weekly meetings, delegating tasks, creating detailed notes, sending out reminders, and of course, making an effort to keep moods high and collaboration pleasant.

Due to how much research I did over the course of the semester, my team dubbed me ‘the research queen’ in our final meeting. I mapped out the budget and timeline singlehandedly, spearheaded collecting numerical data to back up our financial proposals, made my own calculations as well, handled the environmental segment of our market analysis (which ended up being a huge, unique highlight for our group’s overall work in the end), and got real life field research from a nearby hospital (with help from a connection of mine who works there—we were the only group to do such research). I also conducted interviews that really helped inform our final deliverables!

Without divulging too many details—for the first half of the semester, the highwire teams were missing crucial information that limited what we could do with our marketing materials. Our solution came about because we were prepared with questions, and knew where the gaps of information were prior to meeting with our client. A solid meeting with them helped us discover this problem we weren’t even aware of, and the new information gave us a narrow scope that helped us move forward.

Another issue was the time constraints. Seven full-time students with jobs and other obligations makes it hard to coordinate a lot of out of class time for meeting up, so we had to be intentional with our time, and every team member had to contribute fully. It was a busy and bustling semester.

For both of these issues, organization, communication and clarity played key roles in allowing us to overcome these challenges. Our team was good about being on the same page and not letting anyone fall behind.

Visual organization and consistent visual language were key in our work. For me as project manager, the first thing I did when we moved to working on our next upcoming presentation was outlining a logical structure in a Google Slide and making it accessible to the rest of the group. Since much of my work was in the background and not client-facing, my designs were less about being visually appealing, and more about being able to communicate important information quickly to my peers. There’s nothing I love more than learning complex information and being able to simplify it into an easy experience for others.

Additionally, I did a lot of polish on our presentation slides, where consistent visual language comes in. I found new ways of taking our color palette, font, and design elements, and creating new layouts that matched our visual brand but kept our slides from being monotonous. Information was presented so that it was catchy, memorable, and easily understood.

I believe research and design are inseparable, but the truth is, I did a lot of research work that aligned more with my marketing peers than the polished final designs I was used to. It was a great experience to grow as a researcher and find information on topics that aren’t readily available.

I also developed a lot of speaking skills, as we had a lot of presentations. Our team had a tendency to go over time rather than under time. Since I often had a speaking role in the later parts of the presentation, I was able to identify when my peers were talking longer and adapt to talking in a more succinct way, so that we fit our presentation within the designated time frame. I was proud of how I was able to prioritize and communicate information, especially after noticing my growth throughout the semester.