"Networking is an essential part of building wealth"

It was Feb 2021 I read about this quote. And from then I started networking seriously.

Here is a plan I followed to get my 1st Job in Digital Marketing -

1. Step 1:- Learn A Skill
2. Step 2:- Join a community with like-minded people and be active there.

Now when I am shifting my career from Marketing to Development I decided to follow the same plan.

To bring this plan into action I joined a Community based cohort program organized by SkillValley

Recently we completed the 1st week and my god it was full of unexpected surprises and learnings.

Here I am listing down my top learnings from week 1.

Team Management and Task Delegation

In the first week of the cohort, we all are divided into multiple teams of 4 members. And I was the team leader of our team in the first week.

First of all, it was an exciting feeling to connect with 3 complete Starnegrs and then build a connection with them to create something amazing.

Here are my learnings as a team leader

1. As a TL you should have a clear idea about the technical weakness and strengths of your team members. One or two team meeting is enough for this.

2. Technicalities are important but as a leader, it's more important to get aware of the attitude of your team members. One example of attitude is - How they approach a problem. This knowledge will help you to give the right task to the right member.

3. As a TL you have to take care of your team and at the same time, you have to complete your own task so following effective time management techniques is necessary. I prefer to use. Here is how I did that =>

4. Divided my tasks into 2 main categories => Team Tasks and Personal tasks.

5. Use Pomodoro techniques to complete sub-tasks from 2 categories.

   If you also want to use the Pomodoro technique you can check out this Productivity Tool - The Magnifier, created by me.😉

6. Also this position as a team leader helped me to sharpen my People skills. Especially how to make your team complete their tasks without being rude.

Technical Lessons of Product Building.

So after creating the teams the Skill Vally team has given some amazing problem statements to each team.

Our problem statement was - Create a workspace for Entrepreneurs so that they can avoid shifting tabs while managing their business.

In the first week, we did have not to code. We worked on our Manifesto file, User Flow, and UI Design of the Product. As a result, I revised my skills in Figma and Notion.

We also had 3 sessions on 3 different topics from experts =>

Session 1:- Brainstorming your Problem Statement by Ayush.

Session 2:- Basics of System Design by Abhishek.

Session 3:- UI/UX DESIGN by Abhishek.

Here are my top technical learnings from week 1.

Brainstorming

1. The 1st step of solving any problem is to think about How my user and stakeholders will feel?
2. Never ever assume anything. Before reaching any conclusion always do proper research.
3. While defining the problem:- a. Read the problem again and again b. Listen to your inner voice about the solution c. Absorbe the problem again.
4. After defining a problem create a Manifesto. This will be the Constitution of your product. Whenever your team will face any problem while building the product they should refer to this Manifesto to get the solution.

System Design

1. It is a technology that we have to create before starting coding according to the end user requirements.
2. Basic concepts of LLD and HLD.
3. Decide your tech stack based on your requirements.
4. Also before start coding you should take care of all the potential problems you will face while building the product.

UI/UX Design

1. Your design should align with your business's mission and financial goal.
2. Don't use too many colors and fonts on a single page.
3. Always follow the UX laws and guidelines.
4. Use a tool like Figma to create the design.

Conclusion:-

While joining Skillvalley I never thought I will learn these many things. Week 1 was full of new lessons and some hands-on experience in Product building. At the same time, it was a roller-coster journey with the team.

Looking forward to facing some new challenges in the next 5 weeks.