#Building Kooza — Our Capstone 2 Experience
I’m currently enrolled in a software entrepreneurship program — MEST. Every quarter we form a team, find a problem, and build a solution in 7 short weeks.
This article is a review of how it all went down, in GenZ’s voice, this article is to tell you if capstone 2 was ‘giving” all it was meant to give. I’ll share my experience working in a team, building a product, and pitching on the final day.
Expectations for Capstone 2
After completing Capstone 1, I realized that I wanted to make Capstone 2 better. I set goals, rules, activities, and a specific target to guide me, I also defined values and clarified the roles I wanted to perform.
Every time I joined a team, it was assumed that I would fall into a content role because I was known for my writing, strategy, and marketing skills.
For me, that was no way to grow, I wanted to push myself beyond my very familiar writing role.
For Capstone 2, I decided I would not accept a CMO role, but I’d rather focus on tech (I’ll come back to tell you how this played out)
In our first official team meeting, I made it clear that I wanted to do something different. Thankfully, I was given the role of a CPO — chief product officer
Before our capstone, Emily Fiagbezi, our Faculty Director, and our business Fellow Lady O Hammond took us through the stages of team formation, forming, storming, norming, and performing. we didn't know how important this would be later on in our building process. we went through all these stages, and since I’m now aware of how each stage played out, I am going to break down our experiences according to these stages
Forming Stage — Defining the team, setting the stage
Our first few weeks were focused on setting the stage for our capstone project, we spent those weeks deciding
- Who would lead the team?
- who would be responsible for what tasks?
- what would we work on?
- what industry do we want to focus on?
If this was Sprint, the forming stage would be day 1, where would be setting the stage for everything else we would do, the first week was pretty easy, we choose a team name, and team lead, and we all chose our roles and we brainstormed a couple of ideas based on our interests and industry.
The whole idea was listing these ideas, choosing the top 2 or 3 with the best vote, passing them through the Business Validation Funnel to test their viability, and deciding which one to focus on.
Our first idea was a social platform that helped busy professionals keep in touch with their network. It didn't slide, there were many loopholes and our teachers weren’t convinced people would pay to use this platform. it was a vitamin problem, not a painkiller problem. After a dozen research & multiple deliberations, we decided to pivot.
What we didnt know was that this wouldn’t be the last time we would have to change direction
Storming Stage — What are we doing wrong?
There has to be a problem if we are struggling so much to come to make decisions. This was what was on our minds as we went through weeks of conflict, decision-making, and pivoting.
A typical day for us would be talking about our research in the morning, meeting our mentor in the afternoon, receiving negative feedback, and having doubts about us implementing our idea.
We would sit there, listening to feedback, go back to the drawing board, and start all over. every time we meet our mentor, our resolve weakened and we lost confidence in our ability to deliver our solution
Our second idea was very much like @Buymeacoffee, we wanted to help artist monetize their community through social gaming & fan incentives. This idea did not slide, because again when we met with our mentors, we could not explain how to get traffic on popular social media to our platform.
Idea Gap: If Facebook decides to help artist monetize their fan community, would we be out of business?
This was a very difficult stage for us, for one, it meant we had to start from square one. from the beginning! 4 weeks were gone already, our deliverables were piling up, waiting for us, other teams were moving forward, and we couldn't decide if we wanted to stick with this or change our mind. Time was not on our side and we were losing positive momentum
Norming Stage — How do we work together toward our Goal?
It was hard to get out of our storming stage, but when we did, things gradually began to pick up. Our CTO, B.K spent sleepless nights building our backend, and we had to put together a presentation quickly, our CMO was in charge of that, Gerald was tasked with figuring out the business model canvas and revenue model, and I was tasked with talking to as many users as possible.
Once we decided we were working on the supply chain industry, it was easier to choose a problem to focus on. To figure out the problem, we spoke to Bank managers, businessmen, retailers, distributors, credit bureau managers, and even our competitors. My job was to reach out to these people, most I’d never met before, prepare questions & convince them to a meeting.
Remember I had promised myself that I wanted to work on the Tech related part of the project, but here I was doing research, speaking with people, building partnerships, and analyzing findings, and I was enjoying it. I was so good at it, that I could set up a meeting with anyone we wanted to meet from any organization.
Our research on credit scoring for retailers, made us realize they struggled with getting loans due to a lack of financial data, one way we could help them do this was by tracking their credit scores for them, we settled for Kooza;
Things really picked up from there, we did more in the last 2 weeks of Capstone than in an entire month. we were taking in feedback, finetuning our business model, and testing our product with real customers, all our efforts were not in vain after all
Performing Stage — How do we deliver Kooza in record time
It’s pitch day, the climax of all our efforts, today we would show the founder, possible investors, guest lecturers, our fellows, and our colleagues what we have been doing from day 1.
It was not my first time pitching Kooza, we had undergone rigorous pitch training for 2 weeks to get here, still, I was nervous, the day before I missed my lines. I had practiced over and over again but I wasn't still sure I was ready, I was quivering from the early morning rain and we were the second team presenting, whether this would work in our favor or not, I did not know
But as I scanned the room full of faces I know so well, I saw my friends cheering me on, and my teammates by my side, I grew confident, I could do this, and the hell yea I did. After the pitch was feedback, we answered all questions thrown at us, we did it, we did it and yes I was so proud of how far we came
Adjourning Stage: How well did we perform?
The next day I could breathe a sigh of relief, finally, we were done. but capstone 2 was not over, after pitch day was a final important stage — the reflection stage where we asked ourselves questions about our team experience
To get the best out of this reflection exercise we had to answer honestly. It was easier to look back and admit our mistakes and learning gaps since there was nothing else to lose
A few questions we had to ask ourselves were;
What did you learn from this capstone?
What did you think you could have done better?
Did you enjoy working with this team, would you work with them again?
would you sunset this product or would you still work on it
what were your biggest challenges in this project
My Personal Reflection
It was extremely important to me that I was proud of the work that I did, I also wanted to work on something I was passionate about, more than just completing this project, I had to self-reflect on the personal goals and milestones I had set for myself
Did I achieve my Goals?
Not entirely, for one, I was not able to improve my coding skills and I was not responsible for the technical part of our project.
However, Kooza was a real problem, solving this problem could unlock credit for millions of retailers in Africa. I was glad I worked on a wicked problem that could make lives easier for retailers in Africa. One thing I was proud of was being a crucial member of the team, my contributions were valued and necessary.
What roles and skills did I perform?
My role in the team was multi-faceted. Although I was the Chief Product Officer, my tasks spanned multiple aspects, on some days I was preparing questions and documenting interviews, on other days, I was brainstorming our business model, it was all intertwined. I was planted right in between users & the product, I enjoyed talking to users and translating their needs to actual features on our platform.
What Values did I represent?
When I started out, I set out some values to guide me; Passion, Perseverance, Adventure & creativity. There were many times that we could have given up, but we pushed through.
My teammates told me I was resourceful, and it made my day because it was a value I casually put in there. seeing that I actually lived up to it made me happy. At some point, it was easier to go with a safe choice than a risky one, in that moment, I wished I chose courage.
Rules & Activities
Sometimes we make plans and expect things to go exactly the way we list them out. like putting in a 7-hour study in a week. (it didn't happen that way 😅) I made plans for structured learning, but I learned so much more, by talking to users, brainstorming with teammates, interviewing industry experts and researching credit scoring in Africa
Capstone 2 taught me so much about myself
It showed me, I was more than I thought I could be. It taught me patience and perseverance, we failed a couple of times, and it was easy to give up, but sometimes starting anew could be the best thing, I learned that;
- For a team to succeed, they must have confidence in their ability to deliver
- Working with smart people can be challenging, but it pushes you to think beyond your bias
- Healthy disagreements can strengthen a team, and handling conflict is an important life skill to have
- There is so much more that contributes to the success of a product than its tech
- I learned how important communication and writing was, and I’m going to improve myself in those areas
- I learned I have valuable skills, an in-depth ability for partnership, and a valuable strength in building relationships, I was focused on tech that I didn't see my strengths
- Finally, I learned the power of focus, desisting from the comparison trap & focusing intently on my own journey
Capstone 2 was a success for me, not just because we completed the project, it was a success because I learned so much more than I would have if the journey was smooth and easy.
As I continue in my journey of becoming a software entrepreneur, I’m taking the lessons I learned with me. I’m going to keep coming back to reflect on these insights.
Have you worked with a team to build a product, I would love to hear about your experience, you can write to me: at favour.onukogu@meltwater.org. Alternatively, I’m everywhere on the internet by the name: @wildflower.eth you can send me a direct message on Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin or Discord.
Till next time, let's go for Big Audacious Scary Goals
Cheers
Wildflower.eth
Product Manager, Software Entrepreneur, Blockchain Consultant
#teamformation #startupteam #productdevelopment #MEST #Startup #AfricanFounders
