Current Student Blogs

FROM Bschooladmit20: Steady Love

you once told me to not be a stone but you’re the rock the stolid, warm consistent support that i didn’t know can’t imagine being without can never really fully grasp i deserve you showed me what it means to let someone in slow down, stop steady love

FROM Sheiquiroga: Quick Announcement

This is to let all my viewers know that I'll be posting more things in the coming months. (I haven't forgotten about you.) Just prioritizing my Statistics and Operations class right now. Upcoming posts: 1. Term 1 - Academics (Including the books to read for Term 1 while you sit there waiting for your MBA year) 2. Term 1 - Club Activities and some case competitions 3. Term 2 Life - Internship Hunting - It's okaaay - That's what we're all going to say to you next year. a. For all the NEW VIEWERS, things that are more important for MBA newbies are buried deep down in this blog. For your convenience, if you look at the right part of this blog, there is a Label/Tag icon. Please click it and choose the most relevant categories you're looking for. And if you have time, do check out all my blogs I put into so much time just to help everyone out! b. I know some people might be CONSTANTLY CHECKING this blog. To improve our efficiency (Yes, I just took a KPMG Lean Six Sigma Training, so I'm using these words) and you don't have to waste your valuable time, please also look at the rightmost part of this blog and click on the second icon and subscribe. This will send you email whenever I post new articles. Quick update with my life: - In the midst of finding an internship - Better life than term 2 except for the anxiety - Improved a lot of skills Will keep you guys updated; don't worry! Love, Wondersuite

FROM Bschooladmit20: Stanford: Future of Media

FROM Sheiquiroga: Rotman's Term 1 - Section Fiiiive (5)

As you can see in this score card, Section 5 was not "best" section according to this criteria. However, I want to especially dedicate this article to the best social reps, Rex Wu and Rosemary Wilson, and my Section 5 classmates. They have done so much to our section to keep us sane and happy throughout this hellish term. And kudos to all the first year reps who allocate their time to join all these meetings just to serve their fellow classmates! Congratulations to Section 2! After Midterms Snack They never forget to care for us. Right after the midterms, they provided us with sustenance for the rest of the afternoon. They brought us some tasty snacks while everyone was discussing how to do Question 2 of Finance.  Cultural Music “I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from.” – Billy Joel Music lowers stress and makes you happy. For every break that we have, Rex would play music from different countries. He even brought his own speaker for this. And some days, he would just play very calming music that you might think you are entering a five-star hotel when you enter Section 5. Professor Mike's Baby We are all extremely busy and shopping for anything is really hard. Even our Finance professor was busy and lost sleep not because of classes, but because he was having a baby!!! Nevertheless, Rosemary managed to find gifts for Professor Mike! Professor Mike: I wish you had given me these gifts before I wrote the exam.  Baby Zachariah Rocking Movember Aamer's Baby It's not only Zach who is getting born! We have another MBA baby, Hamzah Aamer! Our social reps organized another baby shopping and, of course, we kept it secret from him! When Aamer announced his baby just entered this world, he brought some tasty chocolates for the whole class and we gave the gift at the same time. We hope that your baby would grow as kind and smart as you are, Aamer! Francisco Getting Married Not only do we have our newly-born babies, we are also going to have newly-born love! This guy on the left will be getting married over the Christmas holidays! We prepared a touching card with everyone's signature and messages wishing him to have a blessed and happy marriage! Post-midterm Section Party After we recovered for a bit, we had another party during our mini-break after the midterms. This party occurred right after the Career over Beers that was held in a bar, Duke of York, just above Brewhaha, where we had our party. Diwali Back in college/high school, we would only decorate our room mostly when we have to do a creative presentation. So when I entered our room in the morning, I thought we are going to have a creative presentation for our marketing class. It turned out that these lights were organized by our social reps to celebrate Diwali, a Hindu festival of lights celebrated every autumn! Happy Diwali!  Check this out for the video: https://www.facebook.com/shei.quiroga/p ... 2200906272 Day of the Dead They also made an effort to decorate the room for Dia de Muertos, a Mexican Day of the Dead to honor the dead that includes festivals, parades, and gatherings of families to pray for their deceased loved ones. Birthday Greetings It is your birthday and you are overseas away from your family and wonderful friends! Yet no one made an effort or anything for your day here in this cold country. It is quite sad, right? That's why we started doing these birthday greetings on Facebook. Our classmates will have our section bunny beside them if it's their birthday. And we will post their photo on Facebook and let the world know it's their freakin' birthday!!!             Lili Lim!  Lili Lim for the win! I just want to give a special mention to Lili for helping out our professors to continue their lectures and classmates to start their presentations. I hope that there will be a tutorial on how to use these projectors, etc! Secret Santa and Last Section Get Together           Before the classes started, our upper years had us answering a poll of the top 3 words that represents our section, the result was creative. Back then, we have no idea of our section personality at all. And during this last section get together before the holiday break, our reps had us re-answer this poll. Awwww yeah. We are the "FUN" section!!! Some memories we shared in class and during our group presentations: Better Call Jon, the best Fund Manager Chris!!!! (He was not present in class when this was presented. Haha!)   OCFCL and OCFCX And even if we feel like this (picture on the left) every single day in our MBA life,  we always feel like this (picture on the right) whenever we have our classes together at section 5! And... we will always end up having fun in this way after every achievement and milestone that we reach together on our way to our future successful lives:  This is our Section Bunny who was completely wasted during the parties! Awwwee yeaaah! Love, Wondersuite

FROM Sheiquiroga: Quick Announcement

This is to let all my viewers know that I'll be posting more things in the coming months. (I haven't forgotten about you.) Just prioritizing my Statistics and Operations class right now. Upcoming posts: 1. Term 1 - Academics (Including the books to read for Term 1 while you sit there waiting for your MBA year) 2. Term 1 - Club Activities and some case competitions 3. Term 2 Life - Internship Hunting - It's okaaay - That's what we're all going to say to you next year. a. For all the NEW VIEWERS, things that are more important for MBA newbies are buried deep down in this blog. For your convenience, if you look at the right part of this blog, there is a Label/Tag icon. Please click it and choose the most relevant categories you're looking for. And if you have time, do check out all my blogs I put into so much time just to help everyone out! b. I know some people might be CONSTANTLY CHECKING this blog. To improve our efficiency (Yes, I just took a KPMG Lean Six Sigma Training, so I'm using these words) and you don't have to waste your valuable time, please also look at the rightmost part of this blog and click on the second icon and subscribe. This will send you email whenever I post new articles. Quick update with my life: - In the midst of finding an internship - Better life than term 1 except for the anxiety - Improved a lot of skills Will keep you guys updated; don't worry! Love, Wondersuite

FROM The Oxford Comma: Care Deeply and Challenge Directly

One of my goals in 2018 was to learn more about management as I transition from being  an individual contributor to a manager. I have started attending management training at work, but have also been looking for books, podcasts, articles to learn more. Radical Candor was the one of the most recommeded books on this topic. The author Kim Scott traces her journey from a startup where she was CEO to Apple and Google where she effectively managed people and even ran management bootcamps. As CEO, Kim was afraid of giving hard feedback as she did not want to be seen as a jerk. However this meant that her employees were not aware of their flaws and did not correct them which led to even more uncomfortable conversations down the line. She set out to investigate how to “be a kick ass boss without losing your humanity”. The answer which is in the top right of the quadrant is the title of the book and it consists of the following two steps. Care Deeply – The first step to understand the employee’s goals (both personal and professional) deeply. This can be done through a series of 1-1 meetings with the employee. It is then the manager’s job to put the employee in a position where they can make progress towards those goals. Too often, managers assume that all employees want to be star performers – there are many who derive satisfaction from working 8 hours a day and spending their free time with family and friends. Challenge Directly – The next step is to challenge the employee whenever they fall short of the goals that they have set for themselves. If the manager has established a good rapport (step 1), then the employee will see these challenges as an attempt by the manager to guide them rather than attack on their performance. Feedback should happen quickly and be not reserved for 1-1 meetings or annual reviews. The “directly” in “Challenge directly” advices that feedback cannot be diluted lest it be ignored. One thing that the book does not detail is how personality type may influence the efficacy of the book’s advice. Most managers are familiar with Myers-Briggs or similar personality tests which specify that employees should be motivated or challenged differently depending on their personality. For e.g. certain employees may not take too kindly to being challenged, even if the manager has a good rapport with them.   Overall, the book is a great read and full of useful advice. It goes into great detail on how to establish a culture of radical cantor in the workplace. I highly recommend it to managers especially new ones like me.

FROM Sheiquiroga: Rotman Term 1 - Academics

Term 1, aka Rotman's Hell Term,  is over. In our exam room, we all clapped with gladness after the last exam. For future students, I won't be discussing the contents of the subjects since that's one of the reasons you come to MBA for. I'll leave that to you to unravel! But my main tip for everyone is to always read ahead of time because you won't have any time left when you start preparing for your career-related activities. Be sure to enjoy your team meetings and always prioritize them so you don't annoy your teammates who are equally working hard for your grades. Managing Customer Value https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bpmIV6ZMQ3Q/WjcIuI4yg_I/AAAAAAAACjw/0nGBlSG9K6IBdNtKL-Gk9rOgw_JPlr0wQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/24862589_10214063977169335_786132614404381648_n.jpgProfessor Avi Goldfarb (along with Professor Dilip Soliman) No book required. All readings were provided by the professor. In this course, we talked about foundations of marketing, such as the 3Cs and the 4Ps with more emphasis on the customers. We touched upon digital marketing, value creation, consumer behavior, and some business design. We had Professor Dilip for one session, in which he discussed about behavioral economics, specifically more on nudging. Deliverables: >We had to read different cases from both Harvard and Ivey and discuss the case facts and learnings in class. Out of these cases, we also had to submit case positioning statements, which were not that difficult to do. >For the class participation, just merely participating for the sake of it won't give you high marks here. You have to actually contribute something great in class and even challenge the thinking of the professor in order to get higher marks. >For the midterm exam, most of the content were from the slides and lectures, but it requires clear understanding since some questions can be tricky. You need to listen attentively in classes. >Next, we have to deliver a marketing plan presentation and paper. We had to come up with ideas for self-control product. Prototyping is important here. I would suggest to have at least two prototypes and show how your ideas improved after having the first one. Be sure to bring them in your presentation just in case the professor ask for them. Our brainstorming, prototyping and bodystorming: We also had a special session with Mark Leung, in which he discussed the three gears of business design and how merely changing the consumer's process can bring about valuable impact on your business. Afterwards, they also let us start prototyping our ideas and started doing bodystorming to see if there's a gap that we haven't addressed in our journey map. This was helpful because it helped us challenge our thinking and whether our idea was even feasible given the current tech offerings. Finance I - Capital Market and Valuation  https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dFa8DWJLZSQ/WjcIyFHumGI/AAAAAAAACkI/wZUJ_QJDy6wFDGDoFNzTbSlopYougEzrQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/24899728_10214063977209336_6175157856182926534_n.jpgProfessor Mikhail Simutin Book: Corporate Finance by Berk, J. and DeMarzo, P. In this class, we learned about capital markets and bond valuation. They taught us about bond arbitrage, strips, CAPM, stocks, forward and future contracts, stock options, etc. The thing that I like about this course is that Professor Mike tries to find fun ways to make the course easily understandable. For such a complicated subject, he did a great job in letting people understand Finance concepts and he is undeniably one of the best professors you will ever have.   Deliverables: >First deliverable is to identify the value of our MBA using NPV analysis before the first class started. Then, they required us to deliver a series of homeworks before they discussed them in classes. The homeworks were hard for people who didn't have any Finance background and would require you to either really read the book or ask your friends to teach you how concepts work (so don't be mean to your classmates because you have to help out each other and fill in the gaps in your experience). >We also had to deliver a Finance presentation and our group prepared hard for it and we did role playing and presented commercial videos that we created ourselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4mnWMEoHhM  Our group just wanted to have fun even if it was just around 5% of the grade. >Another deliverable was doing stock pitch presentation. Unfortunately, the stock pitch case competitions started earlier than the actual lecture, so it would be great if you prepare beforehand if you plan to choose the (tormented) Finance track. >This Finance midterm exam is something that would crush the souls of most of the MBA students. In term 1, most of the people were doing a lot of coffee chats, networking and case competitions. We even had endless homeworks for both Accounting and Finance. The midterm was the last one among the four subjects and most of the people just studied the afternoon before the actual exam. All of this left us insufficient time to study. This exam was also the hardest one out of the four subjects. >The final exam was still tricky but less as it allowed people to still continue answering the questions even if you cannot get the right answer in the preceding questions. In addition, people prepared better for the finals after having the torturous midterm. Do I need a finance calculator? We did not use it much in the exam and I think you can get away with a normal scientific calculator. However, I still tried to borrow from my upper year buddy just in case I really had to compute using them.  If you haven't bought a calculator, I would recommend buying Casio's fx-991ES Natural Display because of its screen size and you can input fractions in more organized and easier way.  Financial Accounting Professor Dragan Stojanovic Book: Financial Accounting using IFRS by Wong, F., et al.  https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZXZTphiz0t4/WjcIsZJDcbI/AAAAAAAACjo/0UoLn1lWhYMR90aiDESGb-sDQCGdLGt2wCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/24899794_10214063977089333_9164811969535759316_n.jpgI love this subject so much because it's not your average accounting class, in which you merely do bookkeeping. Professor Dragan was so great in teaching us how to read financial statements and he is one of the coolest profs we had. I found that the book was pretty easy to understand, but the trick in accounting reading them carefully, or else, you will miss out on some important details. Try to read the books ahead of time because they will take so much time and you have to learn them ahead in order for you to do the homeworks.  Deliverables: >You will analyze financial reports from a user's perspective, but you will practice doing the bookkeeping in a less strict sense thru the homeworks. These homeworks were a pain to most of the students, especially from people who did not have accounting backgrounds. You would have to study your books first and we spent lots of time on the formatting of the journals and ledgers. We had these homeworks for almost every before classes, which was a real pain. >We were assigned companies and we had to choose another company that is related either as a competitor or as a supplier. Then, we had to submit a paper before and after the midterms; it was divided into two parts, so don't panic when you see a long list of questions. We then had to present them in class. >For both the midterms and finals, I think that the people who were checking them did not give generous partial points and there were multiple errors in checking my exam for both midterms and finals. So be sure to review your exam results properly because it might be hard to check for the TAs. The exams were also a bit tricky but it's not impossible to get a perfect score especially if you came from an accounting background.  >Another thing I liked about this course was when we had a Credit Committee Simulation conducted by Scotiabank. Its employees generously gave their after hours time to facilitate and to help us see and experience how the credit committee makes their judgment in lending businesses money. It was helpful for both future entrepreneurs and leaders since you will know where to improve upon to increase your chances of getting loans.  Fundamentals of Strategic Management Professor Mara Lederman (along with Michael Ryall) No required book. Readings were all uploaded by the professor. https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dtjAqyV4qE4/WjbxpQzkGhI/AAAAAAAACTg/zpapo1PLhpsdDVjSEiAFxNRG6dknppu6wCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/image%2B%25286%2529.jpgThe professor did a great job in challenging our strategic points of view and helping us create our own PPPD (Positive, persistent performance difference). We read different Harvard cases, such as Disney-Pixar, and started by tackling early theories on strategy. Other topics included diversification, first-mover advantage, barriers to entry, relations and reputations. Professor Ryall also discussed his own Value Capture Model theory, which required some math and analysis to understand the variables, but one of the points here is that two or more agents create more value than a single agent. And to add, one thing that amuses us is when our professors try to show their creative parts, such as when Professor Mara was trying to draw Mickey!  Deliverables: >We had two homeworks, which are pretty fair than the past homeworks we had in the Foundations Term. Most of them will be based on the lectures and slides with some additional thinking for applications. >We also discussed about the gaming industry and we had to present different reasons in the class, but it was not graded. >The midterm exam was also based on the lectures and slides and I think they are the fairest exam we had. However, people might still not get high grades because of cramming. You should be studying the slides after lectures and not just cram them before the actual exam. >The final exam was similar to the midterms and it included questions for applications of the topics. Scholar Sessions I rarely attended scholar sessions this term because I was too busy with other things and found that I can be more productive at home at my own time. You can also just study the slides of the scholars, which I found pretty useful.  Finals and Midterms   Mix of both sadness and happiness that exams are over. Off to partying haaaard.  Regroupings Term 1 is over. Hell term is over. But that also means, your initial groupmates' meetings are all over too. I just want to thank my "Supersonic Powerhouse" team for helping me and each other improve on different things. We came up with this team name when everyone was tipsy before writing our first ethics presentation in Foundations term. I'm not the best person in Finance, Accounting, hard math problems nor powerpoint decks; however, these amazing guys helped me improve so much and sometimes I think I learned more from them than in actual lectures. We covered up each others' gaps and just came out being better people. When things were too tough, we just discussed our group presentations over Skype and we still came out pretty productive. Every meeting would start with either rants or just jokes and then a person would halt us to continue and start doing the actual work. In addition, Jonathan, a former professional basketball player, was such a good role model for me. He would wake up so early and get things done immediately. He was always up to date with his readings and such a diligent person. I started waking up early in December and even during the winter breaks. I developed this habit and it was just so nice to study when it is very serene and quiet.  To Gurman, Jonathan, Kiel and Urvi, thank you so much!!! I will never forget you guys. You are the best teammates I ever had. <3 I'm glad we still kept in touch during the winter breaks and even in Term 2. Missing chargers and bottles Term 1 is also the season that you start losing all your things. Rotman will give you free water bottles and be sure to put special stickers on them, so you can still retrieve them in the lost and found. Favorite memes for this term:   Love, Wondersuite

FROM Bschooladmit20: Product Management for Startups = People Management

I’ve held several product management roles in very diverse settings over the past four years. I led the development of an influencer marketing platform for a European adtech company, managed two very different Stanford-based startup teams (one primarily designer-led in ed-tech space and another engineer-led in the healthcare sector) and worked with the UK government, a large charity and an impact investor to design and launch an incubator for public services in the UK. In each of these roles, no matter how different the actual work, teams, and outcomes we were working towards, what worked- in terms of allowing us to align on a vision, undertake deep need-finding exercises, build prototypes, work together effectively and ensure that we released our product on time- was always the same. These are my key lessons: Keep the product roadmap as simple as possible + get buy-in early Your product will keep evolving: you will never get it to be perfect. Your role is to build a common vision across very different teams, keep things moving, align teams, solve problems and get buy-in. To do all those things, all day, everyday, you need to keep the product and process as simple as possible. Particularly when each team you work with has its own vocabulary, culture and norms. Ensure all your stakeholders agree on what the bare minimum viable product looks like- and that this version is genuinely usable. You can dress it up later. Manage towards outcomes: build trust Your role isn’t to tell people what to do: it’s to facilitate your teams. Create a set of project team norms and values for each product that you work on, that are continuously reinforced. Be friends with the people you work with. Take your teams out for dinner and drinks, get to know them personally. Get their buy in. Understand what excites them, stops them, or frustrates them. Protect them and remove obstacles. Don’t control the process. Give people the freedom to create. Inspire and motivate them. Then leave them to it. Over-communicate: it’s not obvious to everyone Getting buy in across teams is not easy. Your role is to be the trusted confidante. You should be the first one to know if something is going wrong; or if a deadline is going to slip. Your team needs to know exactly what is expected of them; and why. Deliver bad news upfront and early. Stay direct. Ask for and give feedback regularly. User perspective + empathy: it doesn’t matter what you think User design is always much complicated than it seems on the surface. You will never get it right. It can always be better. Don’t get dragged down a rabbit hole. Don’t get distracted by the way things look. There are no right answers. Continuously put yourself in the user’s shoes and design for them. Make sure the experience is simple, easy + intuitive- if not delightful. Move fast: decision-making & measurement You can collect as much data while you’re developing a product.In the end, you’re going to have to make some calls that are unscientific: based on your gut, instinct and qualitative feedback. Act quickly and decisively. You role is to say no, cut out the bullshit and keep going. BUT make sure that you’re continuously refining your KPIs- and that you invest in defining what data you want to collect from your users upfront before you release each iteration of your product. You want to balance releasing a version of your product with being able to test whether it is actually ‘working’- and feel free to get a little creative in defining what ‘working’ means. Prioritisation: say no You’re not going to be able to put out every fire, or keep every stakeholder (the design, engineering, client and senior management teams) happy at all times. Balance the urgent v/s the important: don’t lose sight of what you’re end goal is. It’s okay to say no, as long as as a team, you’re still heading where you want to go. Stay authentic: do what works for you Genuine leadership is an exercise in influence: understanding what motivates people, getting people with very different perspectives and backgrounds to align on a single vision, and work together, and then carrying your team across the finish line. Use your own style to make it work.

FROM Bschooladmit20: Product Management + Startups = People Management

I’ve held several product management roles in diverse settings over the past four years. I led the development of an influencer marketing platform for a European adtech company, co-founded and managed two very different Stanford-based startup teams (one primarily designer-led in the ed-tech space and another engineer-led in the healthcare sector) and worked with the UK government, a large charity and an impact investor to design and launch an incubator for public services in the UK. In each of these roles, no matter how different the actual work, teams and outcomes we were working towards, what ‘worked’- in terms of allowing us to align on a vision, undertake deep need-finding exercises, build prototypes, work together effectively and ensure that we released our product on time- was always the same. These are my key lessons: Keep the product roadmap as simple as possible + get buy-in early Your product will keep evolving: you will never get it to be perfect. Your role is to build a common vision across different teams, keep things moving, align teams, solve problems and get buy-in. To do all those things, all day, everyday, you need to keep the product and process as simple as possible. Particularly when each team you work with has its own vocabulary, culture and norms. Ensure all your stakeholders agree on what the bare minimum viable product looks like- and that this version is genuinely usable. You can dress it up later. Manage towards outcomes: build trust Your role isn’t to tell people what to do: it’s to facilitate your teams. Create a set of project team norms and values for each product that you work on, that are continuously reinforced. Be friends with the people you work with. Take your teams out for dinner and drinks, get to know them personally. Get their buy in. Understand what excites them, stops them, or frustrates them. Protect them and remove obstacles. Don’t control the process. Give people the freedom to create. Inspire and motivate them. Then leave them to it. Over-communicate: it’s never obvious Getting buy in across teams is not easy. Your role is to be the trusted confidante. You should be the first one to know if something is going wrong; or if a deadline is going to slip. Your team needs to know exactly what is expected of them; and why. Deliver bad news upfront and early. Stay direct. Ask for and give feedback regularly. User perspective + empathy: it doesn’t matter what you think User design is always much complicated than it seems on the surface. You will never get it right. It can always be better. Don’t get dragged down a rabbit hole, or get distracted by the way things look. There are no right answers. Continuously put yourself in the user’s shoes- by actually asking them what they need/want + also observing how they interact with the product- and then design the product specifically for whichever segment you’re initially targeting. Make sure the experience is simple, easy + intuitive- if not delightful. Move fast: decision-making & measurement Run the tests. Let the data speak first. But while you can always collect more data while you’re developing a product, in the end, you’re going to have to make some calls that are unscientific: based on your gut, instinct and qualitative feedback. Act quickly and decisively. You role is to say no, cut out the bullshit and keep going. On the other hand, sure that you’re continuously refining your KPIs- and that you invest in defining what data you want to collect from your users early on, and revise this before you release each iteration of your product. You want to balance releasing a version of your product with being able to test whether it is actually ‘working’. Also, feel free to get (a little) creative in defining what ‘working’ means. Prioritisation: say no You’re not going to be able to put out every fire, or keep every stakeholder (the design, engineering, client and senior management teams) happy at all times. Balance the urgent v/s the important: don’t lose sight of what you’re end goal is. It’s okay to say no, as long as as a team, you’re still heading where you want to go. Stay authentic: do what works for you Real leadership is an exercise in influence: understanding what motivates people, getting people with very different perspectives and backgrounds to align on a single vision, and work together, and then carrying your team across the finish line. Use your own style to make it work.

FROM Bschooladmit20: What No One Tells You Product Management

What No One Tells You About Product Management Product management + startups = people managementI’ve held several product management roles in diverse settings over the past four years. I led the development of an influencer marketing platform for a European adtech company, co-founded and managed two very different Stanford-based startup teams (one primarily designer-led in the ed-tech space and another engineer-led in the healthcare sector) and worked with the UK government, a large charity and an impact investor to design and launch an incubator for public services in the UK. In each of these roles, no matter how different the actual work, teams and outcomes we were working towards, what ‘worked’- in terms of allowing us to align on a vision, undertake deep need-finding exercises, build prototypes, work together effectively and ensure that we released our product on time- was always the same. These are my key lessons: Keep the product roadmap as simple as possible + get buy-in early Your product will keep evolving: you will never get it to be perfect. Your role is to build a common vision across different teams, keep things moving, align teams, solve problems and get buy-in. To do all those things, all day, everyday, you need to keep the product and process as simple as possible. Particularly when each team you work with has its own vocabulary, culture and norms. Ensure all your stakeholders agree on what the bare minimum viable product looks like- and that this version is genuinely usable. You can dress it up later. Manage towards outcomes: build trust Your role isn’t to tell people what to do: it’s to facilitate your teams. Create a set of project team norms and values for each product that you work on, that are continuously reinforced. Be friends with the people you work with. Take your teams out for dinner and drinks, get to know them personally. Get their buy in. Understand what excites them, stops them, or frustrates them. Protect them and remove obstacles. Don’t control the process. Give people the freedom to create. Inspire and motivate them. Then leave them to it. Over-communicate: it’s never obvious Getting buy in across teams is not easy. Your role is to be the trusted confidante. You should be the first one to know if something is going wrong; or if a deadline is going to slip. Your team needs to know exactly what is expected of them; and why. Deliver bad news upfront and early. Stay direct. Ask for and give feedback regularly. User perspective + empathy: it doesn’t matter what you think User design is always much complicated than it seems on the surface. You will never get it right. It can always be better. Don’t get dragged down a rabbit hole, or get distracted by the way things look. There are no right answers. Continuously put yourself in the user’s shoes- by actually asking them what they need/want + also observing how they interact with the product- and then design the product specifically for whichever segment you’re initially targeting. Make sure the experience is simple, easy + intuitive- if not delightful. Move fast: decision-making & measurement Run the tests. Let the data speak first. But while you can always collect more data while you’re developing a product, in the end, you’re going to have to make some calls that are unscientific: based on your gut, instinct and qualitative feedback. Act quickly and decisively. You role is to say no, cut out the bullshit and keep going. On the other hand, sure that you’re continuously refining your KPIs- and that you invest in defining what data you want to collect from your users early on, and revise this before you release each iteration of your product. You want to balance releasing a version of your product with being able to test whether it is actually ‘working’. Also, feel free to get (a little) creative in defining what ‘working’ means. Prioritisation: say no You’re not going to be able to put out every fire, or keep every stakeholder (the design, engineering, client and senior management teams) happy at all times. Balance the urgent v/s the important: don’t lose sight of what you’re end goal is. It’s okay to say no, as long as as a team, you’re still heading where you want to go. Stay authentic: do what works for you Real leadership is an exercise in influence: understanding what motivates people, getting people with very different perspectives and backgrounds to align on a single vision, and work together, and then carrying your team across the finish line. Use your own style to make it work.

FROM Bschooladmit20: What No One Tells You About Being a Product Manager

Product management + startups = people managementI’ve held several product management roles in diverse settings over the past four years. I led the development of an influencer marketing platform for a European adtech company, co-founded and managed two very different Stanford-based startup teams (one primarily designer-led in the ed-tech space and another engineer-led in the healthcare sector) and worked with the UK government, a large charity, a global infrastructure company and an impact investor to design and launch an incubator for public services in the UK. In each of these roles, no matter how different the actual work, teams and outcomes we were working towards, what ‘worked’- in terms of allowing us to align on a vision, undertake deep need-finding exercises, build prototypes, work together effectively and ensure that we released our product on time- was always the same. These are my key lessons: Keep the product roadmap as simple as possible + get buy-in early Your product will keep evolving: you will never get it to be perfect. Your role is to build a common vision across different teams, keep things moving, align teams, solve problems and get buy-in. To do all those things, all day, everyday, you need to keep the product and process as simple as possible. Particularly when each team you work with has its own vocabulary, culture and norms. Ensure all your stakeholders agree on what the bare minimum viable product looks like- and that this version is genuinely usable. You can dress it up later. Manage towards outcomes: build trust Your role isn’t to tell people what to do: it’s to facilitate your teams. Create a set of project team norms and values for each product that you work on, that are continuously reinforced. Be friends with the people you work with. Take your teams out for dinner and drinks, get to know them personally. Get their buy in. Understand what excites them, stops them, or frustrates them. Protect them and remove obstacles. Don’t control the process. Give people the freedom to create. Inspire and motivate them. Then leave them to it. Over-communicate: it’s never obvious Getting buy in across teams is not easy. Your role is to be the trusted confidante. You should be the first one to know if something is going wrong; or if a deadline is going to slip. Your team needs to know exactly what is expected of them; and why. Deliver bad news upfront and early. Stay direct. Ask for and give feedback regularly. User perspective + empathy: it doesn’t matter what you think User design is always much complicated than it seems on the surface. You will never get it right. It can always be better. Don’t get dragged down a rabbit hole, or get distracted by the way things look. There are no right answers. Continuously put yourself in the user’s shoes- by actually asking them what they need/want + also observing how they interact with the product- and then design the product specifically for whichever segment you’re initially targeting. Make sure the experience is simple, easy + intuitive- if not delightful. Move fast: decision-making & measurement Run the tests. Let the data speak first. But while you can always collect more data while you’re developing a product, in the end, you’re going to have to make some calls that are unscientific: based on your gut, instinct and qualitative feedback. Act quickly and decisively. You role is to say no, cut out the bullshit and keep going. On the other hand, sure that you’re continuously refining your KPIs- and that you invest in defining what data you want to collect from your users early on, and revise this before you release each iteration of your product. You want to balance releasing a version of your product with being able to test whether it is actually ‘working’. Also, feel free to get (a little) creative in defining what ‘working’ means. Prioritisation: say no You’re not going to be able to put out every fire, or keep every stakeholder (the design, engineering, client and senior management teams) happy at all times. Balance the urgent v/s the important: don’t lose sight of what you’re end goal is. It’s okay to say no, as long as as a team, you’re still heading where you want to go. Stay authentic: do what works for you Real leadership is an exercise in influence: understanding what motivates people, getting people with very different perspectives and backgrounds to align on a single vision, and work together, and then carrying your team across the finish line. Use your own style to make it work.

FROM Bschooladmit20: What I Learned as a Second Year Stanford MBA Student

Doing an MBA is like drinking from a firehouse. You will have more opportunities- in terms of internships, jobs, classes, friendships and travel- come your way than you can imagine. The two years are a gift. But learning what options to ignore, and what to chase, is an art. I’m incredibly grateful to have had the chance to study at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. I’ve learned more in the past 18 months, professionally and personally, than I thought was possible. These are my key takeaways on making the most of the MBA program. Focus: pick a topic, sector, person, question Build a brand- or rebrand professionally- particularly if you’re looking to change geographies, functions or industries. Use that lens to choose your classes, internships and club leadership experience. Once you’re known as the ‘fill in the blank’ person, you’ll start getting opportunities passed your way, without you having to do any of the ground work. Don’t underestimate how amazingly thoughtful + well connected your classmates are. Get some real-life work experience on the side It’s hard to truly absorb everything you’re learning, no matter how phenomenal the classes or speakers, until you try and apply it yourself. I wouldn’t have gotten half as much as I did from the program, if I hadn’t worked on startups and done a second internship. Not only does this allow you to develop practical skills: this is an entirely risk-free time. You can be as experimental as you want with your side projects. I had the chance to work on two wildly different startups, with two wildly different teams*, and loved having the chance to learn from both. Don’t forget the professors Invest in your coursework: this is your chance to build a relationship with some stellar thought leaders. Take your professors out for coffee or lunch: if you can, do a research project or write a paper with them. This gives you the incredible ability to to call up or meet whoever you want, in order to answer a question of your choosing. Doing an independent study on the rapidly evolving digital media landscape in India with Stanford’s ex-Dean was one of my most professionally meaningful experiences at the GSB. See yourself from a distance You will be given the chance to reflect, ask yourself what you truly want to do with your life, and develop self-awareness, through your classes, workshops and classmates. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. Ask your peers for feedback regularly: they can often see your strengths and weaknesses more clearly than you can. I had the chance to deliver a TALK (a GSB institution, where every week, a classmate delivers a highly personal 30 minute reflection of the key events that have shaped them, to hundreds of other classmates). It was incredibly difficult to write and deliver, and painful at times, but the event will undoubtedly be one of the first things I will remember ten years down the line. This community will perhaps be the most supportive + collaborative one that you will ever experience. Let yourself fall: you will be caught. Organise a trek, conference or trip I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to organise a trip or conference, given all the administrative hassle associated with the process, until I Co-Chaired Stanford’s Future of Media Conference this year. The logistics were definitely as painful as I’d expected, but the upside, in terms of the lessons I learned around teamwork, branding, facilitation and operations was so much greater. Travel, host dinners and go out Make room for spontaneity, and to truly have fun. You don’t have to plan every day. Your classmates are the biggest gift of these two years. They will change the way you see the world, and yourself. You’ve no doubt heard already heard that you will make friends that will last lifetime. This is true. But don’t forget to take an interest, and be generous + kind to the people you don’t know too. Build the community you want to be a part of. Don’t follow the herd Ultimately, each one of your classmates will have a unique experience, based on the choices they make. You can’t escape FOMO, but stay true to yourself. Spend your time the way you want to. Invest in what you consider meaningful. No one has the answer, because there isn’t one.

FROM Bschooladmit20: You Can’t Go Home

You’re excited to move back to your home country, after living abroad for ten years. You’re enthusiastic about the potential to bring back new ideas, about the professional opportunities. You’re always stunned by how quickly your country is changing, in terms of consumption patterns and tastes when you visit. There’s so much left to be done and built. But you’re also scared. Everything seems to stay the same, but you feel less at home every time you go back. You know you’ve changed. You make an effort to sound and look like your old self- and you do admittedly regress around your parents. But you look at the world differently now. You value space and independence in a way that you didn’t know was possible, when you were growing up. You can’t help being bothered by the disregard people seem to have of boundaries. They seem so comfortable asking intimate details of your personal life, commenting on your appearance and life choices. Why does no one seem to value time or space here? Maybe it’s because they’ve never experienced it themselves.You’re not being used to told what to do, who to meet or what to wear. When you talk about your professional ambitions, you’re asked who will take care of the house and/or your husband. Have you traveled back in time? You’re often dismayed at how women are viewed in conversations- but they don’t seem to be upset themselves. The constant gender segregation at dinner tables, the fact that women are expected to go into the kitchen and serve the men at parties, when the men don’t lift a finger or acknowledge the effort, makes you angry. You’re almost beginning to miss the hidden, subtle sexism you’re used to facing. You’re not here to solely support others. You intend to live life your life on your own terms. You consider speaking up. You share your thoughts with some of the women back home. But they can’t understand why you’re getting indignant on their behalf. They don’t want the choices you want them to have. You know there is no right way to live. You tell yourself you don’t care what the community will think, but you’re watching and judging them too. Are you any better? You don’t want them to hold you to their standards, but you’re holding them to yours. Not every decision or act is intended to be an act of rebellion. But maybe it needs to be.

Sorry, Trump and associates are spoiling your international party! For what good reason do you want to physically relocate to other places? Bangalore does its job without the physical presence if you get the drift? We are now Truly connected, at any moment and anywhere. Maybe you did not get the memo? So, you are one of the shiny happy people, motivated, capable, blah. Please, Stop whining about what the Americans want and do not want. 10% of our doctors migrate there, might I guess some of the 'best'. With a stodgy, bloody brilliant, education system that cannot motivate and keep its economy and industry populated with its home talent, they need to import cheap(ish) labor? They should instead take on the true developed mantle and export talented people to work in the less fortunate countries, a la, MSF.

American, Indian, all labels. I was more American, Anglicized due to my mass media (selective, of course) consumption in the propah language, even when in a back of the beyond location of India. You just need to have a curious, open mind and you will become a global citizen with lesser carbon footprint. My americanization increased when connected to fiber in NL. Now I even hate Indians

PS: I am a quite a bit of a hippie. All apologies. I think I am in the wrong forum.

You are, yes.

FROM Sheiquiroga: How to apply for a student visa for Canada?

In general, I suggest submitting the application online because rumor has it that paper-based takes much longer time since the officer-in-charge will have to encode your application manually.  Be sure to make available a good scanner or camera to scan your documents.  You also need a Mastercard, Visa or American Express to pay the visa fees online.  Take note that the maximum file size is only 4 MB, which means you can combine multiple documents into one file, but it will be of lower quality. I used PDF and JPG file formats to submit my application. A. Get into a school First, you have to get accepted in a designated learning institution before you can apply for the visa. (If you are taking an MBA, you can check this out for tips in applying for a school:  https://wondersuite.blogspot.com/2017/04/how-to-get-into-canadian-business.html B. Take an English/French Proficiency Test This is not required, but it may strengthen your application not only for your visa, but also for your school. I took the TOEFL exam because it is usually required for MBA.  Read this to learn what I used for the preparation and to learn about my actual exam: https://wondersuite.blogspot.com/2016/10 ... am-at.html C. Medical Exam As soon as you get accepted into a school, take your upfront medical exam! This is so important because I almost failed to get into Canada because of the timeline. If you are lucky, you can finish this in one day. If you have terrible luck, you might even get delayed for one year! Setting up your online application 1. Go to https://www.cic.gc.ca. Bookmark this link because this is what you will be constantly checking out for the next 3 months of your life. 2. Click: Sign in or create an account to apply online 3. Click: Continue to GC Key. Then, sign up. Be sure to take note what you wrote for the Security Questions because you will need to answer that each time you sign in. NOTE for MBA students that has internship requirements: Be sure to answer YES for this question: Is work an essential component of your studies? You might have to reapply when you get to Canada if you answered No, so save the hassle! You will be granted SW1 visa instead of S1 visa just because of this question.  Help - Is work an essential component of your studies? https://www.blogger.com/null 4. Click: Visitor visa, study and/or work permit.  5. If you do not have a reference code yet, click: Visitor visa, study and/or work permit. 6. You will then have to answer multiple questions. Be honest and ensure that your answers are right and applicable because that will determine which documents you will be required to submit online.  7. Answer yes to this question if you have taken an upfront medical exam: 8. After you complete the questionnaire, you will now see your own personal checklist that may look something like this: 9. You might have trouble opening the forms online, such as Family information and Application for Student Permit. Just download them and open them in your own PDF software, such as Adobe or Foxit.  For the IMM1294, you do not have to sign them manually. Just click Validate after you finish filling up the form and it will generate its own code.  For IMM5645, try to sign the document digitally.  10. Digital Photo Make sure to follow the steps required for your photo: Frame size The final frame size of the photo must be at least 35mm x 45mm. The photographs must show a full front view of the head and tops of shoulders, with the face in the middle of the photograph. The size of the head, from chin to crown, must be between 31mm and 36mm. Digital dimensions are often expressed in pixels or DPI (dots per inch). The physical dimensions in pixels must be at least 420 x 540. Quality/resolutionIf an existing photo is being scanned, the minimum resolution must be 600 pixels per inch. File format The file may be submitted in JPEG or JPEG2000 format. The final size of the image should ideally be 240 kB (kilobytes), but not less than 60 kB. The image must be in colour (24 bits per pixel) in RGB colour space, which is the common output for most digital cameras. 11. Evidence of Work Requirement in Study(required) This document will be sent by your school's admission committee. If you've been waiting for too long, email them and ask them for this document. 12. Letter of Acceptance Once you get accepted, your admission committee will send you an Offer of Admission. However, you might want to include any academic-related achievements here. Documents that you might want to upload here: Transcript GMAT, TOEFL and other exam result 13. Passport Scan all of the important pages in your passport, i.e., the page with your picture and pages that were stamped for proof of travel.  14. Proof of medical exam Just upload the paper with reference code that your clinic gave you. 15. Proof of Means of Financial Support Upload here the ff: Bank Certificate Bank Statement Credit Card Income Tax Return  Flight Ticket Notarized Sponsorship Letter Bank Statement, Business Proof, Income Tax Return, and Passport/Government ID of your Sponsor Scanned Proof of Deposit to your School Signed Confirmation Form of your School Registration 16. Letter of Explanation It is included in the optional section, but it is not really optional! You have to make this in order for you to strengthen any gaps in your application. Upload all the important documents here that were not included in the other sections. Be sure to upload all of your previous Employment Certificates for them to avoid suspicion if you have any work gaps.  Here's a sample format, but you might want to make a shorter one: https://wondersuite.blogspot.com/2017/04/how-to-write-letter-of-explanation-for.html Documents that you might want to upload here: Resume Employment Certificates NBI Clearance Land Titles Certificate of Registration of your vehicles Additional:  Last Will stating that you will inherit properties (Not required, but it might help if you have one) Invitation Letter from your friend/relatives stating that you are a law abiding citizen, etc. (Will upload a guide here in the coming weeks Government ID of the one inviting you and PR card if they have one Other documents that would strengthen your application ADDITIONAL TIPS You might also want to back-read this forum for tips in your application: https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/anyone-applied-a-student-permit-from-philippines.111111/page-596 Don't hesitate to comment if you have any questions. I'll try my best to help out! Love, Wondersuite

About 2%. Thats the count of women in the Tech sector (sans Medicine) in NL (EU). They give subsidies to companies that employ females. If you are 'different' and have the right sex then you ring several bells. Enjoy! About 30% of the tech females are Indian. My parents were not that educated, not much rich either. But they treated my sister equally, more or less. She knew the only opportunity she had was to study. Most of us are anyway driven to do that. Thankfully she had the brains to match and suceeded really well, as an MD. But, yes the society has norms and she was persuaded to keep a day only, limited working hour job. Sob. But really, she had to let go of a more ambitious Surgeon role, in doing so.

Right on about the sexism. Gone are the days of burning your intimate attire. You need to look good and feminine, to be marketable, with war paint on your face and all. People in NL are truly very liberated and for a long time. Yet, they have the lowest women participation in the workforce in EU. Average I think is about 2 full workdays per week. Why would you think women, when given the opportunity, and that too for a long enough time, choose that? Well, they are strong enough to acknowlede that they are quite naturally the best at (and better enjoy) looking after a family. And that a family needs time. Sorry, even I find this a bit sexist. Somehow, most women with nice jobs that I know still like cooking, for their family! Social programming, duh.

Google “bbc pakistani women doctors” and you get the picture, when women partially rebel. Please do not judge yourself by the same (traditional) standards of success as (traditional) 'men'. You can do much better, in a different way.

I am all for affirmative action, reservations Indian style. But this unwritten 'diversity' rule somehow means (otherwise priviledged) females are granted 'special' status. A 'first' woman in outer space, as if, women were somehow impaired to work in space, in the first place. Fluffy news alert!

PS: My social circuit is all haywire. I try to follow my own thoughts, not programmed by society. And fair is, simply, fair.