This article discusses some of the factors that contribute to project success and what you as an individual team member can do to influence that success. When I began writing this article, I intended it as a guide for my undergraduate senior design teams. As such, some of the examples below are aimed at that context.
1. Professionalism
Professionalism is made up of several other qualities. There's a lot that goes into professionalism (e.g. everything else in this article) but for me, it mostly boils down to respect.
Be respectful of your teammates and your colleagues. Listen to what they have to say and hear out any logical argument they make regardless of how you feel about them.
2. Attendance
You are expected to attend meetings and show up on time. Be respectful of other people's time by going into meetings prepared and showing up on time. For something like a daily standup, where the meeting is designed to be time-boxed to 15 minutes, punctuality is critical.
Life happens. Not everyone will be able to attend every meeting or always be there on time. Other obligations arise and that's understandable. But you have a responsibility to communicate those schedule conflicts in a timely fashion.
3. Proactive Participation
Showing up is the first step, but you need to actually participate to make your presence useful. That means sharing your thoughts, raising concerns if you have any, and contributing to team activities.
It's on you to be proactive. You and only you are responsible for owning your professional career. Even if you are not the project lead, you can still take a proactive role in the project. If you have extra bandwidth, ask what needs to be done. Take initiative. Be aware of the project priorities and schedule goals and volunteer to take on new work when you can.
Being proactive also means speaking up. If you are struggling with something, don't be afraid to ask for help. One of the most detrimental things to an individual's success is being unable admit that you don't know something. It's okay not to know something. We all have knowledge gaps.
A note for students: In senior design, my role is to advise and coach you through the design process, not to manage the team. This often leads some unsureness about how to be proactive. A common issue I see among student teams is a lack of project progress because every team member approached the project with a nobody-told-me-what-to-do mentality. It's the responsibility of each individual to be proactive.
4. Be Prepared
Be knowledgeable about your project and your technical domain. If you don't understand the project priorities, talk to the project lead. If you aren't familiar with a topic or technology, research it. If you said you were going to do something before the next meeting, do it.
The more knowledge you come into the conversation with, the easier it will be to be proactive and engaged. When you show up to a meeting, make sure you know why you're there, what the meeting is about, and what is expected of you.
5. Time Commitment
Understand the time commitment and expectations of your role. Is the expectation that this is a 40 hour / week with flexible break hours and long breaks and work hours available to spend on volunteer work or self improvement? Or is the expectation that you work 60-80 hours a week, spend the weekends on-call, and your work is directly billable to a customer limiting flexibility?
Understanding the commitment is key to being able to effectively do all the things above.
A note for students: In senior design, we lay out the time commitment expectation in the syllabus as well as the expectation that you meet with your advisor for at least an hour per week.
6. Communication.
There is no excuse for not communicating with your team. In today's world we are almost always connected to some form of communication. Phone calls, text messages, emails, and video conferences are all readily available.
When something should be communicated, share it with your team as soon as you're able.
7. Remote Work.
We often use Zoom (or other video conferencing tools) for meetings and presentations. Here are some things you should do whenever possible:
- Turn on your camera and participate like it's a face-to-face meeting.
- Turn on your microphone and avoid using the text chat where possible.
- Mute your mic when not talking, especially in large meetings. Background noise can be distracting for others. Zoom even has features for controlling background noise suppression.
- Don't be worry about a messy background or a pet getting in the way. We all have lives, there's no need to hide it. It's more important that you are actively engaged with the team than you have a polished background.
This is by no means an exhaustive or perfect guide. And it's hard to do everything on this list perfectly. But use it as a guideline for better interactions with your team and professional colleagues.