Working at Manulife Red Lab: The Journey of Impact through the Eyes of an Intern
Intro
Working at the Red Lab was a truly immersive, fun, and engaging job. I learned so many different aspects of what it means to work in a startup executing products in 2-3 week sprints. It was different compared to working in a corporate setting as product development lasts longer and is rolled out at the very end of the project lifeline. During the span of my term, I have learned numerous things working in a lean and agile environment where freedom and autonomy is valued.
Lean startup Environment
Just walking through the hub space feels like an environment that values ideas and creativity. Our team follows the lean startup method where we operate in 2-3 week sprints when executing a project. During these sprints, I incorporated a lot of iteration focused specifically on what customers and users wanted when using the product. I followed the process of research, exploration, and development when working on my projects. Validating users, getting their feedback and understanding their user journey is vital to creating a successful product. Having the benefit of Red Lab located at the Communitech Hub, I was able to interact with many users about their journey and conduct usability testing on the product. Product development was an ongoing process and should not be left until the end where users finally get to interact with it. I would create wireframes and different versions quickly and validate with customers so that we can fix the problems right away until leaving it until the end like most corporate companies. It was an environment where I felt I had impact on my work which is hard to find in most companies.
Learn by Failing
Throughout my internship, I had two helpful and valuable mentors to guide me through my projects. All the different projects at the Red Lab are developed by students with the mentors being advisors and sometimes, great target practice for our Nerf guns. These Jedi Masters would guide us to learn the craft of the force in creating products that solve the many problems in today’s financial world. I would ask the necessary questions and make my decisions through guidance from Adeel and Ali. I would then impersonate Rocky and make the best possible decision based on my intuition and circumstances. There are many ways to create a product, and when making decisions on the design of the product, it might not suit certain types of users. There are times that users don't go through the product swiftly and that could be frustrating. Learning why each time I conducted usability testing is so important as it allows the designer to brainstorm how to solve the problem in different and unique ways. Learning that the product won’t be perfect the first time and learning how it can be improved and what not to do next time was crucial to success and a part of the iterative process at Red Lab which is why every project is a continuous improvement in my perspective.
Autonomy and Creativity
One of my favourite events at Red Lab was the Coop Innovation Challenge. It was quite a challenge as I had one team member working with me along with a mentor. In this challenge, we had to work on an idea and pitch it to the VP’s of Manulife. It was a great experience as Andrew and I would spend time researching about the business model of the product and dive into how Manulife can benefit from our idea using technology to solve a financial problem. Andrew and I worked on a virtual reality platform to solve Manulife’s problem. It was an educational experience as we got to receive feedback on our product with tons of insightful questions asked by Manulife’s VP’s. The freedom to create an idea and turn it into a product is fun and educational. I learned a lot about the financial tech sector especially the customers of Manulife and how to solve their problems using technology in today’s world. How to create a functioning business revenue stream that creates value and focusing on creating a solid lean canvas are takeaways I will use in the future from the innovation challenge. Seeing an idea come to lifeexcites me when working at Red Lab because you get to see your continuous improvements and execute a product of your own creation.
The Needs of Business and Users
Working on the many projects at Red Lab, I was given full autonomy on projects and it was my first experience interacting with corporate stakeholders and clients when building products for a company. It was a learning experience as you get to present your product to stakeholders while they give feedback on your work. Going through this process enabled me to learn how to balance the business wants and the user’s wants when creating a product. Certain features and additions are allowed in the product as long as it doesn't intrude the user journey and make the product confusing. I learned that you have to really understand and defend your design decisions when the time is right to say some additions are not adequate for the sake of the user and customers. Understanding why you made your design and your initial user journey is crucial to designing a product around users. Presenting my findings and insights was one of my happiest moments I’ve experienced at the Red Lab as it made me feel valued and it had an impact on changing user’s lives.
Conclusion
Working at the Red Lab proved to be my biggest learning experience as it allowed me to push myself and create products coming from my own ideas. It allowed me to express my creative knowledge through the help of my mentors and refine my idea so that I can learn how to express my next idea in an experienced manner. Working in an entrepreneurial environment makes me feel important because what I do at the Red Lab impacts customers and users in an engaging way. This job has taught me a lot about financial business and solving new problems in an lean and agile manner. Well its been a good run as this job has set high expectations to where I want to work in the future so hopefully there are more companies like Red Lab or I will have to lower my expectations accordingly.