Today marks the end of my remote work with other developers. Most of my worries at the beginning of this actually came true! In our defense though, we still managed to finish our MVP. Our project needs UI and UX updates, and I’ll work on it again sometime in the future. All in all, I am happy with how it turned out. I’m going to write down what I believe were my biggest weaknesses during the project, while it is still fresh in my brain.
At the start, each of us gave ideas on how to build the application, because we didn’t have an appointed leader. Like how to structure the files, what JS library to use, what would be the git workflow, what features to add, etc.
It was only after a few days of working on the project when someone emerged as the group leader, and its at creating guidelines and keeping all of us in the same page where I failed. In hindsight, I should’ve communicated better. I was able to carry the project through technical skills – because it is a fairly simple application – but I know in complex projects those won’t be enough.
Maybe because there was no money to be made in the project? Perhaps my personal criteria on how much time should be given to the project is different? Or maybe what I think is a passable MVP, is different? I actually don’t know how to pinpoint it, I just know that during the final stretches, it was only me who made contributions to the project.
Next time, I will try to be better at motivating my teammates. Or perhaps I am just being too hard on myself on this. Maybe when there is more at stake, people will motivate themselves?
I am happy that I have this skill, which I believe is extremely important. I’ve got a lot to learn, especially in the social skills department. I believe being a quick study, and being adaptable can help me shore up my weaknesses.