A631.9.2.RB_Video Debrief of Team MA

Steve Jobs is and always will be a visionary.  The desire to fight through defeat and come back stronger is what fueled Jobs to continue in his quest to produce the best and strongest technical advances for home computing.  Although Jobs is gone, his legacy and life’s work will forever live on for generations to come.  Many remember Job’s as the founder of Apple but most forget that he was let go from Apple which drove him to create NeXT which later was purchased by Apple.  These changes in the Job’s life and professional career are what fueled him to be one of the best creators of technology to date.

During my debriefing I learned a lot about myself that I might have otherwise thought about differently.  As much as I want to be a leader and change the way people understand and value academic technology, I know that I am not the type of person to create a new learn platform but instead I am the person who will test, break, provide feedback, and transform what is currently out on the market in order to help those who are the visionaries for design and production create a better product.  According to my management assessment profile I wouldn’t necessarily be the perfect fit for a startup company but instead I would be better suited to come in when the company it at its large and rapid growth stage(s).  Even though I am not perfect for this stage of the NeXT startup team, I do however have characteristics that would be great for this stage of their organization and could ultimately help to transform the organization.  Below I have captured 3 different characteristics from my assessment that I feel would fit great into this step of Job’s new organization:

Fiscally Conservative

• Starting up a new organization there are many areas where spending will be taking place.  Job’s discussed in the video that he has forgotten how much money and how many different things would need to take place in order to get the organization off the ground again.  I believe that because I am great with money I would have been able to assist Job’s with the design of the structure and responsibly allocate finances in order to ensure they were put the best use possible.

Structure

• I need structure and when structures (policy/procedures) are not in place I am the type of person to create them.  In the video it was clear that mostly those in the room were engineers who would rather do what they love then be bogged down with creating an organizational structure.  In this area I would come in and help to create the walls of the organization to allow the creators to do what they love.

Desire for a Challenge

• Start a new company is a challenge in and of itself and according to my management assessment I have a strong desire for a challenge.  In conjunction with my problem solving skills I believe that I would have been a great asset to the NeXT team during their startup phases because regardless of the problem or challenge I would have the skills to handle the issue.

Even though this startup organization is centered around technology, the root of the organization was focused on the needs of education and creating a tool that both students and staff/faculty can use.  Education is something that speaks to me in volumes and I understand what it takes to create a prosperous learning environment for students.  I feel as though many of my best qualities for this type of implementation would span across the area which focused on the needs of the students and staff/faculty.  I would need to understand what their needs are and how I can take those requests back to the person creating the tool.  I have found that nowadays we send out survey’s in order to request that type of information but its more than a survey when it comes to education, you have to be there in person with the client(s) to understand their needs, their wants, and their desires.  Many of the people in the room with Steve Jobs were engineers who don’t necessarily want to be with the client but instead want to be in a room filled with computers, writing code and reading through hundreds of lines of HTML.  I would have been the person in Job’s team that would have been sitting down with the client and finding out what their needs are, I would have been the face or the bridge between the two worlds.

Even though we lost Job’s, we will always continue to benefit from his hard work and determination.  Technology was forever changed by him and his team.

References:
Петренко, C. (2012, January 19). Steve Jobs Brainstorms with NeXT Team [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loQhufxiorM&feature=youtu.be
NextSteps, R. (2013). Management assessment profile: Katy Hendry.