Quick integration for new members (e.g., scheduling bootcamp reviews)
For a lot of PDM issues, Smile and Nathan were available right away to help out on discord and in-person
We had a good amount of tasks this term that varied in skill level and got a lot of members interested (e.g., some task had multiple people interested in it and that encouraged collaboration too)
Stay more on top of projects, especially Eclipse (m also guilty of this)
If there’s no progress being made on certain tasks, we need to call the shot and just get it done or have a conversation w/ whoever is assigned
More engaging work sessions. At the start of the term, work sessions were pretty dead. Idk, maybe we need to create a more fun environment to be in to work (idk how to do this)
Don’t be afraid of having tough conversations early on. If you think something won’t get done by EOT, we should talk about it early enough to create a plan.
When we have new members, I think we should develop a presentation or invest some time in mech meeting to introduce the team to new members, inform them about all the projects going on and what they can contribute to. I had multiple people who had no idea what projects were going on, or even what the team was doing. I remember autonomy did a presentation at their first meeting, maybe we could do something similar to get everyone (including old and new members) on the same page.
PMs to be more involved at work sessions
Need to use the mech deadlines calendar more, I don’t think I opened it once during November (this might be just me)
After people finish their bootcamp, at the end take around 10 mins to explain the different projects - Conall did this
I agree with Smile, like PMs should be more involved at work sessions (I’m guilty of this) and flight tests (for me)
More communication between PMs if we’re working on the same project (e.g., Eclipse). I know when I got sick, I should’ve communicated with one of you to help out with the Fuselage that way we wouldn’t be behind for the Fuselage
This is more for me but as a PM I realized I have a lot of responsibility for the design of parts so I have to be thorough in planning designs and consider the big picture. Planning ahead of time early would make it a lot easier later on
I think when we’re planning out projects and deadlines, we should consider the backlog of tasks near midterms and exams. I think we did consider it but still ended up pushing a few CAD reviews
Scope of Eclipse changing over time to help speed it up, wasn’t as impactful as we thought it would be because of how far behind it was
For future projects, need to definitely come up with full idea before designing so everyone is on the same page, not multiple people working on parts that will relate but not designed to be integrated
Documentation can definitely improve
Work sessions could be improved
More communication
Within Mech, but also team as a whole
Noticed EE did not give most up to date board or all constraints for some tasks
Encourage people to fill out decision docs
explain why they are helpful and introduce in bootcamp
As Smile mentions, documenting work sessions would be beneficial. We can have a PM do a confluence doc for each, so we remember what we couldn’t accomplish and set realistic expectations for the next work session.
I believe one of the factors of low work session attendance (at least in the beginning) was the fact they ran at the same time as flight tests, if we could schedule around that (which I think we did towards the end) would probably increase work session attendance.
I think creating a more in-depth PDM troubleshooting guide on confluence would be benefitial. I’m mostly thinking about it in terms of a flow chart, if you get this error do this, if this doesn’t work try this and so on.
I believe that if PMs/Leads need help with anything they should feel free to reach out to other PMs for help on a given task or project, I feel like this would’ve helped for Eclipse.
More socials would be nice to keep the mech team as a community. We should also work on keeping it engaging and as Smile mentioned, a BOT presentation could go a long way.
I also agree with Evan’s point of fleshing out the big picture of a project before diving into it.
Work sessions already kinda built into mech notes
Try updating meeting minutes w/ work session updates
Recap in #mech-announcements
documentation might be too much for people after a long day of work
quick bullet points
Ask leads, PMs, or members that you think will get a task done for help if needed
Need to be more firm on deadlines, especially with non-comp tasks (Eclipse, tracking antenna)
We aren't getting this pressure externally because we are a “fast” sub-team so we need to do it internally.
This means pulling people off tasks if they aren’t getting it done
Related, review early and often, especially for newer members' tasks. Also for projects, even if its not done, its a good way to get a sanity check on how far along the project actually is and takes the load off of the PM.
Would like to see more people manufacturing and assembling drones. I still kind of do a lot of this (assembly specifically) but I don’t know how to transfer that knowledge.
More organized work sessions? Like we just announce what we’ll work on at mech meeting, but sometimes we don’t get half the stuff done or just end of forgetting about it (maybe a me issue idk). Maybe a document that notes down what’ll get done at the work session, have the sessions be more organized.
follow the list from mech meeting
bullet points of summary after work sessions, send in mech-announcements
Giving people a run down of projects during their bootcamp