Here are some of my key learnings from the term:

Coming from an engineering background, I was always looking at products from a 'what problem does this solve' lens, with a focus on users. However after spending time on the team, I realized the importance of also considering how much money it has the potential to make. Considering factors such as revenue, market size, and EBITDA helps provide a more holistic view of both the company's current status, and its room to grow.

Working in a small team with high-level stakeholders meant that I needed to self-determine when I asked for input, and when I made decisions on my own. I found that having quick syncs often in the project to validate any assumptions I made were extremely useful and allowed for better alignment when presenting to the whole team.

When I first started this project, I was unsure what to use as my 'source of truth' for determining what needed to be completed. However, through conversations with stakeholders, the core 'user needs' quickly became apparent. Similar to developing large-scale products, I started with an MVP. I created a basic rule-based NLP model, which enabled me to extract insights and demonstrate its benefits to the team by addressing their specific needs. Focusing on these core user needs encouraged the team to adopt the model and leverage the data for generating ongoing valuable insights.