Introduction
I’m Hala Habib, a Syrian student from Latakia. Seven years ago, you’d find little Hala engineering Minecraft structures and algorithms. Today, not much has changed. From participating in every STEM event I come across to eventually organizing my own tech workshops, you’d mostly find me tinkering with an old keyboard, or maybe working with my dad on our laser cutting machine. Simply put, I’ve always been fascinated by entrepreneurship, or what I like to call: the art of fixing human unhappiness.
Although I’ve always tried to stay engaged in the world of innovation, I never really felt like I understood the root of problem-solving. Well, I was good at it, but I wanted to know more. I wanted to delve deeper into the essence of what it means to be a problem-solver.
In 2021, I participated in the Ada Lovelace Hackathon (Girls in AI), my first hackathon. I worked alongside my team on a tool to reduce ships’ carbon emissions using GPS algorithms by choosing the shortest route. Many mentors approached our team, telling us we’re definitely among the winning teams. However, we did not win the hackathon. Back then, I was frustrated. “How could we not win? Our case study was perfect!” I thought.
The Beginning
Fast forward to this year, I started my journey with Uber through Delta Careers Work Experience Program. I could not believe it. Uber is huge! I wanted to make the most out of this. I knew it was going to be a transformative experience.
We started by getting introduced to everyone in the team, our advisors, our mentors. Everyone was super nice and helpful. I remember our advisor’s words specifically, “there is no such thing as a stupid question.” She made us feel safe enough to ask her anything. She even offered reaching out in times of stress. It was very comforting to know that we were supported in every aspect during this process.
Then, we started our Module sessions. These are essentially educational sessions where our mentors, Guan and Cynthia, teach us the basics of design computing, product management, consulting, etc. They equipped us with every piece of information we needed to accelerate our career development and engage in real-life ventures alongside experienced entrepreneurs.
They also provided us with hands-on practice and workshops to apply everything we learned to real-life issues, introducing us to the life of professionalism. From the essentials of UI/UX design to Design Thinking, User Interviews, Personas, and Mindmaps, the list goes on.
However, there was one small issue. These sessions were at 3AM Syrian Time. While I could watch the recordings, I’d miss out on the hands-on workshops. Here, our advisor introduced me to asynchronous work. We learned to navigate tasks across multiple time zones and cultures.
Additionally, we had the option to sign up for office hours to delve deeper into each module and ask questions, mimicking the experience of workshops. Plus, the sessions were so engaging that I often found myself actively answering questions along with students and presenters, even though it was a recording.
Product Design
During our preparation for our pitch night, our team booked office hours with our mentor, Cynthia. We wanted her feedback on our work so far. Because I was responsible for design, I walked her through our prototype. She thoroughly explained to me certain weaknesses that the prototype suffered. For example, we didn't have a clear emergency button. The user would not have known where to click from just a glance at the screen. Her solution was the usage of the Ten Usability Heuristics, specifically Visual Hierarchies. Making the intended action way more intuitive and clear.
“People don’t buy products. They buy a better version of themselves,” was a quote featured in one of Cynthia’s module sessions. This changed the perception of UI/UX design for me. It goes way beyond the illustrations and colors of an interface. I learned that we delve into every single detail of the user’s journey. We study their feelings, their thoughts, their intuition, their movements. It’s like a mix of tech and psychology. We need to give our all into making this experience as easy & enjoyable as possible to the user.
Ideation
Another thing that stuck with me during one of our sessions was the way they explained the term “Ideating” to us. It’s about generating a large quantity of ideas while keeping the users in mind. Then, idea evaluation: your idea needs to focus on the desired outcome without causing new problems. It’s not just the “ideation” that matters, it’s also the process leading up to “ideation.”
But what is it about this explanation that fascinated me?
Remember how we did not win the Ada Lovelace Hackathon in 2021? Yes, I now understand why. We simply did not ideate correctly. Our idea was not feasible. Its efforts cost more than the impact it brings. Through Guan and Cynthia’s explanation however, I finally felt like I grasped these ideas from every angle, every aspect. Knowledge is fascinating. The feeling of finally comprehending the concept I’ve been working my whole life to understand is very rewarding, to say the least. And this would not have happened if it wasn’t for Delta Careers.
Pitch Night
For our final project, we ideated, evaluated, and designed a version of Uber’s ride-sharing app for teens. With my team of three international students, we navigated conflicts and disagreements such as time zone complications and clashing opinions, as well as different brainstorming methods and differences in idea evaluation. But by utilizing the virtual communication skills we gained along the way, we explored the professionalism of being matched with a random team to work together. We learned to split up work from marketing to design and research, and we ended up pitching our case study to our Uber representative, Yang.
"Team 1, are you ready to go now?" Asked the associate as it was our turn to pitch our idea. However, one team member was missing. He could not make it to the final presentation. Me and my other teammate hadn’t seen this coming. We had to act quickly. We had originally split our presentation into three sections so that each person presents one part. Although our team was the first to go, all the staff were very patient, as they waited for us to come up with a plan b. We decided to improvise.
We had been working on this together for a little over a month. Not only were we confident in the knowledge we gained about presentation skills and optimizing plans, but we also formed friendships and connections, enough for us to cover each other's parts. We gathered our confidence and went for it. Our pitch went smoother than expected, and Yang expressed his admiration for specific product features such as our Points System: a way of gamifying the Uber app to make it more appealing for teens.
Final Thoughts
In short, my journey with Delta Careers Work Experience Program was more than just a professional experience. I learned how to analyze and research any market or target audience, how to spot user pain points, experimenting with qualitative interviews and personas, and the implementation of tech in both software and hardware.
We even mastered virtual communication through Slack, G-Suite, Zoom, etc. This experience couldn't be summarized in a blog, it was one of those experiences that you'd have to live to really understand. As a Syrian woman, two years ago I would've never imagined myself in the shoes of an Uber employee. But here I am today.
My advice to any high school student reading this, is to really put themselves out there. You don't have to be a part or something huge to create success. It can start as small as a volunteering position with your local youth organization, or as big as an internship with Delta Careers.
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