Battery Box Project Manager Mandate S2023

Owned by Ailan Jiang (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jul 05, 2023 by Owen Li
2 min read

The Project Manager on the Battery Box Team is in charge of supporting the Battery Box team and Battery Box Lead (currently @Owen Li and @Eric Zhao ) through three functions:

  1. Weekly check-ins to ensure continuous alignment with entire battery box team, this includes:

    1. Updating Trello

    2. Organizing meetings

  2. Create and manage task schedules on Battery Pack Integration (this is an old doc, we can may want to do something like this or something different), this includes:

    1. Managing deadlines

    2. Reaching out to suppliers/stakeholders

    3. Helping the battery box lead determine and manage risks and issues

    4. Helping battery box lead record battery box spend

    5. Meeting with Midnight Sun Mechanical Project Manager (currently @Michael Hanley ) to provide schedule updates

  3. Maximize member interaction and retention through:

    1. Organizing team socials

    2. Organizing 1-1s with new members to align member’s personal goals with battery box tasks

    3. Helping with resume critiques

    4. Reaching out to members to upkeep member morale (essentially, check-in on them personally through Slack)

    5. Keeping a positive attitude (sounds silly, but this is crucial)

Leadership Style

From Lana’s perspective, the servant leadership style, whereby the “leader” puts the needs of the team first and focuses on engagement and fulfilment of team members rather than simply hitting goals and deadlines, is the most effective for Midnight Sun, certainly for the Battery Box team. The servant leader tries to remove all obstacles so the team can do what they do best - design, engineer, and manufacture the best battery pack yet.

Required Skills

You are:

  • A student passionate about supporting others' growth

  • Someone who takes initiative and is able to foresee problems beforehand

  • A quick problem solver who isn't afraid to think outside the box

  • Willing to learn new skills and improve your existing skills

  • Strong time management skills

Skills Gained

  • Communication skills

  • Empathy

  • Organization and Time Management

  • Prioritization

  • Understanding an effective use of resources (team members, time, money)

Estimated time commitment

Task

Estimated Time Needed

Task

Estimated Time Needed

Onboard and new member planning

~6 hours total at beginning of term (includes onboard project, 1-1s, resume critiques)

Weekly check-ins/stand-ups

~2 hours total per week

Leads meetings

~2 hours total per week

Miscellaneous meetings/needs

varies, maybe 1 hour per week, rarely occurs

Onboarding for S2023

  • 101 onboarding for battery box Jan 11th, at 7:30 PM

  • Push mini-project more (building battery series based on certain specs)

    • Make less complicated

    • Make it more relevant to the car to have members understand the importance of the mini-project

    • Clarify the purpose of the mini-project but also have some handholding

    • 2 weeks following Thursday, Jan 14th, 7:30 PM general

      • ask new members to stay back to discuss the mini project

  • 1-1s to be scheduled

  • Resume critiques to be scheduled