One of the biggest takeaways from this class was the skills needed to become a successful project manager. In particulate, the skill that has stuck with me the most has been communication. I was able to really see how much of an impact that skill has on leading a team and how any project would collapse if there was no communication between the team themselves and between the team and the project manager. Other skills that the PM must have can include organization, good work ethic, willingness to listen to the team, and many more but communication is the most pivotal aspect that a successful PM can bring to the table.

There have been many great takeaways from this course. Some of the skills that I found most useful was the importance of communication and effective planning. All professions require some form of communication and/or social skill and some scale of planning. This course really does a great job of preparing students and professionals with real-life situations. Through the simulations, classmates worked as a project team and were put into positions where we were essentially given a task and a time frame to complete the task, encouraging communication amongst classmates and planning a course of action. You also learn to listen to others ideas in order to come to a solution. All in all, this course offers practical skills that may be useful across all professions.

Throughout this course I’ve learned a lot of about the “behind the scenes” activities that drive and effect projects. Mainly I think it was extremely helpful understanding the different pathways various types of medical device products need to undergo before getting approved for market use (i.e. 510k, PMA, clinical trials, various other agency applications, etc). Although these may not be applicable in the very short term for my career, this knowledge gives me insight into the decisions made by the companies I work for. The most valuable thing I have learned from this class is understanding the importance of interpersonal skills in managing a team. I can sometimes get caught up in the technical side of engineering and product development, especially when pursuing a technical degree, however, it is even more important to be able to develop the interpersonal skills to be a successful team member and drive success through good project management skills.

One important concept I learned in this class was communication is a key factor to any assignment and in some occasions may be harder to maintain than people originally believe. In this course there were multiple simulations in which we had to work with other people to try to fix an issue with trial and error in most cases. Since this was an online class we were not able to see one another so the first step was to find a way to contact the group we were placed in. In some cases we would just email and or create a group chat. Depending on who was in the group, the next steps would be challenging. If the group was made of students who were continuing their degree right from bachelors it was a bit easier to speak and discuss because the schedules would align more and there would be more connection to a majority of the materials. But there were times where the people were students who came back after a couple years and had jobs that did not have as flexible hours as others could. In these situations communication could take a bit longer or in some cases the group would have to decide whether to send the message with 3~⅘ of the groups members approval for the deadline. 

This experience alone taught me that when working with other team members remotely, there needs to be an air of flexibility while also working with a common timeline. We would need to ensure that each person was doing their part and gave their input so we would work together to complete the simulation.

I feel that this course & Dr. Simon's other course should be taught in undergraduate BME curricula. A lot of this information would be gold to those looking to enter industry. The most important item I'd take away from this course is the breakdown & hierarchy of a good project. Without splitting some of these big projects into manageable chunks; many companies would flounder. I feel that knowing this breakdown & the general SOP of project management is a valuable skill for someone looking for a job. Not having that "uh oh" moment at your first day on the job is a great ace up the sleeve.

One important skill that I learned in this class is teamwork and thorough planning. While working on the simulations in this class, I learned that it is important to communicate effectively so everyone can be on the same page. It is also good to brainstorm and help other teammates think out loud when working on a project like that. It's also important to thoroughly plan out ideas so that if one trial doesn't work, then we have a plan B. It's important to have multiple ideas to see which one works best. My experience during simulations showed me how important it is to be clear and concise when creating an experimental procedure so that there are not any misunderstandings. This class taught me skills that I know I will use when I start working because it helped critically think and solve problems using prior knowledge and bridge a gap between research, business and critical thinking.

As someone with no industry experience, this course was a great introduction to how the industry works and what industry projects might look like. The most important thing I learned is how to approach problems I might encounter when working in the industry. Recent college grads tend to have a lot of work anxiety, and most of it comes from lack of experience and unsurety regarding handling different situations. Some other notable things are the importance of good leadership, communication, and planning. The success of most projects depends on effective planning and communication between team members. A good leader can make the process so much easier and motivate their team to work. And as many have mentioned, a good leader and a good relationship between a manager and an employee,  is what cultivates a healthy working environment.

I feel like the most important concept I learned in this course is how to address and solve problems within a project. One of the most enjoyable parts of this course has been completing the project simulations. A huge part of the project simulations involves identifying the problem, brainstorming sources of the issue at hand, and then finding potential solutions. Determining the source of the complication was much harder than I imagined, and I appreciate the creative thinking skills I’ve had to learn and practice through the simulations in order to find this. What was your biggest problem with the simulations? Was it determining the source of the issue at hand, or was it something like determining potential solutions?

One important thing I know I have learned in this class is the project management is much more than just planning. Beforehand, I did not really know what project management was. I had assumed that the majority of the work was just planning in regard to putting out timelines and making sure that deadlines were met. Now, I know that the responsibilities of a project manager and their team go far beyond this and even those tasks themselves are much more intricate that I had assumed. Integrating project management into medical devices make it all the more complex as well. Beyond this, I learned through the simulations that sometimes reality is not perfect. Many of the times we proposed solutions to the simulations we had thought out and were confident would lead to the solution. However, Dr. Simon very commonly came back with more issues or questions that did not give us what we thought. The 3rd and 4th simulations especially taught me that sometimes solutions are not so simple, or not even possible. Sometimes, the issues trace all the way back to components of the device itself and must be reworked regardless of what stage the project is in. Project teams must be smart and adaptable!

I learned how to work with a variety of people who each have differing backgrounds and type of work flow. This allowed me to develop my skill to bring project team members together in order to strategize how to approach and complete a project. Another skill I learned was how to propose and set up tests or experiments that directly obtain information about a problem in order to tackle it better. The most important skill that I learned, however, is that projects should be monitored constantly in order to make work progress smoothly into the next stage of completion. The best example of this was meeting and crafting proposals, so that they can be ready for review by the professor early the next day instead of doing it after his work hours; otherwise, there would be a delay in receiving a response, similar to different offices having different hours.