My Role
I joined Life Science Cares in 2021-22 as part of my doctoral residency requirement. My task was to build out their career mentoring program called One-to-One. One-to-One helps underserved college students gain access to and benefit from networking with biotech industry professionals. My work was 50% technical buildout, 25% model definition, and 25% project management.
Evolution
Before my residency began, Life Science Cares Boston had already conducted two pilots of One-to-One. These pilots matched a few dozen underserved college students with life science professionals for a one-time virtual networking call. Although student and volunteer satisfaction was high, technical barriers prevented this model from being fully adopted by the organization. The goal of my effort was twofold: 1) improve the feasibility of the One-to-One program and 2) contribute knowledge on how best to scale the program for the LSC Boston affiliate. My deliverables were intended to lay the technical and strategy foundation for a future program manager to do the actual scaling work. My most important contribution was simplifying the programmatic model so that this program could be feasible to operate by a lean team. This meant replacing a significant amount of manual project management work with automation where applicable. I achieved this by creating a student-facing platform where students can network on their own and edit their profiles. All actions are recorded in a centralized database for monitoring. To eliminate friction for volunteers, the volunteer user experience became entirely email-driven via automation. Ultimately, my efforts shifted the nature of work so that the future program manager could focus on recruitment, scale, and targeted interventions instead of day-to-day platform operation.
Achievements
Achieved 90%+ satisfaction rate from students and volunteers who participated in the 2021-22 pilots
Reduced labor by 80% and yielded $50K in projected savings by using automation to deploy and manage One-to-One
Gained the Board’s commitment to further expand the program and commit resources to a program manager after I was able to overcome severe feasibility risks.
Takeaways
When mobilizing others around passion issues, engage for their commitment, not buy-in.
Return to organizational core values and purpose when strategies diverge.
Solving complex long-term challenges should include recognizing low-lift, high-potential opportunities in the short term.
My Role
I joined Life Science Cares in 2021-22 as part of my doctoral residency requirement. My task was to build out their career mentoring program called One-to-One. One-to-One helps underserved college students gain access to and benefit from networking with biotech industry professionals. My work was 50% technical buildout, 25% model definition, and 25% project management.
Evolution
Before my residency began, Life Science Cares Boston had already conducted two pilots of One-to-One. These pilots matched a few dozen underserved college students with life science professionals for a one-time virtual networking call. Although student and volunteer satisfaction was high, technical barriers prevented this model from being fully adopted by the organization. The goal of my effort was twofold: 1) improve the feasibility of the One-to-One program and 2) contribute knowledge on how best to scale the program for the LSC Boston affiliate. My deliverables were intended to lay the technical and strategy foundation for a future program manager to do the actual scaling work. My most important contribution was simplifying the programmatic model so that this program could be feasible to operate by a lean team. This meant replacing a significant amount of manual project management work with automation where applicable. I achieved this by creating a student-facing platform where students can network on their own and edit their profiles. All actions are recorded in a centralized database for monitoring. To eliminate friction for volunteers, the volunteer user experience became entirely email-driven via automation. Ultimately, my efforts shifted the nature of work so that the future program manager could focus on recruitment, scale, and targeted interventions instead of day-to-day platform operation.
Achievements
Achieved 90%+ satisfaction rate from students and volunteers who participated in the 2021-22 pilots
Reduced labor by 80% and yielded $50K in projected savings by using automation to deploy and manage One-to-One
Gained the Board’s commitment to further expand the program and commit resources to a program manager after I was able to overcome severe feasibility risks.
Takeaways
When mobilizing others around passion issues, engage for their commitment, not buy-in.
Return to organizational core values and purpose when strategies diverge.
Solving complex long-term challenges should include recognizing low-lift, high-potential opportunities in the short term.
My Role
I joined Life Science Cares in 2021-22 as part of my doctoral residency requirement. My task was to build out their career mentoring program called One-to-One. One-to-One helps underserved college students gain access to and benefit from networking with biotech industry professionals. My work was 50% technical buildout, 25% model definition, and 25% project management.
Evolution
Before my residency began, Life Science Cares Boston had already conducted two pilots of One-to-One. These pilots matched a few dozen underserved college students with life science professionals for a one-time virtual networking call. Although student and volunteer satisfaction was high, technical barriers prevented this model from being fully adopted by the organization. The goal of my effort was twofold: 1) improve the feasibility of the One-to-One program and 2) contribute knowledge on how best to scale the program for the LSC Boston affiliate. My deliverables were intended to lay the technical and strategy foundation for a future program manager to do the actual scaling work. My most important contribution was simplifying the programmatic model so that this program could be feasible to operate by a lean team. This meant replacing a significant amount of manual project management work with automation where applicable. I achieved this by creating a student-facing platform where students can network on their own and edit their profiles. All actions are recorded in a centralized database for monitoring. To eliminate friction for volunteers, the volunteer user experience became entirely email-driven via automation. Ultimately, my efforts shifted the nature of work so that the future program manager could focus on recruitment, scale, and targeted interventions instead of day-to-day platform operation.
Achievements
Achieved 90%+ satisfaction rate from students and volunteers who participated in the 2021-22 pilots
Reduced labor by 80% and yielded $50K in projected savings by using automation to deploy and manage One-to-One
Gained the Board’s commitment to further expand the program and commit resources to a program manager after I was able to overcome severe feasibility risks.
Takeaways
When mobilizing others around passion issues, engage for their commitment, not buy-in.
Return to organizational core values and purpose when strategies diverge.
Solving complex long-term challenges should include recognizing low-lift, high-potential opportunities in the short term.