I launched an app to see if this could meet the needs of users in the market. During my research phase, I felt the strong needs of our user regarding the product I was building, so I could not wait to validate.

Within a week of beta launch, we acquired over a hundred of users. We saw five users created project opportunities and over fifty users were connected to the project opportunities through the platform. Based on the success criteria I aimed for (activation rate 50% or more), we called it success as over a half of our users actively used our app after they signed up. After the MVP launch, our team connected with several active users to get their feedback on the usability and we continued iterating.

After spending a few years in college, the needs of students – gaining experiences through side projects – became obvious to me. Yet, project opportunities were not easily accessible for the students. In 2016, I founded an organization called Nexus, at the University of Washington, to provide project and networking opportunties to the students. I recruited twenty team members and we carried several big events which allowed us to connect a number of students with industries to collaborate on small projects. As a result, we earned a recognition from the University. However, six months later, only five, including me were left in the team. I failed to make my team excited of what we were doing. Wrapping up the year, I took time to go over myself to be aware of what what I did wrong and how I could improve. On my second try, with a smaller team I tried to make a greater impact by deciding to excel in my design thinking process to build an app to solve the problem. By building a strong rapport with my team, presenting a clear vision, milestones, communication, responsibilities, and success metrics, we were able to successfully launch the first version of the product.

For me, this project is more than a building an app, but an invaluable journey of learning. From this lesson, my biggest takeaway is if you want to bring an impact, don't let failures to stop you but take them as a fuel to push you further in the adventure.