Anand Upender
Team Lead, 2017-2018
This collaboration was really a lesson in learning how to embrace ambiguity and explore complex mobility futures with a curious mindset. Our team was unique and wacky from the beginning, allowing us to experiment with process, visual design, and team culture.
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Mulan MacDougall
Team Lead, 2018-2019
Working with Ford, Dr. Barbara Karanian and my team was one of the most challenging and rewarding academic experiences I have had the pleasure of encountering. From collaborating with Barbara to assemble our team, to deciding our week-to-week goals and overarching vision, there were so many tiny considerations I could not have foreseen at the start of our project. While I have plenty of experience leading teams, and even more experience working with friends, this was the first instance in which I was leading a team of people who I considered my friends before the project even started. A particularly memorable moment for me was at our first team meeting, in which I sat along the long edge of the table, and left the seat at the front of the room for Barbara. When she saw this, she said, “No Mulan, this is your seat.” When I work with friends, my inclination is to act as an equal and to let our plans develop as a team. For this project however, my friends had the expectation that as the leader, I would set the agenda and guide the course of our project (of course redirecting plans when necessary). This experience taught me the delicate balance of knowing when to “sit at the head of the table” and when to let the group decide how we would proceed.
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