Q&A with Kurt
You came with goal of better integrating the two teams at Dropbox. Can you tell us about the project?
The goal of the project was to improve our collaborative working model between the Design team and the Customer Support team. Our CS team has a wealth of knowledge and insights from our users—they are on the front-lines and in the weeds. I noticed our Design team was not taking full advantage of user feedback from CS, and I wanted to better our utilization of this information.
How did your work go during the week?
I was quite surprised with how much I was able to accomplish with deep, focused thinking time. When I'm in the office during a typical week, I get very little deep thinking time, so it was refreshing to be able to purely focus on one project and drive it forward.
“It felt like I was able to accomplish work while still living life in a meaningful way. Every day I felt very focused. There is a lot of time in the day and I was surprised that it felt like a work and weekend day.”
How did the activities help you achieve your objective?
I definitely was not thinking about work while I was on the activities which was nice. And personally I have been desiring more than just sitting in an office all day. So it felt like I was able to accomplish work while still living life in a meaningful way. Every day I felt very focused. There is a lot of time in the day and I was surprised that it felt like a work and weekend day.
Which activity did you particularly enjoy?
My favorite one was the first day of snorkeling. I felt most out of my element. When snorkeling I had a moment where I was looking around like, “where I am I right now?” I had a clear moment of reflection.
Did you have any aha moments?
My "ah-ha" moment came when interviewing my teammates to understand the problem through many different perspectives. I wouldn't have approached this project in that way without Skypad. It helped me glean a much deeper understanding of the problem and opportunity.
How do you think what you worked on will impact your work over the coming months?
I'm super excited to implement my project at Dropbox. I suspect it's going to dramatically improve our collaboration across the Design and CS teams, and it will impact how we make decisions in our design projects. We'll more distinctly be incorporating the voice of our users in everything we do.
Using five adjectives, how do you feel after having spent the week at Skypad?
Refreshed, excited about my idea, thankful, healthy, and re-energized.
