good

If you decide to sign up for a project with Mayk Ideas, it is crucial for the project team to discuss and finalize the project scope and deliverables BEFORE starting the project. While some changes to the project scope are inevitable in longer-term projects, sudden shifts in the scope of a three-week project do not make sense. Mayk's project sponsor (COO in our case) lacked a clear vision on how the project activities could best serve the “agreed” project charter. Riipen Project Team had to spend extra time and effort to help Mayk understand their needs. Mayk’s project sponsor insisted on using video recordings with no transcription as the sole means of communication. The videos lacked focus and they were self-contradicting in many cases. The project team's multiple requests for a live meeting and proper use of email and MS Teams chat were ignored. Mayk's Project Manager (first point of contact) attempted several times to handle the project professionally, but Mayk's project sponsor tempted to reverse or overrule his decisions or approvals. The company clearly has issues with distrust in delegation of authority, internal miscommunication, and excessive micromanagement. When we submitted our final presentation for Mayk’s approval, the project sponsor masked over 80 percent of slides with orange boxes, claiming that they include confidential information! We delivered a full data analytics project including the development of standardized input template, fit-for-purpose data model and data analysis, data visualizations and dashboards as well as data-related documentations. However, we eventually were forced to use open-source data from public domain to present our work to our peers! The Riipen Project Team handled the situation professionally in collaboration with Riipen admin team and project’s academic coach. We eventually applied our technical knowledge and business skills to provide Mayk with a prudent solution. The main surprise was that we had signed up to learn from “best practices,” but we learned a great deal from “bad examples” in the project.

This was an exciting project with real-life scenarios and challenges. I am thankful for a very supportive and engaged project manager and appreciate how vested the project sponsor was in the project's flow. With several capstone projects running simultaneously the volume did have its toll on the feedback turnaround time, especially with company's preferred way of communication being recorded videos: watching many videos one after another without written summaries, and then coordinating notes between all internal and external team members was a challenging and time-consuming endeavour. Daily meetings with the project manager were helpful to keep the effort coordinated, I wish there was more detailed and upfront input from the subject matter expert. Considering the short term of the project, I think it would have benefited from concise written communication and full sharing of the pilot phase results and recommendations at the project start.

The capstone project with Mayk Idea provided me with a valuable learning experience. I had the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in the class to solve real-world challenges. It prepared me well for the next step in my career. Thanks Mayk for the support and guidance.

It was a great opportunity to work for Mayk Ideas where I was able to learn and apply technical and non-technical skills.

I had a good experience with Mayke

The project manager was great to work with and the team members were very friendly. I like that the project sponsor is passionate about the work and involved in the project. However, the communication method needs improvement. Videos could be effective if they were used as a project introduction, however live sessions for Q&A would be more impactful. As well, the project lacked clear scope and would benefit from an internal scope of work discussion before starting a 3 week project with interns. The projects would also be more effective if the SME was available to answer technical questions during meetings.

It was a good experience. I found it fascinating to learn about this particular area of business, specially because it was completely different from Oil & Gas. I appreciated learning about their operational procedures, and the use of video recordings as a communication tool. However I consider video recording needs some refinement to be used as a replacement over traditional means of project communication.

In general, the Mayk team did try their best to help us go through the development process, which helped Team 3 to complete the project on time. Each of our team members is very appreciative about all their efforts to help us achieve the end goal of the project. However video instructions were not a great tool to be the primary project requirement delivery tool, not as effective and clear as other tools can be. It could very well be a great secondary tool.

It was a great practice and opportunity to apply our knowledge and skills from class into a real industry project. Thanks to Mayk for spending time and sharing the resource to us, and help us to gain valuable working experience, which will help our future career.

It was a really good learning experience with Mayk Ideas. We learn a lot about data complications and the data cleaning part. We look forward to working with them in future as well.