Semester 2 almost over!!

Hello everybody! I cannot believe how fast it has gone, we just started week 7 of semester 2. Its getting really scary because there are so much to do. We have a 20-page group report and presentation due in 3 weeks time- we haven't started it yet-, my team BCB is thinking of pivoting. Not starting an entirely new idea but just change certain parts of the idea because of the feedbacks we received from our lecturers. Then there are other little pieces of written assignments due in March - not really little they are 2000-3000 words essays. I thought last semester was hectic but this semester is something else. lol.

I don't really remember what happened in the last two weeks, but I'll highlight some stuff.

Got my first assignment back from Managing High Tech and didn't do very well :'( I got 60. My lowest mark so far. I know the UK grading system, 60-69 is a merit/ 2:1 which is good. But I'm aiming for distinctions! Nevertheless! I got 70 overall for the Creativity module. That's 1 distinction, yay! In order to graduate with a distinction, you need to 5 distinctions.

We had 2 written assignments due last week and were due on Valentine's day and Friday. But no way was I going to work on Valentines night for the one due on Friday. So I was working on the marketing last weekend and the managing high tech one on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and submitted both on Wednesday night! I just handed another one this morning. That's all the assignments for this month but have quite a few deadlines in mid- March. Talking about Managing High Tech class, I actually enjoy reading those case studies. I'm able to pick up the problems, strategies, and apply the things I've learnt. But I'm not too keen on the way Keith, the lecturer, teaches he loses me sometimes.

I haven't been to the guest lecture in the past 2 weeks. But on week 4 (I think), the guest lecture was Lisa Long, she was a good speaker. She's a co-founder of Six to Start, a games company know best for Zombie Run and Soniqplay an audio application platform company. Lisa Long explained that the Zombie Run is a health game that makes jogging/ running more fun. People who usually go jogging like to run along with music plugged into their ears, with Zombie Run, there's a voice that tells you what to do. So for example, 'run slight left to pick up a bottle of water', 'speed up, some Zombies are catching up', etc. I haven't downloaded it myself as I don't jog outdoors, I usually run on the treadmill.

Lisa Long also said we should use any excuse to celebrate. Don't wait for big achievements, celebrate any little achievements. This will keep us motivated. I'm definitely doing that now, I've been celebrating with good food! Lol. She also said that networking is total rubbish. Lol. As soon as she said that most of the people in my class including me looked at Dave's (our lecturer) reaction because he always pushes us to network network network. He has sort of brainwashed me a little with that but I still don't like it. My boyfriend is right, its very fake.

Just to revise what I have learnt in the past few weeks.;

• the Greiner and Churchill's growth models- big and small organisations grow in 5 stages
• actionable vs Vanity metrics
• Lean ways to monitor metrics and test hypotheses, e.g. A/B split test
• how to use @Risk Monte carlo Simulation
• my excel skills have improved
• what funnel metrics are; Acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, referral

It makes me feel good to know that I have learnt something. You don't realise how much you've learnt until you actually think about it.

This week in BFP, Itxaso has scheduled a session in developing a Facebook app for our business. Not sure what that means but sounds fun. Anyways, that's it for now. Stayed tuned!