StartUP FIU

My Journey with StartUP FIU

I started college August 22, 2022, and by August 24, I was already in the StartUP FIU building checking out what cool things were happening there.

I found that most of the students were engineering or STEAM majors, conducting research, working on interesting projects, or competing in challenges. I loved the community from day one and kept coming back for all their workshops on human-centered design. The way they taught entrepreneurship was really focused on this approach, and I felt super engaged. I learned how to switch my mind from solution to problem and started thinking more about finding user pain points, how to conduct customer interviews in an unbiased way to actually get real data. 'Cause users might say something but actually need something else, you know?

I immersed myself with others in brainstorming and making prototypes. What I liked is that it didn't feel like a class (I actually skipped a few classes to attend their workshops) and I felt I was meeting amazing people and getting practical knowledge.

I got lucky enough to have a vacancy open up, and now I'm working there part-time, helping with the programs that once helped me. But I'm actually learning more now that I'm behind the scenes. That means learning more about organizing workshops, conducting marketing, presenting, and all that good stuff.

Now every Monday at 3:30, I facilitate a roundtable called Student Idea Circle, where as a "facilitator" I help guide the dialogue between the students, and we all help each other with our projects and startup ideas.

Luckily, all those skills, from management to design thinking, are what make a great product manager. At the time, I didn't know it, but now that I've finished my Microsoft internship, I can look back and see how the dots lined up, leading me towards PM.

You can check out more on my LinkedIn.