TylerH- Engineering – CA Work Experience Program

Day 8 – Dave Cree, BizDev and Executive Meetings!

Today I got to shadow Dave Cree, the Head of Business Development and 3rd-Party partnerships. Today was made up of three meetings, the second of which was with a company with which I was actually familiar! It was SweetLabs, who is assisting Lenovo in the development of a product, and who also created and sold the Windows 8 Start Menu replacement Pokki, which I still have on my computer even now! We got to discuss a lot about what we can improve about the product with which they are assisting, and how we can better format the product layout, as well as how it can be better for the end consumer. During this meeting, we had Smokey’s Barbecue, and a really great conversation with a lot of good ideas being listened to and heard, as a meeting should be.

One of the guys in the meeting was from England, and he had to ask what cobbler was when someone pointed it out on the buffet line. After the meeting, Dave and I drove over (in his Acura NDX, pictures included) to Building 8 and attended a meeting with a company called Nebbiolo Technologies, and I got to meet a legendary name in the IoT (Internet of Things) industry, Flavio Bonomi, and I even got to shake his hand and hear him give a presentation about his company!

Day 7 – Richard Henderson and Marketing (*Meetings)!!!!!

Today I got to shadow Richard Henderson from the Marketing department. When I got there initially, I was escorted to the Customer Briefing Center (a very nice conference room at the end of a very nice hallway), where Rich was already giving a presentation to representatives from North Carolina Central University. After about three minutes, he turned the floor over to another presenter and we rushed to another meeting (about how Lenovo can better incorporate Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality into education)! Ah, the life of a marketer!

The focal point of the day, surprisingly, had nothing to do with Lenovo, marketing, software, or hardware at all! I got to attend a surprise bridal shower for one of Rich’s direct reports! The party was largely set up by the time we got there, and it didn’t take long before she showed up and we all yelled “Surprise!”, as one does at surprise parties. Then we all got together and played an odd version of charades where you talk but you can’t say certain words and the other team had to guess. It was a lot of fun, but Rich and I had to leave early (in classic rushing businessman fashion) so that we could attend yet another meeting about Augmented and Virtual Reality!

Day 6 – Eric Hemming and WW3P Software Sales!

Today I shadowed Eric Hemming, the director of third-party sales at Lenovo. He is in charge of sales for third-party software world-wide, so he was responsible for communicating with people from many other companies, and so I got to listen to a pair of calls he did with some of his prospective customers and hear how he gathered information and what he could do to make the deal better. They were not finalizing calls, so I didn’t get to hear him actually close the deal (one of which, with a company called MobileIron, was worth $1,000,000!). I did, however, get to learn all about the philosophies by which he lives he work life, some of which include:

“Build a Relationship of Trust”, “Multiply your Value 100-fold”, and also “Form Good Habits and become a Slave to them”.

He also recommended to me a book called “The Greatest Salesman in the World”, by Og Mandino, the e-book of which I am about to buy right now!

Day 5 – Stephen Floyd and AGILE

Today I shadowed Steve Floyd in the Preload department at Lenovo. I got a great opportunity to learn about AGILE (a set of principles and method of thinking designed for companies and enterprises) today, as I got to attend a Stand Up meeting of the Metrics group, which included Russell, Steve, Stefan, and Tony. In a Stand Up meeting, every member stands around a table and gives a run-down of what they did yesterday, what they are currently doing, and what they plan to do for the rest of the day. It is designed to increase accountability and efficiency, as well as encourage communication. The idea is for each member to give a 15 minute talk about all of their endeavors, and for everyone to offer feedback and familiarize themselves with each other’s work. Though it went a little shorter today, I found it seemingly inefficient. I think maybe a meeting like this at the beginning of the week and one at the end of the week would be better than having one every day as originally intended.

I also got to see one of the original prototypes for what is now known as the Thinkpad 10, and got to see all of the prototypes leading up to what is now the final build of the device (pictures included).

Day 4 – Bridgett Rogers and the Design Lab!

Today I got to shadow Bridgett Rogers, who works in DevOps (development operations), and I attended a meeting that discussed how to better streamline and implement Agile, as well as other organization-focused ways of thinking. The highlight of the day came at the end of the day, when I got to visit the Design Lab, which showcases a lot of products, the displayed versions of which never having made it to market. I was totally not allowed to take pictures in this area, apologies in advance. While I can’t go into specifics, I was able to see a model/mockup of the Lenovo Smart Speaker, as well as a custom built desktop designed for gaming. I also was referred to a company called User View, which does massive surveys with people who are interested in alpha/beta-testing products. I am very excited to put my name in with them!

I was also able to visit the data center, where all of Lenovo’s servers are kept. These are the servers that provide for the entire campus, as well as the other Morrisville campus, and even much of Lenovo’s Chinese and Asian operations! I entered in through a very secure, double locked entrance (not any old schmo can get in :D), and I got to take the full tour from the head of the data center, and learn all about the massive amounts of servers, and equally importantly, the massive amounts of power it takes to power them! These servers have to run for years at a time, with no down time, so it is very difficult to maintain them and ensure the length of their life. The room is always kept at 69 degrees so that they will never overheat and fail.

NOTE: Pictures will be included later tonight. Currently having issues transferring pics from phone to computer.

Day 3 – Neil Lancia and Roundtable Meeting with Igor!

Today I shadowed Neil Lancia, a product manager responsible for the Lenovo App Explorer (can you tell that app is kind of a big deal?). After introducing ourselves, answering some email, and responding to a few forum comments, we headed down to the development lab and the HTC Vive to test out a third-party virtual-reality assistant, which allows users to play their favorite legacy games in VR, even if a VR-specific version has not been made for them. For about 45 minutes, I got to play Bioshock 1 and offer my feedback on the experience so that Lenovo can better inprove their apps for the future. They wanted to get a fresh set of eyes on the game, so that they could see how an example consumer, particularly one who has a ton of gaming experience (me), liked it, and what criticism or praise I could offer it. It was a bit disorienting but they said my feedback was very useful and they appreciated the fact that I was able to offer consistent feedback, since apparently most people just get lost in the game as they play and don’t offer much feedback at all.

In the afternoon, we went to a 12-person “roundtable” meeting with Igor Bergman, and I got to listen to a Q&A session where some product managers and engineers were able to ask him questions. After one of the questions, Igor took the opportunity to casually roast engineers in general, as he pointed out that on one of their recent consumer-directed apps, some engineer had placed a CPU temperature gauge, something about which the average consumer should barely EVER care, on the very front page of the app, instead of something visually appealing to an average consumer. His point was that engineers should not be in charge of marketing and that product owners need to step up and take care of it, but it really resonated with me because I consider myself an engineer with a good understanding of the customer as well.

NOTE: I was able to visit the Industrial Design Lab at the end of the day, and saw a stack of Yoga devices that were made in colors that will never reach the market. It would have made for a very nice picture, so I asked if I could take one, and I was told very decisively “NO”, so I was unfortunately not able to get pictures of specific activities during the day. See above (or below, I’m not sure) for a cool angled picture of the main building I have been in for the last three days.

Day 2 – Shadowing Jon Mulder and All Hands on Deck Meeting!

Today I shadowed Jon Mulder, a content developer who plays a large role in Lenovo’s equivalent of the App Store, which is called Lenovo App Explorer. I was also able to meet some of his associates, Christianna, Naomi, Ryan, and David, who also play critical roles in either the App Explorer or the development lab. I was also able to speak with Christianna and Naomi a bit about the work that they do on a global scale, communicating with Brazil, Japan, and China, just to name a few. They also told me about some of the scholarships that Lenovo offers, and they also told me about a great workshop that I will try to attend later in the week, which is a workshop about the language C++. After talking with them, Jon and I drove over to the other Lenovo campus where I got to meet Igor Bergman, the VP Head of Software & Cloud Business at Lenovo, and I was able to shake his hand and tell him a little about myself and the Work Experience Program, before he gave a huge presentation to ~100 people while we all ate pizza (second day in a row for pizza, I’m not complaining). Great day, and I even got a free cup promoting the release of their latest product, Airclass (which released yesterday)!!!

Day 1 – Shadowing Grant Shenk (Portfolio Dept.)

Today I got to shadow Grant Shenk at Lenovo. The day started off with a tour of the building, and I got to see the 3rd and 4th floors of Building 1, as well as a full tour of the Customer Centre, where all the publicly released products offered by Lenovo are showcased and available for use. I was able to try out a very high end custom desktop PC, with a curved 120 degree display, and play a match of Rocket League. I also had a one-on-one meeting with Grant, where I learned about the life of a product and how it travels from proof of concept all the way down the chain to EOL and EOS (ends of life and service, respectively). I was also able to check out how some of the different workspaces are set up, and offer feedback as to how to better encourage interdepartmental interaction through workspace design. I was also able to meet two great employees named Bridgett and Jarrett (sp?, apologies to him, never was able to see the correct spelling of his name), the latter of whom was very involved in music production, which has ties to my intended college minor of vocal performance, and we all had a great lunchtime conversation at Randy’s Pizza about the evolution of technology and how it has changed over the last two decades, including Y2K, specifically. I had an amazing first day and I look forward to what these next two weeks have to offer, including Friday, when I am able to shadow Bridgett for the day!

First Post – Testing Out How the Blog Works

Dr. Mc told us to write a first post so here it is. Stuff I need to remember includes:

Tag the post with the option that autofills after typing Tyler, and also tag it with the day number (let it autofill by typing day). Also tag it with anything else that identifies the post.

Also tell a story with these posts. “Something cool happened today and here it is”. This is a daily requirement and it must be completed every day or I won’t get credit for it.

I should also put pictures here as well. Even video!! (Check NDA)

I am also allowed to post multiple times a day if cool stuff happens all day!