Communication & Collaboration: Building the Lesson Desk Website
During my time as a frontend developer at Full Facing Pty Ltd, my manager approached me to discuss the re-development of the Lesson Desk public-facing website. I was excited at the prospect, since I would be able to rebuild it using the latest Next.js framework and libraries such as Framer Motion to implement animations. I was presented with five Figma webpage designs and asked for an ETA to implement them. Based on my availability at the time, I estimated 5 weeks. After a few days, I was presented with about 7 additional screen designs, and realised that the estimate had been for all 12 web pages, not just the initial few. I realised that I had promised an ETA that I was unlikely to meet.
I immediately reached out to my manager and explained the misunderstanding, hoping to be granted an ETA extension. Unfortunately, the stakeholders were already set on the initial one. Next, I asked if any other developers had capacity to take over some of the workload. Thankfully, three other developers were willing to each take on one or two of the additional pages alongside their other sprint work.
The extra help meant that I could continue to work on the project at a reasonable pace and remain focused on details such as optimising queries, implementing smooth and performant animations, and ensuring layout responsiveness. Despite the initial misunderstanding and unexpected workload, we managed to deliver the website on time and it was approved by the stakeholders.
The experience has taught me the importance of communication. Rather than assuming what the manager's expectations were, I should have asked for an clear explanation of what the project involved, which would have allowed me to determine a realistic ETA. Secondly, I have learned to ask for help. Reaching out to my manager and explaining the situation resulted in receiving help from other developers. Without them, the project would likely not have been on time.
- JavaScript
- Next.js
- Teamwork
- Reflection