Debut in IHPS

It has been a while since i last blogged. Maybe one of the hindrance is that it is not as convenient for me to type in Chinese during office plus I am super lazy to blog after office hour. there you go, procrastinating.

OK, something to blog about my debut in IHPS Technical Review on 4/7.

Originally scheduled on 4/15 and it was pulled up by a week. It turned out to be a real shock to me and I was truly overwhelmed. When I saw BillFisher's invite on Mon morning (4/4), I almost flipped. I lost my thought and forgot how to configure the press to run the test. I must say I don't usually react that way but that very morning, i was so unsettled. To make things worse, my manger BillF is on FTO, meaning no one is there to guide me. Doom day, I thought. The audience of the tech review are section managers, first level managers, masters and experts engineers. How am i going to smoke them? no way!


That week was a stressful and pressing one. As i need to be on DOE course, I got in and out the class which was quite disruptive. I couldn't pay attention and need to sneak out for alignment meeting for the technical review. As everyone know, i hardly OT. that week, I actually OT for 2 consecuives nights to crunch the data and to brainstorm on how to present the data and the fact.


That very morning, I asked if RonB can go to the meeting with me since i figure he may be able to help as he is quite knowledgeable in all aspects. Thankfully he agreed. So we went to the 'Wind & Sea' room for the video conference meeting with CRV folks.


A quick glance through. I do not know 90% of the folks in the meeting room. hoho. Getting nervous. I was the second one to present after Steve A. Steve assured me that he will set a bad precedence so i will look good. haha. He was very kind. As i went through the slides with them, not much questions was asked. They skipped some of the engineering subsystem update slide. OK. I spent so much time working on it... thinking that i got to be realistic and highlight the risk. but they...


here comes the 3rd presenter. I was quite pissed off by him. Steve F. He simply told everyone that what was not done and come on, the list is long. Guess what, we spent most of the time discussing about the resources issues.


I thought this is a technical review on how ready we are to ship the solution? Instead, we were spending whole lot of time to thrash out the resource and schedule. I was truly disappointed. Really. As an engineering team, aren't we supposed to focus on engineering findings? look at how much time we spent? Why does IHPS like to do things like this?


The more upsetting chapter is that when the meeting was adjourned, DennisS, the program manager spoke to a few of us, saying that the priority will not be given to MICR but other stuffs. I was like... the last moment you commit that we will work to support MICR development and now, you said all those straight at my face when I am the one working on MICR?!


Again, I was speechless. Disappoint with the whole review, the shift of the focus and the insensitive of the IHPS management.


That was the 4/7 Review...

so... the story continues...

It's confirmed that we will have a customer shipment @ Connecticut. I was thrilled when I learn about how expensive can my solution be. Unimaginable. Haha. it costs so much. Anyway, i feel kind of proud?! I grumbled to BillF about the review and I told him i am not convinced that I am supposed to drive the whole initiative in T200 (my baby product). He then shook my hand and said: I authorize you to be the lead of this initiative. That was hilarious.


Well, the kind of treatment i had from the various counterparts was not as great. I sulk and fumed. Last week was filled with frustrations as I sense the disregard from the CRV teammate. I was mad. It was only after 5 mths, BarBM clarified to all that I am the one who is in charged of T200. there it goes, i suppose from now on I will gain more respect and visibility for working on this.


Being a lead is not as fun as I thought. This role has challenged to work with different people from R&D, Ops and Marketing. The next one would be our customers. As the solution installation will take place in June, I need to coordinate for the parts to be ready, technical support during installation, daily activities and plan, tracking the R&D schedule and trying to make others to work for me. It can be quite mental draining and stressful, I must say. I am unsure how well received my audiences are but I will try my best. Steve A has been very helpful in this which I am very thankful for. BillF has been coaching me on this and I think he can sense that I appear to be panicky and pretty tensed up. Yesterday he said: Relax. Haha. that was funny. 

Weeks after my FTO will be crazy.

For now, I will just leave that aside and enjoy my journey to the wondrous creation!