Throughout the summer, Skandalaris Center Summer Internship Program participants will be writing guest blog posts about their internship experience. Following is one such post. 

The Double-Edged Sword of Autonomy and Ambiguity 

By Jordan Yung (BU ’21)

They say that college is meant to prepare you for the workforce. But there is one thing that classes and hours of studying will not prepare you to handle: the autonomy and ambiguity of working for a startup.

This summer, I have had the amazing opportunity to work for CottonCuts, a startup that provides subscription boxes of fabric to quilters. I remember the first day when I received my project scope. I was tasked with creating a business model for CottonCuts to transition one of their current B2C products into a B2B product. I had four deliverables: 4 P’s for marketing, a business canvas, a launch timeline, and startup investment costs. While I had a deadline, there was minimal instruction and expectations provided by my manager. She entrusted me to explore this new wholesale opportunity and determine the best course of action for this branch of the business independently.

As a student with only two years of business classes in Economics & Strategy and Operations & Supply Chain Management, this task truly seemed daunting at first. I was not used to having the freedom to set the guidelines, particularly for a project that is likely to change course a few times.

Over the course of the project, I have realized that project autonomy and ambiguity is a double-edged sword. Autonomy is a great privilege as it allows me to work with flexible subtask deadlines. This warrants the ability to ensure I can be as thorough as necessary and produce high quality work. In addition, autonomy has allowed me to adjust my course of action accordingly as new information surfaces, which has been appreciated given the ambiguity of the project.

For example, initially I was only considering a wholesale option to quilt shops. However, after conducting additional research into the quilting community, I learned about quilt guilds, a new potential market. This autonomy provided me the capability to take a deep dive into quilt guilds and come to a data-supported decision. Meanwhile the ambiguity of the project allowed for the project to be redefined to accommodate for the new information. The flexibility that autonomy and ambiguity encourages due diligence and exploration.

Autonomy and ambiguity, however, has proven to be a challenge in ensuring the integrity of the project overtime. Though these elements enable an individual to run with a project with few constraints, it can be dangerous if the direction of the project is seemingly off course.

Recently, I had to course correct the project due to a faulty production capacity assumption. Given key elements of the project was based on this assumption, I had to reassess much of the work previously completed. Though this was an unfortunate set back to the project timeline, it has taught me a valuable lesson moving forward. I recognize that these challenges could easily be mitigated just by setting up check points with your manager to verify work. While you can embrace the autonomy and ambiguity, it can be beneficial to build in a method for seeking guidance and support as needed. In the end, this will allow you to ensure you are on the right track and provide your manager with a chance to recognize your progress without aggressively intervening.

While autonomy and ambiguity can present some challenges in project management, it is ultimately one of the best ways to empower employees to produce quality work. Such flexibility gives employees a sense of responsibility and dedication to their work. It is for these reasons that I now look forward to projects with such autonomy and ambiguity.