Overview
In the summer of 2023, around 30 interns joined the company for the summer to collaborate on the development of a new application. Under the guidance of an experienced coach from the company, the interns will participate in teams of 4 in every stage of the project, from brainstorming and design to development and testing. Their goal was to create a fully functional application by the end of the summer. The project resulted in the interns presenting the final product to the company's executives, showcasing their work and what they’ve learned throughout the internship.
Intern Coach
Amy Strawn
Interns
Bryan Wagner
Bashir Ahmed
Tooni Alade
Ronojoy Dutta
Project
GM Go! Mobile Application
My Coaching Responsibilities
Take on the role as Designer and Coach
Weekly Touchpoints with interns to discuss their progress, answer any questions, and discuss next steps.
Weekly touchpoints with all interns and other coaches in the program to discuss any questions and share work.
Weekly meeting with stakeholders involved with the GM Go! application.
One on one meetings with each intern to discuss internship goals, networking opportunities, career interests, career goals, and discuss involvement in groups in the company (ex. Employee resource groups and Jumpstart for new employees).
Participate with interns in setting up their executive presentation and do introductions.
Summer Schedule
The Challenge
How might we increase on site building attendance for employees in order to bring back fun to the in-building work experience?
The Design
Features include:
Map navigation of the office allowing floor changes
AI view of vehicles in office rooms
My Profile/My Garage
Trivia questions to collect cars
Leadership board
Quiz challenges with others
Bidding on cars
The Design Sprint
The GM Go team of 7 people committed to 24 hours, and ~90 ideas generated to create, and test an application that allows users to test their GM knowledge to collect GM vehicles through AI in the office. In the design sprint I worked with the team to come up with a prototype for testing. Below is a video of them walking through the prototype to check for bugs.
GM GO! Final Presentation
The GM Go! team decided to take their project a step further than their powerpoint presentation to the executives. They took the initiative to be creative and come up with their own video to describe the full experience of the GM Go! application. Leadership was impressed and their video was shown to the entire program.
Summary
When my manager asked me if I would be interested in an opportunity to practice leadership skills, I had no idea how valuable the experience would be. I had the best time coaching the interns through the full process of a project from beginning to end. I was very excited the interns got a project that was going to allow them to grow in their skills but was also fun and playful for them to enjoy.
I was able to also encourage the interns to get involved in groups throughout the company such as “Jumpstart.” Jumpstart is a group in the company for individuals who are in their first 5 years with the company. The interns were able to get involved with Jumpstart and attend events for great experience in networking.
I also got them involve in a volunteering experience for General Motors initiative “GM Cares.” The interns and I were able to take a day to help build a brand new playground for a YMCA in downtown Atlanta. It was great for the interns to break away once during the summer to do impactful work for the community.
I really enjoyed the summer overall and proud of what the interns accomplished.
