Bennett Kahn Post #4

In terms of interest and understanding, yesterday was one of my favorite days at Lucid so far. Like everyday, we--Samuel and I--arrived at Lucid for 9 a.m. From 9-10 I worked on learning the Python language using a resource Steven showed me called CodeCademy. At 10 a.m., we met with Will Kuckro, a Product Manager at Lucid. As Product Manager, Will has to be a supervisor of sorts to several groups of people to ensure that the Lucid product that he oversees--the Marketplace--receives the funding and engineering it needs to function properly. After that meeting, David, the Customer Success Manager we are primarily shadowing this week, set up dummy Fulcrum accounts for us. Fulcrum is the software that both Lucid product managers and clients use to manage the thousands of surveys going through Lucid. With the dummy account and with the help of David, we were able to explore the tool and understand the many metrics used to gauge performance: incidence rate, conversion, CPI, etc.

For lunch we walked about fifteen minutes down Poydras Street for Poke Loa and City Greens. Before we knew it, it was 11:48 when Samuel was still ordering lunch at City Greens. This was initially concerning because we had a fifteen minute walk back to Canal Place but a 12:00 meeting (AKA in 12 minutes). I figured that since Samuel and I are young and in pretty good shape (he in Division I NCAA Cross Country shape), we could quicken our pace and walk approximately 20% faster than the predicted Google Maps average speed. Two minutes in, and we were on pace. The headwind was strong but not so strong that it made our intended speed impossible. However, as we passed the intersection of Poydras and Carondelet, we were immediately hit by a headwind of 30 mph. Nevertheless, we trudged. Persevering and perspiring, we adjusted our gaits to match the raging winds and were able to stay on pace (according to Google Maps). With four minutes left, at 11:56, we were preparing to pass St. Peters and head down the south wing of Harrah's Casino. Before we reached the intersection, the pedestrian light turned red. Samuel displayed a streak of genius here. Rather than wait for the light, he said, we should turn left onto St. Peter's. It was marvelous! Even without the light delay, this route would have been exponentially faster. Without breaking stride, we hooked a left turn and continued. As we were passing Harrah's Casino near Canal and St. Peters, I realized I had overlooked one major detail: elevator time. If we had walked just five percent faster (it would have been difficult but definitely manageable), we would have had ample time for the elevators. Now with only 200 meters between us and the entrance to One Canal Place, we increased our speed. We got on the elevator at 11:59. In the days previous, I had been averaging a 126 second elevator-to-desk split. At that point, I came to terms with the unfortunate inevitability: we would be late. On the elevator, we checked our Google Calendars to find that the meeting was in the Bacchus Room. We departed on the 31st floor, swung a left turn and entered Lucid. We ran up the stairs and reached Bacchus at 12:02. Late, but not awful. We were both pleasantly relieved to find that the meeting was only three other people and that they hadn't started yet due to technology issues. We were so relieved! The meeting was about product management training.

After the meeting, David showed us some neat data analysis tricks on Excel. That was definitely my favorite part of the day and a nice decompression from the lunchtime stress. Also during the day, we met with Brian Winters. He was initially the most intimidating person I have met with so far, simply because he was older than most other Lucid people, holds a Vice President status at Lucid, and was wearing a suit (most of the employees at Lucid are very young and dress very casually). He explained to us that there are many more jobs in the tech world than just coding. I grew more calm when I realized that he was very personable and curious about our individual interests. Like everything these last two weeks, the meeting was invaluable!

Thank you, Lucid, for giving me such a wonderful experience this week and last!