Dear Clare,

Today marks the one-year anniversary since the launch of NUS Product Club.

I remember the very first time I met the other co-founders at 77 Robinson Road back in mid-April last year, where we had the opportunity to discuss with Jason our club’s initial plans - including the launch of PM1101E. Entering the student club scene once again from my personal break, I was totally lost while I was listening to the others have their discussion, while I was sitting in silence, observing and learning what was going on.

Not going to lie, ounces of impostor syndrome hit me that day, seeing how they were all passionate about kickstarting this new student club. With the immense desire from a driven young girl who knew her career path early, along with the support of five other established individuals who happened to be from N-House, I did feel like an outsider struggling to fit in. Seeking personal redemption, based on my experiences in my previous club, however, I nonetheless tried my best to learn the ropes, seeing that a learning opportunity was available for me as well.

Going into this meeting, I did not know what The Product Loft actually was - the product scene to me was totally foreign, and I had to do my own research on the different organisations to look out for - even SMU Product Club, which I was not actively following until recently then.

Through my initial conversations with the other co-founders, it was clear that at least from my end, our needs for each other were complementary. For myself, I was looking to expand my horizons in publicity and marketing, given that my past experiences were limited. And perhaps to them, they just needed someone to execute their plans - that they have been discussing in detail over the months prior to me entering the picture. I would say that our goals were aligned, and they were seeking someone to help carry out what they have already discussed beforehand.

6 May 2023: Featuring the formal launch of our club on various socials, including sharing our insights from the survey which justified our vision and mission.

With the dissemination of our survey on various school Telegram groups to validate the need to launch our student club, many other milestones followed afterwards - including our club’s launch, as well as its various events and activities. 

Many things have changed since then, and I’m pretty sure none of us would have expected to be a part of this growing movement. It has indeed been a rewarding journey, seeing how a club grew from literally nothing, to arguably one of the fastest growing student clubs out there in NUS today. While there is still work to be done to further establish ourselves within our school community, I must say that I am indeed proud of what all of us have achieved over the calendar year. Kudos to all involved, including our instructors, speakers, guests, O’Comm, student participants and even our wider student community for allowing all of this to happen!

As I look back, however, sometimes I wonder - how did this all happen in the first place? I still remember when the time came to decide who would be heading this movement, all of us were hesitant in volunteering ourselves. The person who would be stepping forward would indeed be sacrificing a lot of time to plan and coordinate our efforts, arguably much more than everyone else on board. When it was decided that this person would be me, I frankly did not want the role, just like everyone else. But what drove me really, was the fact that I had nothing to lose, given the recent personal setbacks that I’ve been through. To deviate from someone’s catchphrase: “How worse could it be?”

Fast forward to mid-June, when our O’Comm was just formed. Jeng, Joanna and I were at Trust Bank once again, commencing with our second round of discussions with Jason to further plan the curriculum of PM1101E for our first semester. This was when I met both you and Chi Sin for the very first time - two personalities which I thought were vastly different from one another. With Chi Sin being the memorably outspoken personality that she is, you were on the other hand the more soft-spoken one - yet calm and collected. This trait of yours was evident going into our meeting later that night, where although you were mostly silent given it was your first time, you did help to raise important questions whenever it was necessary, greatly assisting with our initial plans when discussing with our EXCO afterwards.

Some additional photos from our initial run of PM1101E at ShopBack Campus in Semester 1!

And off we went with our initial run of PM1101E at ShopBack Campus - arguably one of the most memorable parts of many members’ journey with us. Till today, I found it hard to believe that we would have the privilege of having the support of Isaac and his team, just to ensure that the world of product management could be spread more widely within our school community. I still remember one of the key discussions throughout these sessions was on who would be taking over Joanna as Head of Curriculum, given that she was presumably leaving after our first semester back then. While I was initially surprised that your name popped up given your soft-spoken nature, I also believed in giving others a chance to step up and perform when they wanted to, and that was exactly what happened after our discussion with the other EXCO members, allowing you to step up as Deputy Head of Curriculum and oversee PM1101E for our second semester, while leveraging Joanna’s experience in our first semester.

Hope these pictures bring back some great memories for you! Featuring the OG Curriculum Team

Semester 2 was an exciting time for all of us. With new faces, new initiatives and new events in the fray, I was looking forward to every Thursday, seeing how our activities would be carried out by our various enthusiastic members every week. This included our weekly PM1101E sessions, where I had the privilege of working more closely with you, given that you were now leading the programme. While there might be some disagreements on certain ways the programme was run, I would say that overall, I’m proud of what you have achieved, including improving the quality of PM1101E with your new implementation of the Teaching Assistant system, greatly providing value to our new student participants. Similar to last semester, we already have participants who have expressed their interest to formally join our O’Comm for the next academic year and continue their journey with us, and I do hope that they stay true to their word to support your vision for our club moving forward.

More pictures from PM1101E in Semester 2

Witnessing your personal growth throughout the year has been an enjoyable watch to me. Starting off as a quiet personality who puts her head down and works hard when necessary, you’ve truly grown into a capable leader, one who’s honest about herself but yet tries her best in whatever opportunity she is given, steadily gaining new levels of confidence over time. Just as how you’ve benefited both personally and professionally from this experience, I hope you’ll be able to provide a similar, if not better experience for our future club members who will be under your care over the next academic year.

Introducing our Vice-Presidents - Evangeline and Swareena! I know the quality of this photo isn't the best, but I guess I just wanted to feature their raw excitement when they were finally announced to our club members

And perhaps you’ll be more than capable of doing that, with the support of your leadership team, including your two Vice-Presidents, Evangeline and Swareena:

Evangeline

Quite frankly, there’s not much I need to say about Evangeline. Arguably the person I got to work the closest with in our club over the academic year, her hard work and dedication since the beginning has been evident, as our Publicity Team under her leadership has contributed greatly to our growth. With many exciting initiatives such as establishing our branding guide, organising internal design competitions to incentivise our members, or establishing SOPs to ensure sufficient publicity coverage throughout the year, her team’s back-end efforts are hard to go unrecognised. Even "Lorong Product" - which was only meant to be a one-off episode, had successfully expanded into a six-episode series, leveraging her past experience to build a learning opportunity for all of us in the team to grow our technical expertise in running a podcast, which is highly appreciated.

For myself, I’ve learnt a lot from her and her respective team members, including the new ones that only joined this semester. The lessons that I’ve picked up from these ten individuals over the academic year were a driver that explains why I’ve reclaimed back my original role from her for now, while elevating her to her existing position. She has truly earned her place thanks to her contributions, and although she will be overseas next semester, I hope that she is still able to contribute wholeheartedly as Vice-President, continuing to display her passion and enthusiasm for our club. Getting to know her personally given her unique background is a true privilege of mine, and I am positive that she can perform well in her new role.

Swareena

Swareena is also an interesting personality that gradually grew into our circle - first joining our club as a PM1101E participant in our first semester, before being recruited as one of our Curriculum Executives in our second semester. Perhaps you’d know her better than me - given how closely the two of you have been working together in the same team. I’ve heard many great things about her - but what impresses me is the amount of time that she was willing to dedicate herself to our activities, despite her high volume of other school commitments, including as President of another student club. I’ve noticed her even since our first semester, where she was one of the few students who consistently participated in our other events besides PM1101E, even travelling to SMU for PM Career Series Part 1 for example, as well as attending our other fireside chats, and later our Product Case Challenge. 

Witnessing her in action, both as an O’Comm as a student participant was truly enjoyable to watch, and I can envision how she can also be a part of our leadership team moving forward as well. Like many of the bright and forward-thinking individuals we have in our club, I appreciate Swareena’s thought process, as well as the quality of feedback that she provides especially on our existing initiatives, which are good problems to think about even from my perspective. She would be a great asset in indeed finetuning our existing programmes moving forward, along with ideating new ones should she wish to do so for the growth of our club.

Some other miscellaneous photos over the past academic year

Back to my personal reflection for a bit - while it is true that our club has emerged as a resounding success, there are still areas for improvement especially behind-the-scenes. As the head of this club, there were many difficult decisions that I had to make, including some that were regrettable on my end. But I guess this is what a leader has to do - to do what he thinks is right rather than what is popular. It would be impossible to please everyone all the time, as every individual has his or her own unique opinions on each matter. 

Although I acknowledge that some of my actions may sometimes not be understood or well-received from time to time, I hope people understand that these are done for the good of our club, especially with the amount of time, money and effort that has been put in when none of us were willing to step up in the beginning. But as our story gradually unfolded, I realised I was perhaps the wrong person who stepped up at the right time, accurately framing myself as the “ultimate opportunist” who just happened to spur the growth of everyone involved with our club, including myself.

Finally unveiling you as my successor - was fun keeping this under wraps from everyone for weeks!

Same as everyone else, I’m only human - and I’ve made my fair share of mistakes while leading this club. But perhaps affirming the three of you as the next leadership is not one of them, and I hope this stays true by the time your term ends about a year away from now. Now that our roles have reversed, I look forward to what’s next for NUS Product Club under your leadership, and I’ll be here to support you as your member and friend, whenever you need me.

Our club's leadership moving forward - Swareena (VP), Clare (P), Evangeline (VP)

On behalf of our club, we thank you for your contributions to our club so far, and it is indeed an honour for me to name you as my successor. We hope that our new leadership will continue to carry out our mission in growing our club's reputation within NUS, as well as within the wider local university scene - forging a product community for youth, opportunities, development and collaboration. I hope you learn from my past mistakes, and I trust you can do a much better job than my reluctant self, as I fade back into the shadows, in the way of a ninja.

Wishing you all the very best,

Harry

As of this writing, NUS Product Club is now an officially registered interest group in NUS, supported by Office of Student Affairs (OSA). We would like to thank everyone who has supported us on this journey - our instructors, guests and partners, and also Mr Lee Boon Kee, our Staff Advisor for supporting our student community!

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