These Students Won Apple iPhone, Direct Job Interviews, and Publicis Sapient Merchandise; Here Is How!

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 Amisha Jain talks about becoming the national winner of Product Spotlight, her team, and everything inspiring!

We were all in different corners of the campus when the results were being announced, logged in from phones and laptops. The best we had hoped for was to become campus winners and so we waited rather impatiently as the names of different campus winners were being called. My ears were strained for the name "IIM Kozhikode" but it never came and suddenly they were announcing national runner-ups. 

A big part of me thought that there was no way we could have made it to the top but there was also a small, more optimistic part of me that kept holding on to hope. When they finally announced our name, I almost flipped my laptop off my lap and I started jumping around. I ran to one of my teammates and we started screaming so loud from the joy. It was one of the happiest moments in my life because it showed me that hard work pays off and even if I don't always believe in myself, I should continually strive to be proud of the effort I put in.

Getting on spotlight

My team and I had been dabbling in a few case competitions before but most of them were of similar themes. Product Spotlight excited us due to its focus on product management and a case study that was regarding Digital Business Transformation. It's an extremely interesting area and the scope for learning was going to be huge.

After clearing the quiz and receiving the case brief, we realized that we were expected to set up an automobile subscription model from scratch to delivery. It was exciting and nerve-racking. Since none of us had any expertise in the area, we dedicated over one week to work on the problem. Getting started was one of the major obstacles. Figuring out what were the steps and requirements of setting up a subscription model and how one is supposed to present it was definitely one of the most difficult phases. 

Once we got into the flow of things, it got easier but finding the starting point was a difficult task. Moreover, we had been friends for almost a year before teaming up which made us more receptive and understanding of each other's opinions. Thankfully, we were all on campus which made coordination easier but also caused a lot of distractions in the form of idle chatting. It's hard to concentrate when you're having fun with your friends.

Playing to our strengths

We all have different strengths and weaknesses and the cognizance of that kept any major disagreements at bay. If we had a difference of opinion regarding anything, it was sorted out fairly quickly because it was very easy to understand where the other person was coming from.

Shubham is excellent with numbers. You could throw any sort of data at him and he could make sense of it all. He is also exceptional at researching. Anvita is probably the most rational and logic-oriented person I have ever met. The way she approaches a problem statement is so simple and yet so unique. My strength lay in being able to visualize what we were trying to communicate in the best way possible. In my opinion, all of our individual strengths came together harmoniously due to our ability to understand each other as not just friends but as a team.

Why must one be a part of this case competition?

PS was probably one of the most comprehensively conducted case competitions that I have come across. The case was detailed enough for there was room for innovation but not confusion. During the final session, Publicis Sapient explained in detail what they had expected the solution to be like which I think was a great value-addition because they did not just verbally mention their expectations but showed detailed frameworks and concepts. Just by seeing that one could glean their level of knowledge and expertise.

The competition made us dig deep and set up a subscription model from start to finish. For that, we had to look into the backend, frontend, marketing, delivery, and scaling. The learning was immense and spanned various disciplines which was a unique experience.

For more such inspiring competition stories, click here.