Skills Matrix – Matthew Guevara

Student Name: Matthew Guevara
Date Added	Skill	Experience	Situation	Task	Action	Result	Relevance
2021/05/18	Data Analysis and Visualization	Events Coordination & Administration Assistant	The Grants for Catalyzing Research Excellence Clusters (GCRC) competition was jointly created by the UBC Vice-President Research & Innovation and the Provost & Vice-President Academic to support the development of emerging research clusters into Global Research Excellence (GREx) clusters.	I was tasked to provide recommendations for the competition's application and review process as it moved into its fifth year. Part of my role was also to determine whether the competition was fulfilling its underlying goal of nurturing UBC's emerging interdisciplinary research teams.	I began by breaking down the task into a workflow which consisted of the following steps: i. a review of stakeholder feedback from the latest GCRC competition ii. noting the potential policy recommendations embedded in that feedback iii. evaluating the validity and feasibility of recommendations based on four years of competition data, as well as internal discussions by competition managers iv. summarizing our process and findings into a written brief	I constructed a 5-page policy brief regarding the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) implications of the 2019/2020 Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters competition by calculating financial ratios in Excel, visualizing the allocation of funds across faculties, then contextualizing the results in a written report	Ultimately, the experience instilled in me the value of storytelling within the field of strategic decision making--an aspect of the work that I had previously ignored.
2021/05/18	Digital Event Facilitation	Events Coordination & Administration Assistant	Knowledge Exchange (Kx) comprises the set of practices which bridge the gap between academic research and real-world application or practice. In July 2020, Innovation UBC hosted a week-long virtual conference to support researchers in their Kx activities.	I served as a digital facilitator for the 4-day online sessions--managing Zoom breakout rooms, polls, and presentations for a group of 40 researchers. My primary duty was to organize the slide deck and help speakers transition their presentations to a Zoom-compatible format.	I prioritized meeting with the conference presenters to help them refine their planned activities around Zoom's features. For example, one presenter wanted to incentivize the audience to return from breaks early using trivia questions. Believing it to be too difficult to implement under the new virtual environment, she had resolved to scrapping the idea. Seeing how well it bridged her topic and obvious love for trivia, however, I encouraged her to integrate Zoom's "Poll" functionality into her presentation.	Ultimately, these short post-break questions became a beloved part of her presentations and the audience never failed to indicate their appreciation of how varied her knowledge was. As organizers, we observed a 95% audience retention rate throughout the 4 day conference	I learned how to leverage Zoom’s strengths and mitigate its weaknesses in service of a speaker’s goals. This led me to discover other online collaboration platforms which have since become a crucial part of my remote workflow.
2021/05/18	Community Building	Events Coordination & Administration Assistant	First Fridays is a monthly lunch-and-learn series that offers the UBC research development community an opportunity to discuss cross-cutting themes in their work. It was my responsibility within the organizing team to approach potential speakers, help them refine their topic for our audience, and craft their promotional material.	I was tasked with gathering feedback from the community, assessing their needs, and ultimately recruiting speakers which would bring the most value to our audience.	My first step was always to coordinate with my supervisor and other colleagues to find a speaker based on feedback from previous events. We would then meet with the speaker to discuss the Lunch-and-Learn format, along with their proposed topic/target audience. Afterwards, it was my job to gather material (e.g. presentation title, description, and speaker biography) for the marketing newsletter. With all those in place, I could then update the website with the necessary details before sending out RSVP reminders to our research development community. Lastly, I would order catering if in-person or set up the Zoom meeting room (if online).	We ran a total of 9 sessions throughout the school year, each with a consistent audience of 20-25 researchers. Topics covered a range of topics like graphic design for conferences, research ethics, indigenous resources, and industry partnerships	My continuous work on this project was crucial since it first introduced me the skills and partnerships that I would later come to rely on for guidance and support during the rest of my time in the position.

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