Become a Storyteller: My Vision on Education

“I always knew I wanted to contribute to the field of education as a storyteller, since, for me, human beings are storytelling organisms in nature. We are connected with stories.” — Tian, our Content Officer told us in an interview.

When did you join Quipper and how was the circumstance then?

I joined Quipper in the second half of 2018; sometime before the school year kicked-off. I believe it was around the month of transitional seasons between the rainy and dry weathers, which was intense and rather full of uncertainties. Interestingly, that pretty much represented the snapshot of my life back then; feeling uncertain, but in an intense excitement, as I officially stepped into a professional workplace after two years of finishing my masters in education.

What vision in education do you have personally?

I always knew I wanted to contribute to the field of education as a storyteller, since, for me, human beings are storytelling organisms in nature. We are connected with stories. Every day passes like a pile of pages of stories we have heard and written. Similarly, I see the whole process of teaching and learning as gravitating strongly around telling and listening to stories to make sense of and move people, just like how us, humans, respond to the everyday stories in our daily lives. Then it was just a matter of time until I finally found Quipper as a home to my vision.

Why Quipper?

In Quipper, I am capacitated to put that vision into motion. Here I am given a chance to write and tell interesting stories full of knowledge and lessons via videos, echoed vibrantly across Indonesia, as they digitally reach thousands of students and teachers.

Moreover, with the company’s full support for innovation in education, I excitedly explore rooms for content development and production, and put a series of experimentation to the outlook of teaching and learning from the mildest to wildest ideas, and transforming it into something more fun and meaningful for those who listen and enjoy our stories, just like how we enjoy telling it.

I see Quipper holding a big potential to open up a much wider pathway to learning opportunities for children in this nation, and I want to be part of that story. I would not have had those opportunities had I not joined Quipper.

Could you tell us how you usually produce content in Quipper?

I first joined Quipper as a creative content writer. For about 6 to 7 months onward, I had been involved in both the pre-production, production, and post-production process before the video came onto the screen. Basically I was in charge of developing scripts into storyboards, planning the visual and entertainment elements in the pre-production. Once it was ready to shoot after a series of intensive reviews, I directed the shooting with such an amazing studio crew. Lastly, I led the post-production and made sure the editing and animating process laid out according to the plan. It was really fun!

Quipper has taught me to always put our users first by bringing out the best quality when producing content. In practice, my team and I craft every fragment of the content with caring and attention and take time to reflect and find potentials on how our users can learn from our content in a more meaningful and effective way possible.

Now, what excites you about working as a Content Officer?

I only acted as a content officer in 2019. Since then, my responsibility has mainly shifted into managing and leading projects, although most of my projects are still dealing with content production.

But this time around, I get to work not only with production crews under the content team, but also with people across departments, such as public relations, marketing, and sales teams. Given that, the content I produce now varies: teaching and learning materials, promotion and marketing videos, school intervention program, and many more.

That is probably the most exciting experience I have had as a content officer. One day you would think you knew what your routine tasks were, just to find out another day that there will always be a new project with completely new explorations to do, coming your way!

We believe you have a great team! How would you describe your team to us?

Imagine a group of people with whom you would sit in a meeting room, intensively brainstorming for content ideas, reflecting, evaluating, and helping each other to get the best input, and then would hang out after work, sing our lungs out at karaoke, or lend shoulders for crying over personal matters. That is my team! We do have professional boundaries, but at the same time, we are also very much accustomed to being a good friend to one another.

I think that condition is very important, especially when your job deals with having to always come up with innovative ideas and to work constantly fast and focused.

What is the most interesting thing about working with the Quipper content team?

I found a balance here. The content team in Quipper is a mix of unique individuals with different shades of screaming colours but somehow integrated into a strongly-built, colourful bridge of rainbow. Every content we produce is solid teamwork of practitioners in education, data encoders, creative teams of writers, editors, animators, illustrators, studio crew, a textbook layouter, and the list goes on (it really does, guys).

Honestly, never once did I ever feel that I ran out of people to whom I could ask for help and learn from, because every one of us is always there, having good ownerships to the project we are handling, and willing to help anytime. Needless to say, I feel I’m growing in the right place here.

Tell us what were your biggest lessons learned in your career!

I have actually learned many valuable lessons, but here are two of the most important ones:

First, I have learned that learning to grow needs conditioning. In my case, the condition is, more often than not, the ability to self-reflect. For years I have realized that I have a tendency to overthink and zoom into my flaws and mistakes, which I thought would not bring me anywhere but into a downward spiral. But now I know that such a process has some good use; all those harshest critics in my head can help me outline things I know I need to improve and work on. I just need to breathe more, and instead of belittling and undervaluing myself in self-deprecation, I tune in positively and acknowledge those points, and reflect on them. That is how I make sure I have prepared some space for learning and got ready to grow. Not easy, but very possible!

Second, I have learned that communication is not just a tool; it’s a task. Working from sheet to sheet can trap me into thinking that everything is shared, implied, and understood, which in most cases, is not. I realize that we are tasked to communicate our expectations, intentions, and directions, basically all matters, in a scheduled manner. That is why checking-in and catching-up are very important because it should not only be about lists getting checked and line charts spiking up. I am very grateful that I get to practice my communication better with my manager and team.

If you could give advice to others, what would that be?

For all the readers who have reached this section, first of all, thank you for listening to my story :’)

I don’t know if these could be accounted for as advice, but let’s take care of ourselves with caring and understanding.

Do a regular check-in on yourself and ask, ‘how are you today? Have you had fun?’. If the answer happens to be ‘no’, then go treat yourself with some quality light-hearted jokes or a delicious lunch you have been craving for a while, basically anything that you like. When done proportionately, that will not make you selfish or impulsive, but appreciative of yourself. Let’s work happily!